I've Got a Secret

It was in 1955 and I watched in amazement as a 95-year old man came out and whispered into host Garry Moore's ear a secret that knocked my little socks off - he was the last survivor of the audience present at Ford's Theater the night Abraham Lincoln was shot. He said the only thing he could remember was seeing John Wilkes Booth grab hold of an American flag and crash to the stage.

He said he was five years old when this happened. He didn't know who Booth was but had a vivid memory of him falling unto the stage. At the time that the show was telecast, Lincoln's assassination had occurred 90 years earlier.

What a moment in early television history.

It's no surprise that many people consider "I've Got a Secret" to be derivative of "What's My Line" - it was. Howard Merrill and Allan Sherman (later known for his work as a parody singer) modified the concept of "What's My Line" by having the panel guess the secret that a guest is keeping rather than their occupation, and having a celebrity guest at the end of the episode. They then offered the show to WML producers Mark Goodson and Bill Todman who made Sherman the new show's producer.

The show's hosts - Gary Moore and Steve Allen in the original CBS run - and panelists didn't take the game anywhere near as seriously as John Charles Daly and most of the panel on WML. On the other hand I don't find the secrets on "I've Got A Secret" as interesting as the occupations on "What's My Line". And I confess that I don't particularly like host Gary Moore, mainly (but not exclusively) because of his habit of flicking his cigarette ashes onto the studio floor.

One episode that is definitely worth looking for is from September 17, 1962. Moore welcomes a couple whose secret is that their son became an astronaut that day. During his interview Moore asks them about how they'd feel if their son was the first man to walk on the Moon. The couple were Stephen and Viola Armstrong, the parents of Neil Armstrong.

While channel-surfing the backwaters of digital cable, I came across a whitecap of historical political incorrectness. Gary Moore, the winsome host of "I've Got A Secret," dons an overcoat and muffler at the start of the broadcast. He then breaks the "fourth wall" of the studio on West 47th Street, ventures out into the bitter cold of a New York winter's night and corals a fifteen year old boy on his way to a show. Moore invites the kid in to be a contestant on HIS show. The boy's secret: "I was brought in from the street" easily stumps the celebrity panel. The young man wins two prizes: eighty dollars and a carton of Winston cigarettes--the show's lone sponsor.

Can you imagine the outrage today if a television host gave a minor a carton of smokes? The fifties WERE a simpler time.

I recently got into looking at this show and I have to say that this is definitely a treasure. To me this is a much lighter than What's My Line?, which I thought was a more serious show. I never saw the Steve Allen era, but the Gary Moore era is being shown on Game Show Network as I'm writing this commentary. Gary Moore was probably the hardest working man on television because not only did he host this show but he also hosted his own highly successful variety series. Also, the panel of Bill Cullen, Betsy Palmer, Henry Morgan and Bess Myerson looked as though they had a lot of fun as they tried to guess the guests' secret. Betsy Palmer and Henry Morgan were especially funny as they pretty much was the butt of a lot of the jokes. Too bad the reruns are shown so late at night. This classic should be enjoyed by everyone.

I love all these little shows of the past. I'm seeing them again on Game Show Network. They take me back to the nice times back in the 50's when I was a kid. We need more entertaining shows like these on TV today.