On a virtually bare set, with the desks made from orange crates,
Garry tells us he and the panel don’t know what will happen on this special
Christmas show. Garry gets his
instructions, scavenger hunt style, from a series of sealed envelopes, each of
which ultimately have the panelists perform something they were not expecting
to do.
The first guest is Skitch Henderson, Faye’s husband, who
introduces Faye’s son, teenager Scoop Crawford.
Scoop in turn tells Garry that his mother’s hidden talent is “Indian
wrestling,” what we know today as arm wrestling. Garry and Faye compete, with Faye the easy
winner.
Next are playwright Will Glickman and his wife, good friends of
Henry. They prod Henry into performing
his character “Googie Morgan,” a British announcer, trying to explain I’ve Got a Secret to a British ladies’
club. Morgan ad-libs a funny two-minute
routine.
The next guest is Santa Claus, quickly revealed to be Jayne’s
husband Steve Allen. Steve has his wife
recite her “big hit” recording called What
Is A Husband? On the other side of
that record, but not performed on the show, is Steve’s version, What Is A Wife?
Next up is Bill’s agent Marty Goodman, who has Bill attempt to
guide the studio audience through a series of different reactions (laugh, boo,
applaud). In a staged finale, Bill is to
make any woman in the audience so emotional that she runs on stage to kiss him. A young woman obliges. [See
E169
]
The final guests are Vin Bogert and Bill Demling, two of Garry’s
writers, who have Garry conduct the entire assemblage, panelists and guests, in
a rendition of Winter Wonderland.
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