338     June 10, 1959 (Taped June 3)
Bill, Bess, Henry, Betsy

Brian Williams from Brooklyn, New York: “I’m going to hold the blowtorch under this chair…while Garry Moore is sitting in it." 
A lounge chair on the set is made from specially treated, fire-retardant wood.  Williams is the president of the Cross, Austin & Ireland Lumber Company of Brooklyn, which worked with New York City to revise its building codes to recognize the new wood treatment.  As a result, later in 1959 the company constructed a fireproof warehouse made of wood, the first wooden industrial building permitted in New York City in nearly half a century.   

Robert Dome from Syracuse, New York: “This is the very first television set ever built” 
The set was developed in 1928 by the General Electric Company before the advent of the cathode ray tube.  We also get to see a modern 10-pound portable TV set that’s in development at GE.  Dome himself was an electrical engineer credited with many inventions and techniques involving television and radio.  Perhaps his greatest contribution of its day was a method for making new color transmissions compatible with existing black and white sets.   As we've said elsewhere, "firsts" in television are difficult to prove because of different inventors working independently around the same time period. 

Special Guest Jayne Meadows taped her chat with the panel immediately before the show and plays it back to them on videotape.  Since this show itself was taped in advance rather than live, the panel was not suspicious of a short “delay” during which they were taped without their knowledge.  Henry’s mother is in the audience, her second appearance on the show ( E64 ).  Jayne has just taped the single “Hunger” (b/w “The Gazebo Song”) on the Dot label.  She is moving with husband Steve Allen to the west coast, so her visits to Secret from this point on will be less frequent.

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