Pera from Uruguay: “I invented a machine to paint these pictures”
Eugene R Pera, who only goes by the
single name on the show, has a half dozen works on display on stage. Pera’s “machine” is simply a wheel that spins
a blank canvas rapidly. All that is
required of the artist is to toss paint onto the spinning canvas, creating
swirling images. Some of the panelists
participate in a demonstration. However, Henry is viscerally angry that such a
gimmick is considered “art.” Pera would use other names during his life, including "Radames" Pera. Confusingly, Radames Para is also the name of his son, an actor who is best remembered today as the young "Grasshopper" in the TV series Kung Fu (1972-1975).
A masked Mr. X: “I was the moderator of I’ve Got A Secret in
England”
Ben Lyon was originally an American
actor who starred in dozens of films in the 1920s and 1930s, most notably Hell’s Angels (1930) alongside Jean
Harlow. He moved to London in the 1930s,
picking up a British accent in the process, and became a television personality
there. His domestic sitcom Life With The Lyons, loosely based on
his real life and co-starring his real wife and children, was a popular fixture
on British radio and television in the 1950s.
The British run of
I’ve Got A Secret
(1956) was not remotely as successful as its American counterpart.
Special Guest Steve Allen: “I’m wearing my trousers backwards”
Steve is dressed as “The Question
Man,” a character from his variety series, who is given an answer (“Go West”)
and then provides a comical question (“What do wabbits do when they get tired
of wunning awound?”). Johnny Carson,
who’s on the panel here, would later use essentially the same framework for his
popular Carnac the Magnificent sketches on his version of The Tonight Show. Accusations
of theft angered both men, and Carson eventually paid Steve for the opportunity
to use the bit free and clear, though the idea actually predated both of them
by decades. Steve is promoting his new
collection of gags from this character called, appropriately, The Question Man (Random House 1959).
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