515     March 4, 1963 (Taped March 3)
Jayne Meadows, George Gobel, Betsy, Henry

The first of two shows from Hollywood.  Garry’s variety show is also originating from the west coast.   

General X and his interpreter Sergeant Vega: “We are American soldiers…we play the enemy in Army war games” 
Colonel (not General) Harold Wolfe and Sergeant David Vega Rivera are stationed in Fort Riley, Kansas, the headquarters of the Aggressor Center for the Army, which supplies the enemy combatants in the Army’s training exercises.  Aggressor is the name used for the fictional enemy, which has its own invented history, armed forces and political philosophy. Wolfe and Vega are speaking Esperanto, the artificial “universal” language created in the late 19th century.  The Aggressor Force would be retired in 1978, but the Army continues to conduct similar exercises today.   


79-year-old Patrick Thines: “I walked to the studio today…from San Diego (130 miles)” 
“Today” is a bit misleading.  The trip covered several days, and 28 ½ hours of actual walking.  Thines had polio as a child and makes long-distance walks, including several across the country, to raise awareness for children with disabilities. (Garry says, “crippled and handicapped,” using the vernacular of the day.) Thines is credited with walking 265,181 miles.  He also appeared on a 1959 episode of You Bet Your Life with Groucho Marx.   

Special guest Steve Allen has the panel make prank phone calls, which have become a comedic staple of his syndicated late-night program The Steve Allen Show (1962-1964).  He has even released an album of highlights called Steve Allen’s Funny Fone-Calls (Dot 1963).  Unbeknownst to the panel, one of the calls they place is to Bill Cullen at home in New York, who is in on the gag.

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