548     December 30, 1963 (LIVE)
Bill, Betsy, Henry, Ruby Dee

Dee is best known at this point in her long career for her starring role in the Broadway (1959) and film (1961) versions of the now-classic work A Raisin in the Sun.  Her award-winning career included many roles in film, on television and on stage, frequently acting alongside her husband Ossie Davis.  In the fifteen-year run of I've Got a Secret, Dee was the only African-American panelist they ever had.

Eleven contestants whose real names are: “Emory January, John February, Hal March, Ann April, Carolyn May, Gilbert June, Sidney July, August September, Henry October, William November and Frank December”                 
March, whose card cheekily points out that his REAL name is Hal Mendelson, is the night’s special guest, and is featured in the next segment.  And yes, one boy’s name really is August September, killing two birds with one stone.   

Special guest Hal March has the panel predict the outcome of events coming up in 1964.  Among the predictions, virtually everyone believes that Sonny Liston will win easily in his upcoming boxing match against Cassius Clay (later Muhammad Ali).  Clay would win in six rounds.  Both Ruby Dee and Garry correctly predict that Patricia Neal (in Hud) and Sidney Poitier (Lilies of the Field) will win the Oscar for Best Actress and Best Actor.  Most of the others chose Leslie Caron (The L-Shaped Room) and Albert Finney (Tom Jones).  Bill and Garry correctly predict that the New York Mets will once again finish at the bottom of the National League.  Most of the panel incorrectly predicted that Richard Nixon will be the Republican presidential candidate for 1964, and none of them predicted Barry Goldwater.  Similarly, no one predicted that Hubert Humphrey will be President Johnson’s running mate, most going with NYC mayor Robert Wagner.  March is starring in The Tender Trap at the Paper Mill Playhouse in Millburn, New Jersey.   

Joe Ferko from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: “I have led a band in the parade every year since 1914 (50 years)”                 
Ferko is the leader of the Joseph A Ferko String Band, and the event to which he refers is Philadelphia’s annual New Year’s Day Mummers Parade.  The Mummers Parade, named after a centuries-old fanciful word for folk actors, involves elaborate costuming, musical performances and even moving scenery.  It remains a Philadelphia tradition today.  Ferko is decked out in a King Tut costume, flanked by two Egyptian bodyguards.  Ferko would die only a few months after this appearance, but the band he founded is still active.  Here, the band (in Egyptian costumes) performs “Alabama Jubilee” (1915) and “Auld Lang Syne” (1788).