5 Recorded July 20, 1972

Anita Gillette, Gene Rayburn, Stephanie Edwards, Richard Dawson

Though Edwards is introduced as an “actress and television personality”, her acting credits were sparse and frequently involved her playing the role of a television personality. She would become much better known as a host and interviewer on a variety of series, some network and some on local Los Angeles TV. Rayburn has no current credit here, but he and Dawson would see their profiles soar in about a year with the wildly popular Match Game revival.

Princess Eustacia, a fire eater from the Circus Bartok: “I set fire to our trailer” and her husband, sword swallower Count Desmond, whose swords were destroyed in the fire so he had to perform with: “A coat hanger”

“Count Desmond” (born Edward Benjamin) is a well-known name in circus circles, with several Guinness records to his credit. Called “The Evel Knievel of the Sword,” his most famous trick would come in 1980 when he stuck a sword UP his throat while hanging upside down from a helicopter. He began his career swallowing coat hangers before graduating to the larger blades. The Count performs briefly here and would continue to perform professionally until 1994. The Princess (real name Donna) appears to have had a less noteworthy career. She was the Count’s fourth wife, and by 1982 he had married his fifth.

Phoenix Suns basketball player Dick Van Arsdale: “We’re twins”

With the panel’s eyes averted, Van Arsdale’s brother Tom takes his place while Dick hides out of sight beneath the panel desk. After each round of questions, the panel hide their eyes again and the brothers swap places. Anita Gillette proves her sports acumen by knowing Dick has a twin brother. Dick and Tom played basketball together at Indiana University, and both were drafted by the NBA in 1965. They played on separate teams for eleven seasons (Tom at this point is with the Kansas City Kings) before reuniting on the Suns for the 1976-77 season, the 12th and final year for both of them. Dick is known today as “The Original Sun”, having been selected first by the team in the 1968 expansion draft. He would later become the team’s general manager and is still on the Suns payroll today.

Special guest Jo Anne Worley had something named after her today: “A frog”

A specific frog as it turns out, not a whole species. The game leads to a frog jumping contest, with “Jo Anne” competing against frogs representing each of the panelists. None of the frogs end up doing much of anything at all. On hand to supervise the proceedings is “Professor” William C Steed, a “Doctor of Frog Psychology” who trains frogs to jump in his role as president of “Croaker College.” The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County was a short story published in 1865 which launched the career of Mark Twain. Since 1928, the quite real California community has held an actual contest based on the Twain story. The original Secret had a frog jumping contest in 1960 ( E389 ). The human Jo Anne had left Rowan and Martin’s Laugh-In in 1970 but stayed in the public eye with guest appearances on a wide variety of sitcoms, dramas and game shows. She was also extremely active on the stage.