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The Paley Center for Media, with locations in midtown Manhattan and Beverly Hills, California, has a long interview with Franklin Heller, director of the CBS version of What's My Line, that was videotaped in 1987 and never telecast. Among his many revelations is the precise reason why regular panelist Hal Block disappeared from the series in 1953 and never again appeared on a quiz show or game show. Although Block's vulgar sense of humor caused his two-week suspension in January 1953, mail from viewers proved he still had thousands of admirers, and he had a substantial future with Goodson-Todman Productions, possibly on another of their shows, if only he had behaved himself during the What's My Line episode that aired live on February 8, 1953. According to Heller's videotaped statement, Block cheated while playing the game during the segment with female jazz drummer Mildred Landwehr from Trenton, New Jersey. One of the producers, Gil Fates, was standing very close to the soundstage and could see not only the panelists but also the studio audience members in the front row. He witnessed Block's sister, seated in the front row, pantomiming playing the drums. Heller said Hal Block obviously had conspired with his sister, arranging for her to sit in the front row for deceitful purposes. By this time, the less dignified I've Got A Secret was popular, and Block could have had a future on it or some other Goodson-Todman quiz show, but according to Franklin Heller, if anyone cheated, that was grounds for a permanent separation from the company. A 1978 book by Gil Fates reveals that Mark Goodson and Bill Todman instructed him to fire Hal Block. Fates makes no mention of the cheating or of Block's sister, but his explanation of why Block had to disappear is vague and does not contradict Heller's videotaped statement. Fates avoids mentioning the fact that his company never booked Block on I've Got A Secret or interacted with him again, not even twenty years later when he was unknown to baby-boom viewers of network television.

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