For seventeen years, CBS recorded every broadcast of this series on kinescope film. Many episodes were lost to history, however, during two time periods that were far apart. In 1950, CBS saved kinescopes of the first three telecasts at a financial loss to the network. They are available for viewing on a web site. At the time, the show aired live every other week, not every week. The kinescope process used silver nitrate film, which was flammable. But fire was not the reason why many broadcasts of "What's My Line" were lost during the period of 1950 to 1952. CBS employees discovered an advantage of the expensive silver nitrate film. They learned that it was possible to recover the silver content from the film and sell it. CBS did this many times starting with the fourth show, which the network had aired live on March 16, 1950. A publication called TV Digest based in Philadelphia reported that blindfolded panelist Hal Block had asked the mystery guest a question about her clothing. To Block's surprise, this got a laugh because the mystery guest, unknown to him, was stripper Gypsy Rose Lee. But their exchange has not been heard since 1950, and will not be heard again, due to the loss of the kinescope. Starting with the live telecast of July 20, 1952, the Goodson-Todman company paid CBS for each kinescope, so the network never again destroyed the show. Eventually, safety film replaced the silver nitrate. More than twenty years after the first period of destruction, employees of Goodson-Todman were responsible for accidentally destroying sixteen kinescopes while they compiled clips for a 25th anniversary special. They were working at an expensive editing facility in Manhattan under a strict deadline. Five of the sixteen ruined shows dated from 1967.
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05-03-2025 alle ore 07:23
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