Dorothy Kilgallen was the mystery guest on the February 5, 1961 telecast. She had been hospitalized and missed the previous two broadcasts. Newspaper reports of the time revealed nothing about her condition, nor was it discussed on-air. In 1976 her personal chauffeur, Roosevelt Zanders, revealed that he had driven Kilgallen from New York to Washington during a blizzard so she could report on the JFK inaugural festivities for her newspaper. Immediately after the new president was sworn in (January 20, 1961), Zanders drove Kilgallen directly to a New York hospital. Asked by a biographer (in 1976) if his client's condition was alcohol-related, Zanders replied, "I don't say 'drunk.' One of the things that brought it about was having one or two drinks and not eating. Her system ran down that way." On February 5, 1961, with Bennett Cerf on vacation, Arlene Francis went on live TV assuming Kilgallen was still in the hospital only to discover that she was the mystery guest. During an earlier absence from the show in 1958, Kilgallen had reportedly suffered (according to a newspaper wire service) from "exhaustion and anemia." When she missed several shows in 1965, John Daly said on-air that she had injured herself tripping on a rug. She returned to the show with her arm in a sling and then appeared on every telecast for six months, including a live appearance on the night of her death.
Although there are those who suspect John Daly was sending the panel signals, Moderator Daly insisted that there is only one signal he ever gave to the panel: When he pulled his right ear lobe it warned them, usually Hal Block, that the questions were getting dangerously close to double entendre. And any question of cheating is ludicrous given the paltry monetary prize ($50 US). The embarrassment of public exposure for cheating would hardly seem worthwhile.
Although the final 1966 to 1967 season was broadcast in color, the color videotapes were discarded by CBS. Only black and white kinescope copies of the show were saved for posterity. Thus, we will never see color episodes of this show on GSN, only the b & w versions, which at that time, is what most viewers saw, as over half of the US population did not have color sets.
For several years, all of the members of the "Rat Pack," with the exception of ring leader Frank Sinatra, appeared as mystery guests on the show. In fact, three of the five members, Sammy Davis Jr., Peter Lawford and Joey Bishop, not only appeared as mystery guests, but also served on the panel as well. Sinatra didn't appear on the show until the November 27, 1966 broadcast when he appeared as a mystery guest during the first game and then he moved to a seat on the panel. It was the only instance in which someone did that. Sinatra appeared on the show a year and a couple of weeks after the death of panelist Dorothy Kilgallen, with whom he had feuded for many years. The feud did not prevent his daughter Nancy Sinatra from appearing as a mystery guest on a night when Kilgallen was there. The two women shook hands on the air but did not say anything to each other.
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