Inda Good Old Somerstein: Meredith Willson Appears on Garry Moore's I've Got A Secret Program on March 25, 1963 and Conducts A Chorus Of People Chosen From The New York Phone Books Whose Names Spell Out The Words To A Popular Song

Inda Good Old Somerstein: Meredith Willson Appears on Garry Moore's I've Got A Secret Program on March 25, 1963 and Conducts A Chorus Of People Chosen From The New York Phone Books Whose Names Spell Out The Words To A Popular Song

A YouTube video divided into Part 1 and Part 2. From a fan review of the episode:

The crack staff of this series went above and beyond to provide an exceptionally well done segment with 24 people picked out of the New York phone book. Their last names placed in a sequence provide the lyrics to a classic song.

One of the most memorable segments in the long history of this classic panel show occurs in the final third of the broadcast. Guest Meredith Wilson has the unique honor of conducting a chorus of people to the tune of In The Good Old Summertime. The crack staff of this series went above and beyond to provide an exceptionally well done segment with 24 people picked out of the New York phone book. Their last names placed in a sequence provide the lyrics to the classic song. Inda - Good - Old - Somerstein were some of the names of the participants. Stuart Somerstein was the surprise hit of the segment as his off key and loud delivery was a wow with the audience. The next week's episode had him return with singer Dorothy Loudon singing a tribute to him. A classic in every sense of the word.

JJ Gravelle of The Daily Scoff remembered this episode, having seen it once 45 years ago. (Memorable TV defined, eh?) Another oddity: On that encore appearance on IGAS another guest on an earlier segment was the pilot who found Helen Klaben and Ralph Flores in the Yukon after 49 days lost in the wilderness.

It gets better: I was wondering whatever happened to old Stuart Somerstein after all these years and found this:

Four officials of a prominent Long Island catering company were accused yesterday of defrauding their employes, a union and insurance companies out of several hundred thousand dollars, federal prosecutors said.

A seven-count indictment voted by a federal grand jury yesterday names Stuart Somerstein, 54, president of Somerstein Caterers of Lawrence, and his wife, Marianna, 61, the company's vice president.

Both are also owners of The Water's Edge, the romantic Long Island City restaurant overlooking the East River. The allegations in the indictment only involve the operations of the Long Island catering company.

Over a seven-year period, the Somersteins, of Lawrence, and their bookkeeper, Sylvia Bromley, 64, of Valley Stream, allegedly conspired to defraud the benefit funds of Local 100 of the Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees International Union, the AFL-CIO and two insurance companies, according to the office of the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District.

While I'm not 100 percent sure it's the same Stuart Somerstein, the age given matches up and he's the only one I could find via Google. Stuart Somerstein also got himself mentioned in a Fortune magazine article before Martha Stewart was sentenced to prison:

Federal guidelines bind Cedarbaum to sentence Stewart, convicted of lying to investigators about her ImClone stock sale, to ten to 16 months in prison, experts say. But United States v. Milikowsky could allow her to grant Stewart a so-called downward departure. Dan Milikowsky is a Connecticut man who ran several small steel-related businesses and was convicted of price fixing in 1994. Though he was due to serve eight to 14 months in prison, a court ruled that incarceration would cause "extraordinary hardship" to his 175 employees. Milikowsky got two years' probation and a $250,000 fine instead. The strategy also worked in 1998 for a mini-Martha named Marianna Somerstein, a New York caterer convicted of conspiracy and mail fraud. A judge ruled that her fragile company and her "horrendous hardship" (she was a Holocaust survivor) made prison untenable. "I'm watching with great interest. It's like deja vu!" says Stuart Somerstein, Marianna's husband and business partner, about the Stewart case. He went to prison while Marianna got three years' probation and kept the company running.

Anybody else remember this episode of I've Got A Secret?

Comments

[J. Gravelle]

Send today's lawyers back a generation, and Wally Cox's attorney would have hauled Stuart Somerstein into court for stealing his shtick.

I found this tidbit on the Charles Nelson Reilly piece that started our conversation Tom, which is actually from the 70s:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Reference_desk/Archives/Entertainment/2008_October_6#.22The_Yankee_Doodle_Boy.22_using_last_names

Here's the pertinent section, as recited by somebody else who had this scratched into their mental Etch-A-Sketch permanently:

Ima Yanke Tootle Dundee, Yanke Tootle Dewar Dye. A. Reel Life Nephew Hoffmeyer Unker, Sam, Bjorn DeForte July. Iva Yanke Tootle Sweet Heart Shesme Yanke Tootle Joy. Yanke Tootle Wente London,Riding Ona Ponee. Iyam Dat Yanke Tootle Boy.

Again, thanks for dusting off those old synapses...

-jjg

[Old Curmudgeon]

They did it again with the 12 days of Christmas. Partridge Inda, Peartree, Turtletaub, French, Hen, Kallenberg, Goldring, etc...

Too bad I don't find that clip on YouTube.

[Ron Gomes]

It's there now.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SbuDmZ9ddFc

IGAS used this gag at least three times, maybe four. They did it on another Christmas episode, and maybe one other show. (Haven't posted those, though.)

[air max 90]

*Love is ever the beginning of knowledge as fire is of light.!@