Wednesday, October 31, 2012

I've Got A Secret

Back in the glory days of television, panel shows were very popular in daytime and evening. One of these was "I've Got a Secret." where the panel members would question a guest in an effort to discover the secret. One day Faye Emerson, a panelist, said one of her favorite memories was as a child chewing sugar cane in  Louisiana.

Some one in Homer got the idea of getting exposure for the town by getting on the show with the secret being "I've brought sugar cane for Faye Emerson." Surprisingly, the show bought the proposal with some changes.  Homer would prepare a little bag of sugar cane for everyone in the studio  audience and Miss Meadpws would be surprised by a gift of stalks of cane.  That's the way it played out, and Homer got publicity while areas of the state that grew much cane watched jealously.

Now, for the rest of the story.  For some reason Jen and I were mentioning this show and a similar one, "What's My Line?"  From somewhere deep in my memory the cane incident came to mind, but I did not recall the panelist. Jen suggested I look it up and I searched for cast of the show and immediately knew the person when I saw Faye.  I then researched her to learn she was born in Elizabeth, La, on a plantation.  From there I researched the show and plain as could be the cane incident was listed as part of a show in 1953.Other members of the cast were Bill Cullen, Jane Meadows and Henry Morgan.  Guests were the doctor who brought Emerson into the world, Olympic champions, and Boris Karloff. Noted was that 40 pounds of sugar cane was presented to Faye Emerson.  In my mind I can still see her look of surprise.

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