Classy television

How do you tell an American worker from a French worker?  If the American sees a fancy car drive by, he thinks: "Someday I'll be able to afford a car like that."  The Frenchman says:  "Someday I'll make that guy get out and walk like everyone else."

I remember reading that joke as a teenager in Reader's Digest.  I'd never met anyone from France, but I was aware of our stereotype of the French working class as being rabidly populist and anti-elitist, and, enjoying the contrast with our supposed American egalitarianism, I laughed approvingly.

The Trumpist movement -- temporarily thwarted by last week's election -- makes me wonder if that difference between Americans and the French still exists.  A major component of Trump's populist appeal has been scorn and even hatred for the so-called coastal elitists, folks living on the East and West Coasts, folks who allegedly look down their noses at the "real people" of the South and Mid-West -- living in what we call "flyover country."

Why do I dwell on the subject of "elitism"?  A couple of days ago, YouTube enticed me into watching a recording of a 1953 appearance by Eleanor Roosevelt on the CBS panel game show "What's My Line?".  

Click here to see the program.  (Mrs. Roosevelt's portion of the show begins at the 14'25" point of the program.)  

After watching Mrs. Roosevelt's amusing appearance, the witty remarks of the moderator, John Charles Daly, and the funny repartee between Daly and the members of the panel -- Dorothy Kilgallen, Steve Allen, Arlene Francis, and Bennett Cerf -- I realized that at times I was laughing out loud, something I rarely do watching today's TV comedians.  I also was impressed at the sophisticated demeanor of all the parties, their enjoyment hearing each other's remarks, and the fact that everyone seemed to be having a good time.  

Not an hysterical time, you understand.   Not a "Fun-Filled Laff Riot."  Just a relaxed and enjoyable time, such as a group of friends might have while visiting together.

I come back to the word "sophisticated."  A word that today conjures up the dread word "elitist."  Were these television personalities behaving well simply out of awe for their distinguished guest?  I went back and watched the entire half-hour show, including commercials for Remington shavers.  No, they seemed equally likeable and impressive while attempting to guess the occupation of a maker of chewing tobacco.  They treated this gentleman as courteously and deferentially as they did the former First Lady.

And that was the way that I recall "What's My Line?" -- a show I watched weekly during my teens.  Granted, it was probably the most elegant and intellectual of the many game shows of that time, but it was watched religiously by the general public, including the mill workers and their families in my home town.  Folks back then may not have spoken with the panel's mid-Atlantic accent, or shared their sophisticated vocabularies, or been capable of their genteel behavior.  But, if working class people sensed any class difference, I suspect that they admired how it was displayed in the erudition and clever humor of the show's participants.  

I, myself, although a couple of socio-economic levels below Mr. Daly and his panel, was just a teenager and don't recall feeling a class difference -- in my eyes, all adults lived on an unapproachable higher plane.  If adult members of the working class did sense the difference, they probably merely wished wistfully that they could wear dinner wear as unselfconsciously as those guys on TV, and it probably increased their zeal for their kids to grow up with the same manners.  I doubt very much that many viewers were contemptuous of Bennet Cerf (co-founder of Random Books) or Steve Allen (comedian with a show of his own), or wanted to force them off TV and into their lumber or aluminum mills.

Sadly, the last living participant on the program, Arlene Francis, died nineteen years ago.  Nineteen fifty-three was a different time in America, and a far less angry time.  Less angry perhaps, because parents did have justifiable hopes that their kids would rise socially and economically, a hope that has become less and less rational as our nation's class lines have ossified, have become more rigid.

I don't watch much television nowadays -- aside from football games and, of course, election returns.  I think I might if contemporary shows were produced with the same high quality and sophistication of content as was "What's My Line?"