Saturday, October 13, 2012

Smashing the bar

Let's get back into the time machine with Richard Carson's terrific YouTube collection of I've Got a Secret clips.

In fact, the clip I just watched is kind of a double time machine. It's almost a half-century old, dating from March, 1964. Bill Cullen even mentions that newfangled group, the Beatles. But the clip refers even further back to events of a half-century or so before 1964, the temperance crusade which finally resulted in Prohibition.

The contestant was Ruth Stout, sister of Nero Wolfe author Rex Stout. Miss Stout's secret was that she had smashed up a bar in 1901 with Carry Nation, the ax-wielding temperance lady.

The panel didn't guess the secret. But after Garry Moore revealed the bar-smashing episode, Henry Morgan invited Miss Stout to the bar next door. She accepted, which shows that the temperance crusade was over, at least for her.

In fact, the elderly Miss Stout made the whole experience sound more like a lark than a serious protest. She told how the police were laughing with Carry Nation and didn't take the bar bust-up all that seriously. Still, the temperance crusade would eventually have some very real consequences. The segment was yet another bit of American history from I've Got a Secret.

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