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Bennett CerfBennett Cerf
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theater where “What's My Line?" was done. The pressure became too great, and Montenier said, “After all, I'm paying a lot of money for this. I can't afford to have my product picketed.” So reluctantly they had to tell Louis Untermeyer that he had to leave the program. That left the place open for the little boy who had played one night.

Q:

So they called you up.

Cerf:

So they called me up and said, “Would you like to do it permanently?" I said, “Would I?”

At that time, they were paying something like $300 a week, which, for just playing a game for a half hour, was nice money, even for somebody who was a successful publisher. Of course as the show grew and grew, the fees grew with it. By the time that it was over we were making scandalous amounts of money every week.

Q:

How much were you making?

Cerf:

I'm not going to say. It was fantastic. There has never been such easy money in the world--for playing a game. There were no costumes, no rehearsals, no props. John and I would get there about fifteen minutes before game time. After a little while we didn't even wear dress coats anymore. We found out that we could get away with a black tie and fake it with a dark suit and a black dress tie, which I





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