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great good luck, Steve Allen happened to be in New York that day. He had been on the show regularly before Fred so he consented to sit in Fred Allen's chair.

That night was the toughest program that we ever did. Each of us said good-bye to Fred in our own way. That program was written up in every newspaper in the country. Everybody was watching that night to see what would happen when we went out. Luckily, we didn't have to be handed scripts. We knew how to express our sorrow in our own way.

After Fred died, the question was, who were they going to get to come in as the fourth panelist. They began trying various people out. Then we discovered that it was fun having the fourth one as a guest panelist so we never did have another permanent one after Fred Allen's death. We had any number of guest panelists. Some turned out to be great. Others were unexpectedly awful. I guess that the two worst that we ever had were Rudy Vallee and Wally Cox. Remember Mr. Peepers? Well, without lines, Cox was absolutely tongue-tied. He couldn't even say, “I pass.” As for Rudy Vallee, well, I hear that he's going to run for mayor of Los Angeles. He's got all of the natural equipment;

You said one thing that prompts a question. You said, “We knew that he was a diaper salesman; but we kept on.” Were there times when you would know...? Or the mystery guest--was he backstage? Did you have any idea at times who was going to be on.