Hello. Well, okay, that was something. Thank you so much, Ari, for filling in.

So let me begin with a classic quiz show. It was called What's My Line? And it aired on CBS during the late 1950s and early 1960s.

Now, the gimmick for the show was for a celebrity panel to try to

guess the profession of a mystery guest. The panel for the January 19, 1964 episode included

actress Arlene Francis, comedian Steve Allen, columnist Dorothy Kilgallon, known as the voice of Broadway, and Bennett

Surf, the co-founder of Random House Publishing. The host journalist John Charles D. D. Daly was

previously best known as the first national correspondent to report on the Pearl Harbor

attack and the death of Franklin D. Roosevelt.

The first mystery guest signed in as Jerry Whittington from West River, Maryland.

Is it Miss or Mrs. Whittington?

Ms. Smith.

Miss Whittington. Where are you from?

West River, Maryland. West River, Maryland.

That's nice to have you with us. Ms. Whittingdon, may I present our patent.

Now, would you join me over here, please?

And we'll let the audience in the theater and the audience of home know exactly what your

line is.

So it turns out President Lyndon Johnson had arranged for Ms. Whittington to appear on the show rather than announce her hiring via press conference.

He knew that the hire would be controversial.

Geraldine Jerry Whittington was the first black woman to work in a

non-domestic job in the White House. She got hired as LBJ's personal secretary when, after the

assassination of President Kennedy, the new president wanted a fresh pool of secretaries in the

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