What's my Line? Eddie Hodges

[tomkes100douchebag]

I just watched his movie with Sinatra. Sooo boring.

[TheTubePortal]

It's really amazing how tiny and childlike a 12 year old looked way back then. Today a 12 year old looks like what a 15 year old did back then.

[Rosiexproductions]

Aww what year was this?

[brownies4you]

@Rosiexproductions This show was from 1959....Eddie was born in March, 1947.

[pyrofella]

Let's see the kids of today try writing like Eddie did on the board....a lost skill

[ShawDAMAN]

@pyrofella I bet most kids his age today couldn't even say the first line of the gettysburg address with any confidence...for that matter I bet most high school kids couldn't.

[justfornow14]

What fine penmanship for a young lad! Kids these days don't write half as neat anymore, especially with all the typing devices around. Such a shame

[dbmrhi]

I see Ben Gazzara and I think Convicts Four, what a great movie.

[heula1]

Good luck getting a kid that age to write so beautifully now!

[blueticecho]

Wow ! What a cool kid he was. That was about the time that my old man and the nuns were beatin the shit out me .

[litwriter100]

@blueticecho I agree with you about Eddie! With me, though, it was just the nuns, my fellow pape! (BTW, Eddie became one of us in 1998, I think. I have no idea why. He had been a Baptist, I think, and even considered becoming a minister at one point in his life.) Great video. Thanks for uploading this!

[mehammett91]

I am so proud to say that this is my grandfather. It is special with my family to discuss the old hollywood days with him. Not everyone has a family member that gets to appear or experince the hollywood setting. Many may have not liked him but on the other hand many loved him. But you can't please everyone can you?? I am proud of his accomplishments. He is doing well and he is actually a counselor at a mental health facility in Mississippi. Helping people is what my family loves to do.

[Djarnes]

@mehammett91 - I also worked for 30 years in the mental health field. I remember when "Bandit of My Dreams" first came out I only heard it a couple of times on the radio before it disappeared. There was something about that song I loved and it was the type of music that was later to be known as doo-wop. Years late I got a copy of the record.You should be proud of your grandfather. Unlike many child stars he had a totally different and successful career after his childhood run and hits ended.

[mehammett91]

@Djarnes- I love listening to his old songs everyday. I wish music was close to what it use to be back then. He loved entertaining, and still does! He has experinced it all and met lots of great people along his travel in life. Thank you for your positive remarks! He is so a wonderful perosn.

[geeamouse]

New York had a very tight entertainment social scene back in those days. Bennett, being a Random House publisher and very much into the New York stage, knew who was in town and who wasn't. Also by appearing on What's My Line weekly, he got to know just how the producers thought. It wasn't a scam, but more knowing his co-workers and what was going on around him. Logic based on familiarity works and Bennett had it down to an art.

[FTWEVERYONE]

SCAM ....This and ALL the game shows of it's time were rigged to NOT make the "panel" look stupid.....HOW the hell could they have guessed Eddie Hodges?

[ladybluluv]

what an adorable kid

[CalumK1982]

He's cute

[librarybob1958]

I understand that he ultimately moved to the Louisiana area, where he became a psychotherapist.

[OnCloudNine62]

Who in the world is this??

[Jantv81]

I think he did an episode of "The Dick Van Dyke Show" in 1964/1965.

[ameroux]

He has the sweetest smile :-)

[ShawDAMAN]

What a nice kid!! I first saw him in a guest performance on the Honeymooners (a christmas special) where he couldn't have been more than 5 or 6 yrs old. He sang a song, it was great...

[DonLouiVer]

how come Marilyn Monroe wasn't invited in this show?

[MarkThompson01]

@DonLouiVer Marilyn Monroe WAS on this show. The episode is on YouTube.

[DonLouiVer]

@MarkThompson01

do you have a link of it? coz i have looked for it.... and she's not in it...

[MarkThompson01]

@MarkThompson01 -- I would've sworn it was here, but now I can't find it either. I'm sorry.

[proken58]

Although Eddie was in the Broadway version of Music Man, his role in the movie version went to Ronnie Howard, who was already known to TV and film audiences from Andy Griffith and the movie version of Courtship of Eddie's Father. When the movie was made (1963) Eddie, then 16, was considered too old for the part. Eddie also appeared with John Glenn on Name That Tune in the late 1950's, a scene that was recreated in the movie The Right Stuff.

[ComplicationsUphold]

Eddie Hodges is my grandfather and he is teaching me guitar. If anyone has any questions about how he is ask me.

[hajune]

Accidently put a negative on. I meant a positive,. Sorry

[Gaygarious]

I'm glad he escaped the downfalls of Hollywood when he did. I'll bet he's a great granddad! I'd have loved to have know him!

[Jantv81]

@ComplicationsUphold how old are you now to make him your grandfather?

[bonzoAU]

What yera was this?who is the compare??

[Gaygarious]

I'd say it was 1956. A very good year indeed!

[bonzoAU]

thanks but di u know who the compare is?

[jkfan2005]

@bonzoAU Compare (Master of Ceremonies/ emcee) is John Daly.

[ellerboda]

And the world wide success "I'm gonna knock on your door" three years later....

[KarinPluss]

What a cutie! Like someone else commented here, see how many childre OR adults have as much respect and courtesy today.

Thanks for posting

[Muffy2314]

This kid was adorable and charming.

[soulierinvestments]

GSN rebroadcast this 1959 episode in February 2009. It featured

a little person who Inspected Lockheed Jet Engines By Crawling Inside Them

a woman who made Pajamas For Dogs

and an Italian Chinese Fortune Cookie for Twixt Inc.

Some mystery guests wanted to bamboozle the panel (as did Brandon deWilde back in 1954) and others ( 2:25 ) wanted the panel to identify them.

[bigred997]

Oops there goes another rubber tree, ker plop!

[tjbnyc76]

My god, how charming. And the young master Hodges was cute, well-composed, well-spoken, and polite. Unlike 99% of the kids I come across these days.

Or adults, for that matter.

[HowardOfOz3565]

it was a different era, people were held accountable for their behaviors, unlike today in which they make multitudes of excuses

[anglocub]

Hear, hear!

[soulierinvestments]

According to Wikipedia, which usually knows best in these things --- Eddie Hodges left showbiz, earned psychology degrees and still practices psychology in Mississippi. Showbiznia's big loss is mental health's big gain.

[soulierinvestments]

This 1959 episode cross references to the 1953 mystery guest appearance of Brandon deWilde, who was close to 12 but sounded like Marilyn Monroe with a chest cold.

Hodges has two professional connections to Henry Fonda. He played the critic's son on stage in "Critics Choice" and the son of a leftist secretary of state nominee in the film "Advise and Consent." He was particularly funny in "The Dick Van Dyke Show" episode "The Lady and the Babysitter" when he has a big crush on Laura Petrie.

[soulierinvestments]

From Wikipedia: Hodges made his showbiz debut in Broadway musical "The Music Man" (1957). He made his film debut in Capra's "A Hole in the Head" with Frank Sinatra and Edward Robinson. Hodges and Sinatra sang an Oscar-winning song called "High Hopes." Hodges did not perform on Sinatra's hit record of the song, though.

Hodges made 8 films and numerous TV guest appearances. He starred in one of Curtiz's last films, "Huckleberry Finn." He appeared in Disney's Summer Magic (1963).