I’m finally reading Fates’ history of “What’s My Line?”, and I found out something interesting about a challenger who was featured during the Blyden era.
A fellow named David Hodo appeared, signed in on roller skates, and stumped the panel with his line: A rollerskating fire-eater. Unfortunately, the poor man set himself on fire during the demonstration of his skill. Tape was stopped as the audience and panel freaked out, and Hodo was rushed to hospital. Luckily for him, as it turned out, his burns were not horribly serious — “nothing more sinister than some reddened skin and a few patches of singed hair”, wrote Fates.
But here’s the kicker, which I didn’t find out until Googling the man’s name: Hodo later became famous as the construction worker in The Village People.
