Bennett Cerf

When Arlene Francis's son, Peter, and Bennett's son, Chirstopher, graduated from college they became roommates. Peter went on to be president of a small college in California. Chris was later the head of New Jersey's Department of Education. Strictly roommates, neither was gay.

I had a book I would check out from the library when I was young called “Bennett Cerf’s Houseful of Laughter” that was an odd anthology of short stories, essays and comedic poetry. I loved it so much it would expire and I would immediately renew it. It introduced me to the work of Ogden Nash, who I also love.

That’s an odd tangent, r1.

Not really so odd a tangent. I remember seeing Peter and Christopher on several episodes of What's My Line when they were teenagers. They were cute, and clearly great friends. I always wondered about them. (BTW, the Christopher Cerf who was head of the NJ Dept. of Ed. was a different man with the same name.)

I've heard rumors about Bennett Cerf's sex life down through the years. I don't know if anything I've heard is true, but I'd like to think it was. He was a gay man, whether he was homosexual or not!

Cerf was fine on the show, but in interviews I've seen of him, he's not really so likable. He comes across as an East-coast snob.

Cerf was friends with both John O'Hara and Cardinal Spellman and introduced the two. Apparently they became good friends after that!

Bennett had a brief first marriage to actress Sylvia Sidney.

His second wife, Phyllis, was a former starlet and Ginger Roger's cousin. She co-authored books with Dr. Seuss, but their association ended in a bitter legal battle. After Bennett's death, Phyllis married former NYC mayor Robert Wagner.

^Rogers'

Bennett Cerf--ne of founders of Random House Publishing--I imagine Bennett got very rich. I'm old so I watched the show when it was on regular TV with my parents --Bennett has one of those mid-Atlantic accents but he must have had parents with very strong NY accents, so he had a strange accent. Even as a young kid I knew it was sort of an upper class accent though--not sure how I knew that. My parents were from NY without strong accents, but I grew up in LA. I always liked Bennett when I watched as a child. I have no idea why--so he must have been very charming. I didn't like any of the others on the show, come to think of it--John Daly was really pretentious, Arlene was a phony (and in the American theatah) and Dorothy had that really small chin and wasn't nice. Somehow it was a fun show to watch, even as a kid.

r8 Thank you for the correction.

Watch carefully when the contestant is a young, beautiful, buxom woman. Bennett's end of the panel's table rises an inch or two. Without fail.

R3, here’s another. The writer Deborah Eisenberg named a character in one of her short stories “Cerf”. (IIRC, I think he was a lifeguard at the YMCA).

She also dedicated the book to her longtime companion, Wally Shawn.