John Charles Patrick Croghan Daly[1][2] (February 20, 1914 – February 24, 1991)[3] was an American journalist, host, CBS radio and television personality, ABC News executive, TV anchor, and game show host, best known for his work on the CBS panel game show What's My Line?

[3] Daly worked for a time in a wool factory, and at a transit company in Washington, D.C., before becoming a reporter for NBC Radio, and later for CBS.

While covering the Roosevelt White House, Daly became known to the national CBS audience as the network announcer for many of the President's speeches.

[citation needed] Daly was a war correspondent in 1943 in Italy during Gen. George S. Patton's infamous "slapping incidents."

In July 1959, along with the Associated Press writer John Scali, Daly reported from Moscow on the infamous Kitchen Debate between First Secretary Nikita Khrushchev and Vice President Richard M. Nixon.

On Fred Allen's death in 1956, Random House book publisher and humorist Bennett Cerf became the anchor panelist who would usually introduce Daly.

Toward the end of the network run, in the mid-1960s, Fates broached the idea of expanding the usual format to include playful, on-stage demonstrations of the contestants' products or services, for the sake of variety, only to be met with Daly's "Look, kiddo.

[7] He also had several television and movie guest appearances from the late 1940s to the mid-1960s, including an uncredited role in Bye Bye Birdie (as the reporter announcing the title character's induction into the Army) and as the narrator, in a mock documentary style, on the premiere episode of the rural comedy series Green Acres.

In 1949 he starred in the short-lived CBS Television newspaper drama The Front Page, where it was thought that his presence and journalistic experience would give the series more authenticity.

During the 1950s, Daly became the vice president in charge of news, special events, and public affairs, religious programs and sports for ABC and won three Peabody Awards.

[8] In addition, he provided the voice of a Conelrad radio announcer on the May 18, 1954, broadcast of The Motorola Television Hour on ABC titled Atomic Attack, which showcases a story about a family in a New York City suburb dealing with the aftermath of an H-bomb attack fifty miles away.

[citation needed] At the time, this was a very rare instance of a television personality working on two different US broadcast TV networks simultaneously.

He also filled in occasionally on NBC's The Today Show, making Daly one of the few people to work simultaneously on all three networks.)

He assumed the position on September 20, 1967,[16] but lasted only until June 6, 1968, when he resigned over a claim that Leonard H. Marks, his superior at the U.S. Information Agency, had been making personnel changes behind Daly's back.

[18] The most notable and last guest on a "Critique" program hosted by Daly was Bronx-born singer/songwriter/pianist Laura Nyro, probably recorded on December 4, 1968,[citation needed] and originally broadcast on January 1, 1969, in which she performed demos of "And When I Die," "The Man Who Sends Me Home," "Captain Saint Lucifer," "Mercy on Broadway," "You Don't Love Me When I Cry," and "Save the Country," and also featured an interview with her manager David Geffen.

At his alma mater, the Tilton School, there is an award named for Daly given to "persons whose pursuit of excellence and deep commitment as a member of the school family resembles that of John Daly's involvement with Tilton: continuous and widely known expressions of support in word and deed, inspiring others to reach goals that common experience dictates are impossible."