Wally Bruner

Wallace “Wally” Bruner, Jr. (March 4, 1931 – November 3, 1997) was an American journalist and television host. He covered Congress and the Lyndon Johnson administration for ABC News in the 1960s. He was the first host of the 1968–1975 syndicated version of What's My Line? and went on to host the syndicated home repair show Wally's Workshop.

Bruner was born as Wallace Bruner, Jr., on March 4, 1931, in Ames, Iowa, to Wallace and Audrey (Scott) Bruner. He was raised in Tell City, Indiana.

He married his classmate, the former Patricia Thomas, after graduation. The two later jointly built and operated radio station WKZI in Casey, Illinois. They had eight children: Rickey, born in 1950, Sherri, born in 1951; Michael, born in 1952, Ted and Tim (twins), born in 1954, Kathy and Kevin (twins), born in 1955, and Kristine, born in 1957. They divorced in the late 1960s.

Bruner met his second wife, Natalie, when she was a contestant on What's My Line? They had two children, Wally, Jr. and Lee. Natalie co-starred on Wally's Workshop, and in the early 1990s, ran unsuccessfully for the United States Congress on the Democratic ticket against Dan Burton of Indiana; her husband served as her campaign manager.

Bruner himself was also active in politics. He served as campaign manager for Senator Vance Hartke (D-Indiana), and as west coast coordinator of Senator Eugene McCarthy's campaign for president. He also produced an album of poetry with Senator Everett Dirksen (R-Illinois) and created one of the first film libraries for the purpose of selling archived interviews and footage to the network news programs.

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