This special filmed on the president's birthday on May 29, 1962 would air later that year on the Fourth of July. Fitting into the holiday theme, three of the celebrity guests that night would die within a week of Christmas in the year that each died:
Bobby Darin on December 20, 1973 at age 37; Jack Benny on December 26, 1974 at 80; and Peter Lawford on December 24, 1984 at 61. Two other guests, Marilyn Monroe and Henry Fonda, would die exactly 20 years plus one week apart, respectively on August 5, 1962 and August 12, 1982. Of course the assassination of John F. Kennedy at age 46 would occur within a week of Thanksgiving the year after this broadcast, on November 22, 1963, and that of his brother Robert F. Kennedy at age 42 would occur on June 6, 1968, that being the 24th anniversary of D-Day.