Oscar got it right

In an episode of Information Please from May of 1942, one of the questions was about what use the Germans made of certain substances. One of them was hydrogen peroxide. Oscar Levant, one of the regular panelists and a wonderful wit, responded quickly, "It keeps their Aryanism yellow," which dig drew a huge applause from the audience. When Clifton Fadiman, the moderator, informed him that that was correct, Levant could hardly believe it, because he had said it as a gag. In fact, because of the emphasis on racial purity, many Germans who were not blonde made themselves so with peroxide.