Jay Stewart
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Jay Stewart (real name Jay Fix September 6, 1918 - September 17, 1989) was an American television and radio announcer most famous for his work on several game shows.[1]
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[edit] Education and early career
Born in Summitville, Indiana, Stewart broke into show business as a saxophone player. He attended Butler University and won a 1939 award as one of the outstanding Sigma Chi graduates in the United States. After graduation he landed radio announcing jobs at WBOW in Terre Haute and WLW in Cincinnati. In 1943 Stewart moved to Los Angeles, where he continued his career as a radio announcer. In 1953 Stewart became the host of NBC radio's It Pays To Be Married.[2]
Stewart was one of the hosts for Town Hall Party, a Los Angeles-based country music program airing from 1952 to 1961 and carried by KFI radio and KTTV-TV television.[3] He was also an announcer for The Mike Douglas Show when production moved to Los Angeles in the late-1970s.
[edit] Career highlights
Stewart was perhaps best known for his work on Let's Make a Deal and in the 1980s on Sale of the Century. Let's Make a Deal host Monty Hall called Stewart "the best second banana you ever found in your life" and said that "it was a very, very good feeling between us."[4] Stewart was also the primary announcer for all Barry & Enright game shows from 1977 until 1981, including The Joker's Wild and Tic Tac Dough.
In 1981, Jay was selected by Mark Goodson to announce approximately two months worth of episodes on Card Sharks, pairing him with future Sale of the Century quizmaster Jim Perry. It was Stewart's only announcing assignment for Mark Goodson Productions, occurring while he was still employed with Barry & Enright. Stewart was brought in to substitute for regular announcer Gene Wood, who was recovering from a serious automobile accident.
Besides his duties on $ale of the Century, Stewart announced the first two seasons of Scrabble before being replaced by Charlie Tuna in the fall of 1986. The last show he announced was for the final week of Blackout in April of 1988. In between his stints with Barry & Enright and Reg Grundy Productions, Stewart was the voice-over for National Enquirer commercials, which he continued to do until around 1986.
[edit] Later work and decline
In late 1981, Stewart's daughter Jamie committed suicide. During this time, he took a year-and-a-half respite from announcing and found religion, appearing on The 700 Club to proclaim his newfound faith, which led to him doing voiceover promos for host Pat Robertson's CBN Cable. He returned to the game show arena in 1983 as the announcer of Sale of the Century, which he held for five years. Stewart also co-hosted with Jim Perry for a week around late 1983, when then-hostess Lee Menning was on maternity leave. He participated in several Instant Bargains during the course of his tenure on Sale. In 1983 Stewart announced for a pilot of the revival of Jeopardy! hosted by Alex Trebek, but the job eventually went to Johnny Gilbert, who announced for a later pilot and all subsequent episodes.
Stewart could not overcome the pain of his daughter's death and turned increasingly to alcohol, which ultimately led to his departure from $ale of the Century in January 1988 (his last announcing work was the aforementioned fill-in week on Blackout). During this time, he moved into the managerial field; one of his clients was Harry Stevens, who announced the syndicated version of Finders Keepers and the short-lived 1989 version of Pictionary. Stewart committed suicide by shooting himself in the carport of his home on September 17, 1989 as the result of severe depression; he had also suffered from chronic, intractable back pain for years, reportedly due to frequent heavy lifting during his work on Let's Make a Deal.[2]
[edit] Notes
- ^ Jay Stewart (1918-1989). Letsmakeadeal.com (1999-2007). Retrieved on 2007-09-05. Includes material from NBC and The Encyclopedia of TV Game Shows.
- ^ a b Jay Stewart, TV Announcer: September 06, 1918 - September 17, 1989. Obituaries Today (1998-2007). Retrieved on 2007-09-05.
- ^ Town Hall Party. Bear Family Records (2001-2006). Retrieved on 2007-09-05.
- ^ L. Wayne Hicks. Monty Hall Interview. TVparty!. Retrieved on 2007-09-05.
[edit] External links
- Jay Stewart at the Internet Movie Database
- Jay Stewart at TV.com
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