Merv Griffin
| Merv Griffin | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born |
Mervyn Edward Griffin, Jr. July 6, 1925 San Mateo, California, U.S. |
| Died |
August 12, 2007 (aged 82) Los Angeles, California, U.S. |
Cause of death | Prostate cancer |
Resting place |
Westwood Village Memorial Park, U.S. 34°03′30″N 118°26′28″W / 34.0583468°N 118.4411348°W |
| Occupation | Actor, talk show host, entertainer, business magnate |
| Years active | 1944–2007 |
| Spouse(s) | Julann Wright (1958–1976; divorced) |
| Children | Tony Griffin (b. 1959)[1] |
Mervyn Edward "Merv" Griffin, Jr. (July 6, 1925 – August 12, 2007) was an American television host, musician, actor, and media mogul.[2] He began his career as a radio and big band singer who went on to appear in film and on Broadway. From 1965 to 1986 Griffin hosted his own talk show, The Merv Griffin Show, produced by Westinghouse Broadcasting (also known as Group W). He also created the game shows Jeopardy!, Wheel of Fortune, Click, Ruckus, and Merv Griffin's Crosswords with his own television production companies, Merv Griffin Enterprises and Merv Griffin Entertainment. During his lifetime, Griffin was considered an entertainment business magnate.
Early life
Griffin was born into an Irish American family on July 6, 1925, in San Mateo, California to Mervyn Edward Griffin, Sr., a stock broker, and Rita Elizabeth Griffin (née Robinson),[3] a homemaker. Raised as a Roman Catholic, Griffin started singing in his church choir as a boy, and by his teens was earning extra money as a church organist. This is one of the reasons he got into show business early; he was considered a piano prodigy.
He attended San Mateo High School, graduating in 1942, and continued to aid in financing the school. He attended San Mateo Junior College and then the University of San Francisco.[4] He was a member of the international fraternity Tau Kappa Epsilon.[5]
During World War II, Griffin was declared 4F after failing several military physical exams due to having a slight heart murmur.[6] Drafted for service during the Korean War, he was then deemed fit for service, but was considered too old as the drafting age limit was 26 and he had just turned 27.
Career
Singing
Griffin started as a singer on radio at age 19, appearing on San Francisco Sketchbook, a nationally syndicated program based at KFRC. Griffin was overweight as a teenager, which disappointed his radio fans.[6] Embarrassed by their reaction, Griffin resolved to lose weight and change his image, losing 80 pounds in four months. Freddy Martin heard him on the radio show and asked Griffin to tour with his orchestra,[1] which he did for four years.[7]
Griffin also had an uncredited role as a radio announcer in the 1953 horror/science fiction classic The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms.
By 1945, Griffin had earned enough money to form his own record label, Panda Records, which produced Songs by Merv Griffin, the first American album ever recorded on magnetic tape.[8] He became increasingly popular with nightclub audiences, and his fame soared among the general public with his 1950 hit "I've Got a Lovely Bunch of Coconuts". The song reached the number one spot on the Hit Parade and sold three million copies.[9]
At one of his nightclub performances, Griffin was discovered by Doris Day. Day arranged for a screen test at the Warner Bros. Studios for a role in By the Light of the Silvery Moon. Griffin did not get the part, but the screen test led to supporting roles in other musical films such as So This Is Love in 1953.[10] The film caused a minor controversy when Griffin shared an open-mouthed kiss with Kathryn Grayson. The kiss was a first in Hollywood film history since the introduction of the Production Code in 1934.[11]
Griffin would go on to film more pictures, namely, The Boy from Oklahoma and Phantom of the Rue Morgue, but soon became disillusioned with movie making. Griffin bought his contract back from Warner Bros. and decided to focus on a new medium: television.[5]
Game show host
From 1958 to 1962, Griffin hosted a game show produced by Mark Goodson and Bill Todman called Play Your Hunch. The show appeared on all three networks, but primarily on NBC. He also hosted a prime time game show for ABC called Keep Talking. Additionally, he also substituted for a week for the vacationing Bill Cullen on The Price Is Right, and also for Bud Collyer on To Tell the Truth. In 1963, NBC offered him the opportunity to host a new game show, Word for Word, which Griffin produced. He also produced Let's Play Post Office for NBC in 1965; Reach for the Stars for NBC in 1967; and One in a Million for ABC in 1967.
Talk show host
Griffin scored a coup when Jack Paar accidentally emerged onto the set of Play Your Hunch during a live broadcast, and Griffin got him to stay for a spontaneous interview. The interview led to a guest-hosting spot on The Tonight Show, then hosted by Paar.
While Johnny Carson finished his ABC contract (He was hosting the afternoon game show Who Do You Trust) before taking over Tonight after Paar in October 1962, Griffin was one of the many guest hosts NBC used. Griffin was considered the most successful of the guest hosts,[12] and was rewarded with his own daytime talk show on NBC in 1962. This live, 55-minute program was not successful however, and was cancelled in 1963.
In 1965, Griffin launched a syndicated talk show for Group W (Westinghouse Broadcasting): The Merv Griffin Show. The show aired in a variety of time slots throughout North America; many stations ran it in the daytime, others aired it in prime-time and a few broadcast it opposite Johnny Carson's The Tonight Show. Griffin's announcer/sidekick was the veteran British character actor Arthur Treacher, who had been his mentor. After Treacher left the show in 1970, Griffin would do the announcing himself, and walk on stage with the phrase: "And now..., here I come!" According to an obituary article on August 24, 2007 in Entertainment Weekly, The Merv Griffin Show was on the air for 21 years and won eleven Emmy Awards during its run.
Griffin was not shy about tackling controversial subjects, especially the Vietnam War. The guests on the Westinghouse show were an eclectic mix of entertainers, authors, politicians, and "personality" performers like Zsa Zsa Gabor. Griffin also booked controversial guests like George Carlin, Dick Gregory, Richard Pryor, Norman Mailer, and Bertrand Russell. Griffin received critical acclaim for booking such guests, but was also widely criticized for it. When philosopher and anti-war activist Bertrand Russell used Griffin's show to condemn the war in Vietnam, Griffin was criticized for letting Russell have his say. Arnold Schwarzenegger, later the 38th Governor of California, made his talk show debut in the United States on Griffin's talk show in 1974 after moving from Austria.
Griffin dedicated two shows to the topic of Transcendental Meditation and its founder Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, one in 1975, the other in 1977. Griffin himself was an enthusiastic student of the practice.[13]
Griffin would also frequently chat with audience members.[5] One regular audience member, Lillian Miller, would become a fixture on Griffin's program throughout its run.
Griffin's best friend since the sixth grade, Robert (Bob) Murphy, was the producer of The Merv Griffin Show, and eventually became president of Merv Griffin Enterprises.
Late-night host
CBS gave Griffin a late-night show opposite Carson in 1969, a move which proved disastrous. The network was uncomfortable with the guests Griffin wanted, who often spoke out against the Vietnam War and on other taboo topics. When political activist Abbie Hoffman was Griffin's guest in April 1970, CBS blurred the video of Hoffman so viewers at home would not see his trademark American flag pattern shirt even though other guests had worn the same shirt in the past, uncensored. Griffin disliked the censorship imposed by CBS and complained.[5]
Sensing that his time at CBS was ending, and tired of the restrictions imposed by the network, Griffin secretly signed a contract with rival company Metromedia. The contract with Metromedia would give him a syndicated daytime talk show deal as soon as CBS canceled Griffin's show. Within a few months, Griffin was fired by CBS. His new show began the following Monday and ran until the mid-1980s. By 1986, Griffin was ready to retire and ended his talk show run. Due to profits from his highly successful game shows, Griffin had become one of the world's wealthiest entertainers.[5]
Game show creator
Griffin created and produced the successful television game show Jeopardy! in 1964; in an Associated Press profile released right before the show premiered, Griffin talked about the show's origins:[1]
- My wife Julann just came up with the idea one day when we were in a plane bringing us back to New York from Duluth. I was mulling over game show ideas, when she noted that there had not been a successful 'question and answer' game on the air since the quiz show scandals. Why not do a switch, and give the answers to the contestant and let them come up with the question.
- She fired a couple of answers to me: '5,280' and the question of course was how many feet in a mile. Another was '79 Wistful Vista.' That was Fibber and Mollie McGee's address. I loved the idea, went straight to NBC with the idea, and they bought it without even looking at a pilot show.
The show, originally titled What's the Question?, premiered on NBC on March 30, 1964, hosted by Art Fleming, and lasted for 11 years. Griffin wrote the 30-second piece of music heard during the show's Final Jeopardy! Round, and which later became the iconic melody of the theme for the show in the first part of Alex Trebek era.
In 1975, NBC canceled Jeopardy! after moving it twice on its daytime schedule, despite having an additional year on its network contract left to fulfill. Griffin produced the show's successor, Wheel of Fortune. Premiering on January 6, 1975, Wheel with Chuck Woolery and Susan Stafford as host and hostess, had mediocre ratings throughout its network run, yet was expanded to an hour, in response to the successful 60-minute version of The Price Is Right on CBS. It barely escaped cancellation in 1980, when NBC replaced three of its other game shows with a daytime talk show starring David Letterman; NBC finally cancelled it in 1989, when CBS picked it up for a year, only to return to NBC, when the daytime version was finally cancelled for good in 1991. Wheel of Fortune became a phenomenon when on September 19, 1983, a nighttime version hit the syndication market with Pat Sajak and Vanna White as host and hostess, respectively. Two different revivals of Jeopardy! would be produced: one on NBC that ran for five months in late 1978/early 1979 with Art Fleming returning as host, and the other airing in first-run syndication beginning on September 10, 1984, starring Alex Trebek. Both the daytime syndicated version of Jeopardy! and the nighttime version of Wheel of Fortune remain on the air today in syndication.
In 1990, Griffin had an ambitious but unsuccessful attempt at adapting the venerable board game Monopoly into a game show of the same name. His biggest failure was a wild game show called Ruckus, which emanated from the Resorts International Hotel & Casino in Atlantic City, which he owned at the time. Involving slapstick stunts and a somewhat truncated version of his old Reach for the Stars, the show initially aired locally in New York, with the intent of national syndication early the following year. But the ratings were abysmal, and the plug was pulled on the show after several weeks. A national audience did get a look at it, via reruns that aired for a time on GSN.
Upon his retirement, Griffin sold his production company, Merv Griffin Enterprises, to Columbia Pictures Television, at the time a unit of The Coca-Cola Company, for US$250 million on May 6, 1986, the largest acquisition of an entertainment company owned by a single individual at that time. Following the sale, Forbes named him the richest Hollywood performer in history. He retained the title of creator of both his game shows.
The two powerhouses spun off numerous programs, and Griffin often would sign on as a creative consultant. The spin-offs included Wheel 2000 on CBS in 1997 and the short lived Jep! on GSN in 1998, both for children; Rock & Roll Jeopardy! on VH1 in 1998 for purveyors of pop music trivia; a teen-oriented game called Click!, which introduced a youngster named Ryan Seacrest as its host, and in association with Wink Martindale, Headline Chasers in 1985.
On May 14, 2003, Griffin was honored with the Broadcast Music, Inc. (BMI) President's Award at its annual Film and Television Awards ceremony, for having created some of America's best-known game show melodies.[14]
In 2007, Griffin's production company, Merv Griffin Entertainment, began pre-production on a new syndicated game show Merv Griffin's Crosswords (originally titled Let's Play Crosswords and Let's Do Crosswords). The show taped in Los Angeles after initial reports that it would be produced at WMAQ-TV in Chicago. The show was produced in association with Program Partners and the William Morris Agency and began airing September 10, 2007. NBC-owned-and-operated stations in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, San Francisco and Dallas carried the show, with many stations airing two episodes per day.
Business ventures
Griffin ventured into real estate, purchasing the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills. He also purchased Resorts Hotel and Casino, formerly Chalfonte-Haddon Hall Hotel in Atlantic City from Donald Trump in 1988. An active desert resident, he was a supporter of the La Quinta Arts Festival and the owner of the Merv Griffin Givenchy Resort & Spa in Palm Springs, now The Parker. He owned a ranch near La Quinta, California where he raised thoroughbred racehorses, as well as St. Clerans Manor, a boutique hotel, set in an eighteenth-century estate once owned by director John Huston, near Craughwell, County Galway Galway, Ireland. In the 1980s, Griffin purchased Paradise Island in the Bahamas for US$400 million from Trump, but he later sold it for just US$125 million. Griffin sold his empire to The Coca-Cola Company for $250 million in 1986, then went on a buying spree of hotels, so that his wealth in 2003 was said to be around $1.2 billion.[15][16]
In March 2001, Griffin returned to singing with the release of the album It's Like a Dream.
Personal life
Griffin kept many details of his personal and business life private, including his alleged bisexuality,[17] although he was subject to unsuccessful lawsuits by Dance Fever host Deney Terrio, alleging sexual harassment, and by assistant Brent Plott seeking $200 million in palimony. He remained friends with his ex-wife, whom he credited with creating the premise of Jeopardy!. On being wealthy he said that "if people know you're rich they don't talk with you when you walk down the street." He kept his wealth as an open secret, amassing media outlets, hotels and casinos with a net worth widely estimated at more than a billion dollars. Griffin stated he did not really know his worth because it "would keep me from sleeping at night".[4] He and former First Lady Nancy Reagan exchanged birthday greetings each July 6, for they shared the same birthday. Griffin was also an honorary pallbearer at the funeral of President Ronald Reagan in 2004. He was friends with both of the Reagans for many years.[18]
Honors
In 1998, a Golden Palm Star on the Palm Springs, California, Walk of Stars was dedicated to him.[19]
In 2005 he accepted the degree Doctor of Laws (honoris causa) from the National University of Ireland, Galway.
Illness and death
Griffin's prostate cancer, treated originally in 1996, returned and he was admitted to Cedars Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, where his condition deteriorated, leading to his death on August 12, 2007, at the age of 82.[20][21] Griffin is survived by his son, Tony, born in 1959 during Griffin's marriage to Julann Wright from 1958 to 1976, as well as two grandchildren.[22]
Funeral services were held for Griffin on August 17, 2007, at the Church of the Good Shepherd in Beverly Hills. The well-attended service included Nancy Reagan; Arnold Schwarzenegger (who gave the eulogy along with Tony Griffin); Maria Shriver; and various actors, television stars, employees, and friends including Sajak, White, Trebek, Dick Van Dyke, Jack Klugman, Dick Van Patten, Ellen DeGeneres and partner Portia de Rossi, Ryan Seacrest, and Catherine Oxenberg and husband Casper Van Dien. Pallbearers included Griffin Group Vice Chairman Ron Ward, President Robert Pritchard, and Vice President Michael Eyre, as well as Tony Griffin. His 7-year-old grandson Donovan Mervyn was an honorary pallbearer as was Nancy Reagan. His 12-year-old granddaughter Farah gave a reading. A post-burial reception was held at the Beverly Hilton, a property owned by Griffin from 1987 to 2003.[23] He was buried in Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery and his headstone epitaph (even though in his book Merv, written with David Bender in 2003, states it would be "Stay Tuned") reads "I will not be right back after this message", an epitaph Griffin announced on The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson.
GSN honored Griffin by airing ten-episode marathons of Wheel and Jeopardy! during the weekend of August 18–19, 2007. The Wheel marathon included two episodes with cameo appearances by Griffin: Sajak's departure from the daytime version in 1989 and a 1992–93 episode that ended with Griffin, his band "The MervTones," and White singing at a dinner club in Orlando, Florida. The Jeopardy! marathon consisted of a rerun of the Jeopardy! Million Dollar Masters Tournament from 2002. His estate was recently sold for $7 million with the money being raised by San Diego–based GNT Financial. GNT is owned by Marcus Carter.
Selected popular songs
- "I've Got a Lovely Bunch of Coconuts"
- "Christmas City"
- "Wilhelmina"
- "Never Been Kissed"
- "The Charanga" (#69, Pop Charts, 1961)
- "Banned In Boston" (#101, Pop Charts, 1961)
- "Happy To Know You" (Radio Hit, 1973)
- "Think!" (longtime theme music for Jeopardy!)
- "Changing Keys" (former longtime theme music for Wheel)
See also
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Cynthia Lowry (March 29, 1964). "Merv Griffin: Question and Answer Man". Independent Star-News. Associated Press.
- ↑ "Spokeswoman: 'Jeopardy' inventor Merv Griffin dies at 82". CNN. Associated Press. August 12, 2007. Archived from the original on September 17, 2007. Retrieved August 12, 2007.
- ↑ "Who's who in California - Alice Catt Armstrong". Google Books. Retrieved December 18, 2012.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 Severo, Richard; Wyatt, Edward (August 13, 2007). "Merv Griffin, Television Innovator, Dies at 82". The New York Times. Retrieved May 12, 2010.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 5.4 "Merv Griffin". The Notable Names Database. Soylent Communications. Retrieved September 9, 2007.
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 "Merv Griffin, Before He Was a Legend" August 12, 2009.
- ↑ All Movie Guide. "Merv Griffin Filmography". Fandango. Retrieved August 12, 2007.
- ↑ Entertainment Legend Merv Griffin Dies At 82, from Billboard
- ↑ "TV Land Remembers Merv Griffin". TV Land. Archived from the original on September 26, 2007. Retrieved September 9, 2007.
- ↑ Richard Natale (August 12, 2007). "Hollywood legend Merv Griffin dies". Variety. Retrieved September 9, 2007.
- ↑ Erik Pedersen (August 13, 2007). "'Visionary' H'wood host, tycoon Merv Griffin dies". The Hollywood Reporter. Archived from the original on August 13, 2007. Retrieved September 9, 2007.
- ↑ "Late Night". Pioneers of Television, January 9, 2008.
- ↑ Woo, Elaine (February 6, 2008). "Maharishi Mahesh Yogi; founded Transcendental Meditation movement". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved May 12, 2010.
- ↑ "For Merv Griffin, 14 Seconds Can Last a Lifetime". Broadcast Music, Inc. Retrieved October 18, 2010.
- ↑ John Colapinto. "Dear Mister Fantasy". Rolling Stone. Retrieved July 19, 2007.
- ↑ "Gaming Hall of Fame Award". Fine Awards. Archived from the original on September 28, 2007. Retrieved September 9, 2007.
- ↑ Richmond, Ray (August 17, 2007). "Merv Griffin died a closeted homosexual". Forbes. UK Edition. Reuters.
- ↑ Gerhart, Ann (June 11, 2004). "A Widow's Heartfelt Farewell". The Washington Post. Retrieved November 20, 2007.
- ↑ "Palm Springs Walk of Stars by date dedicated". Palmspringswalkofstars.com. Retrieved December 18, 2012.
- ↑ "Merv Griffin in grave condition". The Desert Sun. azcentral.com. August 9, 2007. Retrieved September 9, 2007.
- ↑ David Zurawik (August 12, 2007). "Merv Griffin dies at age 82". Baltimore Sun. Retrieved August 12, 2007.
- ↑ Kakie Urch; Bruce Fessier; Erica Solvig (August 12, 2007). "Remembering Merv Griffin, 1925-2007". The Desert Sun. Retrieved September 9, 2007.
- ↑ "Hundreds Pay Final Respects To Merv Griffin". KNBC Los Angeles. August 17, 2007. Retrieved September 9, 2007.
External links
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