Bill Cullen

Bill Cullen
Cullen in 1954.
Born	William Lawrence Francis Cullen (1920-02-18)February 18, 1920 Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Died	July 7, 1990(1990-07-07) (aged 70) Bel Air, California
Cause of death	Lung cancer
Occupation	Television personality Radio personality Game show host
Years active	1942–1988

William Lawrence Francis "Bill" Cullen (February 18, 1920 – July 7, 1990) was an American radio and television personality whose career spanned five decades. His biggest claim to fame was as a game show host, and over the course of his career he hosted twenty-three shows and earned the nickname "Dean of Game Show Hosts".^[1] In addition to his hosting duties, Cullen also appeared as a panelist/celebrity guest on many other programs, such as his regular appearances on the panel series I've Got a Secret and To Tell the Truth and his frequent guest appearances on several incarnations of Pyramid in the 1970s and 1980s.

Early life and career

Cullen was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, the only child of William and Lillian Cullen. He survived a childhood bout with polio that left him with significant physical limitations for the rest of his life (see medical history). He also wore very thick spectacles, which became his trademark.

Radio

Cullen's broadcasting career began in Pittsburgh at WWSW radio, where he worked as a disc jockey and play-by-play announcer or color commentator for Pittsburgh Steelers and Pittsburgh Hornets games. In 1943, Cullen left WWSW to briefly work at rival station KDKA before leaving Pittsburgh a year later to try his luck in New York. A week after arriving in New York he was hired as a staff announcer at CBS. To supplement his then-meager income, he became a freelance joke writer for some of the top radio stars of the day including Arthur Godfrey, Danny Kaye, and Jack Benny;^[2] he also worked as a staff writer for the Easy Aces radio show.^[3]

His first venture into game shows was in 1945 when he was hired as announcer for a radio quiz called Give And Take.^[4] Between 1946 and 1953 he also worked as announcer for various other local and network shows, including the radio version of Mark Goodson and Bill Todman's first game show, Winner Take All, hosted by Ward Wilson; Cullen took over as host four months later when Wilson left.

After a brief stint at WNEW in 1951 he later hosted a popular morning show at WRCA radio from 1955 to 1961.^[5] His last regular radio job was as one of the hosts of NBC Radio's Monitor from 1971 to 1973.

TV career

Bill Cullen's first television game show was the TV version of Winner Take All, which premiered on CBS in 1952. From 1954 to 1955, he hosted NBC's Place the Face, a program in which celebrities identified people from their past. He hosted the daytime and prime-time versions of The Price Is Right, another Goodson-Todman production, from 1956 to 1965. He was also a panelist on I've Got a Secret from 1952 until 1967 and later on To Tell the Truth from 1969 until 1978, where he would also guest host on occasion. After relocating to southern California, Cullen guest hosted Password Plus for four weeks in April 1980 while original host Allen Ludden was being treated for stomach cancer.

Cullen was initially in the running to host the 1972 revival of The Price Is Right for CBS, but the physical demands of the new format were deemed too strenuous for him. Consequently, Bob Barker was selected to host the daytime version while Dennis James hosted the syndicated nighttime version; Barker took over both versions in 1977, and remained the show's host until his retirement in 2007. Occasional references to Cullen have been made by current The Price Is Right host Drew Carey.

Other game shows Cullen hosted included Eye Guess in the 1960s; Three on a Match and the syndicated version of The $25,000 Pyramid in the 1970s; and later in his career Chain Reaction, Blockbusters, Child's Play, Hot Potato, and The Joker's Wild (his final hosting job from 1984 to 1986, following the death of Jack Barry).

Bill Cullen appeared as a celebrity guest on many other game shows, including I've Got a Secret, Password, Password Plus, To Tell the Truth, Match Game, and all pre-$100,000 versions of Pyramid. Cullen hosted a number of pilots for his close friend, quiz producer Bob Stewart, who created The Price Is Right, Truth, and Password for Goodson-Todman and Pyramid for his own company. Cullen thus became the only person to host each of these formats on a full- or part-time basis. He also appeared as a panelist on game shows hosted by his favorite understudy, Bob Eubanks, including Trivia Trap, Rhyme and Reason, and All Star Secrets; and he made guest appearances with Eubanks on Family Feud. Cullen was also a close friend of Canadian-American host Jim Perry.

In 1982 Cullen made a surprise appearance on The Price Is Right to promote his new game show, Child's Play, the only time he ever appeared on the revival of The Price Is Right; no mention was made of Cullen's original run as host.

Achievements

Cullen served in the Civil Air Patrol as an instructor and patrol pilot in his native Pennsylvania during World War II (having failed to qualify for combat duty due to his physical disabilities), and was interested in mechanics. He did color commentary on college football games early in his career, and also broadcast track and field on NBC. On I've Got A Secret, producers Mark Goodson and Bill Todman and host Garry Moore quickly learned to never start the questioning with Cullen if the guest's secret was anything sports-related or mechanical, because chances were good that he would guess it immediately.

During his television career Cullen was nominated three times for Emmy Awards; his only win was a Primetime Emmy for hosting Three On A Match (1973); he was later nominated for Daytime Emmys for his work on Blockbusters (1982) and Hot Potato (1985).^[6]

Honors

The Game Show Congress, a nonprofit association that seeks to promote the game show industry, annually presents the Bill Cullen Career Achievement Award to performers who have had distinguished careers in the genre. The first award in 2004 was given posthumously to Cullen himself; his widow Ann accepted it on his behalf.

Personal life

Cullen was married three times and had no children. His first marriage was a brief one while still living in Pittsburgh. His second marriage (1949-55) was to singer Carol Ames. On December 24, 1955, Cullen married former dancer and model Ann Roemheld Macomber, daughter of composer Heinz Roemheld; this marriage would last until his death, in 1990. Ann occasionally worked as a model on Bill's The Price Is Right and made several appearances with him on Tattletales.

Medical history

Cullen contracted poliomyelitis in August 1921, when he was only 18 months old. The long-term sequelae of that illness, combined with injuries sustained in a serious motor vehicle accident in 1937 requiring a nine-month hospitalization,^[7] left him with significant and lifelong ambulatory limitations.

His physical disabilities were (and largely remain) unknown to the general public due in large part to directors taking great care to ensure that Cullen was never shown walking on camera. Moreover, each show's set was designed to accommodate Cullen's limited range of motion. On the shows Cullen hosted, the sets, podiums, game boards, props, and any physical movements by contestants were intentionally arranged so that Cullen could, for the most part, remain stationary. Rather than the grand entrance common for most game show hosts, Cullen would begin each show either already seated or hidden on set behind a board closest to his podium so that he would only have to take a minimum number of steps. He was always seated while hosting, even on shows where other participants stood. Similar accommodations were made when he appeared as a guest on other game shows; while other guests would make entrances similar to the host, Cullen would already be seated or standing near where he would sit.

As a consequence of these arrangements, many of Cullen's peers were likewise unaware of his disability, which occasionally led to awkward situations. In the August 2010 issue of GQ Magazine under the heading "Epic Tales of Embarrassment", comedian/writer/producer Mel Brooks related the following story to writer Steve Heisler:

The week of October 17–21 in 1966—that would make me about 40—was a special celebrity week on Eye Guess. Bill Cullen was the host. The game was very similar to Concentration. I was teamed up with Julia Meade. Remember her? Actress, very pretty young lady, blonde... Okay, never mind. I don't think I won, but I did get the take-home game. Anyway, the show is over, and I start walking toward the podium to say good night to Bill, to thank him for having me on. He starts coming toward me cross-stage, and I don't know what he's doing. His feet are flopping. His hands are flying everywhere. He's doing this kind of wacky walk-of-the-unfortunates that Jerry Lewis used to do. So I figured, what the hell, I'll join him. I start doing, I dunno, this multiple-sclerosis walk, flapping my arms and doing the Milton Berle cross legs—my own Jerry Lewis impression... And Julia is whispering, "No! He's crippled, Mel!" I don't even hear her. Finally we meet in the middle, we hug, and he says to me, "You know, you're the only comic who's ever had the nerve to make fun of my crippled walk. Everyone's so careful, it makes me feel even worse." And I realize, Oh, my God, this guy is really crippled! It was my worst moment—and if you weren't me, probably the funniest thing that ever happened.^[8]

In the fall of 1969, shortly after Eye Guess ended, Cullen fell seriously ill. Diagnosed with pancreatitis and requiring major surgery, Cullen took time off from work to recuperate. When he returned to television, particularly his position on the panel for To Tell The Truth, his physical appearance had drastically changed; along with letting his hair grow out, his pancreatitis had caused him to lose over thirty pounds leaving his face gaunt and wrinkled.^[9]

Death

Cullen, a smoker for most of his life, died on July 7, 1990, of lung cancer in Los Angeles.

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Bill Cullen.

• The Bill Cullen Homepage by Matt Ottinger
• Bill Cullen at the Internet Movie Database
• Bill Cullen at Find a Grave