Television Talkers

 

As an aspiring actor and opera singer, Gene Rayburn (Eugene Peter Jeljenic, 1917-1999) made the move to New York City but was unable to find stage work. He landed a job as an NBC Studios page and tour guide at 30 Rockefeller Plaza. Before television fame, Rayburn was a radio performer, announcing at various radio stations before enlisting in the United States Army Air Forces during World War II. He chose the stage name "Rayburn" by randomly sticking his finger in the phone book.

Making use of his talent, Rayburn took the lead role in the Broadway musical Bye Bye Birdie after Dick Van Dyke left to star in The Dick Van Dyke Show. He began a long association with game show producers Mark Goodson and Bill Todman in 1953. After hosting several game shows, he hit pay dirt with The Match Game in 1962-1969. The show was revived in 1973 simply as Match Game and ran for another decade. During this time one of Rayburn's trademarks was his long, skinny microphone that he was able to hold near his waist. 

Note: Rayburn's last game show hosting duties were on Break the Bank in 1985.

Television Talkers

 

John Lewis Gilbert III (1928-) aka Johnny Gilbert, was originally a nightclub singer and entertainer. He has worked mainly on television game shows as far back as the 1950s. He is known primarily for his work as the announcer and audience host for countless game shows. Gilbert was selected by Mark Goodson to replace Don Pardo as the announcer and audience host for the original version of The Price Is Right when it moved from NBC to ABC in 1963. Merv Griffin's quiz show Jeopardy! was reintroduced to television in 1984. Its new host, Alex Trebek, convinced Griffin to hire Gilbert as the announcer. His list for hosting game shows is staggering and can be found elsewhere online.

Gilbert's voice was heard on the CBS ceremonies, the People's Choice Awards and Emmy Awards. In addition, he added his distinct voice to episodes of the animated series, The Angry Beavers and Johnny Bravo.

Above, Gilbert was Dinah Shore's announcer and sidekick for Dinah!, beginning in 1974.

That Golden Voice

 

Matt Monro (Terence Edward Parsons 1930-1985) was an English easy-listening singer known as "The Man with the Golden Voice." He performed internationally over his 30-year career and was one of the most underrated pop vocalists of the Sixties. Despite being a chain-smoker and battling alcoholism in the Sixties and Seventies, his effortless style and amazing breath control never wavered. Coupled with his perfect baritone with a vocal timbre (always pronounced TAM-ber) that remained consistent over his entire range. Monro had early success in the UK with several Top 10 hits, including, "Portrait of My Love", "My Kind of Girl", "Softly As I Leave You", "Walk Away" and "Yesterday." 

Always with a singing career on his mind, he took numerous odd jobs, famously as a singing bus driver for London Transport. But he struggled to gain any ground through the Fifties. By early 1961, Monro had won ITV's A Song for Britain with "My Kind of Girl". His follow-up hits included that song, plus "Softly as I Leave You" (1962) and the title song written by John Barry for the film, From Russia with Love (1963), used over the final credits as many movie patrons were probably exiting the theater. Monro sang the Oscar-winning title song for the 1966 film, Born Free, also by Barry, which became his signature song. Monro continued to tour until just before his death.

Note: Early in his career, Monro was somewhat pigeon-holed as the "British Sinatra," perhaps due to his satirical recording, "You Keep Me Swingin" in the syncopated Sinatra style for EMI producer, George Martin and Peter Sellers album, "Songs for Swingin' Sellers." The latter chose to use it as the opening track on the record rather than record his own version, realizing he couldn't improve on Monro's performance. Sinatra once said Monro had a fabulous voice and lavished praise on his impeccable diction.

Television Talkers

Chuck Woolery (1941-) is an American game and talk show host,  musician and actor. Though perhaps best known as the original host of Wheel of Fortune (1975-81) he hosted a number of game shows in his career. Woolery's longest-running stint was his eleven years with Love Connection, beginning in 1983.

The Ashland, Kentucky native served as a wine consultant in Columbus, Ohio, and as a sales representative for the Pillsbury Company in his early twenties. Around this time he was part of The Bordermen folk trio, singing and playing the double bass. He later was part of the duo called The Avant-Garde, garnering a Top 40 hit with "Naturally Stoned" in 1968, adding to a long list of one-hit wonder groups. By the late 1970s, his singing career took him into the country music world for Warner Bros. and Epic Records.

Beginning in 1972, Woolery often played himself during his television acting career. His latest role was in 2009 for the series Drop Dead Diva. He has become a spokesperson for senior interests, as well as promoting investments in the gold standard.

Audio Celebrity

 

Mostly heard and not seen, if you owned a television set by the late Fifties, Jack Haskell (1919-1998) was a familiar voice as an announcer for numerous broadcasts. In those early days, when he was not pitching a product or introducing a guest, Haskell would grace the radio airwaves as a singer. While in college, Haskell sang on the Chicago radio stations WBBM, and WGN, and was showcased on the Dial Dave Garroway show at WMAQ. After college, he sang with Les Brown and his orchestra. Haskell moved from Chicago to New York City for his television transition on NBC's Today, again with Garroway. Among other shows, he was an announcer on The Ed Sullivan Show, The Mike Douglas Show, The Garry Moore Show, Garroway at Large, The Dave Garroway Show, The Jack Paar Show, Stop the Music, and The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson. Haskell was also active in summer stock theatre. Among his album recordings was “Jack swings for Jack" a popular solo project for the Strand label. 

Horton Hears a Tune

 

Robert Horton (Mead Howard Horton Jr. 1924-2016) was an American actor best known as Flint McCullough in Wagon Train (1957–1962). During his six decades of television, Horton also became known for his voice, leading him into a career in musical theater. After graduating cum laude from UCLA in the mid-Forties, he relocated from California to New York City but the struggling actor returned to California, eventually signing a contract with MGM. It was there he met fellow actors Robert Fuller and James Drury, both of whom became Horton's lifelong friends. 

The ruggedly handsome Horton, who was often not assigned a shirt, made dozens of appearances on television beginning in its infancy, most notably in several episodes of Alfred Hitchcock Presents. About a decade later he had an offbeat role as an amnesiac in the 1965-1966 television western, A Man Called Shenandoah. As a talented singer, in the 1960s Horton recorded on the Columbia Records label and performed in theaters and nightclubs all over America and Australia. He was hired as the male lead in a successful run of the musical version of N. Richard Nash's play, 110 in the Shade (aka The Rainmaker) on Broadway. Before retiring in 1989, he took a brief turn in the daytime soap, As the World Turns.

Television Talkers

Allen Ellsworth Ludden (Allen Packard Ellsworth 1917-1981) was an American television personality, actor, singer, emcee, and best known as the congenial host of the game show Password in dark-framed eyeglasses and the husband to Betty White. The Wisconsin-born native was an English and dramatics major at the University of Texas (University of Texas at Austin), graduating with Phi Beta Kappa honors in 1940 and received his Master of Arts in English from the same university in 1941. He served in the United States Army as an officer in charge of entertainment in the Pacific theater and was discharged with the rank of captain in 1946. By the early 1950s, Ludden was an adviser for youth in teen magazine columns. His radio show for teenagers, Mind Your Manners, received an honorable mention Peabody Award in 1950. 

Ludden hosted many game shows, including the College Bowl, but he become hugely popular and well-liked for hosting both the daytime and primetime versions of Password on CBS and ABC between 1961 and 1975. Notable was his opening catchphrase, "Hi doll," directed toward his beloved real-life mother-in-law, Tess White, mother of Betty. Ludden met White near the beginning of the Password craze and their romance blossomed while playing summer stock theatre together in the Critic's Choice in 1962. His ten television acting roles began in 1966 often splitting his time cast as a fictitious host within an episode. More memorable were the couple's appearances together in an episode of The Odd Couple in which Felix and Oscar appeared on Password and then as a couple on The Love Boat.

Entertaining Renaissance Man

 

Robert Q. Lewis (Robert Goldberg 1921-1991) was an American entertainer of radio and television, a game show host, commercial pitchman, and part-time actor in film. If that were not enough, Lewis had a very popular nightclub act as singer and comedian. Aside from his wit, he is famously recognized by his bold-rimmed glasses, which became his trademark. In fact, for his second Robert Q. Lewis Show, they became a logo for the show's title card. 

Already a fixture during television's early years, Lewis is perhaps best known today for his game show participation, regularly appearing as a panelist on Goodson-Todman-produced shows. He first settled into his enduring game show role as host of ABC's The Name's the Same (1952-54). Lewis was often recruited to fill in for performers who were ill or otherwise unable to perform. He frequently sat in for Arthur Godfrey, whom Lewis credited for giving him his first big breaks in show business. He hosted and appeared on a multitude of television shows and sitcoms through the 1970s. By far, he was most visible as a panelist on What's My Line? with forty appearances. Lewis had a sketched pair of glasses amusingly applied on his blindfold that was used during the final celebrity guest segment. 

The "Q" was simply part of his professional name. Lewis added the middle initial accidentally on the air in 1942 when referencing another radio comedian's character, Colonel Lemuel Q. Stoopnagle, saying, "and this is Robert Q. Lewis." He retained the unique moniker by telling interviewers that it stood for "Quizzical."

Note: Lewis scored his biggest hit song in 1951 with the Italian dialect humorous novelty song, Where's-a Your House?, (a parody of the Rosemary Clooney hit, Come On-a My House) about a guy who cannot locate Rosie's house. You can hear it here.