NEWSSecrets of Game Show Legends: From Singing to Slinging Profanity, These Old School Hosts Hid Secrets From Fans
Aug. 28 2023, Published 8:00 a.m. ET
Richard Dawson Was the 'Kissing Bandit' ... But Stopped
Richard Dawson was well known for playing wisecracking Corp. Peter Newkirk on the ’60s sitcom Hogan’s Heroes. But he’s best known as the original host of Family Feud from 1976 to 85 and 1994 to 95. One of Dawson’s trademarks — kissing female contestants — earned him the nickname The Kissing Bandit. It also earned him his second wife! In 1991, he married Gretchen Johnson, who he met when she was a member of one of the contestant families on Family Feud in May 1981. They had a daughter, Shannon Nicole Dawson. Richard showed a picture of his daughter in the first episode after returning to the game show in 1994. During a ’90s revival of the program, Richard didn’t kiss female contestants, because of a commitment to his young daughter to ONLY kiss her mother! Three weeks before his death at age 79, Richard thought he was suffering from heartburn. It was esophageal cancer, and he died on June 2, 2012.
Pat Sajak Is a Vietnam Vet!
GOOOOOOD morning, Vietnam! In 1968, Pat Sajak joined the U.S. Army and was sent to Vietnam, where he served as a disc jockey on Armed Forces Radio. After the service, he continued to work as a DJ until he latched on as a weatherman — first in Nashville, then in Los Angeles. In 1981, Merv Griffin asked Sajak, now 76, if he would be interested in taking over as host on Wheel of Fortune from Chuck Woolery, who Griffin thought was asking for too much money. Sajak's been hosting the show since 1981 (with Vanna White at his side since 1982). For a year and a half, he hosted a late-night talk show that competed with Johnny Carson’s Tonight Show.
Sajak is set to retire from the show in 2024.
Bob Eubanks: Beatles Bud!
Bob Eubanks, now 85, is best known for hosting the game show The Newlywed Game on and off since 1966. The native of Flint, Mich., also hosted the successful relaunch of Card Sharks from 1986 to 1989. Eubanks also toured with his show Backstage With the Beatles, a night of music by the Beatles cover band Ticket to Ride. It features behind-the scenes stories from the TV icon about his involvement with the Fab Four in their early years.
Gene Rayburn Lied About His Age and Did Needlepoint
Born Eugene Jelyevich, the Match Game host picked the stage name “Rayburn” by sticking his finger in a phone book! True blue Rayburn was married to wife Helen from 1940 until she died in 1996. They had one daughter, Lynne. In 1985, a reporter revealed that Rayburn was much older than people believed. After his true age was unveiled, he had trouble finding a job — and blamed the writer for subjecting him to age discrimination. Rayburn, who used a private jet to commute between his home in Massachusetts and his job in L.A., became proficient in needlepoint. He died on November 29, 1999, at age 81 from congestive heart failure.
Alex Trebek Loved Ponies
Jeopardy! host Alex Trebek was serious about horsing around! Trebek, who died in 2020, was born in Greater Sudbury, Canada, in 1940, and began his broadcasting career in 1961 working for the Canadian Broadcasting Company as a newscaster and sportscaster — calling horse races. The equine bug bit him, and his great passion was breeding and training thoroughbreds! Trebek, who holds a Guinness World Record for “the most game show episodes hosted by the same presenter (same program)” for 6,829 episodes of Jeopardy!, owned and managed the 700-acre Creston Farm ranch near Paso Robles in Creston, Calif., where he bred and trained racehorses.
Bob Barker Accused of Sexual Harassment
Bob Barker was best known for hosting CBS’ The Price Is Right from 1972 to 2007, making it the longest-running daytime game show in North American television history, and for hosting Truth or Consequences from 1956 to 1974. But the animal activist has been involved in a series of ugly lawsuits in which he’s been accused of sexual harassment and worse! Barker was involved in a relationship with The Price Is Right model Dian Parkinson from 1989 to 1991 that ended in a nasty legal tangle. In 1994, Parkinson filed suit against Barker, alleging sexual harassment following a three-year affair when she worked on the show. Parkinson, who alleged extortion by threats of firing, later dropped her lawsuit, claiming stress from the ordeal was damaging her health. In 1995, model Holly Hallstrom left Price and later filed suit against Barker for wrongful termination and malicious persecution. Her battle ended in a settlement in 2005. Models Janice Pennington and Kathleen Bradley, who were fired after testifying against Bob, later received financial settlements.
Barker died on August 26 from natural causes.
FBI Was Convinced Groucho Marx Was a Commie!
In 1953, when entertainers were being blacklisted in Hollywood, the bureau wrote a 17-page report to J. Edgar Hoover attempting to determine whether the super famous Groucho Marx was a Communist. Over the next decade, the FBI monitored his hit television show You Bet Your Life, searching for signs of subversion! The FBI built a file of more than 200 pages on Marx, who died in 1977 at the age of 82.
Allen Ludden Had 'Password' to Thank for Finding Second Wife Betty White
Allen Ludden can thank his show Password for finding the love of his life! After first wife Margaret McGloin died of cancer in 1961, Ludden met twice-divorced Betty White on Password. He proposed at least twice before she accepted. They finally married on June 14, 1963, and stayed together for 18 years. He died of stomach cancer in 1981. In 2015, White said she had one big regret in her life — not marrying Ludden sooner! “I spent a whole year, wasted a whole year that Allen and I could have had together, saying, ‘No, I wouldn’t marry him. No, I won’t leave California. No, I won’t move to New York,’" she told Oprah Winfrey. “I wasted a whole year we could have had together. But we made it. We finally did.”
Vanna White's Mistake
The game show recently kicked off Season 41, which will be the last for Pat Sajak.
Before she hit it big on Wheel of Fortune, luscious letter-turner Vanna White was so hard up for work that she posed for pictures in trashy lingerie, and the photos later turned up in Playboy magazine. It wasn’t the first time she flashed her heavenly body! A tawdry spread of White, now 66, sunbathing topless was splashed all over another raunchy men’s magazine. White later insisted she only posed for the photos because she was so desperate for money at the time. “I was really strapped for cash,” she said. “I knew it was a mistake, and I wish I’d never agreed.”
'Family Feud' Host Ray Combs Committed Suicide
Desperate Ray Combs left a tragic last message with his best pal: “My marriage is history and so am I.” Within hours, the Family Feud star was dangling lifeless at the end of a noose. A special investigation revealed the man who had made millions hosting America’s favorite game show had watched his life collapse around him. Debbie, his wife of 18 years, had thrown him out and he was terrified of losing contact with his six children. He was broke, in fear of losing his house, caught in a series of affairs with women half his age and battling depression. Combs, 40, hanged himself during the early morning hours of June 2, 1996, in a closet in a Los Angeles hospital mental ward. He left his family so destitute they couldn’t afford a headstone!
Dick Clark Was Involved in Payola Hearings and Cursed Like a Sailor
Dick Clark, who became famous for American Bandstand and was enormously successful outside the music arena with his Dick Clark Productions company, created the game show $10,000 Pyramid and countless other series and awards programs. But his career was almost cut short in the beginning by the record-company payola scandal of 1959 and 1960, one of the music industry’s darkest periods. The federal government cracked down on the practice of paying kickbacks for playing songs, and the scandal brought down many broadcasting careers and threatened to end Clark’s! On May 2, 1960, it was Clark’s turn to testify in Washington, but when it was all over he had been cleared. After that, he got out of all music-related business, throwing away an estimated $8 million in the process! Here’s another secret about “America’s Oldest Teenager” — he swore like a sailor! “At one point he barked into an open mike, ‘I can’t believe I’m still on (bleeping) camera,’ because he thought they should focus on the crowd instead of on him,” recalled one staffer. The legendary producer and host died of a massive heart attack in April 2012 at age 82.
Monty Hall Married His Kissin' Cousin
On September 28, 1947, Let’s Make A Deal host Monty Hall, who died in 2017, married a distant cousin, Marilyn Doreen Plottel! The two Canadians had been introduced by a mutual cousin, Norman Shnier, the previous year. The pair became United States citizens in 1949. They have three children: actress Joanna Gleason; Sharon Hall Kessler and Richard Hall.
Bert Convy Divorced and Then Robbed the Cradle
Tattletales, Match Game and Win, Lose or Draw host Bert Convy went through a bitter divorce and then married a much younger woman — just weeks before his untimely death! In 1987, his first wife, Anne Anderson Convy, divorced him after almost 30 years of marriage and three children. Convy had returned to TV in Win, Lose or Draw, a game show he created with pal Burt Reynolds. Convy wed Catherine Hills, 25, in 1991, after he was diagnosed with a brain tumor. He died on July 15, 1991, at the age of 57.
