Marlo Thomas and Phil Donahue during the Iris Awards Banquet on March 4, 1978, in Los Angeles, California | Source: Getty Images. The new show featured live music with two singers while simulating a trip to various places in the world. He doesn't just talk to the audience. In a way, his show has been therapeutic for Donahue, who believes his personal life mirrors the problems discussed on TV: "The light's started to go on in me. And yet, because he was closeted it is highly unlikely he ever made the connection for the Reagans (between himself and those who were suffering and dying), pointed out the government negligence, or even talked openly as a gay person. As a regular performer on The Arthur Murray Party (1950), The Tonight Show Starring Jack Paar (1957) and others, he was offered the opportunity to host his own television series, Play Your Hunch (1958). Picking up a desk stapler to act as a surrogate microphone, he stands, flexes his shoulders and acts out his "dialogues" with them. His roommate a year and a half was Montgomery Clift. He didn't need CBS, NBC or ABC. Then he continued his higher education at the University of San Francisco. Ironically, weeks after being on Phil's show, Marlo was a regular guest at his Winnetka, Illinois home, where he raised four sons. His first crush was Errol Flynn, whom he saw passed out naked on a couch. Merv Griffin reaches only 3.9 million viewers, Mike Douglas 3.7 and Dinah Shore 2.8 million. At 72, onetime crooner Merv Grifn has parlayed the $250 million sale of his game shows Jeopardy and Wheel of Fortune in 1986 into a billion-dollar empire that encompasses two production . The kiss was a first in Hollywood film history since the introduction of the Production Code in 1934. . Please fill in your e-mail so we can share with you our top stories. He also hosted a primetime ABC game show, Keep Talking. Day arranged for a screen test at the Warner Bros. Studios for a role in By the Light of the Silvery Moon (1953). https://www.thefamouspeople.com/profiles/merv-griffin-10911.php, 20th Century Film & Theater Personalities, 21st Century Film & Theater Personalities, 20th Century American Film & Theater Personalities, 21st Century American Film & Theater Personalities. While it would seem everything has changed today, little actually has. He criticizes the fake fame offered television celebrities and yet admits he accepts free pizzas and permits a teen-aged son to accept free car repairs. CBS also pressured Griffin into sacking his long-term sidekick Arthur Treacher, who had been his television mentor, because he was too old. That was Fibber and Mollie McGee's address. ", Donahue said, "Thank you, Walter," and promptly fired off audition tapes and glossies. And he seems without shame: "I would be afraid I'm going to die if someone told me I had leukemia. The song reached the #1 spot on the Hit Parade and sold three million copies.[13]. After talking without interruption for over two hours, he doesn't loosen his tie or roll up his sleeves. Instead, she became a friend of the four boys', and when she got to know them and vice versa, they trusted her and accepted her in their lives. Why is it so difficult to write? Merv Griffin was a singer and band leader, movie actor, television personality and media mogul who in his time hosting The Merv Griffin Show (1962) was second in fame and influence as a talk show host only to Johnny Carson. You and the ayatollah are the only two people that would work for.". It was these games which inspired him to create the game show Wheel of Fortune in 1975. "Why rock the boat?" She noted how no one wanted to be a stepmother cause they were seen as villains in children's stories. [9], Freddy Martin heard him on the radio show and asked him to tour with his orchestra,[1] which he did for four years. Im thinking perhaps the Times editors really took it to heart when many of us criticized them after Susan Sontags death and the obituary cover-up of her sexual orientation and her relationship with Annie Liebovitz. Why not do a switch, and give the answers to the contestant and let them come up with the question. In 1975 Donahue set up housekeeping in suburban Chicago, and the women's magazines dubbed him "Bachelor-Father." It lasted only one season, with its last episode on May 16, 2008, but has had reruns on various channels. AT SIMON & SCHUSTER, they were excited. Produced in association with Program Partners and the William Morris Agency, it began airing September 10, 2007. Less than half an hour after that report would have been aired, WNBC in New York (owned by the network) broadcast an hour-long "Donahue" on the same subject. The couple divorced in 1976. Donahue feels his success has given other talk shows "more courage" and that the public will soon see fewer entertainers talking about "how long it took to make their last movie." Issues that provoke censorship are almost always sexual. Overlooking Long Island Sound, the home is on tony . This. The show 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. If you get anything else you think we can use, call me personally. If they're slow, he takes telephone calls. and Wheel of Fortune. Her zodiac sign is Aquarius. After Griffin's death, The Hollywood Reporter published a report stating that he had been a closeted gay man. So far, in the the rest of the obits on Griffin (Reuters, Associated Press) Ive seen nothing about his homosexuality. He kept his wealth an open secret, amassing media outlets, hotels and casinos with a net worth estimated at more than $1 billion. He continued to appear in films like The Boy from Oklahoma and Phantom of the Rue Morgue. They divorced in 1976 after 17 years of marriage. [12], 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". Being born on 6 July 1925, Merv Griffin was 82 years old at the time of his death. Even though Marlo had never intended to marry, she once admitted that it was "awful" being away from her husband. Subsequently, a Golden Palm Star on the Walk of Stars was devoted to him in 1998. Besides Resorts International, the holding company for casinos in Atlantic City and the Bahamas, three company affiliates also filed for Chapter 11 protection: Griffin Resorts Inc., Resorts International Financing Inc. and Griffin Resorts Holding Inc. An active desert resident, Griffin 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 revealed the epitaph on The Late Late Show with Tom Snyder. (1980) Aug 16, 2020 - Phil Donahue & Marlo Thomas on their wedding day . I had interviewed many gay men whod known Griffin as gay, as well as men who told stories about how his closet had him doing horrendous things and how he was threatened by openly gay people. Griffin was best known for creating the two most popular game shows in television syndication history, Wheel of Fortune (1983) and Jeopardy! GSN honored Griffin by airing ten-episode marathons of Wheel and Jeopardy! So she had to figure out how to be nice and good and realized early on that she shouldn't try to fill a mother-like role because they might resent that. He created another game show Wheel of Fortune which aired from 1975. She explained how she felt a union of two whole people could work compared to one of one and a half. Movies. Around the office, Mervs being gay was understood but rarely discussed (and certainly never with him). The show, originally titled What's the Question?, premiered on NBC on March 30, 1964, hosted by Art Fleming, and ran for 11 years. ", "Controversy is not a dirty word," he says. He went to San Mateo High School and graduated in 1942. The audience is small and compact, practically sitting in the guest's lap. From 1965 to 1986 he hosted his own talk show, The Merv Griffin Show. I had more than a passing acquaintance with him, having worked on The Merv Griffin Show as a talent coordinator/segment producer in 1985-86 as the show was winding down. He usually has only one guest and discusses only one topic. Merv Griffin spent decades as a beloved talk-show host but the gay game-show mogul was also a pioneer in Hollywood sexual-harassment cases! "In a network situation," Donahue says, "one guy can end your career while he's shaving." The couple had one son. I began to realize that not much in the way we were raised encouraged that.". Even though they divorced, they continued being good friends. He had dedicated two of his shows to the topics of Transcendental Meditation and Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. Other Griffin successes in the game show field included "One in a Million" and Joe Garagiola's Memory Game (1971), both airing on ABC, Let's Play Post Office on NBC, and Reach for the Stars (1967).In 1986, Griffin sold his production company, Merv Griffin Enterprises, to Coca-Cola's Columbia Pictures Television unit for $250 million as well as a continuing share of the profits of the shows. He'd defeated them at their own game. Open homosexuality is a threat to the closeted, and powerful people in the closet like Merv Griffin will often do whatever it takes to squash those who are open and who might advocate that all among the powerful should come out. The "Sunday Morning" thought being independent and single had become the star's brand. In 2022, Marlo Thomas turned 85, and the other milestone she reached was celebrating 42 years of marriage after her husband, Phil Donahue changed her mind about marriage. Griffin's home was sold for $7million. Before they married, Marlo had no interest in the institution, but her husband managed to twist her arm. In 2021, Marlo gave some advice on how to make a marriage last. He married Julann Griffin, whom he divorced after some time. Not one to shy away from controversy, Griffin began to be harassed by CBS censors who objected to the antiwar statements of his guests and ordered him to feature pro-war guests for balance. The Amazing Johnathan left the show after 65 episodes because of a contract dispute, and it was scrapped before it was nationally syndicated. He was best known for hosting the Goodson/Todman classic, Play Your Hunch, and for creating the two long-running hit series, Jeopardy! ", In perhaps the most unusual move, the "Today" show recently refused a Donahue report on new methods of treatment for impotent men. Marlo revealed that even in 2020, she still wasn't sure she believed in marriage. Griffin's three-year run at CBS was contentious; the network was uncomfortable with the guests he wanted, who often spoke out against the Vietnam War and on other sensitive topics. There, she met the host, Phil Donahue, and became hopelessly in love with him from the start. He has little respect for "people who float a battleship of words around a rowboat of thought." It taped in Los Angeles after initial reports that it would be produced at WMAQ-TV in Chicago. Helen Gene Ford Turner, loving wife, mother, grandmother, and great-grandmother died peacefully at home on February 24, 2023 at the age of 96. In a December 1977 article, the actress recalled how Phil was a modern man and a single parent when they met. Merv Griffin, the creator of Jeopardy! Merv Griffin began his career as a singer on the radio at the age of 19. . Keep supporting great journalism by turning off your ad blocker. It was nominated for a Golden Globe Award and numerous Emmy Awards, out of which it won eleven. He married Juliann Wright in 1958, and they divorced in 1973. Robert (Bob) Murphy, Griffin's best friend since sixth grade, was the producer of The Merv Griffin Show, and eventually became president of Merv Griffin Enterprises. One regular attendee, Lillian Miller, became a fixture on the show throughout its run. And a lot of us went out there, charging out into the world breathlessly getting married and then suddenly afterward finding that we were really paralyzed in our attempts to share real feelings.