NPR 08-17:Griffin's Accomplishments, Both On Screen and Off悼

From game shows such as Jeopardy 1! and Wheel of Fortune, the entertainer and impresario 2 built a multimillion-dollar empire

This is All Things Considered from NPR News. I'm Debbie Elliot.

Entertainer Merv Griffin died today in a Los Angeles hospital. He was 82 and had prostate cancer. Griffin was not only one of television's best known faces and voices, he was one of the industry’s prime movers behind the scenes. NPR's Mandalit del Barco has more.

Merv Griffin was a fixture 3 on television starting in the mid-1950s. He was on game shows, variety shows and he hosted talk shows-- latenight, primetime and daytime. He was known for his genial 4 manner and he interviewed just about everybody from comedian 5 Jack 6 Benny.
Do you remember your first laugh on the stage?
That's the silliest question.
Can you imagine?
To political figures such as Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
What has the civil rights movement done to the Negro individually from his side?
Well I think the greatest thing that it has done is that it has given the Negro a new sense of dignity.
Merv Griffin featured new musical acts.
Here they are. The Jackson Five.
And he also introduced audiences to fads 7.
America's hottest dance craze - break dancing.

Merv Griffin got his start as a singer as a kid in San Mateo, Calif. He learned to play the piano when he was 4, and his baritone voice landed the teenaged Griffin a job with bandleader Freddy Martin.
This lovely day will lengthen 8 into evening. We'll sigh goodbye to all we ever had.

The singer became an actor, debuting 9 in the 1953 film So This is Love, opposite Kathryn Grayson. Griffin went on to sing in nightclubs, and croon and guest host on TV and radio. In 1962, his many talents led NBC to give Griffin his own show. The following year, Norman Brokaw signed him to the William Morris Agency.
when he used to play at the Coconut 10 Grove 11. Everybody went to see him for anything out and dancing. I always like Merv. I thought he was terrific. He was great to the industry."

Despite Merv Griffin's omnipresence on TV, he was perhaps even more influential 12 behind the scenes as a producer. Having hosted To Tell the Truth and The Price is Right, he went on to create two of the most famous game shows in TV history: Jeopardy! and Wheel of Fortune.

Merv did write the theme for Jeopardy! and Wheel of Fortune came from Merv playing hangman all the time.

Long time game show host Chuck Woolery says Griffin launched his career by casting him as the first host of Wheel of Fortune in 1975. Woolery says Griffin knew exactly what would make the shows popular and long-lasting.
He said make sure people can play along and the other thing is, make sure when they leave the room, and they come back, that they can pick it up right where it was, and feel like they haven't lost connection with what's going on. So they have to be able to come back in a play immediately wherever you are in the game.

Two years ago, Griffin received a Daytime Emmy for a lifetime achievement.

What a career and a job you love and got up. I couldn't wait to get up everyday and get to work.

And work he did. In addition to being a shrewd entertainment executive, he was also a real estate mogul. He once owned the Beverly Hills Hotel and resorts and casinos in Atlantic city and the Bahamas. At his California ranch 13, he raised thoroughbred horses. One of Griffin's final appearances on TV came on the David Letterman Show in 2001. He gave a little tour of his four-story yacht. Then, as he often did for friends, he sat down at the piano.

When the guests come, you know, I put a little glass there with some dollars in it and I sing their requests, if they want something, or I play the Jeopardy theme a lot.

Let's sing it as a duet. Do do, do, ...

Before he died, Merv Griffin was said to be at work on a new TV game show called Crosswords 14. Mandalit del Barco, NPR News.