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MONTY HALL 2005 Recipient of the Game Show Congress Award for Career Community Service When Monte Halperin was born in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, in 1922, to Jewish immigrants from the Ukraine, the last thing his parents expected was for their son to become an international television favorite. Against innumerable odds, the young man who grew up working in his father’s butcher shop developed a work ethic which he still employs today. With the help of a benefactor who financially supported his education at the University of Manitoba, Monte became president of the student body and produced and performed in college musical and dramatic productions and served as an emcee for Canadian Army shows during World War II. His backer also extracted a pledge for Monte to give back to others, whenever possible, in his adult life. Monte made good on his pledge--and then some. After graduation, Monte moved to Toronto, where he pursued a career in radio as an actor, singer, emcee and sportscaster. At one point, a station manager who liked his young personality’s work informed Monte he needed a shorter name because of the constant mispronunciations from listeners. Monte Halperin became Monty Hall. Eventually, with a new identity, he knew he would have to move to New York if he ever hoped to achieve major success in broadcasting. In 1955, Hall invaded the Big Apple. His first stint was a five-year run on NBC Radio’s weekend magazine, Monitor. His first permanent television game show was as host of The Sky's the Limit. A big break came when NBC selected him to substitute for Jack Barry in the summer of 1958 on Twenty One. Scheduled for 13 weeks, Hall was abruptly told he would have to give up the slot after only four weeks. “Was I not any good?” he asked an NBC executive. “Oh, no, you were fine,” he was told. Unfortunately for Hall, Barry was summoned back to New York because of the unfolding allegations into the practices of television quiz shows. Hall earned another short-lived opportunity with a comedy game show. Keep Talking moved from CBS to ABC in 1959 and Hall took the reins as emcee for a brief period. In the fall of 1960, he became “mayor” of CBS' Video Village, the first television game of the production team of Merrill Heatter and Bob Quigley. Supervising television’s first living board game, Hall found the format to his liking. Opportunities opened for him to occasionally demonstrate his singing talents on the series. In 1961, the game moved from New York to Hollywood. That crucial switch opened doors for Hall as a packager. Teaming with producer Art Stark, Hall sold his first game, Your First Impression, to NBC. In 1963, after a series of test runs with envelopes and rubber chickens as gag prizes at civic clubs, Hall and writer-producer Stefan Hatos sold Let’s Make a Deal to NBC. The road to a television game show classic was not easy. In an interview with Inside Edition, Hall said ABC originally turned down the show. “We were meeting with an executive for ABC,” Hall remembered. “We said, ‘We’ll do it in the audience. We’ll make deals for everyday things they bring with them. We’ll give someone $50 for a comb and then see if they’ll risk $50 for a box. Maybe inside the box is a sterling silver service. Then, we’ll tempt them with something bigger behind a curtain--but it also might be a beaten-up old car.’ The executive said, ‘Okay, then what will you do tomorrow?’ I said, ‘What will I do tomorrow? I’ll do more of the same thing, only with different prizes, different temptations.’ That executive looked me in the eye and said, ‘It’ll never work.’” Let’s Make a Deal became the fourth-longest running network daytime game show in American television history. The original version ran from 1963-68 on NBC and 1968-76 on CBS. A nighttime syndicated version aired originally from 1971-77. Initially premiering at 2 p.m. (ET) during New Year’s week in 1963, the early shows did not resemble the wild costume party the game eventually sired. Contestants originally dressed in business best and the show had a more formal approach until the day a man showed up in garb more fitting for a masquerade party. The ploy worked. By 1965, the audience dressed as everything from carrots to sunflowers, all for the hope of making a deal with Monty. Moved to a 1:30 p.m. time slot, Let’s Make a Deal knocked CBS’ As the World Turns out of the number one slot in the Nielsen ratings and became a top ten favorite. Nighttime television played a huge part in a turning point for Let’s Make a Deal. In May 1967, Deal was inserted as a spring-summer prime time replacement on NBC in what was considered to be a suicide time slot: Sunday nights at 8:30 opposite the second half-hour of CBS’ The Ed Sullivan Show and ABC’s popular The FBI. The entire television industry was stunned. Within three weeks, Let’s Make a Deal passed Sullivan and FBI in the Nielsen ratings and climbed as high as number five before the summer run ended. With a major prime time hit evolving, Monty immediately appealed to NBC to leave the game on at night in the fall. NBC balked. In a 2000 interview, Hall said, “You know what I was told? An NBC executive said, ‘Oh we don’t put shows like yours on during the regular season. It’s all right for the summer but not during the fall and winter.’ He didn’t say it outright but what he was telling me is the network felt it was beneath its dignity to put us on in prime time at night.” NBC scheduled a nighttime version of a different game in January 1968. Later that year, when the Peacock Network failed to meet his terms, which included a regular prime time version, Hall and Hatos moved their show and regulars Jay Stewart and Carol Merrill to ABC. Keeping the same 1:30 p.m. time slot, which had been a disaster for ABC since originating a daytime schedule in the late 1950s, Let’s Make a Deal was a financial bonanza for its new network. After a tireless promotional campaign, the audience abandoned NBC and followed Deal to its new home. The entire ABC afternoon lineup rose from the ashes with Deal as the anchor show. NBC’s afternoon shows crashed. ABC was also happy to schedule a Friday night version of Deal, which would also air Saturdays and Mondays during its three-year run. By the end of its original network run, Let’s Make a Deal was a television classic. Hatos-Hall revived the game in syndication in 1981-82 and 1984-86. By 1990, with NBC’s short-sighted executives of the sixties long gone, the Peacock Network brought back the game for a morning slot in 1990. Dick Clark and Ron Greenberg co-produced the version from Orlando, Fla. Not intending to return as emcee, Hall was pressed to return as “special guest host” late in the show’s run. In 2003, NBC carried a short run of the series with Billy Bush of Access Hollywood as host. Monty returned to engineer a "special deal" with a former contestant from the original version. Hatos-Hall’s biggest hit after Deal was the ABC quiz Split Second with Bill Cullen Career Achievement Award co-recipient Tom Kennedy as host. The game aired at midday from 1972-75. Monty took the helm as emcee for a syndicated version in 1986. Hall’s company produced several other games over the years. Chain Letter featured Jan Murray in the last of his three network game shows. Richard Dawson presided over a revival of Masquerade Party in 1974-75. Joe Flynn emceed a television update of an old comedy radio favorite, It Pays to Be Ignorant (with a theme song written by Monty’s Emmy-winning wife Marilyn). Sportscaster Dick Enberg moonlighted as host of Hatos-Hall’s Three for the Money, a variation on Split Second. The Man from Manitoba expanded his talents beyond game shows. He headlined the Sahara Hotel in Las Vegas and starred in several ABC variety specials. He co-hosted one of the early Daytime Emmy Awards events with Barbara Walters on a boat just outside New York City. He appeared as a guest on variety shows hosted by Flip Wilson, Dean Martin and Glen Campbell. Periodically, he turned up on situation comedies, including twice on ABC’s The Odd Couple with Let’s Make a Deal storylines. His other sitcom performances include Love, American Style (an episode written by Marilyn), That Girl, The Love Boat, The Wonder Years, Love and War and The Nanny. Perhaps his greatest achievement is that for which he is recognized today as the recipient of the Ralph Edwards Service to Broadcasting Award. He has traveled millions of miles in North America and Europe as a fundraiser for countless charities. In April 1975, he was elected president of Variety Clubs International, the world’s largest children’s charity, and became board chairman in 1977. In 1981, he was honored with the lifetime title of International Chairman. During the 1980s, he hosted three “All-Star Party” specials on CBS for Lucille Ball, Carol Burnett and Ronald Reagan to raise money for children’s hospitals. In May 1988, the government of Canada presented hall with the nation’s highest award, the prestigious Order of Canada, for his humanitarian works in his native land and across the world. He has received three honorary doctorates from the University of Manitoba, Haifa University and Hahnemann Medical College in Philadelphia. Children’s wings are named for him at Hahnemann Hospital, UCLA Medical Center, Mount Sinai in Toronto and Johns Hopkins in Baltimore. As documented earlier, Hall’s family has followed in their husband’s and father’s footsteps in entertainment. His wife of 58 years, Marilyn, is an Emmy-winner as co-executive producer of Do You Remember Love?, a drama concerning Alzheimer’s disease. Daughter Joanna Gleason, who has played on a number of TV game shows, won a Tony for her role on Broadway’s Into the Woods and is fondly remembered by classic TV viewers as the wife of Beaver Cleaver (Jerry Mathers) in the CBS TV-movie Still the Beaver. His son Richard is an Emmy-winning producer and recently worked on CBS’ The Amazing Race and FOX’s Nanny 911. Daughter Sharon is now the chief executive of Monty Hall Productions and is a writer-director. Millions of viewers made a daily date with Monty for deals over a 27-year period. However, millions more have benefited across the world from his life as a humanitarian. Asked not long ago when he intends to finally slow down his work for charities, Hall said, “My family is after me to do that all the time. . .but when you’re asked to help, which one do you say no to? I haven’t figured that one out.” The unselfish fulfillment of a pledge he made six decades ago to give back to others has made Monty Hall a unanimous choice of the Game Show Congress as recipient of its 2005 Ralph Edwards Award. Other biography pages Back to home