home • schedule • register • e-mail

PETER MARSHALL 2006 Recipient of the Game Show Congress Award for Career Achievement This year’s recipient of the Game Show Congress Bill Cullen Career Achievement Award never had serious aspirations of a path which would take him to one of the most successful television game shows in history. Born Pierre LaCock in Huntington, WV, Marshall made his entrance into show business as a band singer at the age of 15. While still a teen, he moved to New York City where he landed a job as a page in radio for NBC. In his 20's, Marshall teamed with Tommy Noonan to form a comedy team which appeared in major nightclubs and movies. Frequently in the 1950's, they appeared on top variety shows, including The Ed Sullivan Show. Marshall could not get the music out of his system. Eventually, he traveled to London and co-starred with Chita Rivera in Bye, Bye Birdie. That led to his first headline role on Broadway with Julie Harris in Skyscraper. He went onto top roles in High Button Shoes, Anything Goes, The Music Man, 42nd Street and Rumors. In the 1980's, Marshall brought to life the role of Georges in more than 800 performances of La Cage Aux Folles. In recent years, he appeared as the radio singer in Annie. On the big screen, Marshall was featured in supporting roles in Ensign Pulver, Swinging Along, and The Cavern (a World War II drama starring John Saxon and Larry Hagman, in which the future Emmy winner was billed as Peter L. Marshall). His big break in television came, ironically, from an appearance in a Kellogg’s cereal commercial. In his 2002 book, Marshall said producer Robert Quigley’s wife saw the ad and remembered the connection with Tommy Noonan. Marshall was tapped to come to Hollywood to do a third pilot for a celebrity-driven comedy game show with tic-tac-toe as its foundation. Two earlier attempts to mount the show for CBS were rejected. NBC bought The Hollywood Squares, but Marshall was not totally certain he was the right guy to host it. He had opened discussions to co-star opposite Mary Tyler Moore in Holly Golightly, a stage version of Breakfast at Tiffany’s. He was told The Hollywood Squares had a guarantee of 13 weeks. Taking the gamble, Marshall signed to do the game. Smart move. Holly Golightly, with Richard Chamberlain teaming with Moore, closed before it officially opened in one of Broadway’s worst disasters. After being slaughtered for a year with a failed soap opera and another game show at 11:30 a.m., NBC debuted The Hollywood Squares as a replacement for Showdown with Joe Pyne October 17, 1966. The nine celebrities included the five original regulars: Rose Marie, Wally Cox, Morey Amsterdam, Abby Dalton and Cliff Arquette as Charley Weaver. Sally Field, after Gidget and before The Flying Nun, was in the lower tier. The original center square: Ernest Borgnine. The going was tough in the Nielsens in the early weeks. CBS’ reruns of The Dick Van Dyke Show were a daytime powerhouse and Marie and Amsterdam were in the odd position of competing against their former prime time work. Gradually, the audience found the hijinks of the celebrities on NBC and by May 1967, The Hollywood Squares became the number one daytime show on television for the first time, rolling to a 35 share (which climbed as high as a 40 during the summer). In January 1968, NBC added a Friday night version with high hopes for a prime time success. Plagued with a weak lead-in and opposite CBS’s strong lineup of feature films, the nighttime Squares was not renewed for a second season. However, a foundation was laid for an eventual return to prime time. By the fall of 1971, with Paul Lynde ensconced in the Center Square and the marvelous setups from Marshall (“Paul, the head of the American bald eagle stands for the executive branch of government. What does the tail stand for?” Lynde: “The taxpayers.”) becoming television legend, the FCC’s new Prime Time Access Rule opened up early evening half-hours for syndicated programming. In November 1971, two weekly nighttime editions of The Hollywood Squares premiered in more than 140 cities. The evening version continued for 10 years, expanding to five nights a week in Las Vegas in 1980-81. In the late 1960's, Marshall presided over a fondly-remembered Saturday morning version of the game, Storybook Squares, in which the nine celebrity players appeared as classic characters from children’s stories and two children competed for prizes and savings bonds. During the 1970's, Peter Marshall became one of the most recognized names in entertainment. He parlayed his talents on Squares into a Las Vegas career, singing on shows with Jerry Lewis, Joan Rivers, The Mills Brothers, Bill Cosby, Buddy Hackett and Dionne Warwick. In the mid-1970's, his career continued to mushroom. Marshall headlined the weekend The Peter Marshall Variety Show, a 90-minute syndicated music hour with his youthful backup group, Chapter 5, as regulars. In addition, he was the proud target as the Man of the Hour on The Dean Martin Celebrity Roast. Marshall’s talents were recognized by the Television Academy of Arts and Sciences with five Emmys as Outstanding Game Show Host. One was a one-time-only Super Emmy, in which he was named winner over emcees in other genres of television. By the summer of 1980, after three years of frequent time slot switches, The Hollywood Squares was declared history by NBC but continued in first-run syndication for another year. Marshall, however, was still much in demand, appearing on TV’s Love Boat, Lou Grant, WKRP in Cincinnati and as a celebrity player on game shows, including Password Plus and Match Game. In the 1980's, Marshall returned to the game show circuit with NBC’s Fantasy, ABC’s All-Star Blitz and syndication’s Yahtzee. Returning to the music scene, Marshall now incorporates both television and radio into his work. He hosted a series of 12 specials for The Disney Channel, Big Bands from Disneyland. For several years, Marshall has continued five days a week as The Prince of Trivia on his daily show on radio’s Music of Your Life network. He also tours in concert, appearing with the Tex Beneke, Les Brown and Harry James bands. In 2002, Marshall and Adrienne Armstrong depicted the history of the Squares years with the book Backstage with the Original Hollywood Square, which was called by Tvgameshows.net “the best-written book on a single game show since Gil Fates’ What’s My Line? 25 years ago.” In 2003, the nostalgia returned as Marshall returned to both prime time and to his old haunt. He joined fellow hosts Ben Stein, Bob Eubanks, Jim Lange and Wink Martindale for an NBC special Most Outrageous Game Show Moments, which not only won its time slot handily but did so again in five prime time repeats. Joining other classic game show personalities, Marshall -- for the first time ever -- was the Center Square on the syndicated version of Hollywood Squares. As a crescendo to the week, Marshall swapped places with host Tom Bergeron and emceed the game on one of the episodes. He had never missed a beat, right down to his letter-perfect explanation of the rules. As for the namesake of the award he is to receive, Marshall once said he prepared for The Hollywood Squares “by watching everything Bill Cullen did...he was a master and he probably kept at least four or five shows on the air six months to a year longer than the probably should have just because he was Bill Cullen. People liked him that much.” Today, Peter and his wife, Laurie, spend much of their time at their homes in the San Fernando Valley and Palm Desert with their two dogs and three cats. They enjoy playing golf and often participate in charity golf tournaments. Game Show Congress is proud to award Peter Marshall the Bill Cullen Career Achievement Award for more than 40 years as a genuine legend in television and our favorite genre of the medium. Other biography pages Back to home