Marshall Peter - Backstage with the Original Hollywood Square: Relive 16 Years of laughter with Peter Marshall, the master of The Hollywood Squares

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Acknowledgments

Writing this book took a lot of brainstorming, and wed like to thank our dear friends who shared their stories and helped us remember ours. A special thank you to Merrill Heatter, Jerry Shaw, Art Alisi, Mary Markham and Gary Damsker, Jay Redack, Les Roberts, Harry Friedman, Lloyd Garver, Gary Johnson, Ken Hecht, Mae Quigley, Rose Marie, Karen Valentine, Abby Dalton, Nanette Fabray, Ruta Lee, Joan Rivers, Shirley Jones, Arte Johnson, and Phyllis Diller for sharing your time and your memories with us. And to Hope Murray, for giving us the impetus to begin this project.

Of course, somebody had to sell it. For this we thank the worlds greatest agent, Mitch Douglas. Mitch, youre the best!

And somebody had to buy it. We thank Larry Stone at Rutledge Hill Press for his confidence in us and his enthusiasm for this book, and for giving us Jennifer Greenstein and Tracey Menges to work with. They are both absolute delights.

Wed also like to thank Dixon Hayes for his beautifully-put-together website on The Classic Hollywood Squares. His unflagging interest in the show has inspired us. And Brendan McLaughlin, the beatmaster, who contributed most of the list of celebrity guest stars and many words of encouragement and help,. Thanks also to Joe Florebnski for his meticulously researched and vastly entertaining website on Paul Lynde.

We give a very, very special thanks to Fred Wostbrock, who wrote The Encyclopedia of TV Game Shows with David Schwartz and Steve Rayan, for making his amazing archive of photos available to us, for sharing his extensive knowledge and love of the game show business, and for his never ending support in this project.

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Id like to thank my dear parents, Max and Betty Richman, for always believing in me; and Kenny Adler, the man Im going to marry, for coming back into my life and making it fun again. Im grateful to my children, Paul, Eric, Christine, Fletcher and Brooke and to Toby, Blu and Jesse. I love you all so much. Also, thanks to Peter Marshall for being the most cooperative partner in this venture and for his precious friendship of more than thirty years.

-- Adrienne

I want to thank my darling wife, Laurie, who encouraged me to write this book; and my four children, Suzi, Peter, David, and Jaime, who put up with my being absent so much during their childhood and somehow ended up adoring me anywaybut not as much as I adore them. I also want to thank my managers of forty-eight years, Tom Sheils and Gloria Burke; my accountant of more than forty years, Jim Harper; and my agent, Fred Wostbrock. And Adrienne Armstrong, my talented friend, who had to sit and listen to all my driveland yet made sense of it all.

--Peter

Contents

Foreword by Alex TrebekAcknowledgements

Introduction

Getting to know me.

Chapter 1 How I Got the Job

I guess I have to thank Kelloggs cereal, the Broadway

Show Skyscraper , and my intense dislike of Dan Rowan.

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Chapter 2 The Hollywood Squares Family

The wonderful people behind the scenes of The Hollywood Squares.

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Chapter 3 The Genesis of The Hollywood Squares

How Merrill Heatter and Bob Quigleys People Will Talk

begat The Celebrity Game which begat The Hollywood Squares.

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Chapter 4 The Rise of The Hollywood Squares

From a so-so beginning to the highest-rated

and longest-running celebrity game show in history.

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Chapter 5 Three Squares a Day

An in-depth look at Wally Cox,

Cliff Arquette (Charley Weaver) and Paul Lynde.

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Chapter 6 X Gets the Square

George Gobel, Vincent Price, Mel Brooks, and many

of the male stars we came to love on the show.

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Chapter 7 Circle Gets the Square

We cant forget Rose Marie, Nanette Fabray, Abby Dalton, and

the rest of the women who made the show so much fun to watch.

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Chapter 8 Theme Show Squares

Remember the shows built around a theme, like music,

sports, and soap operas? Here are the stories.

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Chapter 9 Very Famous Squares

Some very big stars did our show, and here I tell their tales.

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Chapter 10 Pegging the Squares

My take on many of the stars: my favorite,

my least favorite, the funniest, the sexiest, and on and on.

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Chapter 11 Storybook Squares

The most fun I ever had doing television.

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Chapter 12 Friendships and Romances

Some of the relationships that grew on the show,

plus a plain old one-night stand.

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Chapter 13 The Contestants

Many of the people who were contestants

on our show will surprise you.

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Chapter 14 Some Traveling Music, Please

Our trips to Puerto Vallerta, Vancouver, Jamaica, and Bakersfield.

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Chapter 15 Letters, We Get Letters

Outrageous and outraged letters received by the

show over the years, including one from an incensed John Wayne.

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Chapter 16 It Couldnt Last Forever

When and how the show finally got cancelled.

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Chapter 17 The Year in Vegas

Stories from our last year on the air.

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Chapter 18 My Favorite Jokes

The one-liners that kept me laughing.

Chapter 19 My Favorite Photographs

Classic shots from my private collection.

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Chapter 20 Everybody Who Ever Did the Show (I Hope)

A very long list of celebrities who appeared

On The Hollywood Squares over the years.

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Index of Names

Foreword

by Alex Trebek

Why me? That was the first thing that came to mind when my friends Peter and Adrienne asked me to write this. After all, its not as if I had a close and involved relationship with The Hollywood Squares. In its entire sixteen-year history on the air, I was a guest panelist for only one week and I managed to complicate things for the producers by challenging one of their rulings. After a tape stop and a short delay for some research, they reversed themselves and invited the contestant back. I, on the other hand, was never brought back, even though I continued to host High Rollers for Heatter/Quigley for another four years and their new production, Battlestars, for a year after that. So why am I being asked to write this?

As near as I can figure, it must be because, of all the people who appeared on Squares , I am the only one still employed in the game show area and that gives me some measure of authority and credibility. But so what? Those elements arent necessary to get people to read this book.

In the sixties and seventies I, like everybody else, had a marvelous time each day watching Peter Marshall and his Hollywood Squares. The show was one half of a blockbuster hour on NBC daytime, along with a program that would come to figure prominently in my life twenty years later Jeopardy ! Like all great game shows, Squares combined the familiarity of a solid and well-known premise (the game of tic-tac-toe) with the excitement of some very funny stars and some extremely clever writing. How I envied Pete and his band of crazies! They all seemed to be having so much fun. Over the years, we the viewers got to know them all a lot better, and we came to love them as well.

Almost everyone can recall a Paul Lynde moment, a Charley Weaver smirk, a Rose Marie zinger, or a Wally Cox befuddlement. And why shouldnt they? Those were wonderful days in daytime television, and this book of memoirs will bring them all back. We are revisiting old friends on our terms.