[“Gena Rowlands dead at 94 (Videos).”]
By Grand Rapids Anonymous
thursday, august 15, 2024 at 4:49:00 p.m. edt
“Los Angeles (ap) — Peter Marshall, the actor and singer turned game show host who played straight man to the stars for 16 years on The Hollywood Squares, has died. he was 98.
“he died thursday of kidney failure at his home in the encino neighborhood of los angeles, publicist Harlan Boll said.
“Marshall helped define the form of the smooth, professional, but never-too-serious modern game show host on more than 5,000 episodes of the series that ran on nbc from 1966 to 1981.
“But he was often closer to a talk show host, and the tic-tac-toe game the contestants played, while real, was all an excuse for a good time. The questions Marshall posed to regulars like Paul Lynde, George Gobel and Joan Rivers were designed to be set-ups for joke answers before the real ones followed.
Hollywood Squares’ host Peter Marshall.
“It was the easiest thing I’ve ever done in show business,” Marshall said in a 2010 interview for the Archive of American Television. ‘I walked in, said “Hello stars,” I read questions and laughed. And it paid very well.
“The Hollywood Squares would become an American cultural institution and make Marshall a household name. It would win four Daytime Emmys for outstanding game show during his run and spawned dozens of international versions and several U.S. reboots. Not only was it a forum for such character actors as Charlie Weaver (the stage name of Cliff Arquette) and Wally Cox, but the show attracted a range of top stars as occasional guests, including Aretha Franklin, Mel Brooks, Carl Reiner, Ed Asner and Janet Leigh.
“Marshall had a warm rapport with Weaver, Lynde and others, but said that Gobel, the wry comedian, actor and variety show host, held a special place, tweeting in 2021 that it’s ‘no secret he was my closest friend on Hollywood Squares and my absolute all-time favorite Square!”
“Marshall had lived nearly an entire show business life before he took the Squares podium at age 40.
“He had toured with big bands starting as a teenager, had been a part of two comedy teams that appeared in nightclubs and on television, appeared in movies as a contract player for Twentieth Century Fox, and had sung in several Broadway musicals when the opportunity came up after Bert Parks, who hosted the pilot, bowed out.
“‘I am a singer first I am not a game show host,’ Marshall told his hometown paper, the Herald-Dispatch of Huntington, West Virginia in 2013, ‘that was just a freak opportunity. I had been on Broadway with Julie Harris and was going back to Broadway when I did the audition, and I thought it was a few weeks but that turned into 16 years.’”
GRA: One of the great shows of yesteryear and Marshall’s voice and style were unmistakable. Like What’s My Line—but better—Hollywood Squares was where you went to see your favorite stars, have some laughs—and learn a couple things occasionally.
--GRA
By N.S.
Given a news judgement call between posting The Afterlife Hollywood Squares or WWIII first, it was TAHS, no question! You know, a year or so ago, I checked Peter Marshall’s imdb.com page, and am certain that it listed him as long gone. I’m certain of it. I wish I’d known he was still with us, so I could have done one of those famous headlines, “The rumors of my death have been greatly exaggerated.”
My big lesson from The Hollywood Squares, from circa 1971 (how can that be, I wasn’t even born yet?!), from a question asked of pretty-boy singer John Davidson: What time of year do people have the most sex? The winter!
"177,425 views Oct 16, 2021
"Captain Glenn Ford appeared many times on The Hollywood Squares and this episode featured Bill Bixby, Rose Marie, center square Paul Lynde, Jan Murray, Vincent Price, Elke Sommers, Charlie Weaver, and Jane Wyman. Original Air Date: 1972"
[N.S.: Glenn Ford was a captain in the U.S. Navy in The War, who served meritoriously in two service branches (also the U.S. Marine Corps) in two wars (also in the War in Vietnam).]
5 comments:
Marshall still had a very functional brain,even at his 97th birthday party(filmed and posted on youtube). He had beaten covid a couple years ago and the video of his birthday had a Paul Lynde impersonator as host. Marshall spoke and sounded EXACTLY the same as in 1971. He looked pretty decent too--definitely not 97. He was a lucky guy for many reasons. Now it's on to "The Afterlife Hollywood Squares",which starts taping almost immediately,
Meanwhile,I'll watch the earthly ones on YouTube.
--GRA
Charley Weaver with the line of the show.
--GRA
jerry pdx
A close call between Match Game and Hollywood Squares as to which was funnier. Both were simple games designed to give the guest stars room to be spontaneously funny along with the planned jokes. I'll give the nod to the Match Game because the celebs were closer together which allowed better interaction. The squares kept them a little more isolated, but they still managed some pretty amusing back and forth. Marshall and Rayburn were quite good but I would have loved to have seen Pat Sajak host one of those shows.
nEGRO,NATE BURLESON WILL HOST "NEW HOLLYWOOD SQUARES(WITH DREW BARRYMORE AS THE CENTER SQUARE)
(USA Today)A revival of “Hollywood Squares” hosted by Nate Burleson and starring actress and talk-show host Drew Barrymore as the center square is set to premiere on CBS in January.
GRA:Here's betting at LEAST 4 of the 9 squares are nigs.Barrymore isn't funny--another deficiency for the show.What constitutes a celebrity these days?We'll soon find out.
--GRA
"I'll pick The Grim Reaper to win."
His book Backstage with the Original Hollywood Square is a good read.. A lot of dirt in there and the dirt about Charley Weaver was particularly shocking. Also something about them having to move Sandy Duncan to a different square to get her away from Redd Foxx "bombarding her with sexual innuendoes".
Muchos fotos including some glossy color pages.
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