, Gene Rayburn recites one of various risque questions on '' Match Game ''.]]
Rayburn was born in Christopher, Illinois (he chose his stage name by randomly pointing at a page in the phone book after being told Rubessa sounded 'too Italian'). He was the only child of Croatian immigrants, and he graduated from Knox College . After the birth of his first child Lynn, Rayburn was quickly drafted into the U.S. Air Force . Rayburn became a popular radio personality in New York City on WNEW-AM. He was half of the first two-man team in morning radio, partnering with Jack Lescoulie and later Dee Finch. before breaking into television as the original announcer on '' The Tonight Show '' in 1954 . He hosted his first Game Show , ''Make the Connection'', in 1955 ; from there he hosted shows such as '' Choose Up Sides '', ''Dough Re Mi'', and '' Tic Tac Dough ''. On radio, Rayburn become one of the many hosts of the popular NBC program '' Monitor '' in 1961 and remained with the show until 1973 .
In 1962 Rayburn first hosted the game show that he was best known for hosting, '' The Match Game ''. The original version, which aired on NBC , lasted until 1969 ; in 1973 the show returned to CBS with a new format in which contestants must match celebrity answers to humorous fill-in-the-blank questions. Millions tuned in and soon the show became the highest-rated daytime TV show. From 1973 to 1977 , it was #1 among all game shows, fueled mostly by the zany questions and Rayburn's witty emceeing style which captivated audiences. His interaction with the panel and contestants and his many antics during the show's run--including breaking through the entrance doors, roller-skating on stage, climbing the audience, and much more--all made the game show a classic. The popular daytime revival of ''Match Game'', which featured regular celebrity panelists Richard Dawson , Brett Somers and Charles Nelson Reilly , ran until 1979 with a concurrent 'nighttime version, ''Match Game PM'', airing from 1975 to 1981 . Rayburn was nominated for two Daytime Emmy Awards for Outstanding Host or Hostess in a Game or Audience Participation Show for his work on Match Game. In 1983 the show was revived as part of the '' Match Game-Hollywood Squares Hour '', with Rayburn hosting the Match Game segment and sitting on the panel of the Hollywood Squares segment. The show lasted only nine months on NBC.
During and between his ''Match Game'' years, Rayburn also served as guest panelist on two other Goodson - Todman shows, '' What's My Line? '' and '' To Tell The Truth '', where he exhibited the same inquisitiveness on serious subjects he showed on ''Monitor.'' Three years after the 60s ''Match Game'' was cancelled, Rayburn hosted a short-lived Heatter-Quigley Productions show called ''The Amatuer's Guide to Love'', which aired in 1972. Rayburn also hosted a pilot for Reg Grundy Productions in 1983 called ''Party Line'', which would make TV three years later as '' Bruce Forsyth's Hot Streak '' (and be cancelled after 13 weeks).
The final game shows Rayburn emceed were: a 1985 revival of '' Break The Bank '' which bombed in the ratings (and from which Rayburn was fired after 13 weeks and replaced by Joe Farago) and '' The Movie Masters '', an AMC Cable game show Rayburn seemed to enjoy more, that ran from 1989 to 1990 .
on '' Access Hollywood '']]
Right before production was to begin on a new Rayburn-emceed "MG" revival in 1985 , a '' Entertainment Tonight '' reporter publicly disclosed his age, which was much older than many people believed. Rayburn had trouble finding jobs after that, blaming the reporter for disclosing his age and subjecting him to Age Discrimination .
Rayburn died in late 1999 at his daughter's home in Gloucester, Massachusetts , of Congestive Heart Failure at the age of 81.
- In a taping of ''Match Game '74'', he unintentionally told a contestant, Karen Lesko, that she had "pretty nipples", meaning to say "dimples." The incident was cut from the original CBS episode and is not shown in GSN reruns either. However, it has come to be known as possibly the most embarrassing "host screw-up" in game show history. The moment has been aired on several present-day TV specials regarding game show mishaps, including VH1 's '' Game Show Moments Gone Bananas '' and NBC's ''The Most Outrageous Game Show Moments''.
- The long and skinny Sony microphone that Rayburn used on the enormously popular 70s version of ''Match Game'' became "a part of pop culture", as E! described it, during the disco-era. The microphone has long been associated with the host and the game show itself ever since. It has been preserved and saved, shown to current TV audiences in a 2003 NBC special and on a "Match Game Retro Reunion" on '' The Early Show '' in 2002 .
- He knitted socks as a publicity stunt during his time on ''Rayburn and Finch'' and later became avid in needlepoint, so much to the point that he would constantly do some in plane rides from New York to "MG" tapings in Hollywood . In a 1974 ''Match Game'' episode, MG creator Mark Goodson made a surprise visit to congratulate the host on making the show #1 among daytime television programs and Goodson gave Rayburn a needlepoint bag as a gift in turn. In a later episode that year, panelist Richard Dawson showed off a picture of Gene knitting socks as part of the aforementioned publicity stunt.
- Rayburn was married to Helen Ticknor from 1940 until her death in October , 1996 . They had one child, a daughter, Lynn. Helen appeared with Gene on the TV game show " Tattletales " in the 1970s and '80s.
- From 1978 up until Rayburn's death, he never spoke with ex-''Match Game'' regular panelist Richard Dawson. Dawson was a popular celebrity panel member who enjoyed joking around with the rest of the crew, yet in late 1977 until the summer of 1978, he appeared less interested in the game and he was beginning to find more fun with his own new hit game show, '' Family Feud ''. Years later, Rayburn recalled that Dawson was in the end, a "loner...with a monumental ego" who was "trying to kill the show."
- As noted earlier, Rayburn was of Croatian ancestry and he could also speak the language. On Match Game, when a contestant with the same ancestry would appear on the show, Rayburn would exchange a few words in Croatian with them.
- Rayburn was unabashedly liberal in his politics. So much that, on one occasion on Match Game (CBS), the name of William F. Buckley, Jr. (a famous paleoconservative) was brought up. Rayburn said that Buckley was "...always wrong!" At one point, tabloids circulated that the TV host supported North Vietnam during the Vietnam War , however this turned out be a falsified and fictional story.
- During the 1960s , he occasionally substituted for Johnny Carson on '' The Tonight Show ''. In 1967 , Carson would make a surprise appearance on the original black-and-white version of "The Match Game" during the same week that ''Tonight'' announcer Ed McMahon was a guest celebrity. In 1973 , Rayburn recalled his guest-hosting duties as "the hardest job" he ever had.
- During an interview, he was asked what his worst fear was and he responded, "being caught stealing something cheap."
- Fred Wostbrock, the co-author of ''The Encyclopedia of TV Game Shows'' series, deemed Rayburn the " Frank Sinatra of game-show hosts."
- Howard Stern 's television show featured Rayburn as a guest three times in 1992 . He also appeared on a TV ad promoting a new game show in the early 90s, alongside with other classic game show hosts who were plugging the game.
- After his gig on ''The Movie Masters'' was done, Rayburn virtually vanished from Hollywood until a sudden reentrance in the mid-to-late 1990s , appearing on '' The Jenny Jones Show '', Jones was a ''Match Game'' contestant in 1980 , and appeared on a "Match Game reunion" on '' Maury '' and was interviewed on the 1997 A & E Biography of ''MG'', '' The Price Is Right '', and ''Family Feud'' creator Mark Goodson . His very last TV appearance was a 1998 interview with ''Access Hollywood'' which was intended to coincide with the 25th anniversary of CBS game show. Portions of the interview were shown again recently on Game Show Network , which in 2001 , showed parts of another previously unaired interview.
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