Mervyn Edward Griffin Jr. (July 6, 1925 – August 12, 2007) was an American television show host and media mogul. He began his career as a radio and big band singer, later appearing in film and on Broadway. From 1965 to 1986, Griffin hosted his own talk show, The Merv Griffin Show. Griffin also created the game shows Jeopardy! and Wheel of Fortune through his own production companies, Merv Griffin Enterprises and Merv Griffin Entertainment.
Early life
Griffin was born July 6, 1925, in San Mateo, California, to Mervyn Edward Griffin Sr., a stockbroker, and Rita Elizabeth Griffin (née Robinson), a homemaker. He had an older sister named Barbara. As a child, Griffin used to play Hangman games with his sister during family road trips. It was these games which inspired him to create the game show Wheel of Fortune in 1975. The family was Irish American. Raised as a Catholic, Griffin started singing in his church choir as a boy, and by his teens was earning extra money as a church organist. His abilities as a pianist played a part in his early entry into show business.
Griffin attended San Mateo High School, graduating in 1942, and continued to aid in financing the school. He attended San Mateo Junior College and then the University of San Francisco. Griffin was a member of the international fraternity Tau Kappa Epsilon.
During World War II, Griffin was declared 4F after failing several military physical examinations due to a slight heart murmur. During the Korean War several years later, he was examined and deemed healthy enough to serve, but by that time was above age 26 and exempt from the draft.
Career
Singing
Griffin started as a singer on radio at age 19, appearing on San Francisco Sketchbook, a nationally syndicated program based at KFRC. He was overweight as an adolescent and a young man, which disappointed some radio fans when they saw him in person. Griffin wrote years later in his autobiography that there was a deliberate effort to keep the public from finding out how he looked. He resolved to change his appearance and lost 80 pounds in four months.
Freddy Martin heard Griffin on the radio show and asked him to tour with his orchestra, which he did for four years.
By 1945, Griffin had earned enough money to form his own record label, Panda Records, which produced Songs by Merv Griffin, the first U.S. album ever recorded on magnetic tape. In 1947, Griffin had a 15-minute weekday singing program on KFRC in San Francisco.
Griffin became increasingly popular with nightclub audiences, and his fame soared among the general public with his 1950 hit "I've Got a Lovely Bunch of Coconuts". The song reached the #1 spot on the Hit Parade and sold three million copies.
At one of his nightclub performances, Griffin was discovered by Doris Day. She arranged for a screen test at the Warner Bros. Studios for a role in By the Light of the Silvery Moon (1953). Griffin did not get the part, but the screen test led to supporting roles in other musical films such as So This Is Love (also 1953), which caused a minor controversy when Griffin shared an open-mouthed kiss with Kathryn Grayson. The kiss was a first in Hollywood film history since the introduction of the Production Code in 1934. He also had an uncredited role as a radio announcer in the horror/science fiction film The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms (1953).
Griffin also appeared in The Boy from Oklahoma and Phantom of the Rue Morgue (both 1954), but became disillusioned with movie-making. He bought his contract back from Warner Bros. and decided to devote his attention to a new medium: television.
In 1954, Griffin appeared in several Cinécraft Productions sponsored films including a musical, Milestones of Motoring with Joe E. Brown and Rita Farrell. He decided to spend the summer of 1954 in New York City. He landed a job as the host of a new television show, CBS-TV's Summer Holiday, a summer replacement for Jane Froman's U.S.A. Canteen and Jo Stafford's The Jo Stafford Show, which he co-hosted with Betty Ann Grove. Griffin and Grove were brought together by Byron Paul, producer of U.S.A. Canteen, and Irving Mansfield, Summer Holiday's creator. The new show featured live music with two singers while simulating a trip to various places in the world. Mansfield had remembered Griffin from his singing in the Grace Moore picture So This Is Love, and for his hit song "I've Got a Lovely Bunch of Coconuts." Paul had already signed Grove for the show and was looking for a male co-host. It ran for one summer.