Page 30 - ARUBA TODAY

A30 PEOPLE/ARTS
Monday 2 october 2017
‘Let’s Make a Deal’ host, philanthropist Monty Hall dies

By LYNN ELBER Hall of Los Angeles. on Hall’s program. mentary series “Pioneers of 2006 Daytona Beach (Flori-
AP Television Writer “Let’s Make a Deal,” which Contestants were chosen Television.” ‘’And so I don’t da) News-Journal profile of
BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. (AP) Hall co-created, debuted from the studio audience care if they jump on me, a no-nonsense bail bonds-
— Monty Hall, the genial as a daytime show on NBC — outlandishly dressed and I don’t care if they yell woman who says, “I’m not
TV game show host whose in 1963 and became a TV as animals, clowns or car- and they fainted — those Monty Hall and this isn’t
long-running “Let’s Make staple. Through the next
a Deal” traded on love of four decades, it also aired
money and merchandise in prime time, in syndica-
and the mystery of which tion and, in two brief out-
door had the car behind it, ings, with hosts other than
has died. He was 96. Hall at the helm.
Hall, who had been in An episode of “The Odd
poor health, died Saturday Couple” featured Felix
morning of heart failure at Unger (Tony Randall) and
his home in Beverly Hills, Oscar Madison (Jack Klug-
said his daughter, Sharon man) as bickering guests

In this June 16, 2013 photo, Wayne Brady, right, presents the lifetime achievement award to Monty
Hall at the 40th Annual Daytime Emmy Awards in Beverly Hills, Calif. Former “Let’s Make a Deal”
host Hall has died after a long illness at age 96. His daughter Sharon Hall says he died Saturday,
Sept. 30, 2017, at his home in Beverly Hills, Calif.
(Photo by Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP)
toon characters to attract are my people.” ‘Let’s Make a Deal.’ “
the host’s attention — and The game show gave rise Hall also guest-starred in
would start the game by to an academic exer- sitcoms and appeared in
trading an item of their cise in which students are TV commercials. And with
own for a prize. After that, asked to weigh this ques- the wealth that the game
it was matter of swapping tion: In guessing which of show brought, he made
the prize in hand for others three doors might conceal philanthropy and fundrais-
hidden behind doors, cur- a prize car, and after one ing his avocation. He spent
tains or in boxes, presided is eliminated as a possibil- 200 days a year at it, he
over by the leggy, smiling ity, should you switch your said, estimating in the late
Carol Merrill. choice to the one you 1990s that he had coaxed
The query “Do you want didn’t pick? $700 million from donors.
Door No. 1, No. 2 or No. 3?” The puzzle sparked heated His daughter Sharon esti-
became a popular catch exchanges in Marilyn vos mated that Hall managed
phrase, and the chance of Savant’s Parade maga- to raise nearly $1 billion for
winning a new car a mat- zine column. (The answer charity over his lifetime.
ter of primal urgency. Prizes to the Monty Hall Prob- Another daughter, Joan-
could be a car or a mink lem, Hall and others said, na Gleason, is a longtime
coat or a worthless item was yes, take the switch Broadway and television
dubbed a “zonk.” — but only if the contest is actress. She won a Tony
The energetic, quick-think- set up so the host cannot in 1988 for best actress
ing Hall, a sight himself with skew the results by offering in a musical for “Into the
his sideburns and colorful some guests the chance to Woods” and was nomi-
sports coats, was deemed switch doors and not giving nated for Tonys two other
the perfect host in Alex others the same option.) times.
McNeil’s reference book, After five years on NBC, Hall was repeatedly hon-
“Total Television.” “Let’s Make a Deal” moved ored for his charity efforts,
“Monty kept the show to ABC in 1968 and aired with awards including the
moving while he treated on the network through Order of Canada, Order
the outrageously garbed 1976, including prime-time of Manitoba and Variety
and occasionally greedy stints. It went into syndica- Clubs International’s Hu-
contestants courteously; it tion in the 1970s and 1980s, manitarian Award. Wards
is hard to imagine anyone returning to NBC in 1990-91 were named in his honor at
else but Hall working the and again in 2003. In 2009 Mount Sinai Hospital in To-
trading area as smoothly,” it returned on CBS with host ronto, Hahnemann Univer-
McNeil wrote. Wayne Brady and is still on sity Hospital in Philadelphia
For Hall, the interaction the air. and other medical centers.
was easy. His name and show remain Hall and his wife, Marilyn
“I’m a people person,” part of the language. Typi- Plottel, married in 1947. She
he said on the PBS docu- cal is the quotation in a died earlier this year.q