Monty Hall | |
|---|---|
 Hall in 1976 | |
| Born | Monte Halparin (1921-08-25)August 25, 1921 |
| Died | September 30, 2017(2017-09-30) (aged 96) |
| Resting place | Hillside Memorial Park Cemetery |
| Alma mater | University of Manitoba (BSc) |
| Occupations | Game show host, producer |
| Years active | 1946–2017 |
| Spouse | |
| Children | 3, includingJoanna Gleason |
| Relatives | Maggie Tokuda-Hall (granddaughter) Wendy Tokuda (daughter-in-law) Jeff Margolis (nephew)[1] |
Monty HallOC OM (bornMonte Halparin; August 25, 1921 – September 30, 2017) was a Canadian-American[2][3] radio and television show host who moved to the United States in 1955 to pursue a career in broadcasting. After working as a radio newsreader and sportscaster, Hall returned to television in the U.S., where his focus was now on hosting game shows. Starting in 1963, he was best known as the host, co-creator, and co-producer ofLet's Make a Deal.[2] A conundrum involvinggame theory andpsychology was named after him: theMonty Hall problem. Behind the scenes, Hall also carried on an active life ofphilanthropy.
Hall was born as Monte Halparin inWinnipeg,Manitoba, on August 25, 1921,[2] to Orthodox Jewish parents Maurice Harvey Halparin,[4] who owned a slaughterhouse, and Rose (née Rusen).[5] He was raised in Winnipeg's north end,[6] where he attended Lord Selkirk School (Elmwood, Winnipeg), and, laterSt. John's High School.[7] Hall graduated with aBachelor of Science degree from theUniversity of Manitoba, where he majored inchemistry andzoology.[5] He was sponsored through university by Max Freed, a local businessman who was a customer of his father.[8] Originally though, Hall had hoped to go to medical school but was not admitted due tosecret quotas[9] restricting the number of Jewish students admitted.
Hall's first radio job was working forCKRC radio in Winnipeg while still a student. He briefly worked for theCanadian Wheat Board after graduating before deciding to pursue a full-time career in broadcasting.[10] He moved toToronto in 1946 and found a job with radio stationCHUM, where management shortened his name to Hall and misspelled his first name as "Monty" on billboards, giving him thestage name "Monty Hall". For the next decade he hosted and produced a number of programs for radio stations in Toronto, as well asWho Am I? onCFRB,[9] which was distributed nationally in Canada through private syndication until 1959. He also had several short-lived programmes onCBC Television after it was launched in 1952, but when they were cancelled and another program he had conceived was taken away from him, Hall decided he had no future in Canadian television.[11]
Hall moved toNew York City in 1955, attempting to break into American broadcasting, but commuted to Toronto several times a month to record episode blocks ofWho Am I?[11] In New York, Hall hosted game shows such asBingo at Home onWABD-TV and guest-hosted more established game shows such asStrike It Rich onCBS andTwenty-One onNBC.[11] On September 15, 1956, Hall began a seven-month stint hosting the Saturday afternoon seriesCowboy Theater, broadcast nationally on the NBC network. Hall's segments were performed live from NBC's New York studio, and the films wereColumbia Pictures' 1935-42 westerns starringCharles Starrett.[12]
Hall later hosted the children's programFun in the Morning forWNEW-TV (Ch. 5) in the early 1960s.[13] From 1956 to 1960, along with NBC Radio newsman Morgan Beatty, Hall co-hosted the Saturday night segment of the NBC Radio Network weekend programMonitor from 8 p.m. until midnight (EST).[14] At least two recordings of Hall onMonitor are known to exist.[15]
Hall was a radio analyst for theNew York Rangers of theNational Hockey League during the 1959–1960 season.[16]
He succeededJack Narz as host of a game show calledVideo Village, which ran from 1960 to 1962 on CBS.[17] From 1961 to 1962, Hall hosted itsspinoff,Video Village Junior, which featured children.[11] After moving toSouthern California, Hall became the host of the game showLet's Make a Deal, which he developed and produced with partner Stefan Hatos.[18]
Let's Make a Deal aired onNBC daytime from December 30, 1963, to December 27, 1968, and onABC daytime from December 30, 1968, until July 9, 1976, along with two prime time runs.[13] It aired in syndication from 1971 to 1977, from 1980 to 1981, from 1984 to 1986, and again on NBC briefly from 1990 to 1991, with Hall replacingBob Hilton, who had been dismissed. He was the producer or executive producer of the show through most of its runs. During the show's initial run, Hall appeared alongside modelCarol Merrill and announcerJay Stewart.[5] In 1969, he guest-starred on season 4, episode 5, ofThat Girl, playing Dr. Pellman, a dentist.
BesidesLet's Make a Deal, the game showSplit Second, which originally ran on ABC from 1972 to 1975 withTom Kennedy as host, and again in syndication in 1986 with Hall hosting that version, was the only other successful program from Hatos-Hall Productions.[17] In 1975, he published his autobiography, co-authored with Bill Libby, calledEmcee Monty Hall. Other game shows from Hatos' and Hall's production company includedChain Letter in 1966; a revival of the venerable 1950s-era panel quizMasquerade Party in 1974;Three for the Money in 1975;It's Anybody's Guess in 1977, which reunitedLet's Make a Deal announcer Jay Stewart with Hall, who also hosted the show; and the Canadian-basedThe Joke's on Us in 1983.[13] Hall filled in as guest host on several daytime game shows whileLet's Make a Deal was on NBC, most notablyWhat's This Song? andPDQ.[18]
In 1979, Hall hosted the only game show sinceVideo Village which he did not produce,Goodson-Todman'sAll-New Beat the Clock.[17] Also, in 1979, Hall made an appearance on the game showPassword Plus as a game show contestant, followed by another week of appearances in August 1980 (just before the launch of the upcoming Canadian-producedLet's Make a Deal revival, which he took the opportunity to plug). He appeared as himself on "The Promise Ring" episode ofThat '70s Show in 2001.[5] He played the host of a beauty pageant who schemed to become "the world's most powerful game show host" in the Disney animated seriesAmerican Dragon: Jake Long.[17] He appeared onGSN Live on March 14, 2008, and hosted a game ofLet's Make a Deal forGood Morning America on August 18, 2008, as part of Game Show Reunion week.[18]
In summer 2009, CBS announced that it was revivingLet's Make a Deal on its daytime schedule.[19] The show premiered on October 5, 2009, withWayne Brady as host. Hall was credited as "Creative Consultant" until he died in 2017, and remains credited as co-creator of the format (with Stefan Hatos), as per many international versions of the show, with Hatos/Hall Productions being credited as co-production company (withFremantle). Hall made appearances in 2010 and 2013 during the Brady run, and had been part of publicity photos in early 2017 to promote season nine.[19]
Hall spent much of his off time involved in philanthropic work. His family says he was always going totelethons and helped raise close to $1 billion for charity in his lifetime.[20] Hall was repeatedly honored for his charitable efforts. Wards atMount Sinai Hospital inToronto andHahnemann University Hospital inPhiladelphia are named in his honor.[21]
Hall, who said that charitable work was the driving force in his life, even went so far as to conceive a television series where he would assist people who were having troubles through various connections he had made through his philanthropic efforts. Partnering withWorldvision Enterprises, Hall's series was titledFor the People and a pilot was shot for the 1986 NATPE convention; he would be devoting himself full-time to the new series, thus stepping down fromLet's Make a Deal at the end of the 1985-86 season regardless of whether or not it was renewed for a third season (it would not be). However, the pilot did not receive enough interest in the crowded syndication market at the time and the concept never made it to television.[22]
Hall received a star on theHollywood Walk of Fame on August 24, 1973, a Golden Palm Star on thePalm Springs, California,Walk of Stars in 2000,[23] and in 2002, he was inducted into Canada's Walk of Fame.[24]
Hall is one of three game show hosts—along withAlex Trebek andHowie Mandel—on both Hollywood's and Canada's Walks of Fame. In May 1988,Her ExcellencyJeanne Sauvé,Governor General of Canada, appointed him an Officer of the prestigiousOrder of Canada for hishumanitarian work in Canada and other nations of the world.[9] In 2003,His Honourthe HonourablePeter Liba,Lieutenant Governor of Manitoba, appointed him a Member of theOrder of Manitoba.
He was the recipient of the 2005Ralph Edwards Service Award from the Game Show Congress, in recognition of all the work the emcee-producer has done for charity through the years. On October 13, 2007, Hall was one of the first inductees into theAmerican TV Game Show Hall of Fame inLas Vegas, Nevada. Hall received the Lifetime Achievement Award at the2013 Daytime Emmy Awards.[25]
On September 28, 1947, Hall marriedMarilyn Doreen Plottel (May 17, 1927 – June 5, 2017); the two had been introduced by a mutual cousin, Norman Shnier, the previous year.[26] They later became United States citizens.[3][2] They had three children:Tony Award–winning actressJoanna Gleason; Sharon Hall Kessler, a former producer and now an executive at Marcus/Glass Entertainment, which acquired Hatos-Hall Productions in 2021, includingLet's Make a Deal, allowing the show to return to family control; and Richard Hall,[27] anEmmy Award–winningtelevision producer. Monty and Marilyn lived inBeverly Hills, California, from 1962 until their deaths; Marilyn died four months before her husband.[28]
Hall died fromheart failure on September 30, 2017, at his home in Beverly Hills a little over a month after his 96th birthday.[13][18] He was interred atHillside Memorial Park Cemetery on October 3.[29]
On October 6, 2017, an episode of the currentLet's Make a Deal[30] on CBS hosted byWayne Brady paid tribute to Hall with this opening said by Brady.
"Last week, we lost the creator and the original host ofLet's Make a Deal, Mr. Monty Hall. Now, we all know that Monty was a great host, but he was a great man as well, in every single sense of the word. He was a philanthropist who raised hundreds of millions of dollars for charities and, even more important than his charitable work, he was a family man. He loved his family. Monty made everyone feel special. He was an inspiration to people that he'd meet on the street. He was an inspiration to myself and everyone here on the set ofLet's Make a Deal. He would come by, he'd visit us, we'd laugh and it was absolute magic. He absolutely loved the show,this show, which he created 54 years ago. So today, we're celebrating his memory with this episode and we're gonna do what we know that Monty would want us to do: we're gonna have fun, we're gonna make deals, and we're gonna change lives. Monty, we're gonna celebrate your legacy and this show is for you. Thank You!"- Wayne Brady (October 6, 2017)
Hall's name is used in aprobability puzzle known as the "Monty Hall problem". The name was conceived by statisticianSteve Selvin who used the title in describing a probability problem toScientific American in 1975 based on one of the games onLet's Make a Deal,[31][32] and more popularized when it was presented in a weekly national newspaper column byMarilyn vos Savant in 1990.[33]
A host ("Monty") provides a player with three doors, one containing a valuable prize and the other two containing a "gag" valueless prize. The contestant is offered a choice of one of the doors without knowledge of the content behind them. "Monty", who knows which door has the prize, opens a door that the player did not select that has a gag prize, and then offers the player the option to switch from their choice to the other remaining unopened door. The probability problem arises from asking if the player should switch to the unrevealed door.
Mathematically, the problem shows that a player switching to the other door has a2⁄3 chance of winning under standard conditions, but this is acounterintuitive effect of switching one's choice of doors, and the problem gained wide attention due to conflicting views following vos Savant's publication, with many asserting that the probability of winning had dropped to1⁄2 if one switched. A number of other solutions become possible if the problem setup is outside of the "standard conditions" defined by vos Savant: that the host equally selects one of the two gag prize doors if the player had first picked the winning prize, and the offer to switch is always presented.
Hall explained the solution to that problem in an interview withThe New York Times reporterJohn Tierney in 1991.[34] In the article, Hall pointed out that because he had control over the way the game progressed, playing on the psychology of the contestant, the theoretical solution did not apply to the show's actual gameplay. He said he was not surprised at the experts' insistence that the probability was 1 out of 2. "That's the same assumption contestants would make on the show after I showed them there was nothing behind one door," he said. "They'd think the odds on their door had now gone up to 1 in 2, so they hated to give up the door no matter how much money I offered. By opening that door we were applying pressure. We called it theHenry James treatment. It was 'The Turn of the Screw.'" Hall clarified that as a game show host, he was not required to follow the rules of the puzzle as Marilyn vos Savant often explains in her weekly column inParade, and did not always allow a person the opportunity to switch. For example, he might open their door immediately if it was a losing door, might offer them money to not switch from a losing door to a winning door, or might only allow them the opportunity to switch if they had a winning door. "If the host is required to open a door all the time and offer you a switch, then you should take the switch," he said. "But if he has the choice whether to allow a switch or not, beware. Caveat emptor. It all depends on his mood."[34]
Morgan Beatty and Monty Hall host Monitor '58", "Monty Hall & Bob Wilson host Monitor '59
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