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Then there was Hall's extraordinary mother, Rose Halparin, who tirelessly volunteered for Hadassah and other Jewish groups, though she often worked two jobs for a family that barely scraped by. At times, Hall recalls, there was only porridge for supper; in winter, the boy loaded his bicycle with heavy parcels to make deliveries for his father's butcher shop, traveling to the far reaches of Winnipeg in temperatures that often reached 25 degrees below zero. He kept warm and whiled away the freezing hours by pretending he was an emcee.
Only a near-miracle allowed the bright teenager to complete college after he graduated high school at the age of 14. While scrubbing the concrete steps at his menial job one day, Hall caught the eye of a young businessman who made him a surprising offer.
The businessman would pay for Hall's college education, as long as the student kept an "A" average and promised to help someone else someday, among other conditions.
An exuberant Hall went on to complete his bachelor's degree at the University of Manitoba, where he served as student body president and planned to go on to medical school. When he was twice denied admission due to a Jewish quota system, he helped lead a protest that eliminated the anti-Semitic policy. By then, however, he was no longer interested in medicine. Hall was earning $40 a week at a local radio station -- twice as much as his father -- and was determined to make it in show business.
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All the while, he was also determined to follow in his mother's philanthropic footsteps. He began in earnest in 1947, when he joined the United Jewish Appeal, United Way and Variety Clubs International, a children's charity. "I used to take a can of film, a tap dancer and an accordian player and go out to all the towns around Toronto to raise money for the Variety Clubs," says Hall, who is now the group's international chairman. "It was the time of the blue laws, when everything was closed on Sunday, and I used to rent a movie theater on a Sunday night where we'd always get a crowd and fill the room for the free entertainment. Halfway through the movie, the tap dancer would dance, I'd make a speech and we'd pass around a pail to collect the money."
Hall was initially less successful in showbusiness, he recalls. Early on, a radio station owner insisted that the then-Monty Halparin change his last name to something "short and Anglicized." Hall complied and continued to work in radio and TV in Toronto, until he found himself out of a job for a year in the mid-1950s. Hoping to find work, he moved to New York for six months, leaving his wife and children behind while he took a modest hotel room. But, he soon discovered that no one was interested in an unknown Canadian emcee. In desperation, he began sending the disinterested TV executives "A Memo From Monty," an amusing weekly newsletter about his life, but was forced to stop out of "sheer exhaustion." A week later, the seemingly impossible happened.
As an NBC secretary was about to take her umpteenth message from Hall, executive Steve Krantz got on the line wanting to know what had happened to the "Memo From Monty."
"You mean you actually read it?" Hall shouted into the telephone.
"I love it. Let's have lunch," replied Krantz, who thereafter hired Hall to take over "The Sky's the Limit."
But the emcee had not yet arrived. The day after he moved his family down to New York, "The Sky's the Limit" was canceled.
Hall persevered, and in 1963 he hit the big time with "Let's Make a Deal," which he co-created with partner Stefan Hatos. On the wildly popular show, he worked without cue cards, ad-libbing his way through deals and unruly contestants. "They just jumped up and hugged me and kissed me," he recalls. "But sometimes, they jumped up wearing a big box, which hit me under the nose, or with pins sticking out of their costumes. Once, someone knocked me down and I tore the cartilage in my knee. Another time, a woman from Nebraska slung me over her shoulders like a sack of wheat. I was just dangling there."
What troubled Hall more, though, were the scathing reviews from critics who dismissed him as just another mindless game show host. "It hurt," he admits. Few seemed to recognize that "Deal" was the first game show to feature contestants who were African-American, Latino, Asian and elderly.
During a recent interview, the famous game show host conceded that he does not tend to watch game shows. In fact, he's concerned about the spate of shows that have come out in the aftermath of the hugely successful "Who Wants to be a Millionaire." High money stakes, after all, led to the "Quiz Show" scandal of the 1950s.
Also, "Millionaire" offers multiple choice questions and allows contestants to call for advice. "I don't think people should make a million that easily," says Hall, who is the spokesman for an Internet version of "Deal," www.BuyBidWin.com, which has promised to raise money for some of his favorite charities.
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But these days, Hall and his wife of 52 years, Marilyn, focus mainly on family and philanthropy. The couple have three grown children, Richard, Sharon and the Broadway actress Joanna Gleason, and four grandchildren.
Why is Hall still compelled to fill his date book with charity events? "In my family, it was never a question," he explains. "You give back to the community.
Jews and TV comedy will be the theme Feb. 5 when Monty Hall hosts a panel discussion with Shelley Berman, Carl Reiner, Hal Kanter and Sherwood Schwartz, creator of "Gilligan's Island" and "The Brady Bunch." Are there more Jewish characters on TV? How well are Jewish themes handled? And what about those Jewish parodies on "Saturday Night Live?" Hall will query.
The discussion is part of the national King David Society weekend Feb. 4 - 6, an event for major donors to the United Jewish Appeal Federation Campaign of United Jewish Communities, organized by the UJC and the Los Angeles Jewish Federation.
Paramount Studios President Sherry Lansing is the event's honorary chair. The weekend kicks off Friday, at the Regent Beverly Wilshire hotel, during a welcome Shabbat with noted author and TV writer Rabbi Joseph Telushkin ("The Practice," "Touched by an Angel").
On Saturday, Neal Gabler ("An Empire of Their Own: How the Jews Invented Hollywood") will outline a history of the film industry; Ray Kurtzman of Creative Artists Agency will offer his perspective on Hollywood; and a black-tie gala is scheduled at Paramount Studios. A Sunday brunch will be the setting for a discussion on the Israeli peace process at the millennium.
For information about the King David Society and the Los Angeles Jewish Federation, call Danny Nathanson at (323) 761-8000, ext. 8352.
