Early life

Griffin was born into a middle class Irish American family on July 6, 1925 in San Mateo, California to Mervyn Griffin Sr., a stock broker and Rita Griffin (née Robinson), a homemaker. Raised as a Roman Catholic, Griffin started singing in his church choir as a boy, and by his teens was earning extra money as a church organist. This is one of the reasons he got into show business early; he was considered a piano prodigy. He attended San Mateo High School, class of 1942, and continued to aid in financing the school.

During World War II, Merv was declared 4F after failing several military physical exams due to increased weight and having a slight heart murmur.[citation needed] Drafted for service during the Korean War, he was slimmed down and passed the physical, but was deemed too old as the draft limit was 26 and he had just turned 27.

Career

Singing at 19

Griffin started as a singer on radio at age 19, appearing on San Francisco Sketchbook, a nationally syndicated program based at KFRC. Griffin was overweight as a teenager, which disappointed his radio fans.[citation needed] Embarrassed by their reaction, Griffin resolved to lose weight and change his image, losing 80 pounds in four months. Freddy Martin heard him on the radio show and asked Griffin to tour with his orchestra,[1] which he did for four years.

He also had an uncredited role as a radio announcer in the 1953 horror/science fiction classic The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms.
Within a year, Griffin earned enough to form his own record label, Panda Records, which produced Songs by Merv Griffin, the first American album ever recorded on magnetic tape. He 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 number one spot on the Hit Parade and sold three million copies.

During one of his nightclub performances, Griffin was discovered by Doris Day. Day arranged for a screen test at Warner Brothers Studios for a role in By the Light of the Silvery Moon. Griffin didn't get the part, but the screen test led to supporting roles in other musical films such as So This is Love in 1953. The film 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.

Griffin would go on to film more pictures, namely, The Boy from Oklahoma and Phantom of the Rue Morgue, but soon became disillusioned with movie making. Griffin bought his contract back from Warner Brothers and decided to focus on a new medium: television.

Game show host

From 1958 to 1962, Griffin hosted a game show produced by Mark Goodson and Bill Todman called Play Your Hunch. The show appeared on all three networks, but primarily on NBC. He also hosted a prime time game show for ABC called Keep Talking. In 1963, NBC offered him the opportunity to host a new game show, Word for Word, which Griffin produced. He also produced Let's Play Post Office for NBC in 1965; Reach for the Stars for NBC in 1967; One in a Million for ABC in 1967, and in 1990, an ambitious but unsuccessful attempt at making a game show out of the venerable board game Monopoly.

Talk show host

Griffin scored a coup when Jack Paar accidentally emerged onto the set of Play Your Hunch during a live broadcast, and Griffin got him to stay for a spontaneous interview. He parlayed that into a guest-hosting spot on The Tonight Show, then hosted by Paar, and his own daytime talk show on NBC in 1962.

By the mid 1960s, many of the big band singers (such as Dinah Shore and Mike Douglas), had reinvented themselves as talk show hosts. In 1965, Griffin launched a syndicated talk show for Group W (Westinghouse Broadcasting): The Merv Griffin Show. The show aired in a variety of time slots throughout North America; many stations ran it in the daytime, some broadcast it opposite Johnny Carson's The Tonight Show, and it was carried for many years in prime time on WNEW in New York.[citation needed] Griffin's announcer/sidekick was the veteran British character actor Arthur Treacher, who had been his mentor. Treacher would read the list of guests for that evening's show and introduce Griffin with the phrase: "And now, the dear boy himself: Merrrrrrrr-vin!"[citation needed] After Treacher left the show, Griffin would do the announcing himself, and walk on stage with the phrase: "And now..., here I come!" According to an obituary article on August 24, 2007 in Entertainment Weekly, The Merv Griffin Show was on the air for 21 years and won eleven Emmy Awards during its run.

Griffin was not shy about tackling controversial subjects, especially the Vietnam War. The guests on the Westinghouse show were an eclectic mix of entertainers, authors, politicians, and "personality" performers like Zsa Zsa Gabor. Griffin also booked controversial guests like George Carlin, Dick Gregory, Richard Pryor, Norman Mailer, and Bertrand Russell. Griffin received critical acclaim for booking such guests, but was also widely criticized for it. When anti-war activist Bertrand Russell used Griffin's show to condemn the war in Vietnam, Griffin was criticized for letting Russell have his say. Arnold Schwarzenegger made his talk show debut in the United States on Griffin's talk show in 1974 after moving from Austria and becoming a bodybuilder.

In 1975 and 1976 Griffin dedicated two full shows to the topic of Transcendental Meditation and its founder Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. Griffin himself was an ethusiastic student of the practice.

Griffin would also frequently chat with audience members. One regular audience member, Lillian Miller, would become a fixture on Griffin's program throughout its run.

Merv's best friend since the sixth grade, Robert (Bob) Murphy, was the producer of The Merv Griffin Show, and eventually became president of Merv Griffin Enterprises.

Late-night host

CBS gave Griffin a late-night show opposite Johnny Carson in 1969, a move which proved disastrous. The network was uncomfortable with the guests Griffin wanted, who often spoke out against the Vietnam War and on other taboo topics. When political activist Abbie Hoffman was Griffin's guest in April 1970, CBS blurred the video of Hoffman so viewers at home would not see his trademark American flag pattern shirt even though other guests had worn the same shirt in the past, uncensored. Griffin disliked the censorship imposed by CBS and complained.

Sensing that his time at CBS was ending, and tired of the restrictions imposed by the network, Griffin secretly signed a contract with rival company Metromedia. The contract with Metromedia would give him a syndicated daytime talk show deal as soon as CBS canceled Griffin's show. Within a few months, Griffin was fired by CBS. His new show began the following Monday and ran until the mid 1980s. By 1986, Griffin was ready to retire and ended his talk show run. Due to profits from his highly successful game shows, Griffin had become one of the wealthiest entertainers on the planet.