William Lawrence Cullen
February 18, 1920 - July 7, 1990




"I'm happy if they (the contestants) win and I'm upset if they lose.
I am the timing. I am the pace.  I speed it up.  I play it down. I 
make it flow.  It's a challenge." "It's great to be witty and funny, 
but a host should never distract a contestant from winning money."
Bill Cullen was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and holds the 
record for the most games shows ever hosted by one person, not to 
mention the numerous other shows in which he played as a panelist.  
Cullen never let things that came his way slow him down.  As a child, 
he had polio, but he learned how to box, got his airplane pilot's 
license at age 15, along with competition in various sports.
Originally he had enrolled at the University of Pittsburgh as a 
pre-med student, but a lack of money made him change majors.  
A year later, he got into broadcasting as an unpaid announcer 
at WWSW, Pittsburgh.  He earned his pay as a mechanic and tow 
truck driver and earned his BA in Fine Arts.  Eventually, he moved 
on to the legendary KDKA and joined the CBS Radio Network in 1944.  
Looking back on his career, he quipped, "I've not been unemployed 
since 1939."

	
Following network announcing, he host the first Mark Goodson Bill 
Todman radio show called "Winner Take All."  In the early 1950's, as 
television was starting to make its way into America's homes, Bill 
was a New York disc jockey and also did football and hockey play by 
play.  He was also hosting and appearing on numerous panel shows. 


     He was on the panel of I've Got a Secret with Garry Moore and later 
Steve Allen, from 1952 to 1967. One episode I was lucky to tape was 
the one they celebrated his 33rd birthday. When Moore introduced the
panel and didn't since he was first in the order, but he kept laughing when 
they skipped him. Finally, Moore said, "Oh, yes I forgot, panel, put on your 
glasses." They put on spectacles that resembled Cullen's trademark rims. 
The birthday cake even had a giant pair of them on top. Moore quipped, 
"So you are fifty right." Speaking of age, this episode feature a lady whose 
secret was she was the US's youngest grandma. She was only twenty-nine. 
She became a grandma at age twenty-eight. She was 14 when she got married 
as was her daughter. WOW!!!


      In the early 1950?s, he hosted a variety show called the Bill Cullen Show with
 singer Betty Brewer and orchestra leader Milton DeLugg, who played the accordion and
 twenty years later would be the Gong Show conductor.  It was a simple set with a desk
 Bill sat at conversing with Brewer and DeLugg exchanging funny lines and featuring a
 sign for sponsor Mogen David wine that would fall when it was time to talk about it.
 This wasn?t a fine vino, but instead of calling it ?cheap?, it was ?an economical wine.?
 When talking about it, he would open the screw on cap (as opposed to a cork) and pour it
 and talked to the glass when moving it over.  Also since this was early TV, it was
 hilarious how Cullen kept looking into the wrong camera and making jokes about it.  In
 one of the episodes, a feather duster was the sponsor and Betty Brewer, when she sang
 handled the duster while singing this love song and even dusted Bill?s head at the end.
 Then he discarded it.  (Thanks Matt)


       Besides Secret, Bill also appeared frequently on The Name's The Same with 
Robert Q. Lewis, where celebrities tried to guess the famous name of a person, place 
or thing that a civilian contestant had. One time, they had an 8 year old boy 
named Walter Winchell, a lady named I. Kick and a man named A. Torso. When Winner 
Take All came to television, he was made the host.  He also hosted Bank on The Stars 
and Give and Take.  Before George DeWitt, Bill hosted Name That Tune.  His first show 
to be made in Hollywood, which he hosted almost simultaneously with Tune was Place 
The Face, which was the first show he sported his famous crew cut. I had the 
opportunity to see this show for the first time in January 2002. Groucho Marx 
mentioned that Bill was the 2nd funniest man on TV, and he wasn't kidding. I 
couldn't stop laughing. The show had contestants who would be shown someone from 
their past in person and they would have to guess who it is and the situation they 
were involved with that person. On this particular episode, there was a guy who was 
shown a lady, whom he had tried to kiss when they were in high school, and even 
a famous player whose name skips me and the man he saw in the picture was the 
hotel bouncer that threw him out because he brought his chiuaua. Bill was just as 
funny as Groucho on this show, but his wit was not sarcastic like Groucho's could 
be; more goofy, but just as funny. (Thanks Geoff)


     In December 1955, he married former       Anne Macomber and would often 
talk about her on the air through the years and you could just see the happiness in his 
eyes when he mentioned her.  The next year, 1956, came Cullen's longest running 
game show, the original version of the most successful game show of all time, The 
Price Is Right. Though most people think of Bob Barker, it was Cullen who had the 
first hit with Price. Fortunately, more than half of the episodes were saved and can 
be seen on Game Show Network.  


     The way this version was played may seem strange to those who know the 
contemporary version. First of all, there were the same four contestants 
for the entire show. They would be addressed by their last names, which were 
written on the podiums. All they did was bid on items; there were no pricing 
games or the big wheel.  The contestants first item to bid on was pretty 
inexpensive and would be a one bid item and the closest without going over 
won the gift. However, other items were multiple bids, which led sometimes 
to exciting action. Like an auction, they were given starting bid and the 
minimum increase. Once they all bid, the first bidder was given the option 
of whether or not to increase the bid. If not, they would be frozen. Once 
everyone froze, then the price was revealed. I recall one episode where 
the item was a Mercedes. The opening bid was $2,000. Talk about a ton of 
money for 1961. The second contestant to freeze did so at $7,000. The last 
two kept going at it increasing the bids by $500 each time. I sat thinking, 
"will they ever stop and this is exciting." When they finally froze, the 
bids were over $12,000 each. The one who froze at $7,000 was the winner 
because the price of the car was $9,000. Some game shows today don't give 
away that much. 


       The original Price was created by Bill's good friend Bob Stewart. 
When production ceased, Stewart, decided to part with Goodson-Todman 
productions, branched out and formed his own production company. The first 
show he created for NBC, turned out to be a three year hit for Cullen. It 
was Eye Guess.  Until a year ago, the only episode known to exist was a 
half episode in trading circles.  Fortunately, Game Show Network happened 
to discover a whole episode of the entire show.  I hope that they will 
discover more of these in the future and share them with the audience at 
home.


       The game I didn't understand until I finally saw the episode then it 
made sense.  My mom recorded it for me and I watched it.  The way the 
game worked was you had a board with nine boxes set up like a tic tac toe 
board.  On the eight outer boxes are the answers to the questions.  The 
inner box was called Eye Guess.  Before the questions were asked of the 
contestants, the 8 boxes on the outside would be opened revealing answers 
to the questions.  The contestants were given 10 seconds to memorize the 
location of the answers.  Then the boxes were shut. The sound effect was 
a timer that went click click click ding.  When the questions were asked, 
instead of giving the answer, the contestant would ring in, they would 
have to give the box number where the answer was located.  If they don?t 
remember seeing the answer, then they choose the Eye Guess box in the 
middle. The questions asked centered around a common theme.  For this 
episode, one round dealt with "What did the boss do?".  This provided 
for quite a bit of humor, especially when they picked the wrong answer.  
For example, "What did the boss do to the secretary who kept on being 
late?"  One of the boxes had the answer "He fired her".  However, the 
contestant picked box 4, and it revealed "He married her", which caused 
the audience and myself to have a hearty laugh.


	The Encyclopedia of TV Game Shows said that the announcer of this 
show was Don Pardo, however, for this episode, it was Jack Clark of 
Cross-wits and Wheel of Fortune fame.  He and Bill exchanged one liners 
throughout that kept you wanting more.  When Clark was announcing some of 
the consolation prizes, one of them was a hot tomato drink called Snappy 
Tom, and while Jack was describing it, the camera panned to Cullen at just 
the right moment drinking a glass of water as if he'd just drank this 
stuff.  More on the bonus game of Eye Guess soon.



        In 1969, NBC cancelled Eye Guess, You Don't Say and The Match Game, despite 
the fact that these shows were doing well.  The Peacock network would never enjoy 
the dominance in daytime it had with this lineup.  Two of the three game shows 
that replaced these classics lasted half a year.  Only It Takes Two, hosted by 
Hall of Fame Dodger baseball announcer Vin Scully, lasted a year and a 
half.
        That fall To Tell The Truth was revived for daily syndication.  Bill, by 
that time no longer wearing a crewcut, was made a regular panelist along with 
Truth alumni Kitty Carlisle, Peggy Cass and Orson Bean.  With a new psychedelic 
set and new host Garry Moore, Bill was reunited with the I've Got a Secret 
emcee.  Whenever Garry was absent, Bill would substitute.  



        After two years of playing different panel games, 1971 would be the year 
he'd come back to the role of emcee with Three on a Match.  I've had this show 
explained to me countless time and on various websites, yet I'd have to see an 
episode to understand the gameplay.  As the 70?s were coming into vogue, Bill 
traded in his trademark horn-rimmed glasses for the wire rim style.  After three 
years, this was replaced by another Bob Stewart production, Winning Streak.  Both 
of the above only have one episode that's known to exist.  On this show, people 
answered questions to get letters and form words on an electronic board.  Late 
1974 was also the year that Lyn Bolin was head of daytime television for NBC and 
Bill had incredibly long hair and wore leisure suits since the other peacock 
network hosts were.  



        Though Winning Streak didn?t catch on, by the fall of 1974, the successful 
ABC show the $10,000 Pyramid was given clearance for weekly syndication.  This would 
be the game show that introduced yours truly to Bill Cullen.  I'm talking about 
the $25,000 Pyramid.  Daytime host Dick Clark told Game Show Congress luncheon 
2004, which honored the Dean of the Game Shows that Bill was his hero.  Played just 
like the daytime version with two teams, one celebrity/one civilian who?d have 30 
seconds to give clues to 7 words that have something in common.  After three 
rounds, whoever was ahead would go to the winners circle for a chance at $10,000.  
If they made it back there the second half of the show, they'd play for $15,000.  
In 1976, it was weird watching this and the daytime $20,000 Pyramid since the 
$25,000 version had the set orange, and the $20,000 the set was blue, but by the 
fall of 1976, the $25,000 set was blue.  Didn't know how syndication worked as opposed 
to network.  When watching a tape of Bill Cullen doing Pyramid, at the end of the 
show instead of saying goodbye and walking off backstage like Dick Clark always did, 
Bill asked everyone to gather around the Winner's Circle.  When Donnie Osmond did 
Pyramid in 2002 to 2004, he did the exact same thing at the show's end.  
More to come on the Bill's 1980's game shows.