Gene Rayburn
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Gene Rayburn |
Bucks County Playhouse productions
The Love Of Four Colonels - The Man (Wicked Fairy) - 1957
Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter? - George MacCauley - 1957
Come Blow Your Horn - Alan Baker - 1960
La Cage aux Folles - Georges - 1991
Internet Movie Database - Gene Rayburn
Internet Broadway Database - Gene Rayburn
Gene Rayburn
(1917 - 1999)
GENE RAYBURN was born in Christopher, Il. on December 22, 1917. At age 18, Gene moved to New York, hoping for a chance to take voice lessons and become an opera singer. Lack of money made him look for something else, and Gene eventually got a job as one of the first NBC pages. (He was in the same page-training class as future "Today Show" host Dave Garroway.) As an NBC page, Gene's duties included escorting Madame Touscanini backstage to see her husband during intermission and after the show. During World War II, Gene spent three years in the Air Force but never saw action because he was asked to stay behind to train other recruits. He actually was called to duty, but the atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima just days before he was scheduled to leave. In 1946 WNEW teamed Gene up with Jack Lescoulie, and then Dee Finch, on what is considered to have been the first "morning-drive" radio show.
Gene's biggest break came in 1953,when he was hired as announcer-sidekick position on Steve Allen's local variety show. One year later, the show went national on NBC, titled "The Steve Allen Tonight! Show". The show aired live for 105 minutes five nights a week ,during which Gene particpated in skits, interviews, and doing a news report every night at 12:30 am. NBC was quick to recognize Gene's talents and, after Steve Allen left the show in 1956,the network tapped Gene to host a number of game shows, including "Make The Connection", "Choose Up Sides","Tic-Tac-Dough", "Musical Chairs" and "Dough-Re-Mi", where Gene showed off his comedic talents by performing a monologue at the beginning of each show.
He was also a frequent substitute emcee for "To Tell The Truth" and "Play Your Hunch". In 1961 he began a four year run as host of the Miss Universe Pageant.
December 31, 1962 would mark the beginning of Gene's greatest success. "The Match Game" made its debut and aired at each weekday for the next 6 years and 9 months. Although it was a fairly quiet show,Gene found a number of openings for humor, especially when the show added "Telephone Match" in 1967,requiring Gene to call & chat with a home viewer on each show. In 1969 the show was cancelled and Gene wouldn't host another show for three years. In 1972 Gene hosted "The Amateur's Guide to Love" for CBS. The show flopped, but CBS would unveil a brand new lineup that fall that would lead to a new chance. CBS hadn't forgotten the success of "The Match Game" on NBC during the sixties and called Goodson-Todman Productions about producing a new version. In response to the huge success of "The Hollywood Squares", the show was reformatted to involve more celebrities (six instead of the original two).
Gene was asked to host the new version,and at his request, the "name something" line of questioning was dumped after 6 weeks in favor of double-entendre style questions written by professional comedy writers. It took only a few weeks for the new version, "Match Game '73", to become the number-one show on daytime television, a distinction it held for four seasons. In 1975, Gene and the panel headed to prime-time with a once-a-week syndicated version, entitled "Match Game PM", which enjoyed a six-year run.
After CBS's boneheaded move of changing the show's time slot twice in seven weeks,the audience eroded, not knowing when the show would be on or assuming it had been cancelled, which it was in 1979.
Gene's wife of 56 years, Helen,died in October 1996, and Gene never recovered from the loss. He died of heart failure on November 29, 1999.