11 August
2006 Chatmag News.
Mike Douglas,
born August 11, 1925, has died, according to his family. Douglas was a
pioneer in the TV talk show format.
After serving
briefly in the United States Navy near the end of World War II, Douglas
became a vocalist in the big band of Kay Kyser, with whom he was featured
on two notable hits, "Ole Buttermilk Sky" in 1946 and "The Old Lamplighter"
the following year. He remained part of Kyser's band until Kyser retired
from show business in 1951.
He next surfaced
in 1961 in Cleveland, where he was hired for $400 a week as an afternoon
television talk-show host at KYW-TV. The show rapidly gained popularity,
and ultimately, national syndication in August 1963 on five Westinghouse-owned
stations. It stopped broadcasting live in 1965 after guest Zsa Zsa Gabor
used inappropriate language on the air. The program moved to Philadelphia
in June of 1965. Guests ranged from Truman Capote and Richard M. Nixon
to The Rolling Stones and Herman's Hermits. The show helped introduce entertainers
such as Barbra Streisand and Aretha Franklin. Regrettably, Streisand's
appearance, like many others of this era, was discarded by KYW-TV.
After the move
to Philadelphia, Douglas also attempted to revive his own singing career,
logging his lone Top 40 single as a solo artist, "The Men In My Little
Girl's Life," in 1966.
By 1967 The Mike
Douglas Show was broadcasting to 171 markets and 6,000,000 viewers each
day, mostly women at home. It earned $10.5 million from advertisers, while
its host was paid more than $500,000. In 1967, the program received the
first Emmy Award for Individual Achievement in Daytime Television from
the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences.
Douglas became
a local cultural icon in Philadelphia, often inviting prominent players
from the city's professional sports teams to be guests on his show (he
had a particular affinity for the city's pro football team, the Philadelphia
Eagles, constantly referring to the team as "Our Eagles," and he could
often be seen in attendance at Eagles' home games, especially whenever
they appeared on Monday Night Football). He also assisted in mayor Frank
Rizzo's campaign against derisive jokes often told by outsiders about the
city, acting as chief spokesperson for the "Anti-Defamation Agency" Rizzo
had set up for this purpose.
In July of 1978,
the talk show's home base was transferred to Los Angeles, where it remained
until finally going off the air in 1981. A second series, "The Mike Douglas
Entertainment Hour," ended production in 1982.
He was diagnosed
with prostate cancer in 1990, but after surgery he was cancer free.
Douglas passed
away on his 81st birthday, August 11, 2006 in North Palm Beach, Florida.
He died at 5:30 am at a Palm Beach Gardens hospital.
--Source for biographical
information: Wikipedia--
