Aug 13, 2007 01:43 PM
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Hollywood, 4:37 AM
Fri Mar 19
56 posts in the last 24 hours
You've by now likely heard the sad news that Merv Griffin—iconic American talk show host, hotelier, game show innovator, and, less illustriously, discoverer of Ryan Seacrest—died on Sunday at the age of 82. To honor his passing, a round-up:
· Griffin got his start as a big-band singer in the 1940s, and scored his first number one hit in 1949 with "I've Got a Lovely Bunch of Coconuts," an up-tempo and innuendo-laden ditty that was not unlike the "My Humps" of its day. [YouTube]
· Sued for sexual harassment by two former male employees in the early '90s (both suits later dismissed), Merv once told a NY Times reporter who questioned his sexuality, "I tell everybody that I'm a quatre-sexual. I will do anything with anybody for a quarter"—yet another demonstration of the bold entrepreneurial spirit that made Griffin such a wealthy and well-liked Hollywood impresario. [USA Today]
· Offering a tour of the photos lining his office walls, Griffin once indicated he was on a nickname-only basis with the greatest civil rights crusader of our time: "Yes, here I am with John Kennedy...And here I am with Frank Sinatra...And here's Elizabeth Taylor...And Marty King..." [pastdeadline.com]
· The numbers you're probably wondering about: $1.6 billion, one son, two grandchildren. [LAT]
· Merv composed the Jeopardy theme music himself, which he banged out on his piano in less than 30 minutes— a melody he anticipated earned him somewhere between $70-$80 million, or what Merv dismissively referred to as "cabana boy tip money." [National Post]
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