LOS ANGELES 鈥� If not for the prejudice of the times, Monte Halperin, the Jewish butcher鈥檚 kid from Winnipeg鈥檚 north end, might have entered medical school and Monty Hall would never have been born.
Hall, the engaging, smooth-talking host of Let鈥檚 Make a Deal for 23 years on all three U.S. broadcast TV networks, died Saturday.
He was 96.
But in 2002, around the time he was being named to the Order of Manitoba, he recalled that it had been his dream to become a doctor, not an actor.
鈥淓very poor kid wants to get into some kind of profession, and, in my case, I wanted to get into medicine to become a doctor,鈥� said Hall, a product of the same north-end Winnipeg schools that produced Guess Who frontman Burton Cummings and comedian David Steinberg.
鈥淚 applied at the end of my pre-med and I applied the following year,鈥� he said.
Hall was not accepted.
鈥淢y dreams of medicine evaporated.鈥�
At the time, there was a secret quota system in place designed to severely restrict access to medical school for Jewish students. It ended shortly after Hall gave up on his dream.
Instead, Hall turned to his other talent, performing.
He had been active in student theatre at the University of Manitoba and worked at a radio station in Winnipeg. After a short stint at the Canadian Wheat Board in Winnipeg, he moved to Toronto and continued to work in radio.
While there, he developed and hosted the quiz show Who Am I for CFRB and hosted a CBC television dance program.
Hall moved to the United States in 1955, where he worked for NBC on radio and television and later for CBS, hosting various programs.
He hosted the game show Keep Talking in 1958 but his career path was sealed for certain when, with partner Stefan Hatos, he co-created Let鈥檚 Make a Deal and in 1963 started offering contestants 鈥淒oor No. 1, door No. 2 or door No. 3.鈥�
Contestants were chosen from the studio audience 鈥� outlandishly dressed as animals, clowns or cartoon characters to attract the host鈥檚 attention 鈥� and would start the game by trading an item of their own for a prize. After that, it was matter of swapping the prize in hand for others hidden behind doors, curtains or in boxes.
The energetic, quick-thinking Hall, a sight himself with his sideburns and colourful sports coats, was deemed the perfect host in Alex McNeil鈥檚 reference book, Total Television. 鈥淢onty kept the show moving while he treated the outrageously garbed and occasionally greedy contestants courteously; it is hard to imagine anyone else but Hall working the trading area as smoothly,鈥� McNeil wrote.
Although it was off the air twice (from 1977-80 and 1981-84) the show was a popular staple of daytime television on NBC, CBS and ABC for decades. It ended its run on NBC in 1991 before returning to CBS in 2009 with Wayne Brady as host.
The 1980-1981 incarnation of the show was filmed at Panorama Studios in West Vancouver, and Hall came to Victoria in July 1980, to drum up interest in the show.
He said in an interview with the Daily Colonist that he was not sure that 鈥渟taid little old ladies from Victoria,鈥� with accents from behind the Tweed Curtain, would be suitable as contestants on the show. 鈥淭hey鈥檙e going to have to speak American,鈥� he said.
The West Vancouver version of the show lasted just one season, and ended with Hall and Hatos petitioning to have Catalena Productions, the producer of the show, placed in bankruptcy.
Hatos and Hall created other shows 鈥� Split Second, Chain Letter, 3 for the Money, Anybody鈥檚 Guess 鈥� but none ever reached the same enduring level of popularity as Let鈥檚 Make a Deal.
Hall and his show even spawned a mathematical brain teaser. The Monty Hall Problem uses his familiar doors to teach a little bit about odds and probabilities.
Outside the studio, Hall became a major fundraiser for Variety Clubs International and other charitable causes.
That work brought him back to Victoria in 1983, when he spent four hours at the Empress Hotel a few days after the Variety Club gave him its Humanitarian Award. Other recipients of that award included Winston Churchill, Helen Keller and Cardinal Paul-脡mile L茅ger.
Hall was lifetime honorary chairman of the Variety Club board.
He told the sa国际传媒 that while Hollywood is a place for stars, not too many were willing to do charity work. He urged other show business people to start givng back through charity work.
Hall also said that his fame followed him wherever we went.
鈥淭oday, as I was walking toward my plane, the guy at the airport said: 鈥楧o you want to go through door No. 1, door No. 2 or door No. 3?鈥� 鈥� he said.
With his wife Marilyn, a television producer, he had three children who all went into entertainment. Daughter Joanna Gleason won a Tony award in 1987 for her role in Broadway鈥檚 Into the Woods and has worked in television and film. Daughter Sharon Hall and son Richard Hall also worked behind the scenes in television.
Besides the Order of Manitoba, he was made a member of the Order of sa国际传媒 and has his name on sa国际传媒鈥檚 Walk of Fame in Toronto, as well as Hollywood鈥檚 more famous original and another in Palm Springs.
Although he became an American citizen and raised his family in Beverly Hills, California. Hall never forgot sa国际传媒 or his hometown and made many visits back to Winnipeg.
鈥淵ou can take the boy out of sa国际传媒, but you can鈥檛 take sa国际传媒 out of the boy,鈥� he once said.
鈥淚 still follow and pull for the Winnipeg Blue Bombers and I still pull for sa国际传媒 when they play the Olympic hockey.鈥�
Sharon Hall said her father died of heart failure at his home in Beverly Hills. She said Hall, who was born in Winnipeg in 1921, enjoyed his fame and never turned down an autograph or a chance to use his name to help others. She estimates he raised nearly $1 billion for charity over his lifetime.
鈥� with files from the sa国际传媒
