The Bill Cullen Centennial

Born 100 years ago today, broadcast personality Bill Cullen (1920-1990).

When I was a kid in the ’70s, Bill Cullen was, along with Kitty Carlisle and Peggy Cass, one of the regular panelists on the game show To Tell the Truth, and on rare occasion he subbed for Garry Moore as the host. Carlisle was an opera singer, actress, and socialite I later learned; Cass was also an actress, mostly a comedic one. But who was Cullen? It turns out he pretty much did THIS. By the time this incarnation of To Tell the Truth went off the air in 1978 Cullen had been a game show panelist and/or host for over 30 years. He was the original host of The Price is Right (1956-63), and was also known for hosting Winner Take All and Name that Tune, and being a panelist on I’ve Got a Secret, along with a couple of dozen similar gigs from the late ’40s through the early ’80s.

Originally, Cullen had been a radio sportscaster, starting out at WWSW in Pittsburgh, his home town, in 1939. He went on to become a gag writer for Arthur Godfrey, Danny Kaye, Jack Benny, and Goodman Ace. He began announcing game shows on radio in 1945. At the peak of his tv fame, he also hosted a morning show on WNBC radio which ran 1955 to 1961.

These two photographs from his glory days illustrate two things about Cullen. One is that All-American crew cut that was his original look, something he shared with Moore, which we mentioned here. The other — clues about a malady Cullen had suffered as a youngster: polio. On television you usually saw him sitting, or leaning on something. (In the photo on the right he seems to be on a tall stool). The TV wizards did a good job of disguising it, I never even noticed.

There is an extremely thorough website dedicated to Bill Cullen here, tied in with a biography about him entitled Quizmaster, by Adam Nedoff.