MIKE DOUGLAS
Aug. 11,
1925 - Aug. 11, 2006
Born Michael Delaney Dowd, Jr., Mike Douglas was among the late '40s big band
crooners whose dreams of pop stardom were derailed by rock 'n' roll. For
Douglas, who had made it from Chicago to Burbank and a slot in Kay Kyser's band
until the bandleader retired in 1951,
prospects for singers proved slim. A decade later, Douglas and his wife
resurfaced in Cleveland where Douglas took a job as host of an afternoon talk
show, establishing "The Mike Douglas Show" as an exportable hit. The show went
into syndication in 1963 and in 1965 relocated to Philadelphia, where Douglas
built the show into a substantial franchise. Guests ranged from Richard Nixon to
the Rolling Stones, Truman Capote to Aretha Franklin, reaching 171 television markets
by 1967, the very same year it won one of the very first daytime Emmy Awards.
Douglas employed a guest host format that yielded some memorable combinations,
perhaps most provocatively when he invited John Lennon and Yoko Ono to join him for his highest-rated week of shows.
The show moved again to Los Angeles in 1978, where it remained until it went off
the air in 1981.
(Image: Scott Weiner/Retna Ltd.)
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