Bill Cullen (
1920-
1990) was a popular radio announcer and
quiz show host in the 1930s and 1940s. A teenage bout of
polio left him with a pronounced limp which made it difficult for him to make it onto television. He finally did, in a big way. Among his early television efforts were as a panelist on
I’ve Got a Secret (
1952-
1967) and his first TV hosting job on
Place the Face in
1954.
Cullen would go on to set all sorts of records for longevity in a business notorious for short shelf-lives. Over the decades, he would host over 30 different television programs and hosted more
game shows than anyone in history. At one point he was hosting over 25 hours of
television and
radio programming
a week, most of it live. Among the many shows he hosted were
Name That Tune,
The Price is Right, and
The $25,000 Pyramid. He retired after the cancellation of
The Joker’s Wild in
1986.