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The song reached the #1 spot on the Hit Parade and sold three million copies. Griffin became increasingly popular with nightclub audiences, and his fame soared among the general public with his 1950 hit ' I've Got a Lovely Bunch of Coconuts'. In 1947, Griffin had a 15-minute weekday singing program on KFRC in San Francisco. īy 1945, Griffin had earned enough money to form his own record label, Panda Records, which produced Songs by Merv Griffin, the first U.S. įreddy Martin heard Griffin on the radio show and asked him to tour with his orchestra, which he did for four years. He resolved to change his appearance and lost 80 pounds in four months. Griffin wrote years later in his autobiography that there was a deliberate effort to keep the public from finding out how he looked. He was overweight as an adolescent and a young man, which disappointed some radio fans when they saw him in person. Griffin started as a singer on radio at age 19, appearing on San Francisco Sketchbook, a nationally syndicated program based at KFRC. During the Korean War several years later, he was examined and deemed healthy enough to serve, but by that time was above age 26 and exempt from the draft. ĭuring World War II, Griffin was declared 4F after failing several military physical examinations due to a slight heart murmur. Griffin was a member of the international fraternity Tau Kappa Epsilon. He attended San Mateo Junior College and then the University of San Francisco. Griffin attended San Mateo High School, graduating in 1942, and continued to aid in financing the school. His abilities as a pianist played a part in his early entry into show business. Raised as a Catholic, Griffin started singing in his church choir as a boy, and by his teens was earning extra money as a church organist. It was these games which inspired him to create the game show Wheel of Fortune in 1975. As a child, Griffin used to play Hangman games with his sister during family road trips.

Griffin was born July 6, 1925, in San Mateo, California, to Mervyn Edward Griffin Sr., a stockbroker, and Rita Elizabeth Griffin (née Robinson), a homemaker. Griffin also created the game shows Jeopardy! and Wheel of Fortune through his own production companies, Merv Griffin Enterprises and Merv Griffin Entertainment. From 1962 to 1986, Griffin hosted his own talk show, The Merv Griffin Show.

He began his career as a radio and big band singer, later appearing in film and on Broadway. (J– August 12, 2007) was an American television show host and media mogul.

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