<Archive Obituary> Allen Ludden (June 9th 1981)
Bill Schenley
Cancer
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FROM: The Associated Press (June 9th 1981) ~
By Yardena Arar, AP Press Writer
Allen Ludden, longtime game show host of TV's "Password" and
"G.E. College Bowl," died Tuesday after a long battle with
cancer. He was 63.
Ludden's wife, actress Betty White, was at his side when he
died at 1:25 a.m. PDT at Good Samaritan Hospital, said
hospital spokeswoman Betty Sheller.
"Doctors say it was cancer," Ms. Sheller said of the cause
of death.
Ludden had been in and out of the hospital in recent months
due to ailments stemming from the cancer, which was
diagnosed a year and a half ago, said Larry Bloustein,
publicist for Miss White. A malignancy had been removed from
his side in an operation last year.
It was shortly after the operation that Ludden went into a
coma and was forced to leave NBC's "Password" in its 20th
anniversary year.
In an interview last January he said he hoped to return to
television if only to thank the fans who had sent him their
good wishes during his illness.
"I've been on television for about 20 years, and I just did
my job," he said. "But the mail that I have had, the prayers
I've had said -- I start to cry every time I talk about it.
... You just don't realize how many people can really relate
to you and care about you."
Since then he did radio commercials for the Southern
California Gas Co. but never returned to "Password" or to
television.
There were reports that Ludden suffered a stroke last year,
but doctors later determined that his coma was triggered by
a calcium imbalance related to his cancer therapy, Bloustein
said.
Ludden's broadcast career began before World War II, but he
was most identified with "Password," which he emceed since
its beginning in 1961.
"Password," in which contestants tried to figure out a
mystery word based on one-word clues given by a partner, was
one of the few game shows to become a hit on prime-time
television. In its heyday the program attracted an
impressive roster of celebrity guests, including Lucille
Ball, Fred Astaire, Jack Benny and Olivia de Havilland, who
never before wanted to appear on game shows.
The show left CBS after six years but returned to the air in
syndication during the 1970s and was most recently seen on
NBC.
Born in Mineral Point, Wis., Ludden taught high school
English in Austin, Texas, and worked briefly at a Corpus
Christi radio station before entering the Army in 1942. He
produced and directed 40 radio shows in the Pacific and
after World War II became personal manager of Shakespearean
actor Maurice Evans.
Following a stint at a radio station in Hartford, Conn.,
Ludden became moderator of the radio forerunner of "G.E.
College Bowl" in 1953 and emceed the popular television quiz
show for four years starting in 1959.
Between 1957 and 1959 he also was program director for WCBS
radio in New York and later director of programs for all
CBS-owned radio stations. Before moving to "Password" he was
director of creative services for CBS News, where he served
as voice coach for newsmen Harry Reasoner and Charles
Kuralt.
Ludden's first wife, Margaret, died in 1962 and a year later
he married Miss White, best known as the sardonic,
man-chasing TV homemaker, Sue Ann Nivens, on the "Mary Tyler
Moore" show.
Ludden is survived by his three children from his first
marriage -- David, Martha and Sarah -- and his mother.
A funeral service will be held Thursday afternoon in the
Church of the Hills at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Los
Angeles, followed by burial in Mineral Point, Bloustein
said.
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