Big Pay-off Host Dead at 93

[bierkenstock]

The St. Paul Pioneer Press reports classic TV game show host Randy Merriman died Thursday in Boca Raton, FL. From 1951 to 1958, Merriman was host of the daytime quiz show "The Big Pay-off," on the CBS Television Network. His co-host was former Miss America (1945) Bess Meyerson (later New York City Commissioner of Consumer Affairs). The show's top prize was a full length mink coat, modelled by the stunning and goddess-like Miss Meyerson (an image burned into the memory of a generation). After the Big Pay-off, Merriman returned to local TV in the Twin Cities.
http://www.twincities.com/mld/twincities/13026943.htm

 

[DrBear]

> The St. Paul Pioneer Press reports classic TV game show host
> Randy Merriman died Thursday in Boca Raton, FL. From 1951
> to 1958, Merriman was host of the daytime quiz show "The Big
> Pay-off," on the CBS Television Network. His co-host was
> former Miss America (1945) Bess Meyerson (later New York
> City Commissioner of Consumer Affairs). The show's top
> prize was a full length mink coat, modelled by the stunning
> and goddess-like Miss Meyerson (an image burned into the
> memory of a generation). After the Big Pay-off, Merriman
> returned to local TV in the Twin Cities.
> http://www.twincities.com/mld/twincities/13026943.htm
>
***registration required***

 

[bpatrick]

> > The St. Paul Pioneer Press reports classic TV game show
> host
> > Randy Merriman died Thursday in Boca Raton, FL. From 1951
>
> > to 1958, Merriman was host of the daytime quiz show "The
> Big
> > Pay-off," on the CBS Television Network. His co-host was
> > former Miss America (1945) Bess Meyerson (later New York
> > City Commissioner of Consumer Affairs). The show's top
> > prize was a full length mink coat, modelled by the
> stunning
> > and goddess-like Miss Meyerson (an image burned into the
> > memory of a generation). After the Big Pay-off, Merriman
> > returned to local TV in the Twin Cities.
> > http://www.twincities.com/mld/twincities/13026943.htm
> >
> ***registration required***
>
I read somewhere not long ago that after Merriman retired and
his first wife died, he moved to Florida and spent a lot of
time on his boat; he also remarried. Merriman had been a
fixture in the Twin Cities as far back as the late 1930s.
Come to think of it, he and Pat Sajak have something in common:
emcees who are overshadowed by the model/hostess. I still
remember, when I was about three or four years old, seeing
Bess Myerson modeling that mink coat, but I don't remember
Randy Merriman. I hope he took living in Ms. Myerson's shadow
as well as Sajak has, living in Vanna White's.