Anson Randolph Merriman (December 1, 1911 – October 27, 2005) was an American television producer, game show host and radio broadcaster. He was the first host of The Big Payoff game show on NBC.
Early life
Merriman was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota. After his parents died when he was two years old, he was raised by his grandparents. Fascinated by show business—he painted local dogs as zebras to perform in his personal circus—he left his military school at 17 to join the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus as a prop man. Because of his loud voice, he later became a barker.
Career
Merriman subsequently returned to Minneapolis, where he worked as an usher at the Stage Theater until it closed. He and his best friend Tom Green then went into vaudeville as a double act; after Green quit, Merriman became emcee of a variety show.
His first job in broadcasting was at local Minneapolis-St. Paul radio station KSTP, where he hosted Tavern Trouper, a World War II show enabling Minnesotans serving in the South Pacific to talk to those back home, before touring for the USO with Bob Hope. After the war he returned to Minneapolis and KSTP, with Jimmy Valentine hosting the early quiz show Fun For Your Money on the NBC affiliate KSTP-TV. In 1951 he became the first host of The Big Payoff in New York, working with assistant and former Miss America Bess Myerson. He was also involved in the show's production. He left the show in 1957 to be replaced by Bob Paige.
After returning to Minnesota in 1958, he worked for WCCO, hosting shows including Honest to Goodness with Dick Chapman and the Fan in the Stands pre-game radio shows on WCCO AM for the Minnesota Twins.
He was inducted into the Minnesota Broadcasting Hall of Fame in 2003.
Personal life and death
Merriman was married twice; his first wife, with whom he had a daughter and two sons, died in the mid-1970s and he remarried two years later. He retired to Boca Raton, Florida, where he was active in the Zuhrah Shrine Merrymakers and became a member of the International Brotherhood of Magicians. He died at home of pneumonia on October 27, 2005.
References
- ^ Malikie Fornah, "Capping a Career", South Florida Sun Sentinel, August 17, 2001.
- ^ "Merriman, Randy", in Harris M. Lentz III, Obituaries in the Performing Arts, 2005: Film, Television, Radio, Theatre, Dance, Music, Cartoons and Pop Culture, Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland, 2006, ISBN 9780786424894, p. 257.
- ^ "Anson R. 'Randy' Merriman", Pavek Museum, Minnesota Broadcasting Hall of Fame, retrieved December 4, 2019.
- Stew Thornley, Minnesota Twins Baseball: Hardball History on the Prairie, The History Press, 2014.