I don’t have any stories about meeting Betty White, who passed away last week at the age of 99, about three weeks short of her 100th birthday. A lot of articles, though, talked about her great marriage to TV gameshow host Allen Ludden – and I do have a story about him, so that’s the best I can do. When I was a graduate student at UCLA, I lived in the graduate dorm Mira Hershey Hall. At one point, we decided to hold a College Bowl tournament like the old TV show. People organized their teams, and a committee of medical students, law students, chemistry PhD candidates and so on wrote the questions, and one of the dorm residents played host. That is, until the finals. We had the idea that wouldn’t it be a great idea if we contacted Allen Ludden, who had been the host of College Bowl on TV many years earlier and find out if he’d be willing to host our finals. (I’m sure we offered to pay him, I just don’t know those details.) And to everyone’s shock, he said, yes. Now, it helps to keep something in perspective. Though Allen Ludden had a place in people's hearts there from his years hosting College Bowl, he also had a sort of goofy persona to people because...well, he was a game show host. And had been for decades. Just standing there asking questions. In fact, on Password, he really didn't even ask questions. He'd pretty much just say, "Here's your first word," and tell each team when it was their turn. It was an off-screen announcer who would actually give the password. But still, goofy persona or not, he'd been the host of College Bowl, was a real-life celebrity, married to Betty White, and an expert at this sort of thing. The finals were a big deal because the contest had been going on for many weeks. And an even bigger deal because Allen Ludden would be hosting. The lounge was jam-packed. When Ludden showed up, the first thing he said was, “In all my years hosting College Bowl, these are the hardest questions I’ve ever seen.” (It got a big, knowing laugh…) What that should have made clear to everyone is that it meant Allen Ludden had read the questions beforehand. So, he wasn’t going to slum this. Take the money and run. It meant he at least made an effort to prepare, even for a small graduate dorm at UCLA with no camera, no publicity, no national audience. Only a lounge-full of about 100 grad students. But as it turned out, he didn’t just make an effort to prepare – he prepared. He knew the questions inside and out, had read the answered and I’m sure had also practiced asking them since he hadn’t done this in ages. While it hadn’t been all that long since he hosted Password, that was a totally different show, almost laconic in comparison. College Bowl was another animal entirely. It was a battle. Between two college teams out to prove on national TV that we are smarter and better than the other. And so, when the game began in that lounge, and he snapped out, “Okay, first question, toss-up,” there was almost an electric reaction in the room, because we were used by then to student hosts – and here was someone who in just those three words riveted our attention, and you could everyone there sitting up, taking notice. I can’t do it justice. It will just be words here. No sense of the authority he brought to it, the energy, the pace, the almost snap to attention. “Toss-up, Blue Team. Correct, 10 points. Bonus question. Yes, five points. Next question, toss-up. Red Team. Sorry, that’s wrong. The question goes to the Blue Team to steal. Correct, 10 points. Bonus question. No, that’s not correction. Next toss-up, this for 10 points….” On and on like that, unrelenting, totally in command, fully in charge. You were almost out of breath just listing. And the game went on for about 20-30 minutes. It was riveting. He took it totally seriously. Mostly because clearly that’s who he was, but I’m sure too because he recognized that the questions took it seriously, and he respected that. But it was clear, too, that he had the full awareness that this was ultimately fun, it wasn’t College Bowl on TV. He had the right sense of place and occasion. After all, he was surrounded by grad students in a crammed dorm lounge, it was hard to miss that. And he didn’t miss a beat. He balanced professionalism, seriousness and fun. Which is a tough trick when, at heart, you’re standing in a small lounge surrounded by college kids. He was wonderful, and I only wish it was in the days of cell phones so that someone would have recorded it. Because I didn’t come close to doing it justice. But whenever I read about what a great marriage Betty White and Allen Ludden had, and we all had a sense of her personality, I always thought back to that graduate dorm version of College Bowl that Allen Ludden agreed to do and had my own sense why their marriage was so great. But I should still get back to Betty White. And on Saturday, NBC reran the 2010 episode of Saturday Night Live which she hosted at age 88. She was wonderful, and the opening monologue stood out. Here it is --
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AuthorRobert J. Elisberg is a political commentator, screenwriter, novelist, tech writer and also some other things that I just tend to keep forgetting. Feedspot Badge of Honor
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