Green Bay Press-Gazette from Green Bay, Wisconsin • Page 44

rmm iMiim iniiirir mnri i ipMmiiiniriMiBii-a imihii miwii mini iirttniiijjiiiiii Ludden finds 'Password' to success By DON ROYAL "Password" host Allen Ludden tells a story about the small boy who asked his father where he came from. The father, who had been dreading the day the question would be asked, launched into a long and painfully contrived explanation on the facts of life. The boy listened attentively. At last the father concluded, "So now you know. But just as a matter of curiosity, son, how did you happen to ask?" "Nothing special, Dad," the boy replied.

"The new boy at school said he was from Chicago, and I was just wondering where I came from." "All of us at one time or another," Ludden says, "want to know where we came from. But this only precedes the far more important question to which every man wants an answer. And that is, 'Where am I It's a question, Ludden admits, ruefully, "that Dad can't always answer." Most men find the answer, if ever, for themselves much earlier than Ludden did. Ludden, now 44, found his answer only last year when he chucked his executive job with CBS to become a full-time television host. Held both positions simultaneously Until he resigned last September as a consultant for Creative Services, CBS News, Ludden considered television hosting a part-time thing, and just possibly one of the most temporary occupations extant.

Until he began hosting "Password" October 2, Ludden emceed the once-a-week "G.E. College Bowl" and held his position with CBS News. "I had a wife and three kids," he explains, "and felt I couldn't afford to take a chance." But with the debut of Goodson-Todman's "Password," which leaped to phenomenally quick success, Ludden decided to lay his future on the line as a television personality. "I knew 'Password' was a good game, the first time I saw it played. But I didn't trust my own judgment.

When Mark Goodson and Bill Tod-man asked me last summer to try out as host, I took my son David (who's 13) along. I figured that if David liked it as much as I did, my wife would, and then it would be all right. "Password," the CBS-TV word-game program hosted by Allen Ludden, is now sweeping the country as a home parlor game. Every week, top television personalities, such as those pictured here, have themselves a ball as Ludden's guests. David loved it, and my wife, Margaret, and I and the other two kids (Martha, 12, Sarah, 9) played it at home.

They liked it, and thought the game had dignity and wouldn't hurt my 'College Bowl' image whatever that is. "The more I thought about the stronger I felt about it. The result was I made up my mind that I was willing to stake my future on it plus, of course, other programs of this type." Threw his lot to "Password" Ludden's all-or-nothing decision, incidentally, became all the more "final" recently. In mid-May, Ludden announced "with regret" that he would not return as host of CBS' "College Bowl" for the 1962-63 season. "I had a choice," he says, "of staying with 'College Bowl' or giving up the nighttime I couldn't do both shows because of an unusual programming schedule.

'College Bowl' airs Sundays at 5:30 p.m., New York time, and the nighttime 'Password' moves in the fall from Tuesdays to Sundays in the 6:30 p.m. time slot. is also seen at 2:00 p.m. Monday-Friday, on CBS.) "G.E., which had me under contract originally, did not want me to appear on another show so close, in time, to 'College I hated to leave 'College Bowl' it was the show that really gave me my big boost on TV. "But I believe I have much more of a chance to develop as a performer on so I felt I had to throw my lot in that direction." He was born in Mineral, but Ludden considers himself a Texan: he and his parents moved to Corpus Christi when he was nine years old.

During World War II, Ludden worked in the Pacific with the well-known Shakespearan actor, Maurice Evans, and produced and directed more than 40 Army shows. After the war, he rejoined Evans as personal manager and advance man for a national tour of "Hamlet." He also lectured on the production in more than 500 schools and colleges. The Ludden dossier also includes credits as copy writer and authorship of four books: "Plain Talk for Men Under 21," "Plain Talk for Women Under 21," "Plain Talk About College" and "Roger Thomas, Actor," a career novel. Ludden's "advice" books were all inspired by the success of "Mind Your Manners," a program he helped develop on radio in Hartford, Conn. The show won a Peabody and two Ohio State awards and was so popular that NBC put the show and Ludden, its host on New York television.

Ludden subsequently emceed a number of other TV shows out of New York until, in 1954, the show he was working on sank in its channel. Television, not he, has changed "Suddenly," he recalls, "I couldn't get another emcee job. Luckily, after some doing, I was able to get an executive berth, first at NBC, then CBS. "But my question is," he says, "why am I flooded with hosting offers today when, half a dozen years ago, I had to quit this sort of thing to be able to work at all? "Why," Ludden asks, "am I suddenly so commercial? "I haven't changed. I'm a better showman, perhaps, but essentially I'm the same guy.

What has changed is television. "The air today is full of shows a sponsor wouldn't have touched back in '54 and '55 and 'College Bowl' and 'Password' are just two of them." Ludden's first forthcoming challenge and opportunity, outside his continuing chores on "Password," is the Broadway comedy, "Critic's Choice," in which he'll appear opposite Betty White for two August weeks in Maine and Massachusetts. Ludden will play the role originated by Henry Fonda on the New York stage. Meanwhile, too, he has organized Ellsworth Productions, his own company, and plans some films for educational television. There's also another book in the future.

In addition to all this, Sardi's, the famed theatrical restaurant, has commissioned a Ludden caricature to hang on its wall alongside those of such celebrities as Arlene Francis, Jackie Gleason and Ludden's former boss, Aiaurice Evans. In show business circles, the Sardi's bit, if nothing else, would indicate that Ludden has "arrived." 12 Sunday, July 8, 1962 GREEN BAY PRESS GAZETTE.