Allen Ludden

Ludden was born on October 5, 1917, in Mineral Point, Wisconsin, the first child of Elmer and Leila M. (née Allen) Ellsworth. Elmer was a Nebraska native who worked as an ice dealer, while Leila was a Wisconsin native and housewife. Elmer Ellsworth died on January 6, 1919, at age 26, from the Spanish flu.{{cite news| title=Elmer Dale Ellsworth (Obituary)| newspaper=Iowa County Democrat| date=January 9, 1919| location=Mineral Point| page=1}}

When Ludden was about five years old, his mother married Homer J. Ludden, an electrical engineer. Homer J. Ludden was the son of Franklin C. Ludden, a merchant and then the superintendent of the electric plant in Mineral Point, Wisconsin.{{cite web |title=1900 United States Federal Census |url=https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/7602/images/4119932_00871?usePUB=true&_phsrc=Qya42&_phstart=successSource&usePUBJs=true&pId=63366518 |website=ancestry.com |access-date=4 January 2022}}{{cite web |title=1910 United States Federal Census |url=https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/7884/images/4454845_01048?usePUB=true&usePUBJs=true&pId=158394815 |website=ancestry.com |access-date=4 January 2022}} Allen was given his adoptive father's name and became Allen Ellsworth Ludden. The family lived briefly in the Wisconsin cities of Janesville, Elkhorn, Antigo, and Waupaca before moving to Texas when Ludden was nine years old.{{cite news| title=Ludden Finds 'Password' to Success| url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/19368387/allen_ludden_19171981/| newspaper=Green Bay Press Gazette| date=July 8, 1962| page=44| via=Newspapers.com| access-date=April 19, 2018}}{{Open access}} The Ludden family resided in Corpus Christi in 1940, appearing in the City Directory, where Allen is listed as a student, Homer an engineer, and Homer and Leila's son, Franklin C. Ludden, a mail clerk.{{cite web |title=Corpus Christi, Texas, City Directory, 1940 |url=https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/2469/images/4763642?usePUB=true&_phsrc=Qya72&_phstart=successSource&usePUBJs=true&pId=377925707 |website=ancestry.com |access-date=4 January 2022}}{{cite web |title=1940 United States Federal Census |url=https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/2442/images/m-t0627-04115-00140?pId=155670387 |website=ancestry.com |access-date=5 January 2022}}

File:College Bowl Princeton v Georgetown 1959.jpg and Georgetown University on the General Electric College Bowl in 1959]]

File:Allen Ludden Werner Klemperer Password 1971.jpg on Password in 1971]]

File:Elizabeth Montgomery Allen Ludden Password 1971.jpg on Password in 1972]]

File:Allen Ludden Jack Klugman Tony Randall Odd Couple.JPG and Tony Randall of The Odd Couple on Password in 1973]]

File:Stumpers Mike Farrell Allen Ludden Jamie Farr 1976.jpg stars Mike Farrell (left) and Jamie Farr (right) on the game show Stumpers in 1976.]]

An English and dramatics major at the University of Texas (now known as the University of Texas at Austin), Ludden graduated with Phi Beta Kappa honors in 1940 and received his Master of Arts in English from the same university in 1941. He served in the United States Army as officer in charge of entertainment in the Pacific theater, received a Bronze Star Medal for meritorious service, and was discharged with the rank of captain in 1946.

In 1948, Ludden became the program director at radio station WCBS in New York City.{{cite news |last1=Gross |first1=Ben |title=Collegians Don't Like 'Easy' Gals |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/daily-news/126056305/ |access-date=June 8, 2023 |work=Daily News |date=March 29, 1959 |location=New York, New York City |page=92|via = Newspapers.com}} He left that position in June 1959 to become program coordinator for all CBS owned-and-operated radio stations.{{cite news |last1=Adams |first1=Val |title=Another Official Resigns at C. B. S. |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1959/06/03/archives/another-official-resigns-at-c-b-s-t-h-ryan-to-join-hubbell-robinson.html |access-date=June 8, 2023 |work=The New York Times |date=June 3, 1959 |page=71|url-access=subscription}} During the late 1940s and early 1950s he began his career as an adviser for youth in teen magazine columns and on radio. His radio show for teenagers, Mind Your Manners, received an honorable mention Peabody Award in 1950.{{cite web| title=Mind Your Manners| url=http://www.peabodyawards.com/award-profile/mind-your-manners| website=The Peabody Awards| access-date=24 August 2018}}

Ludden hosted many game shows, including the College Bowl, but he was most well known for hosting both the daytime and prime time versions of Password on CBS and ABC between 1961 and 1975. His opening TV catch phrase, "Hi doll," was directed toward his mother-in-law, Tess White, the mother of his wife, actress and television personality Betty White.{{cite book| last=White| first=Betty| title=Here We Go Again: My Life In Television 1949-1995| url=https://archive.org/details/herewegoagainmyl0000whit| url-access=registration| quote=Hi doll.| location=New York City| publisher=Scribner|date=October 12, 2010| isbn=978-1451614268| access-date=August 24, 2018}}

Ludden began hosting an updated version of the game, Password Plus, on NBC, in 1979, but chemotherapy treatments for stomach cancer forced him off the show in late October 1980. Other shows hosted by Ludden include Liar's Club, Win with the Stars, and Stumpers! He also hosted the original pilot for The Joker's Wild and hosted a talk-variety show, Allen Ludden's Gallery.

At the request of the publishers Dodd, Mead & Co., Ludden wrote and published four books of "Plain Talk" advice, plus a youth novel, Roger Thomas, Actor (1959), all for young readers. He received the 1961 Horatio Alger Award.{{cite web |url=https://www.horatioalger.org/members/about-our-members/ |title=Members |publisher=Horatio Alger Association of Distinguished Americans |access-date=August 24, 2018}} He released an album called Allen Ludden Sings His Favorite Songs on RCA Records in 1964.

File:Allen Ludden Betty White 1963.JPG

Ludden married Margaret McGloin on October 11, 1943. She died of cancer on October 30, 1961. They had a son, David, and two daughters, Martha and Sarah.

He proposed to Betty White, whom he had met on Password, at least twice before she accepted.White, Betty. Here We Go Again: My Life In Television 1949-1995. New York, NY: Simon and Schuster, 1995. Their romance blossomed when they played summer stock theatre together, in the play Critic's Choice in 1962. They also appeared together in the romantic comedy Janus in 1963.{{cite web |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2009-jun-17-et-classic17-story.html |title=Betty White keeps saying yes to life's proposal |first=Susan |last=King |date=June 17, 2009 |newspaper=Los Angeles Times |access-date=February 6, 2017}}{{cite web |url=http://capeplayhouse.com/the-cape-playhouse-production-history/ |title=Production History |publisher=Cape Playhouse |access-date=February 6, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170206025301/http://capeplayhouse.com/the-cape-playhouse-production-history/ |archive-date=February 6, 2017 |url-status=dead |df=mdy-all }} They were married on June 6, 1963, and remained together until Ludden's death.

They appeared together in an episode of The Odd Couple in which Felix and Oscar appeared on Password and also as a couple on a season 4 episode of The Love Boat.

After Ludden was diagnosed with stomach cancer in early 1980, he took a month-long leave of absence from Password Plus for chemotherapy treatment, with Bill Cullen filling in as host. On October 7, 1980, he slipped into a coma while on vacation in Monterey, California.Daily Variety; October 9, 1980; Page 19 It was initially reported that he had a stroke, but the coma was actually caused by high levels of calcium from medication taken to help fight the cancer. Tom Kennedy assumed duties as host of Password Plus, and although Ludden hoped to return to the show, his cancer grew worse and he never returned. He died in Los Angeles on June 9, 1981, at age 63.{{cite news |title=Allen Ludden, TV Host, Is Dead; On 'College Bowl' and 'Password' |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1981/06/10/obituaries/allen-luden-dies.html |newspaper=The New York Times |date=June 10, 1981 |page=B6 |url-access=subscription}} Ludden was buried beside his father in the Ellsworth family plot in Graceland Cemetery in his hometown of Mineral Point, Wisconsin.

A walkway at the Los Angeles Zoo was named in his memory (Betty White was a board member at the Zoo), and an artificial lake in Mineral Point was named Ludden Lake in his honor.{{cite news| title=Local men pay tribute to Allen Ludden by cleaning tombstone| newspaper=Dodgeville Chronicle| date=June 20, 2013| last=Bechen| first=Brooke| access-date=August 24, 2018| url=http://www.thedodgevillechronicle.com/main.asp?SectionID=1&SubSectionID=8&ArticleID=3884}} Betty White also donated a Labrador Retriever named "Ludden" to Guide Dogs for the Blind in San Rafael, California, in memory of her late husband.{{cite web| title=Stories: Shelley Rhodes| website=Guide Dogs for the Blind| url=http://www.guidedogs.com/site/PageServer?pagename=stories_srhodes| url-status=dead| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304072247/http://www.guidedogs.com/site/PageServer?pagename=stories_srhodes| archive-date=2016-03-04}}

Ludden's star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame is located on the north side of the 6700 block of Hollywood Boulevard, next to Betty White's.{{cite web |last1=Townsend |first1=Dorothy |title=Allen Ludden |url=http://projects.latimes.com/hollywood/star-walk/allen-ludden/ |work=Los Angeles Times |access-date=3 April 2021 |language=en}} White accepted Ludden's posthumous star on April 19, 1987, during an appearance on This Is Your Life.{{cite web |last1=Gowers |first1=Bruce |title=Betty White |url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7758078/ |website=imdb.com |access-date=3 April 2021 |date=19 April 1987}} The star was formally unveiled in a ceremony on March 31, 1988.{{cite web|date=March 31, 1988|title=Allen Ludden gets posthumous star on Walk of Fame|url=https://www.upi.com/Archives/1988/03/31/Allen-Ludden-gets-posthumous-star-on-Walk-of-Fame/2978575787600/|access-date=3 April 2021|website=UPI|language=en}}

When Betty White was asked in an interview on Larry King Live whether she would remarry, she said, "Once you've had the best, who needs the rest?"{{cite news| last=Weiss| first=Shari| title=Betty White: Charlie Sheen and Lindsay Lohan are 'ungrateful' actors who 'abuse' their fame| url=http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/gossip/betty-white-charlie-sheen-lindsay-lohan-ungrateful-actors-abuse-fame-article-1.111942| access-date=January 18, 2014| newspaper=New York Daily News| date=April 9, 2011}} She never remarried and died in 2021 at age 99.{{cite web |last1=Leopold |first1=Todd |title=Betty White, beloved and trailblazing actress, dies at 99 |url=https://www.cnn.com/2021/12/31/entertainment/betty-white-obituary/index.html |website=CNN |access-date=January 9, 2022 |date=December 31, 2021}}

The Allen Ludden Papers collection is located at the Free Public Library in his native Mineral Point, Wisconsin. The items include letters written or received by Ludden, typed radio scripts, newspaper and magazine clippings by or about Ludden, publicity photographs and personal photographs, and a broken pair of horn-rimmed glasses. The collection was donated by Betty White.{{cite web| url=http://www.swls.org/member.mi_localhistory.html| title=The Mineral Point Archives| publisher=Mineral Point Public Library| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080514052857/http://www.swls.org/member.mi_localhistory.html |archive-date=2008-05-14}}

• Bronze Star Medal 1946

• Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Game Show Host 1976

• Hollywood Walk of Fame 1988 (posthumous)

{{Reflist}}

• [https://web.archive.org/web/20080919060805/http://www.tv.com/allen-ludden/person/61350/biography.html Allen Ludden's biography] on TV.com
• {{Find a Grave|1925}}
• {{IMDb name|id=0524843|name=Allen Ludden}}

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{{Succession box|before=N/A|title=Host, College Bowl | years=1959–1962 | after=Robert Earle
1962–1970}}

{{Succession box|before=N/A|title=Host, Password, Password Plus|years = 1961–1967, 1971–1975, 1979–1980 (interrupted by Bill Cullen in 1980)|after=Tom Kennedy}}

{{Succession box|before=Peter Marshall|title=Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Game Show Host|years=1976|after=Bert Convy}}

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{{Daytime Emmy Award Outstanding Game Show Host}}

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Category:1917 births

Category:1981 deaths

Category:American game show hosts

Category:Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Game Show Host winners

Category:Deaths from stomach cancer in California

Category:Jefferson High School (San Antonio, Texas) alumni

Category:Military personnel from Wisconsin

Category:People from Mineral Point, Wisconsin

Category:United States Army officers

Category:United States Army personnel of World War II

Category:University of Texas at Austin College of Liberal Arts alumni