No Razzin the Fazzin

You should recognise one of the stars in the ad to the right from an Akron, Ohio newspaper of 1950. Johnny Olson soon became one of the best-known and liked game show announcers around. At the time he was broadcasting on the ABC radio network. But this post has nothing to with Johnny O. It has to do with the guy below him.

Art Fazzin was hired as the morning man of the ABC affiliate in 1949 and stuck around for a couple of years. He decided to seek his fortune in Big Town. Kenneth Nichols’ “The Town Crier” column in the April 7, 1952 edition of the Akron Beacon Journal let Fazzin’s former listeners know how he was doing.

NICE WORK IF: Art Fazzin, former WAKR announcer, is now doing free lance TV work in New York and is quite enthusiastic about it—which is understandable.
“The lowliest extra in a crowd scene, who has no words, no action, no nothing, gets a minimum of $45. If he has less than five lines in a half hour he gets $85 and, if he has more than five lines, he gets $125 plus clothes expense, plus overtime rehearsal at five dollars an hour.”
Art's principal activity at the moment is as a specialty director for the TV man-and-wife skits starring Eddie Foy and Marie Foster. The latter is Art's sister. Wonder what a specialty director gets?

Fazzin’s career eventually took off. He shucked the name “Fazzin” and adopted another one. And despite no experience, he was hired as the host of the most erudite TV game show of the 1960s, Jeopardy.

Yes, this post is about Art Fleming.

Fleming, to me, will always be the host of Jeopardy. Fleming could be bubbly, but he also had a grace and a bit of dignity about him, which was perfect for the style of show he hosted. He gave the answers to contestants through the NBC years (1964-1975) and on a syndicated version in the late ‘70s.

Several syndicated newspaper articles about Fleming appeared during his Jeopardy run. This one is from March 4, 1967 from the King Features Syndicate and goes into a bit of his background.

The Man Who Turned His Back On Residuals
By MEL HEIMER
NEW YORK—Long ago Harpo Marx meditated a bit on the writer Alexander Woollcott and then described him as "just a great big dreamer with a good sense of double-entry bookkeeping," and it may be that Art Fleming falls somewhere into the same category.
On the one hand, the big, good-looking, open-faced Art is a show-business performer, currently m.c.-ing the popular NBC- TV show "Jeopardy," with a solid background of acting and announcing behind him.
On the other, he's a skillful businessman, who for four years or so dredged possibly more money out of television commercials than anyone on the dodge, and who has his own TV- filming company (Pegart) that is among the real comers in its field.
Which of these Jekyll-Hyde sides gets the upper hand? Well, Fleming doesn't care to say, or maybe he doesn't really know—but it is a matter of record that three years ago he temporarily junked his enormous TV-commercial income (six figures a year) just so he could get back in front of the cameras as the "Jeopardy" host, which he figured was closer to genuine performing than holding up a pack of butts and saying they taste good like a cigarette should (he was the first spokesman for that brand's catch-phrase).

Seven generations of show business stretch behind Art. His parents were a successful ball- room dance team, his great-grandpa was a conductor at La Scala, the world's greatest opera house in Milan, his sister Marie is an actress, and he even has a black sheep in the lineage—an uncle who was an opera critic.
"Me, I started as a barker for an Ohio circus," Fleming says, "and it was marvelous. I learned how to short-change a customer and can still do it better than a racetrack ticket seller. After that, I went from usher to one of the managers of the new Roxie movie house in New York, took three years, two months and 18 days out to fly a PBY in the Navy Air Corps, and then got into radio as an announcer in North Carolina and later Ohio."
Art came to New York as a staff announcer for ABC, and soon was Ralph Bellamy's stunt man in his "Man Against Crime" TV series.
"I emerged with some nicks and scratches," Art says, "and the memory of a lovely, wildly funny period in television—live TV."
Merv Griffin developed the "Jeopardy" game—which resembles that "Question Man" that Steve Allen used to kid around with, where someone supplied the answers and he gave the questions—and Merv's wife suggested Fleming for the m. c., after seeing him do one of those ungrammatical cigarette commercials. He's been doing it ever since and now it reportedly is the most popular noontime video show in the country.
Married to Peggy Ann Ellis, who used to sing blues with Eddie Condon and the Dorsey brothers' orchestra, Art has one of the most, unusual hobbies of all. He's a Custer nut. He has just about everything written, spoken or drawn about General Custer's famous last stand at the Battle of Little Big Horn—including a print of the movie "They Died With Their Boots On," with the intrepid Errol Flynn galloping around as the controversial general.
His considerable spare time—"Jeopardy" is taped twice a week, three shows a day—gives him time to indulge in another, costlier hobby. Years back Art starred in "International Detective," a series made in England—and he fell so in love with England that he and Peggy return to London two or three times a year. There is, I suppose, no accounting for tastes.

Those Winston ads were the starting point of another syndicated article the same year, appearing in papers starting around August 16th.

Announcer's Job Goes Up in Smoke
By Frank Langley
NEW YORK—When TV's Art Fleming decided to quit smoking a few years back, it cost him his job. “If I make up my mind on something, that's it,” the tall, and untypically straightforward actor-host-producer said recently.
“The decision to quit smoking was based on its potential dangers and the fact that I was making my living at the time as the announcer for a cigarette company didn't change my mind a bit. I quit smoking and the job too. There was nothing else I could do.”
This type of integrity is not common in the world today and is a rarity in show business where Art daily toils in several capacities.
First, he hosts the daytime game show, “Jeopardy.” He also owns Pegart Productions which produces a radio series called “Guide Posts,” a series of inspirational dramas which is distributed free to radio stations through the National Council of Churches.
He is also an actor having starred in such series as “The Californian” and “International Detective” and in the film version of “A Hatful of Rain.”
SPARE TIME

In his spare time he is producing two feature films, one in Paris and the other in Australia, and a television series being shot in England.
“It doesn't give me much time for hobbies,” said with a sigh “which really doesn't bother me. I guess you can call Jeopardy my relaxation.
“Too many people just slough off game shows as wasted time, but they are dead wrong.
“First of all, the brain needs exercise just like any other part of the body. Television game shows give us the opportunity for that exercise and at the same time allow for relaxation and entertainment.
“It is a triple threat that can't be discounted.”
ACADEMIC FLAVOR
The seriousness with which Fleming attacks all his projects is evident with “Jeopardy” as well.
Both Fleming and producer Bob Rubin felt that the program had an academic flavor that should be exploited.
“So we created a National College Scholarship Contest both for the purpose of promoting education and giving aid to deserving youngsters.”
Despite the wide range of his activities, Fleming sees no possibility of his leaving “Jeopardy.”
“I would curtail my other activities first,” he said. “Any time a man wakes up in the morning looking forward to going to work, he'd better stick with that job, just like I'm sticking to mine.”

The 1960s game shows seem quaint by our standards today; I can’t find it now but someone sent me a photo of staff behind the primitive-looking Jeopardy board sliding individual cards to reveal the answers on the other side. There was no grand entrance or hyped up crowd or flashing lights or swooping cameras overlooking the set. It was all pretty basic, and all pretty enjoyable to watch. The Art Fleming version with announcer Don Pardo was even ripe for ribbing by Weird Al Yankovic. Even the great Johnny Olson couldn’t make that claim.