Mike Douglas
| Mike Douglas | |
|---|---|
Douglas in 1966.
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| Born |
Michael Delaney Dowd, Jr. August 11, 1920 Chicago, Illinois, U.S. |
| Died | August 11, 2006 (aged 86) Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, U.S. |
| Occupation | Singer, entertainer, talk show host, actor |
| Spouse(s) | Genevieve Purnell (m. 1943; his death 2006) |
| Children | 3 |
| Website | Official Website |
Michael Delaney Dowd, Jr. (August 11, 1920, – August 11, 2006), known as Mike Douglas, was an American "Big Band" era singer, entertainer, television talk show host (The Mike Douglas Show) and actor.
He began singing as a choirboy. By his teens he was working as a singer on a Lake Michigan dinner cruise ship. After serving in the United States Navy in World War II and as a "staff singer" for WMAQ-TV in Chicago, he moved to Los Angeles. He was on the Ginny Simms radio show. After that, Douglas joined the big band of Kay Kyser as a singer.
Although big band swing faded from popularity as World War II ended, Kyser had to continue performing due to contractual obligations, and continued to log a few hits with Douglas, including two notable hits, "Ole [or Old] Buttermilk Sky" in 1946 and "The Old Lamplighter" the following year. Kyser was responsible for giving him his show business name, and he continued to perform with the band until Kyser retired in 1951 due to health problems. In 1950, he provided the singing voice of Prince Charming in Walt Disney's Cinderella.
In the 1950s, Douglas, living in Burbank, California, tried to keep his singing career going, working as house singer for a nightclub and going on the road to stay busy. By the middle of the decade, rock-and-roll and doo wop had taken over the charts, which left many older performers in the musical dustbin. In the leanest years, Douglas and his wife survived by successfully "flipping" their Los Angeles homes.
Douglas next surfaced in 1961 in Cleveland, where a onetime Chicago colleague hired him for $400 a week as an afternoon television talk-show host at WKYC-TV, then known as KYW-TV. The Mike Douglas Show rapidly gained popularity, and ultimately, national syndication in August 1963 on the five Westinghouse-owned stations. The show was broadcast live on KYW-TV in its city of origination, but this practice ended in 1965 after guest Zsa Zsa Gabor used the phrase "son of a bitch" when referring to stand-up comedian and comic actor Morey Amsterdam of the Dick Van Dyke Show.
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