Peter Marshall 1926-2024

He’ll always be remembered as “the master of The Hollywood Squares.” There was, however, much more to the seven decade-long showbiz career of Peter Marshall.

Born Ralph Pierre LaCock back in West Virginia in 1926, Marshall’s TV credits date all the way back to 1949 and a forgotten ABC series he co-hosted along with comedy partner Tommy Noonan called Let There be Stars. Noonan & Marshall were well known throughout the ’50s and early ’60s, especially on the West coast. Marshall also had a career as a singer and Broadway performer.

Born into a show business family, famous stars would drop by the house, some in pursuit of his actress sister Joanne Dru (“Red River”). Al Jolson, for example, on hearing teenage Peter’s wish to be a page at New York’s Paramount theatre, made it happen with a phone call. Marshall later was an NBC page.

It was Marshall’s friend Morey Amsterdam (Buddy from The Dick Van Dyke Show) who recommended Marshall as host of The Hollywood Squares, a series which premiered in 1966. As Marshall told Gilbert Gottfried in 2016 on the late comedian’s “Amazing Colossal” podcast, he turned down the part at first, content to remain in New York and join Mary Tyler Moore on Broadway on a well-hyped new musical based on Breakfast at Tiffanys.

Hearing, however, that the 13-week hosting gig would be offered next to Dan Rowan of Rowan & Martin’s Laugh-In fame, Marshall changed his mind. Marshall, who helped Rowan & Martin find their feet as comics, resented the fact that the jerkier half of that team made no attempt to visit Noonan as he lay dying in a hospital.

That 13-week Hollywood Squares hosting gig lasted 16 seasons and nearly 6,000 episodes. Breakfast at Tiffanys the musical? Closed out of town.

“We would just wing the whole thing,” Marshall told Gottfried on their podcast encounter. Regulars included Paul Lynde, often the centre square, who Marshall says “could be grumpy” away from the wisecracks. Still, Marshall’s years as the straight man opposite Noonan made him the ideal game show foil when it came to setting up Lynde’s pithy punchlines.

Other regulars on the daily game show often had personal connections to Marshall. George Gobel was a long-time friend. Cliff Arquette, grandfather of Roseanne, Patricia and David Arquette and best known as folksy coot “Charlie Weaver,” went to the same grade school. Rose Marie and Marshall went way back. Vincent Price he knew since he was 18. “We were all kind of family,” says Marshall.

At an on-line UCLA screening session in 2020, Marshall shared a story about Wally Cox, who frequently occupied an upper berth square on the early years of the series. He described Cox as “a silversmith who knew nothing of showbusiness and became a star accidentally.”

Cox was also popular because he was handy. He re-wired Marshall’s home, for free, and even MacGyver-ed his phone line so that the game show host enjoyed years of free long distance calls.

Cox was only 48 when he died of a massive heart attack in 1973. Some suspected suicide, but Marshall says he knew that wasn’t the case. Cox had a bad ticker, plus he was re-wiring another friend’s phone line at the time and so hated the telephone company, deduced Marshall, “he never would have voluntarily quit in the middle of that job.”

Cox’s long-time pal Marlon Brando, who flew back from his Tahitian island to attend the wake, was inconsolable for days. Tasked by Cox’s widow to distribute his ashes, he instead kept them and talked to them for years, perhaps telling them that he could have been a contender.

Not every comedian had the right delivery for the Hollywood Squares format, said Marshall. Groucho Marx, for example, only taped one week’s worth of episodes. Henny Youngman couldn’t stop launching into parts of his stage routines. Jackie Mason just didn’t seem to get it.

Marshall’s death on August 15 was attributed to kidney failure, with third wife Laurie Stewart by his side at their Encino, Calif., home. As can be heard on the Gottfried podcast as well as on Pioneers of Television postings, the 98-year-old was one of the most articulate, first-hand sources on early 20th century showbusiness tales. Left behind, however, are dozens of clips of Marshall in action, generally calling on Paul Lynde to block. (Click here for examples).

Bottom line, Marshall truly was the master of The Hollywood Squares.