Hal March

Hal March, born Harold Mendelson on April 22, 1920, in San Francisco, California, was an American comedian, actor, and television emcee who built a career spanning radio, television, film, and Broadway before his death on January 19, 1970, in Los Angeles at age 49.

March entered show business as a straight man with the vaudeville act the Hollywood Rioteers, then served in the U.S. Army beginning in 1941. After his military service, he launched a broadcasting career as an announcer at Station KYA in San Francisco. From 1944 through 1948, he partnered with comedian Bob Sweeney on The Bob Sweeney-Hal March Show, which aired on CBS Radio. During the same period, he appeared on The Adventures of Sam Spade, a CBS Radio program that ran from 1946 to 1949.

His radio profile grew further when he was cast as Harry Morton on The George Burns and Gracie Allen Show, a role he held on the NBC and CBS radio networks from the mid-1940s until 1950. When the program transitioned to television, March continued in the part through the middle of the 1951 season, later returning in occasional guest appearances. In the summer of 1950, he and Mary Jane Croft co-starred in Too Many Cooks, a CBS Radio summer replacement comedy centered on a couple and their ten children. March also appeared on television programs including The Imogene Coca Show, I Love Lucy, and Willy. In the summer of 1955, he joined John Dehner and Tom D'Andrea in The Soldiers, an eleven-episode NBC military comedy produced and directed by Bud Yorkin. That same year, on October 9, 1955, he served as the Mystery Guest on What's My Line, where he was identified by panelist Bennett Cerf.

March became widely recognized as the host of The $64,000 Question, a position he held from 1955 to 1958. In 1956, he recorded a vocal version of the program's theme music titled "Love Is the Sixty-Four Thousand Dollar Question." The quiz show scandals that emerged in the late 1950s led to the program's cancellation, and March found himself largely without work for nearly a decade, with the exception of film appearances in Hear Me Good and Send Me No Flowers.

His Broadway career ran from 1958 to 1962. In 1961, he took the lead role in Come Blow Your Horn, Neil Simon's first Broadway play, which ran for 677 performances. He also appeared on Broadway in the drama Two for the Seesaw.

During the lean years following the quiz show scandals, March remained active through guest-starring television roles. In 1961, he starred in an unsold television pilot titled I Married a Dog. By 1966, he had appeared in several sitcoms, including the Gidget episode "In and Out with the In-Laws," in which he played the father of Gidget's boyfriend Jeff, and The Monkees episode "Dance Monkee, Dance," where he portrayed the head of a corrupt dance studio. He also made appearances on Hey, Landlord and The Lucy Show, and had a role in the film A Guide for the Married Man.

In July 1969, March began hosting the game show It's Your Bet. After completing approximately thirteen weeks of taping, he reported exhaustion, and subsequent medical tests revealed lung cancer attributed to years of chain smoking. One of his lungs was removed, but he later contracted pneumonia and lacked the strength to recover. He died in January 1970 and is buried at Hillside Memorial Park Cemetery in Los Angeles.

In 1956, March married Candy Toxton, the former wife of singer Mel Tormé, becoming stepfather to her two children, Steve March-Tormé and Melissa Tormé. He and Toxton had three children together: Peter, Jeffrey, and Victoria. His grandson Hunter March went on to host the game show Emogenius, the Netflix series Sugar Rush, E! TV's Nightly Pop, and the Netflix mobile game show Best Guess Live. March was honored with two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, one for radio at 1560 Vine Street and one for television at 6536 Hollywood Boulevard.