Mike Douglas
AKA Michael Delaney Dowd, Jr.
Born: 11-Aug-1925
Birthplace: Chicago
Nationality: United States
Executive summary: Host of 1970s Mike Douglas Show
Military service: US Navy (WWII, served on V-12 program, Oklahoma)
At 15, Mike Dowd was already a professional singer, earning free room and board plus $35 a week for singing pop standards on a cruise ship that sailed between Cleveland and Buffalo. Douglas served in the Navy during World War II, then signed with Kay Kyser's Kollege of Musical Knowledge. It was Kysor who gave Dowd his new name, without warning, by introducing him one night as Mike Douglas. When Walt Disney heard Douglas' singing, and asked him to croon as Prince Charming in Cinderella. Douglas later worked as a "staff singer" at NBC, before being offered his own show at a Cleveland TV station. It started in December 1961, but was quickly successful and syndicated, and relocated to Philadelphia from 1965-78, then Burbank from 1978-82. It was the top-rated daytime talk show during most of its run.
On one program, Barry Goldwater played his trombone, and on another, a 3-year-old golf prodigy named Tiger Woods putted on stage. Douglas often had co-hosts who would spend an entire week on his show, everyone from Barbra Streisand to Sammy Davis, Jr. to Joan Crawford and Joyce Randolph. Co-hosts helped interview guests in exchange for spending an entire week -- instead of just a few minutes -- plugging their latest projects.
In 1972, John Lennon and Yoko Ono co-hosted for a week, with guests including Bobby Seale, Jerry Rubin, Ralph Nader, and George Carlin. Douglas squirmed and his staff struggled to keep political discourse to a minimum, and Lennon was told he could not perform the song "Gimme Some Truth", because it included an unflattering allusion to President Richard Nixon. In addition, he had to sit through Douglas' syrupy renditions of "Michelle" and "I Get By With a Little Help From My Friends". It was generally considered Douglas' finest week, and drew huge ratings. Backstage, though, producers and staff remember it as "a week everyone was very relieved to see end". The Mike Douglas Show was not normally a comfortable place for newfangled 1970s perspectives; its producer was a young Roger Ailes, who went on to craft Fox News as a right-wing TV beacon.
Wow! I knew that he sang for Kay Kyser, but I had no idea that Mike Douglas was the singing voice of Prince Charming in Cinderella. RIP, Mike.
Thanks for the more detailed bio. I was wracking my brain trying to remember why I connected Mike Douglas to Oklahoma, when nothing else mentions it, except this:
"...Military service: US Navy (WWII, served on V-12 program, Oklahoma) ..."
I thought that meant he served on the USS Oklahoma which went down at Pearl. There were survivors, but I think I would've remembered if Mike Douglas were among them. I thought his service was much later than Pearl, anyway.
So, I thought they meant he was in the V-12 at OU, which would've put him in with my dad, since he's just one year younger. I think I would've remembered that, too.
Then I just had to google. Sure enough, he did live in Oklahoma, even eloped as a youngster with his wife Genevieve while living there. He attended OCU - Oklahoma City University - and I guess he must have been in the V-12 there, although I didn't know they had a V-12 program. Learn something new every day!
Bless you for your service, Mike Douglas, adopted Okie!