Monty Hall
Monty Hall was born on August 25, 1921 in Winnipeg, Manitoba, as Maurice Halprin. He is a Canadian-born actor, singer and sportscaster, but is best known for being the host of popular American television game shows. He was the host of the long-running game show Let's Make a Deal (which he also developed with Stefan Hatos) from 1963 to 1977, 1980 to 1981, again from 1984 to 1986 and for a limited run in 1990, and has been producer or executive producer of the show through most of its runs.
Hall hosted several shows during the 1950s and early 1960s before finding his niche making deals and as a producer. Among his early efforts was as part-time host (along with Jack Narz) of a short-lived but unique game show called Video Village, which ran during the summer of 1960 on CBS. Contestants played on a giant game board consisting of three sections: Money Street, Bridge Street and Magic Mile. Players advanced with the roll of softball-sized dice. The farther they got along the board, the better the prizes were. A spinoff called Video Village Junior, featuring youngsters, was hosted by Hall and ran during the 1961-1962 regular television season.
Hall received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on August 24, 1973. On May 1988 the Government of Canada bestowed on him the prestigious Order of Canada for his humanitarian work in Canada and other nations of the world.
Because of his work on Let's Make a Deal, Hall's name is used in a popular probability puzzle known as the Monty Hall problem. Hall himself gave a pretty good explanation of the solution to that problem, and why the solution did not apply to the case of the actual show, in an interview with New York Times reporter John Tierney in 1991. Because Hall had control over the way the game progressed, he played on the psychology of the contestant. The puzzle was mentioned on the CBS drama Numb3rs in an episode during its first season.
Hall received his Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Manitoba, where he majored in biology and zoology as a pre-med student.
He has been married for many years to his wife, Marilyn, and has two daughters -- actress Joanna Gleason and Sharon Hall, a television director and writer -- and one son, Richard Hall, a television producer.
Other uses
The format of Let's Make a Deal, with the option to trade an up-front prize for an unknown quantity behind a curtain, for example, has often been imitated in other settings, such as between-innings entertainment at professional sports events. The latest hit show using a similar scenario is Deal or No Deal.
In role playing games a "Monty Hall" can be an adventure design where one arbitrary choice greatly affects the outcome, such a two doors with a beautiful lady behind one and a tiger behind the other. Alternatively a "Monty Hall" might refer to an easy challenge with massive rewards. This is also known as a "Monty Haul".
In the mathematical sciences, the "Monty Hall problem" examines the counter-intuitive effects of switching one's choice of doors if "Monty" reveals a goat behind one of doors the player didn't choose.