Book Review: Ludden's Life

As I mentioned awhile back, I greatly enjoyed Adam Nedeff's well-done biography of Match Game star Gene Rayburn. So I'm delighted that the author has now given another top MC his turn in the spotlight with It's More Than 'Password'! The Life (and Wife) of Allen Ludden (BearManor Media).

I was interested to learn from Nedeff's thoroughly researched account that Ludden, who hosted multiple versions of Password over a twenty-year period, didn't necessarily intend to have a career as an on-camera performer. He embraced the opportunity in part to manage the substantial medical bills of his first wife Margaret, who died of cancer at a young age. His second wife, as most readers will already know, was Betty White. Since she also became a fixture on TV game shows, it's fitting that the author gives her quite a bit of space here as well. Nedeff's account of widower Ludden's successful campaign to win White's hand is interesting, and offers details beyond what she recorded in her own books.

Nedeff's book is an absorbing account of Ludden's life and career that also serves as a history of one of TV's smartest and most enduring game shows.