Jim Perry (television Personality) - Early Career

Early Career

Jim Perry was born James Edward Dooley in Camden, New Jersey. His mother, Genevieve Perry, was a record holding swimmer, as well as a known marathon dancer. His father, Edward Dooley, was a musician.

Perry started out as a singer in Special Services after college (University of Pennsylvania), working on Armed Forces Radio during the Korean War. After the service, he worked for a short time at General Electric and then replaced Eddie Fisher as the staff vocalist at Grossingers in the Catskill Mountains and later did comedy working with Sid Caesar as his straight man for several years (which included a three-year stint with Caesar in Las Vegas). These were under his birth name of Jim Dooley. Due to a name conflict with AFTRA, Jim took his mother's maiden name of Perry when he began his television work.

Perry was an outstanding basketball player in high school thanks in part to his height (at 6'4"). He was often nicknamed Big Jim because of his height. He was an avid runner, who when he became a nationally recognized emcee, was often seen jogging onto the set as he was being introduced on a few of his game shows.

His first appearance as a TV host came in Canada with the popular game show Fractured Phrases (1965). Afterwards he presided over several other game shows, including Eye Bet and The Money Makers (aka Bingo at Home), the latter also airing on syndicated television in some US markets for 13 weeks in 1969. Although Perry is American by birth, he and his family emigrated to Canada in the early 1970s and moved back to the U.S. in the late 1970s when he was hired to host Card Sharks. He still holds citizenship in both countries.

Perry also served as an announcer for That Show starring Joan Rivers, a short-lived two month series that aired in 1969 on syndicated television. He also appeared in a few television commercials, including one for Morton Salt. From 1969 to 1972 he was a weekend overnight DJ at WABC radio in New York.

In 1974, Perry became the announcer of the CTV game show Definition, a Hangman-based, pre-Wheel of Fortune series which would become the longest-running game show in Canadian television history. After a few weeks of announcing the show, Perry moved from the announcer position to the host position (replacing original host Bob McLean), and remained there until the show ended its run in 1989. Perry also hosted another long-running game show, Headline Hunters, which lasted from 1972 until 1983, with a year of repeats the following year.

Dave Devall, a well-known Toronto weather personality, became Perry's announcer on most of his Canadian game shows. In the United States, his partners included Gene Wood and Jay Stewart. He also did work alongside famed announcers Jack Clark (on the Twisters pilot), Don Morrow (from 1987-1989 on Sale of the Century), Bob Hilton (on Card Sharks), Johnny Olson (also on Card Sharks, including the two pilots) and Charlie O'Donnell (Card Sharks).

In addition, Jim presided as emcee of the annual Miss Canada Pageant, a job he held from 1967 until 1990, about the same length of time his U.S. counterpart Bob Barker presided over the Miss USA Pageant on CBS. Like Bert Parks in the United States, Perry, a talented singer, would sing the pageant's closing song, The Fairest Girl in Canada soon after the new Miss Canada was crowned. This practice, however, ended in the 1980s. Again, Dave Devall worked alongside Perry as the pageant's off-screen announcer.

While hosting the 1975 Miss Canada pageant, during a commercial break, a female protester hit Perry with a packet of flour while on camera, claiming that the pageant was sexist. Perry, though shaken from the incident, regained his composure and continued on with the broadcast as if nothing had happened.

Perry's first major American network hosting tenure came in 1967, with a short-lived charades-type game called It's Your Move. The series was produced in Canada for syndication in the United States. Another game show also produced in Canada for syndicated TV in the U.S., The Moneymakers (a game based on Bingo), aired in 1969, originally titled Bingo at Home, in which contestants and home viewers had a chance to win money (albeit less than $100 at a time).