Booking Bennett Cerf

Among show biz buffs, Bennett Cerf (1898-1971) has become the poster child for How American Pop Culture Has Changed And Not for the Better. Cerf was the co-founder of the Random House publishing company; he was also a panelist on television game shows. We exaggerate perhaps when we claim that such things could never happen any more, but you must admit, it would be remarkable.

Cerf was born with a silver spoon in his mouth. His mother was a tobacco heiress, his father a professional lithographer. He grew up in Washington Heights; one of his childhood friends was Howard Deitz of Deitz and Schwartz. With a degree in journalism from Columbia, Cerf worked as a reporter for the New York Herald Tribune, then was a hired as a VP at the publishing house of Boni and Liveright before acquiring the Modern Library with partner Donald Klopfer in 1925. This was absorbed into the new firm of Random House in 1927.

Cerf’s erudition is evident from the authors he brought before the public. He published James Joyce’s Ulysses (winning a 1933 Supreme Court battle in order to do so). Other Random House authors included William Faulkner, Truman Capote, Eugene O’Neill, Ayn Rand, and Dr. Seuss. But Cerf had a taste for celebrity as well. In 1935 he married movie star Sylvia Sidney, a union that only lasted a few months. His second wife, Phyllis Fraser was a cousin to both Ginger Rogers and Rita Hayworth (the latter by marriage). His own populist touch was manifested by the many humor anthologies he edited and published throughout the 1940s and ’50s, full of jokes, anecdotes, puns, one liners, stories, and zingers.

Cerf’s reputation as a humorist is naturally what brought him to radio and television. And honestly, he was just one of many literary people who were on such panel shows: this was the day when newspaper columnists, critics, and writers were as visible as other kinds of celebrities. Cerf was best knowing for bringing his wit to over 750 episodes of the game show What’s My Line? between 1950 and 1967 (and a few additional appearances after it was revived a few years later). Prior to this, he had been a regular on Who Said That? (1948-50). He also appeared on The Paul Winchell Show, The George Gobel Show, Person to Person, The Tonight Show with Jack Paar and Johnny Carson, Password, Match Game, To Tell the Truth, Dick Cavett, Mike Douglas, David Frost, and many others.

His son, Christopher Cerf followed in his father’s footsteps for many years, working with such Random House authors as George Plimpton, Andy Warhol, Abbie Hoffman, Ray Bradbury, and Marlo Thomas (the Free to Be You and Me companion book). He later went to work on the tv show Sesame Street, composing many of the songs and jingles used on the program.

After Bennett Cerf’s death in 1971, Phyllis married former New York City mayor Robert Wagner.

For more on show biz history, consult No Applause, Just Throw Money: The Book That Made Vaudeville Famous, And please stay tuned for my upcoming Electric Vaudeville: A Century of Radio and TV Variety.