Bert Parks

TV Personality

Date Of Birth:

30 December 1914

Date Of Death:

2 February 1992

lung cancer

Place Of Birth:

Atlanta, Georgia

Best Known As:

Longtime host of the Miss America pageant

Name at birth: Bert Jacobson

Bert Parks was the longtime Master of Ceremonies for the annual Miss America beauty pageant, and the guy who sang the theme song "There She Is" at the end of the festivities. Parks got his start as a radio announcer in New York when he was still a teenager. From the 1940s through the 1960s he was the host of several daytime and prime-time TV game shows, including Stop the Music and Masquerade Party. He hosted the Miss America telecast from 1955 until 1980, when he was unceremoniously dumped and replaced by television actor Ron Ely (who was himself replaced in 1982).

Extra Credit

Late-night talk show host Johnny Carson was so upset over the firing of Parks as the Miss America host that he launched an unsuccessful campaign to get him re-hired.

3 Good Links

Bert Parks

Career profile from a PBS special on the pageant
Bert on The Hollywood Squares

He gets an outright panning in this review of the game show pilot
Bert Parks Filmography

Game shows, game shows, game shows

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See also:

Victor Borge