In this brilliant, funny, gossipy, and revealing memoir, full of great stories and even better advice, one of America's most beloved and popular show business and television figures tells the story of his "retirement" years, in which he made billions and became an even bigger celebrity than ever.
F. Scott Fitzgerald's famous observation that "there are no second acts in American lives" only goes to show that he never met Merv Griffin, whose life is proof positive that not only can you have a smashing second act, but that a brilliant third act is quite possible as well.
Merv: Making the Good Life Last is the quintessential Horatio Alger story of a young man born into modest circumstances who, through hard work, unshakable self-confidence, and an unfailingly positive attitude, dreams his way to the top.
And then he retires and does it again.
Now, at seventy-seven, he is doing it still, reinventing himself and his life in new and extraordinary ways, and enjoying it more than ever.
For millions of Americans, the life of Merv Griffin defines success -- a life lived first on stages all over the world as a band singer and Top-Ten recording artist, then for twenty-three years on television screens as host of the Emmy Award-winning Merv Griffin Show. He created and launched the two most successful syndicated game shows in television history, Jeopardy! and Wheel of Fortune, which would become the models for hundreds of syndicated television series in the decades to follow.
Today, he is an entrepreneurial powerhouse who oversees a multibillion-dollar business empire that includes hotels, film and television production companies, and an event-management firm. He is also a supremely happy man who knows how to enjoy his success and his life.
As he himself once described the single most important quality of a successful host, Merv Griffin was "every mother's favorite son-in-law." Indeed, to two generations of Americans who watched and listened to him through their adolescence and well into adulthood, he became the father-brother-uncle we all loved. He made us laugh, he made us think, he made us pay attention to some of the most fascinating people of the last half of the twentieth century. Merv Griffin was the great American listener who asked the questions of celebrities we would all like to have asked, and knew how to make them open up -- and laugh.
Now, in Merv: Making the Good Life Last, Merv tells us at last what he thinks about his life and his success and how he does what most of us only dream about: inventing and reinventing a life of fun, fame, and fortune. In this candid and insightful memoir -- with his trademark wit infusing the narrative -- he shares with the reader the true story of his phenomenal success as a businessman and entrepreneur who has achieved that rare trifecta in American enterprise: to be wealthy, well liked, and well respected, all at the same time.
With the graciousness and charm that have firmly established him as one of the preeminent television hosts of our time, Merv takes the reader behind the scenes and into his fabulous world: cruising the Mediterranean on his 165-foot yacht, the Griff; flying down to Rio on his own Challenger jet; touring his hotel properties across America and around the world, including a twelfth-century manor house in Ireland.
Merv: Making the Good Life Last is a great American success story, and great entertainment for Griffin's many generations of fans.
