Gene Rayburn (December 22, 1917 - November 29, 1999) was an American radio and television personality. Born Eugene Rubessa ( ) and an only child of Croatian immigrants, he graduated from Knox College.
Rayburn was married to Helen Ticknor from 1940 until her death in October 1996. They had one child, a daughter, Lynn. After the birth of their child, Rayburn was drafted into the U.S. Air Force.
He chose his stage name by randomly pointing at a page in the telephone book, after being told Rubessa sounded "too Italian".
Gene Rayburn was born on December 22, 1917, in Christopher, Illinois. After his father died at a very young age, his mother moved to Chicago and married Milan Rubessa, and Gene adopted his stepfather's name. As Gene Rubessa, he acted in high school plays and hoped to follow an acting career. He moved to New York City in the 1930s where he was a page for NBC, later working as an usher for the NBC symphony orchestra. Before World War Two he went to announcers school and worked with various radio personalities around New York City. He married Helen Tricknor in 1940 with whom he had one child, Lynn in 1942. Soon afterwards he was called to Military Service and joined the US Air Corps. After the war Gene worked on the Rayburn and Fitch show and later the Gene Rayburn Show in the early fifties. During the 50s Rayburn was instrumental in highlighting corruption on radio, by playing an older song so many times that it became a hit. This was alleged to have proved that record promoters could be paid to play records on stations for bribes, making the said songs very popular, albeit for a price. His breakthrough came in the mid-50s as the announcer on _"Tonight Show, The" (1954)_ with Steve Allen (I). Rayburn and Allen were associated on the Tonight Show for three years and Rayburn became a household name for many years after that. In 1955, he hosted his first game show called "Sky's the Limit, The" (1954). Subsequent game shows included "Match Game, The" (1962), "Make the Connection" (1955), "Musical Chairs" (1955), "Play Your Hunch" (1958), "Tic Tac Dough" (1956), and "Dough Re Mi" (1958). He always flew by jet from his home in Massachusetts to host his various shows. Rayburn was also a Broadway performer, and appeared in plays such as Charles Nelson Reilly was his understudy. He also had a small part in the movie It Happened to Jane (1959).
