Dennis James

Trivia

• The Cathedral City, California United Cerebral Palsy center is named after him, as he helped raise $700 million for the charity over the years.
• In 1992 his Star was placed on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Many luminaries came out, including Bob Hope, to help honor James. In 1996, he received a Star on the Palm Springs Walk of Stars.
• He was then called on to host dozens of charity events a year in the Palm Springs area, including events for Childhelp International, The Frank Sinatra Golf Classic, and the Bob Hope Desert Classic.
• James hosted the charity's primary telethon (in New York City on WOR-TV (now WWOR-TV) for 47 years, aided by Jane Pickens, Paul Anka, Florence Henderson, and other performers. He also hosted telethons in major cities all over the United States on a monthly basis from 1950 until 1979. When the telethon went national in 1979 with John Ritter as M.C. in Los Angeles, UCP enlisted James as a national presenter, in addition to James' duties as the anchor of the New York City version, which was also se
• James hosted the first "telethon" using the then-new television medium to raise money for charity. James was the emcee of the United Cerebral Palsy Associations' telethons.
• He returned to his wrestling roots in the 1978 Henry Winkler film The One and Only as the announcer for Winkler's title match, and was also the wrestling commentator in Rocky III for Rocky Balboa's match against Thunderlips (played by Hulk Hogan). His final acting appearance was in The Method in 1997.
• James was the spokesman for Physicians Mutual Insurance Company until his death in 1997.
• Outside of sports and game shows, James was also a popular commercial spokesman for products including Old Gold cigarettes, Kellogg's cereals and, through his own production company, many local and regional companies and businesses.
• Unfortunately, except for his Christmas Day substitute and two clips used during Game Show Moments Gone Bananas (a series of VH1 specials that later aired on GSN), his version of The Price is Right, although intact, has become just as forgotten and obscure as his other programs (the 1977-1980 seasons hosted by Bob Barker have also not been rerun).
• Due to his work mostly being within the earlier years of television, most of James' shows (both as host and celebrity guest) have been destroyed with the exceptions of The Name's the Same and his tenure on Price, plus a few scattered episodes of the other programs mentioned above. Game Show Network has reran his episodes of The Name's the Same, but nothing else.