In Depth

Merv Griffin by the Numbers

$250 million: Price paid by Columbia Pictures Television in 1986 for Merv Griffin Enterprises.


$100.2 million: Price Mr. Griffin paid for the Beverly Hills Hotel in 1987. After spending $25 million to refurbish it, he sold it for $250 million in 2003.


23 years: Length of time Mr. Griffin hosted talk shows.


11 years: "Jeopardy!'s" network run on NBC, beginning in 1964.


$50,000: Advance paid by King World in December 1982 to secure syndication sales rights to "Wheel of Fortune," then sagging on NBC.


No. 1: Rank today among syndicated strips of "Wheel of Fortune," which debuted in syndication in September 1983 with 59 stations and 43 percent of the U.S., and a year later was No. 1 and in 181 markets.


90 percent-plus: U.S. TV stations that have cleared "Merv Griffin's Crosswords"

$1.5 million: Purse for the Breeders' Cup Juvenile Stakes in 2005, won by Mr. Griffin's colt Stevie Wonderboy


$1 billion: Mr. Griffin's estimated worth from his real estate and entertainment holdings (in 2003)


$70 million: Mr. Griffin's estimate of the royalties he received for writing "Think," the "Jeopardy!" thinking tune. He claimed to have written it in 15 minutes, originally as a lullaby for his son entitled "A Time for Tony."


TRIBUTES

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