Topic: Allen Funt

Allen Funt (September 16, 1914 – September 5, 1999) was an American television producer, director and writer, television personality, best known as the creator and host of Candid Camera from the 1940s to 1980s, as either a regular television show or a television series of specials. Its most notable run was from 1960 to 1967 on CBS.

Funt achieved a BA in Fine Arts from Cornell University in 1934 and studied business administration at Columbia University. He began the show on ABC Radio in 1946 as Candid Microphone and soon experimented with a visual version by doing a series of theatrical short films also known as Candid Microphone. These film shorts served as a springboard for his entrance into television on August 10, 1948.

In the 1963–1964 season, he appeared as an albino orangutan on the episode, "Smile, Todd, You're on Candid Camera," of The New Phil Silvers Show, starring comedian Phil Silvers as factory foreman Todd Deal.