Charles Hirsch "Chuck" Barris is an American game show creator, producer, and host; film director; and presenter best known for hosting The Gong Show and creating The Dating Game. Barris, a survivor of lung cancer, is also an author and claims to have worked for the CIA. Barris was born in Oakland, New Jersey to a Jewish family. He attended Drexel University where he was a columnist at the student newspaper The Triangle. He graduated in 1953. Barris got his start in television as a page and later staffer at NBC in New York City, and eventually worked backstage at the TV music show American... Bandstand , originally as a standards-and-practices person for ABC. Barris soon became a music industry figure. He produced pop music on records and TV, but his most successful venture was writing "Palisades Park". Recorded by Freddy Cannon, it peaked at #3 on the Billboard Hot 100 on 12 March 1962, the biggest hit of Cannon's career. Barris also co-wrote or wrote some of the music that appeared on his game shows.
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