You Asked for It Host Jack Smith Dies

TV-Radio Personality, Recording Artist was 92

Jack Smith

Westlake Village, CA – Jack Smith, host of 1950s television program You Asked for It died of leukemia at his Westlake Village home on July 3. Smith, who was also a radio veteran, singer and recording artist, was 92.

Known as "the man with the smile in his voice," Smith hosted ABC's popular You Asked for It show in 1958, following several years as a professional singer and radio host.

From 1945 through the early fifties, he hosted his own five-nights-per-week CBS radio program, "The Jack Smith Show." He earned a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for his work on the show, which featured regulars such as Dinah Shore and Ginny Simms.

Largely regarded as one of the first early "reality shows," You Asked for It asked viewers to mail in suggestions for odd or extraordinary things they would like to see on television. The show was resurrected in 1981, with Smith aboard as host of the now-syndicated program once again, and was produced periodically through 1987.

No memorial services are planned, as Smith requested. His wife of 67 years, Victoria, died in 2003 and he has no immediate family survivors.