Broadcast pioneer Nick Perry dies at age 86
Pittsburgh radio and television pioneer Nick Perry, who will forever be remembered for fixing a drawing of the state's daily lottery, has died.
Perry, 86, died Tuesday of Parkinson's disease in Andover, Mass., where his son, Paul, lives. He was most famous as host of WTAE-Channel 4's long-running show "Bowling for Dollars," and for hosting the nightly televised drawing of the state's three-digit lottery number.
Twenty-three years ago today, on April 24, 1980, more than 6 million viewers watched Perry draw 666 at the WTAE studios during the daily broadcast. Only a handful realized then that Perry and several others had rigged the drawing, which paid out a then-record $3.5 million.
Almost $1.18 million of that amount went to Perry and his co-conspirators. The scheme was accomplished by weighting most of the numbered pingpong balls so that only those with the numbers 4 and 6 were light enough to be drawn out by the vaccuum-like lottery machine.
Perry and lottery official Edward Plevel experimented with a variety of substances, including baby powder, talcum powder, sugar and Vaseline before injecting most of the balls with white latex paint.
Besides Perry and Plevel, who supervised the nightly drawings, others involved in the scandal were WTAE art director Joseph Bock, WTAE stagehand Fred Luman, and Peter and Jack Margos of Monroeville, who belonged to Perry's church and were business partners with him in a vending machine company that supplied WTAE.
Perry and the others might have gotten away with the crime if not for the wrath of local bookmakers, who ran their own illegal daily number operation based on the number drawn by the state.
Stung by the enormous losses they took that day, local bookies notified authorities that the drawing had been tampered with after catching wind of the conspiracy.
Perry, whom state prosecutors labeled the crime's mastermind, was convicted in 1981 of criminal conspiracy, criminal mischief, theft by deception, rigging a publicly exhibited contest and perjury.
He served two years of a seven-year prison sentence and spent a year at a halfway house. Plevel also was convicted and spent two years in prison. Bock and Luman pleaded guilty and received shorter sentences.
The Margos brothers avoided jail time by agreeing to testify against Perry.
Pioneer of the airwaves
Born Nicholas Pericles Katsafanas in 1916 on Jancey Street in Pittsburgh's Morningside neighborhood, Perry was a graduate of Peabody High School in East Liberty and Duquesne University on the Bluff.
After returning to Pittsburgh from a stint in the Navy during World War II, Perry began working as a radio announcer.
"Nick was a super guy, a true broadcast pioneer," recalled Lynn Hinds, the former host of WTAE's "A.M. Pittsburgh" and now a journalism professor at Drury University in Springfield, Mo.
"He was very friendly, very well liked. He was always a dapper dresser, always drove a Cadillac."
Perry was working a 6 a.m. to 2 p.m. shift at a local radio station when he took a job at the fledgling WDTV, now KDKA-Channel 2, according to Hinds' book on the early years of Pittsburgh TV, "Broadcasting the Local News."
His shift there ran from 3:30 p.m. to 2 a.m. "When he fell asleep at the radio station one day, he left the radio job and concentrated on television," Hinds said.
In 1951, when WDTV began a noon newscast, Perry anchored the broadcast along with Dave Murray, a local broadcast legend who died in 1999.
In 1953, the pair moved to WENS, the city's first UHF station, staying there until the station went out of business in 1957.
A year later, Perry and Murray helped launch WTAE. Perry was the fledgling station's signature voice, responsible for station breaks and voice-overs.
A friend to all
Several of Perry's longtime friends, who knew him through their mutual membership at St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Cathedral on Dithridge Street in Oakland, remember him as a dedicated family man who had many talents.
"He had the most wonderful bass voice," said Joan Mustakis, 74, who played organ in the church choir for 55 years. Perry was a 30-year member of the choir and served as its director for years.
In addition to being a gifted singer, Perry had a great sense of humor and was a talented caricature artist, Mustakis said.
"He always had a black marker in his pocket and would draw little pictures to make us laugh. One of the best was when two girls were late for rehearsal, and he drew a cartoon of the church with the doors locked and them climbing ropes to get in."
Jim Argus, whose father started the church's choir in the early 1920s, said Perry never took his celebrity for granted.
"He really loved the people who made him successful," said Argus, a lifelong friend of Perry's. "I remember that when the cameras were off, Nick would go to the local bowling alleys around town to meet the people who supported the ("Bowling for Dollars") show. It was something he didn't have to do."
Argus said the lottery scandal was out of character for Perry.
"It was the last thing you would have expected him to be involved with. After he got out of jail, he stayed out of the limelight for the most part because of the embarrassment he felt for his family."
Local broadcasting icon Bill "Chilly Billy" Cardille described Perry as "a people's person. He was nice to everybody. I never heard him knock anyone. He was always a gentleman."
Cardille, who worked at Channel 11, remembered when his daughter, Lori, appeared on a soap opera that was carried on WTAE. "He called me at the station and said, 'I want you to know that your daughter is a terrific actress.' I thought that was nice of him."
In an October 1999 interview with the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, Perry insisted he was innocent in the lottery scandal, attributing his arrest and conviction to "poor investigation."
The interview occurred shortly after plans were announced to make a movie based loosely on the scandal, "Lucky Numbers," starring John Travolta and Lisa Kudrow. The movie was released in 2000.
At the time, Perry said he wasn't surprised Hollywood was interested in the story. "I'm never shocked at what they do," he said.
In the late 1980s, Perry briefly returned to broadcasting with a revived bowling show on the old KBL cable sports network. About 50 episodes were broadcast.
Dick Clouser, 63, a television executive who became friends with Perry shortly before he went to prison, said Perry was a natural in front of the camera.
"There is no question that he had the knack when it came to making people feel at ease," said Clouser, who helped Perry find work with a medical services company when he left prison. Clouser and Perry remained friends through the years.
"He was the kind of guy that if you asked how he was doing, he would turn it around and ask how your wife or family member was doing," Clouser said. "It was truly an honor to know him."
In addition to his son, Paul, Perry is survived by his wife, Georgia, and another son, Christopher.
Arrangements are being handled by the Freyvogel Funeral Home in Oakland. Visitation is 6 to 9 p.m. Friday. Perry's funeral is scheduled for 10 a.m. Saturday at St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Cathedral in Oakland.
Staff writers Eric Heyl and Michael Hasch contributed to this report.
