Pat Sajak was born
October 26, 1946 in
Chicago, Illinois. He attended
Columbia College in
Chicago and joined the
US Army as a
broadcaster for
Armed Forces Radio for a one year tour in
1968.
After working at other radio stations, he joined WSM-TV as a announcer, eventually also working on talk shows and as a weatherman. A talent scout spotted him and in 1977 he went to LA to be a weatherman on KNBC.
It was here that Merv Griffin spotted him, and in 1981 made him host of the daytime version of Wheel of Fortune. Wheel entered syndication in 1983, usually in the hour before prime time, and the rest is history, with Pat hosting the show ever since.
Sajak also has appeared in movies--well, Airplane II--and had a late night talk show for the 1989 TV season. He also briefly appeared on Days of our Lives.
Pat is married and has two children.
We were having a wonderful
vacation in
Hawaii--although, quite frankly, we had a better time on
Maui than we were having in
crowded,
noisy,
Waikiki. But all the
guidebooks said
Keo's was a
required stop. It's a
Thai restaurant off the
beach quite a bit, but well known for
excellent, inexpensive food, as well as being a favorite
celebrity watering hole.
We went in the late afternoon and were seated at a table by an open window. Walking in there were photos of tons of famous people--some I recognized, some I didn't. We ordered drinks and appetizers--and the food was very good.
I go to the restroom, and there are more celebrity photos in the vestibule. Something about one of the photos catches my eye but I don't know why--it's a picture of a middle-aged man and his lovely wife with the restaurant owner (at least the guy who you assume is the owner because he's Asian in appearance and is in every single picture). So I get back to the table and tell my wife, "There's a picture on the way to the men's room with some guy and a woman in it with the restaurant owner, but I'm not sure who he is."
I think nothing of it until about ten minutes later a family sits at a table inside the restaurant. The man looks familiar. I say to my wife, "I'm still not sure who that guy was in the photo, but he's sitting right over there." I then hear him talking to his wife and children when I become patently aware that we are sharing the restaurant with Pat Sajak.
I continue to catch furtive glances at the table; meanwhile, my wife is facing away from them and cannot see anything but me acting strangely, and cannot hear the table because of the noise from the street. I keep hemming and hawing about whether or not it's really him, and basically driving my wife crazy. I say, "On the way out, just tell me if it's really him." We leave, she's able to see and hear him clearly, and confirms my suspicions.
So, now I can say I've had dinner with Pat Sajak.