Monty Hall Makes a Big Cyber-Deal

TV game-show host Monty Hall made his first deal so long ago the Beatles still sported Beatle haircuts. But fear not. You may still get your paws on what’s behind door No. 2. The former daytime king of the small screen is making the leap to the even smaller screen: “Let’s Make a Deal” is about to come to a computer near you.

“I look better when I’m small,” says Hall, still perky after all these years. (“Let’s Make a Deal” has been on the air off and on for three decades, but Hall continues to host the game at charity events and conferences.)

Hall--or rather, a reasonable facsimile of him--is making deals on a multi-pronged Web site that is under construction and scheduled to debut this week--https://www.buybidwin.com. Needless to say, the cyber-Hall appears in the “win” section of the Web site, which also includes areas for shopping and auctions.

But it’s Hall who is the siren of BuyBidWin, luring visitors to the site where they may also be tempted to shop for items like jewelry, electronics, linen, gifts and toys. An area auctioning celebrity memorabilia, collectibles and artwork goes up in November.

“Let’s Make a Deal” can be found in the game area, where players enter to find Hall offering them a choice of four bags, only one of which contains a lipstick, sponge or some such thing.

If you guess correctly, you get to choose among three curtains, and if your curtain contains a prize, Hall will keep negotiating.

Winners stand to nab from $5 to $500 in cash, merchandise or shopping certificates redeemable at the shopping site. They’re also automatically entered in a monthly drawing for $25,000, put up by the site’s operators, who say in the first month, $1.4-million worth of prizes will be available.

A player will be eligible to win only once a day.

Hall may be a stately 74, but he’s still on the radar of his computer-savvy juniors. The entrepreneurs behind BuyBidWin are boomers who grew up watching Hall when they were home from school nursing the chicken pox.

And Hall clearly relishes being an icon. He says that some years ago, the director William Wyler was applauding the 1977 best-picture Oscar winner, “Annie Hall,” when someone else’s name came to the tip of his tongue.

“He said, ‘Monty Hall,’ and the place erupted in confusion,” Hall says. “The Associated Press said Monty Hall is a household word. When I read that to my daughter, she agreed. She said, ‘Like spatula.’ ”