Adam Wade, a dapper performer and actor who appeared in movies like Shaft, Crazy Joe, and Claudine before going down in history as a game show host, has passed away. In 1961, Wade had three top 10 hits on the Billboard 100. He was 87. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Wade's wife, singer Jeree Wade, said that he passed away on Thursday at his home in Montclair, New Jersey, following a struggle with Parkinson's disease. When the Pittsburgh singer achieved success in 1961 with the love songs "Take Good Care of Her," which peaked at No. 7 (the song was later covered by Elvis Presley), "The Writing on the Wall," (No. 5) and "As If I Didn't Know," he was compared to Johnny Mathis (No. 10).
Wade in a 2014 interview said "was trying to imitate Nat King Cole, my boyhood idol, not Johnny Mathis. So I guess that tells you how good my imitating skills were." With Don Kirshner's Musical Chairs, Wade made history as the first Black person to host a network game show in June 1975. The show, which was filmed at the Ed Sullivan Theater in New York, featured competitors coming up with the right song titles and lyrics with the help of performers including The Spinners, Sister Sledge, and Irene Cara.
Wade claimed that a CBS affiliate in Alabama refused to air Musical Chairs because he was the presenter and that before the show's cancellation in October, despite its popularity, producers got a lot of hate mail. "I'm sure [they] hid some of the letters from me," Wade said, "so I wouldn't get upset. One I did see was from a guy who used all kinds of expletives, saying he didn't want his wife sitting at home watching the black guy hand out the money and the smarts."
Patrick Henry Wade, who was born on March 17th, 1935, graduated from Pittsburgh's Westinghouse High School in 1952. He majored in science at Virginia State University and worked as a lab assistant for Dr. Jonas Salk, who in the 1950s created the polio vaccine.
Late in 1959, Wade obtained a record deal with Coed Records, and his songs "Ruby," a copy of Ruby Gentry's 1952 theme song, and "Tell Her for Me" swiftly reached the top of the charts. After Musical Chairs, he resumed recording and in 2002 understudied for Ben Vereen in I'm Not Rappaport on Broadway.
He also performed a lot of local theater. Wade and Jeree got married in 1989 after meeting on the set of Musical Chairs. They frequently shared the stage together, including when he wrote and directed the play On Kentucky Avenue, as reported by The Hollywood Reporter. Survivors also include his children, Ramel, Patrice, Jamel and Latoya, and several grandchildren and great-grandchildren.
