While Adam Wade – born March 17, 1935, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania – was a
musician, vocalist, and actor, he is best remembered as the first black host of
a television game show, the short-lived Musical Chairs (1975). In the early
1950s, after graduating from high school, he attended Virginia State University
but dropped out after his freshman year and began working as a lab assistant to
Dr. Jonas Salk and his polio research team. He sang and performed in his spare
time but decided to leave his lab career behind and focus on a music career.
Signing to New York’s Coed Records – lo...