[1] Drafted into the military during World War II and stationed in Oklahoma,[1] Funt served in the Army Signal Corps, eventually making radio shows.

The show ran on all three major TV networks and in syndication while hosted by Allen Funt until he was sidelined by a stroke in 1993.

[1][6] Others appearing on the original show as a host or co-host were Arthur Godfrey, Durward Kirby, Dorothy Collins and Bess Myerson.

The syndicated version of Candid Camera was broadcast from 1974 to 1979; his co-hosts included, at various times, John Bartholomew Tucker, Phyllis George and Jo Ann Pflug.

[7] During the 1970s, Funt made two documentary films based on the hidden camera theme: the X-rated What Do You Say to a Naked Lady?

"[2] He established a foundation which used laughter therapy for seriously ill patients by providing videocassettes of Candid Camera episodes.

On February 3, 1969, Funt, his wife, and his two youngest children boarded Eastern Airlines Flight 7 in Newark, New Jersey, with a destination of Miami, Florida.

[8] Funt amassed a collection of works by the Victorian painter Lawrence Alma-Tadema and engineered an exhibition of them at the Metropolitan Museum of Art (bypassing the wishes of then director Thomas Hoving).