Garry Moore (born Thomas Garrison Morfit; January 31, 1915 – November 28, 1993) was an American entertainer, comedic personality, game show host, and humorist best known for his work in television. He began a long career with the CBS network starting in radio in 1937. From 1949 through the mid-1970s, Moore was a television host on several variety and game shows.

After dropping out of high school, Moore found success first as a radio host and later moved to television. He hosted several daytime and prime time programs titled The Garry Moore Show, and the game shows I've Got a Secret and To Tell the Truth. He was instrumental in furthering the career of comedic actress Carol Burnett. He became known early in his career for his bow ties and his crew cut. He attended The Baltimore City College (an all-boys, selective / specialized "magnet" public high school). During his City College years he was very active in theater and drama/comedy/musical programs and was often written about in the school's publications. But he dropped out before graduation to pursue a career in the relatively new radio medium.

Decades later in 1971 he returned to his hometown for a nostalgic tour and interviews in the other local daily paper 'The Sun' for a Sunday magazine photo-spread and the City College student newspaper 'The Collegian'.

Beginning in 1937, Morfit worked for the Baltimore radio station WBAL, owned by the Hearst Corporation and affiliated with NBC's Red Network, as an announcer, writer and actor/comedian. He moved on to the network within a few years, becoming an announcer on the Red Network's Chicago-based program Club Matinee. The show's host, Ransom Sherman, held a contest to find a more easily pronounceable name for the young Baltimore announcer.

It was on the Club Matinee program where he first met his long-time friend and broadcasting partner Durward Kirby.

Moore headed Talent, Ltd., another variety program on Sunday afternoons in 1941. In the following years, Moore became more popular and appeared on numerous network radio shows.

For four years during the war-time and post-war era years 1943 to 1947, Jimmy Durante and Moore had a joint variety/comedy show The Durante-Moore Show with Moore as the "straight man" in a comedy act and Durante shelling out the jokes and one-liner jabs. Impressed with his ability to interact with audiences, the Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS) offered him his own TV show. In 1949, the one-hour daytime variety show The Garry Moore Show began airing on CBS.

Television career

Between 1947 and 1950, Moore began to make tentative steps into television as a panelist and guest host on quiz and musical shows. On June 26, 1950, he was rewarded with his own 30-minute CBS early-evening talk-variety TV program, The Garry Moore Show, which was a shorter version of his radio show.

Moore became known for his involvement in the variety of stunts and demonstrations of the show's contestants. The popularity of I've Got a Secret led to a cameo in the 1959 film It Happened to Jane. In the film, Doris Day's character was a contestant on the show, with Moore and all the panelists playing themselves.

Moore's variety program was moved to a daytime slot, where it ran until June 27, 1958. Although the show was a bigger hit in prime time, Moore always preferred the daytime housewife audience. So, at the start of the show, Moore went in front of the live audience and flat out told that audience as well as the audience at home that it wasn't going to be a good show and recommended to the home viewing audience to tune in to what was airing on the rival networks that night. In 1962, Moore was hypnotized live in I've Got A Secret by Michel de la Vega. The French hypnotist set Moore's body stretched out over 2 chairs. Michel de la Vega then stood on top of Moore's body showing how rigid it had become in a matter of minutes. It was the first performance of hypnosis on American television.

On the tenth anniversary broadcast of I've Got a Secret, on June 19, 1962, Moore announced that he had recently had an operation on his right hand, and that was why he was seen shaking hands with his left hand for a few months, protecting his right hand from strong handshakes. On an episode of the show that September, guests Viola and Stephen Armstrong appeared with the secret that their son Neil had been selected as an astronaut by NASA that day. Speaking with the Armstrongs after the panel guessed their secret, Moore asked them "How would you feel if it turns out, because nobody knows, that your son is the first man to land on the moon?"

The Garry Moore Show was cancelled in 1964, Moore's main activity during his hiatus was a trip around the world with his wife.

Moore then made sporadic television guest appearances such as cameos on Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In, reunions with Carol Burnett on her program, and serving as a panelist on various game shows, before Mark Goodson asked him to host another series. That show was a revival of To Tell the Truth, which had ended its run on CBS in 1968. Moore was asked to host a revival of the series for syndication, which launched in September 1969. But when they called Collyer he declined, citing his poor health. In 1956, Moore recorded a Columbia LP record album for children. It featured tales by Rudyard Kipling, including "The Elephant's Child" and "How the Camel Got His Hump." Also in 1956, Moore recorded a Columbia LP record album titled "Garry Moore Presents My Kind Of Music," with contributions by jazz musicians George Barnes, Ernie Caceres, Wild Bill Davison, Randy Hall, Mel Henke, and Sonny Terry. In 1965, he also narrated two children's classics for orchestra back-to-back on a single Westminster LP, Saint-Saens' Carnival of the Animals and Prokofiev's Peter and the Wolf.

Retirement and death

Moore became ill in 1976 and was diagnosed with throat cancer.

Moore returned in September 1977 to begin To Tell the Truth's ninth season, to explain his sudden absence and to announce his permanent retirement, explaining that while recovering from his surgery, he believed his throat cancer was a sign that continuing beyond his 42-year career would be "just plain greed". Moore later explained in another interview that he felt comfortable moving on from the world of entertainment.

References

  • Jimmy Durante and Garry Moore Show old mp3 podcasts
  • To Tell the Truth episode from 1966 with Moore's son as contestant