| Henry Morgan (comedian) |
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Henry Morgan (b. , on which he first became familiar as a barbed but often self-deprecating satirist---and frequent changer of sponsors after a typical barb stuck in their ample craws; and, on Television , where he was a regular and cantankerous panelist for the game show '' I've Got A Secret ''. Morgan first made his name hosting a radio show on the Mutual Broadcasting System in the early 1940s, often cracking jokes at the expense of his sponsors and frequently losing a sponsor in the process. One early sponsor had been Adler Shoe Stores, which came close to cancelling its account after Morgan started making references to "Old Man Adler" on the air; the chain changed its mind after it was learned patronage spiked upward, with most of the new patrons asking to meet "Old Man Adler" personally. However, in subsequent radio and television series for the ABC (formerly the NBC Blue Network), Morgan's barbs did not always sit well with his sponsors. Perhaps most notoriously, Life Savers candy dropped Morgan after he zapped them by accusing them of fraud for what amounted to hiding the holes in the famous lifesaving ring-shaped sweets. The irony is that Life Savers in the 1990s actually tried marketing Life Saver holes. Morgan made one movie, ''So This is New York'' (1948), in which he had the lead role, and though Morgan and the film received favourable critical reviews it didn't go over as well with the public as his radio and later television work did. Morgan was briefly blacklisted after his name appeared in the infamous anti-Communist pamphlet '' Red Channels '', although it was a dubious proposition at best that he was any kind of Communist sympathiser. By June 1952, however, Morgan's television career was resurrected when he was invited to join CBS 's ''I've Got a Secret'', produced by game show giants Mark Goodson and Bill Todman . Morgan's tenure on the show was marked by his periodic complaints about the (allegedly) horrid conditions in which he had to work, in between firing questions at the show's guests with the secrets. Still, he stayed with the show for its original fourteen-season run and re-joined it when it was revived twice, in syndication in 1972 and on CBS once more, for a brief 1976 summer run. Morgan also continued radio appearances, most often on the NBC weekend show '' NBC Monitor '' (which also afforded the final airings to longtime radio favourites '' Fibber McGee And Molly '', until co-star Marian Jordan's death), as well as playing guest panelist on other game shows produced by the Goodson-Todman team---including '' What's My Line? '', '' To Tell The Truth '' and '' The Match Game ''. He also appeared as a regular cast member of the TV series '' My World And Welcome To It '' in 1969. His radio career gained an early-1980s revival in his native New York City, thanks to his two-and-a-half minute ''Henry Morgan Show'' commentaries, broadcast twice daily on WNEW-AM (now WBBR ) starting in January 1981. The following year, he added the Saturday evening show ''Morgan and the Media'' on WOR . In what might be called inadvertent iconoclasm, Morgan used a 1981 WNEW commentary on pre-inflation prices to sing, rather wistfully, an old Pepsi jingle ("Pepsi-Cola hits the spot / Twelve full ounces, that's a lot/Twice as much for a nickel, too/Pepsi-Cola is the drink for you"). The irony abounded as well, remembering Morgan's controversies with his sponsors in the classic radio days---the only thing wrong with singing that ancient Pepsi jingle was that that day's Morgan commentary was sponsored by rival Coca-Cola . Known as much for his sarcastic grouchiness as his barbed self-deprecation, Morgan apparently became downright bitter as he reached his final years. His 1994 autobiography, ''Here's Morgan: The Original Bad Boy of Broadcasting'', found him ripping most of his former co-stars; his final national television appearance (on the cable television series '' Talk Live '', in early 1994) found him using his entire segment ripping petty subjects, such as a rock and roll band The Boo Radleys naming itself after the Harper Lee literary character. A few weeks after that broadcast, Henry Morgan died of lung cancer at age 79. Best, perhaps, to forget the bitter grouch of his final years and remember---thanks to a number of the shows available on compact discs---the best of his classic radio humour. As one of the first comic personalities to lampoon his sponsors, as well as being a clever ad-libber when he wanted to be, Morgan could be an underrated talent (and a favourite of fellow entertainers---when he wasn't looking down upon them), but other sensibilities might call him an acquired taste. Had he lived in the era of '' Saturday Night Live '', where freewheeling, barbed humour was a mandate from the beginning, Morgan might have found his truest element, for a little while. LISTEN TO EXTERNAL LINK |
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