Morgan v. Mutual

Brash, bumptious Henry Morgan loves nothing more than to curdle the milk of radio's sacred cows. On his 15-minute comic stint, Here's Morgan (WOR, 6:45 p.m., E.W.T., Mon. through Fri.), he worries the stuffing from many a radio shirtfront, mocks soap operas, commercials, himself, his station. Last week he went to work on Mutual in a big way. Out over WOR, Mutual's Manhattan outlet, went a startling satire--a monologue on "The Strange Disappearance of the Mutual Network." Listeners heard razor-edged remarks on Mutual's recent loss of The Lone Ranger (TIME, June 8), a casual, sometimes funny flow of gags about Mutual executives. ("Manager Fred Weber may be forced to wear 59-c- shirts.") Nothing quite like it had ever gone on the air.

Morgan could happen only to Mutual, least hidebound of the networks. Until last April, he was an on-&-off Mutual attraction. Fifteen minutes after he jabbered his jabberwacky over WOR for local sponsors, he repeated the show for the network. Theoretically, Mutual offered Here's Morgan to local sponsors, but there was only one taker--a beer distributor in Hawaii. So two months ago Morgan refused to continue the repeat broadcasts, contented himself with his sponsored WOR show.

Sometimes sophomoric, sometimes savage, Morgan's programs are a mixture of monologue and weird recorded music. A favorite of Robert Benchley, James Thurber, Stuart Chase, Morgan follows a simple formula. He breaks all the rules. As a result he is the envy of every announcer who ever gagged politely while rolling off an unctuous commercial. Once when reading a plug for Adler Elevator Shoes "Knockabouts come in ten colors . . . beige, cinnamon, blue . . ."), Morgan ad-libbed remarks on the probable habits of a man who would wear blue shoes, remarked "I wouldn't be seen in them at a dogfight." When the sponsor objected that his approach was "negative," Morgan retracted, said he would wear blue shoes to a dogfight.

Morgan's specialty is moody satire, his weakness elaborate puns. Among his best broadcasts was a take-off on Walter Winchell ("Aside to F.D.R., 'Not yet.' . . . Aside to Winston Churchill, 'Okay if you say so.' ... Aside to J. Edgar Hoover, 'What do you want me to do this week?' ").

Besides belaboring commercials and Mutual, Morgan is now carrying on a feud with Hearst, gently calls many a stray character "William Randolph." As a result, the Hearst New York Journal & American forgets to list his programs.

Sobersided, self-centered, Henry Morgan has many ambitions: to go to England with Norman Corwin, to announce sports, to be a U.S. Senator. But he agrees with his maid, whom he quotes as saying, "It's silly, that stuff you do, but you know--you're the only one who can do it." Mutual executives agree, too. More than one Morgan would be too much.

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