Coffee and Gags

A frustrated actor with a crew haircut and a name he paid $100 for has been added to the list of comedians who brighten the U.S. breakfast hours. The newcomer is Garry Moore, master of ceremonies of The Show Without a Name (NBC, Monday through Saturday, 9 a.m., E.W.T.). His program marks NBC's first attempt to pick up some of the audience which drinks its coffee with CBS's Arthur Godfrey from 6:30 to 7:45, Blue's Don McNeill from 9 to 10.

Garry Moore (Thomas Garrison Morfit) is a 27-year-old professional screwball, who once attracted attention by offering a prize to the listener who could think up a new name for him. Now NBC is offering a $500 war bond for the best title for The Show Without a Name. A would-be actor until his parents said no, Moore turned to radio and became a successful wack. Assigned by NBC to an office with H. V. Kaltenborn, he has so far manfully resisted his urge to rearrange the pins in the pundit's map.

As an emcee, Moore is just another likable guy with a knack for gags like this: "I only have one haircut a year. Every Thanksgiving our butcher cuts me and the turkey for the same price." His show follows the long-set breakfast-time formula of gags and music, but is more elaborate than most. It boasts two singers (Brad Reynolds and Marie Greene), a straight man to feed Moore lines (Howard Petrie), Irving Miller's orchestra and the Merry Men Quartet.

U.S. radiophiles must love to hear the patter of little comedians around the house in the mornings, for breakfast programs are unusually successful. Hundreds of local stations have their chuckling chanticleers, and Don McNeill of Blue's Breakfast Club was this year voted the Star of Stars in Movie-Radio Guide's annual poll.

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