Winners

"The Dave Beck affair and its subsidiary scenarios challenge not only the leadership of trade unionism but labor's rank and file to scrutinize their standards anew." The words took a special sting from the newscaster who flung them: Edward P. Morgan, 46, whose nightly 15 minutes on ABC radio (7 p.m., E.S.T.) is sponsored, as his announcer puts it. by "15 million Americans"--the A.F.L.-C.I.O. Along with an outspoken but responsible way of using the freedom given by his sponsor and network, veteran Newsman Morgan combines a pleasant delivery with writing and reporting skill unusual on the air. Last week Morgan won the 1956 Peabody Award for radio news.

A lean, greying native of Walla Walla, Wash, with a quizzical look, owlish spectacles and a black mustache. Morgan made his most memorable 1956 newscasts on a story of painful intimacy to him, the sinking of the Andrea Doria. Aboard and reported killed in the crash with the Stockholm was his 14-year-old daughter Linda, who had been traveling with Morgan's exwife, Jane Cianfarra, and her husband. New York Times Correspondent Camille Cianfarra. Morgan rushed to a rescue ship on a Coast Guard cutter, then back to Manhattan for his evening newscast. Scriptless, he ad-libbed an eloquent report of the tragedy from the viewpoint of an anonymous "person who had relatives aboard." Next day, when Linda proved incredibly to have been hurled to safety in the Stockholm's jagged prow by the impact of the crash, Morgan shed his reporter's anonymity in the most moving broadcast of the year.

Morgan, a Phi Beta Kappa at Washington's Whitman College, became a reporter in Seattle in 1932, worked nine years for the United Press, roved for the Chicago Daily News in World War II, covering the battle of Britain and the fall of Rome. Later he worked for CBS in Berlin and London and for Collier's in Europe and the Mideast. He was head of radio and TV news for CBS when the then un-merged A.F.L. lured him back to the microphone in 1954. Since then, Morgan has sometimes differed with A.F.L.-C.I.O. policy, e.g., he thinks that the U.S. should recognize Red China. But his 15 million sponsors seem to like him as much as the rest of his listeners.

Other winners of the 17th annual Peabody Award: CBS's Ed Sullivan Show, TV entertainment; ABC's John Daly and his associates in political-convention coverage. TV news; CBS's You Are There, TV education; NBC's Youth Wants to Know, TV youth or children's programs; CBS's World in Crisis, TV public service; CBS's Secret Life of Danny Kaye, TV promotion of international understanding; Mutual and NBC's Bob and Ray, radio entertainment; New York City-owned WNYC's Books in Profile, radio education; WNYC's Little Orchestra Society Children's Concerts, radio youth or children's programs; Omaha's WOW's Regimented Raindrops, local radio-TV public service. Special awards went to United Nations radio and TV for promoting international understanding and to Critic Jack Gould for "outstanding contribution, through his New York Times writings." For the first time the Peabody committee recognized TV writing as a category, gave the award to Rod (Requiem for a Heavyweight] Serling.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.