Henry Morgan -- Kidding The Sponsor on His ABC Radio Show 1946

Commercial announcements by Henry Morgan for Eversharp-Schick Razors & Blades, from 'The Henry Morgan Show', as heard on the American Broadcasting Company's radio network during the 1946-47 season; issued on a Command Performance Records long-play disc, number LP2, in the mid-1970s.
If the name 'Henry Morgan' might be unfamiliar to you, or familiar only from bland television game-shows such as Garry Moore's 'I've Got A Secret', on which Morgan was a regular panelist-- or call to mind only a pirate bearing the same name-- these excerpts will surprise you. You will hear a sharp-tongued 31-year-old man, a veteran of ten years in radio and of World War II Army Air Forces service, speak less-than-glowingly about his sponsor's product. Morgan called it 'kidding the sponsor', but Eversharp-Schick, and other sponsors he treated similarly, were not laughing. The audiences were, however.
And the chances are they were buying the product. For all its pseudo-scientificism, the advertising industry has never been able truly to connect the publicity it generates for a product with the sales of that product. But the first order of business is to get the product's name known. Morgan assuredly did that. And the skeptical, even critical, tone he used strikes a listener to these over-60-year-old commercials as extraordinarily modern, very sophisticated, great fun... and peculiarly persuasive.

Category:

Entertainment

Tags:

• commercials
• advertising
• ads
• sponsor
• radio
• television
• TV
• selling
• products

[fromthesidelines]

Sorry he didn't give you his autograph, 'jd', but that's the kind of man he was. Henry wasn't that friendly to strangers, and he did have some "grudges" against several people. Morgan was the kind of guy that, if someone asked him, "Do you know what time it is?", he'd punch them right in the mouth...or, more probably snap, "Don't you have enough sense to wear a watch?".

[jdpeiper]

I neglected to say thank you very much for this. Brings back wonderful memories of a great comic genius. He had wit, which so many today lack. But then, today they have four letter words which passes for wit and cool. How could people buy that when there are so many examples of real talent that didn't require shock to get a laff?

[jdpeiper]

@fromthesidelines And that wasn't all. Brings back memories. I met him once after a radio broadcast in NY. Anyway, he said of Lifesavers, people weren't getting their monies worth as the candy had holes in the center. He always drove his sponsors nuts. But he was brilliant. He was standoffish, and not altogether kindly I don't think. But I liked him a lot anyway. When I met him, I was a kid, had arm in a cast and asked him to sign. He refused. Said he didn't do that sort of thing.

[musicmandon1]

If you ever heard the full shows, Henry and the crew also did some funny fake commercials-for Buzkirk cars, Gull Wing Magoo private airplanes, One A Minute Vitamins and such. He even made an album or two. one was called "Music for Mad People." not sure about the titles on any other possible Morgan albums.

[fromthesidelines]

Henry's first TV show, "ON THE CORNER", was on ABC in mid-1948 (but carried on the DuMont station in New York because "Channel 7" didn't sign on until that August). Admiral appliances sponsored him, but after only five weeks into a projected 13 week run, they cancelled him because they didn't like the way he ridiculed their ad copy, either. And "HENRY MORGAN'S GREAT TALENT HUNT" on NBC for Campbell's Soup in 1951- it barely had time to change its title and format before THEY canned the show..

[fromthesidelines]

Others, like Life Savers, dropped his show after he declared he was going to market the leftover mints that originally filled their "Hole In The Middle"-as "Morgan's Mint Middles". Eversharp put up with him for about a season and a half before they finally decided they were sick of his attitude towards their ad copy as well, and cancelled him. He went through at least two other sponsors before his radio show finally ended in 1950 {his last was an early Sunday evening "sustainer" on NBC}.

[fromthesidelines]

If there was one thing Henry Morgan did NOT like, it was "professional ad copy". That's why he often poked fun at his various sponsors' methods of selling their products, as early as his quarter-hour WOR/Mutual show, "HERE'S MORGAN". Some of those sponsors, like Adler Shoes, liked his "cynical" style of selling the product [he coined the phrase, "Old Man Adler", which stuck long after he stopped selling their "elevator shoes"]....

[JeffW77]

Wow...thank you. I remember seeing Henry Morgan on TV when I was a kid. Didn't get him then, of course. Thank goodness for a coworker in 1978 who said, "Remember that comedian on TV? Who always had a BAD word for everyone? Henry Morgan?" Greatest crank ever. Haha.... thank you for posting.

[lenbenhear]

One of the wittiest and most sardonic comedians that ever lived.

Henry was a genius in his own kind of way. he's missed, ... so is the ero

to which he belonged.

[goacorn]

SmilingPessimist -- are you the incarmation of Henry Morgan because that was his persona too. I remember Henry Morgan from radio, television, and MAD magazine. I loved him. Thanks for posting this.