Garry Moore was the host of numer­ous radio and tele­vi­sion shows from the 1930s through the 1970s.

Born Thomas Gar­ri­son Mor­fit in Bal­ti­more, he began his career in 1935 as a writer and actor/comedian at radio sta­tion WBAL. In 1940, as host of the CBS pro­gram Club Mati­nee, he held an on-air con­test for a stage name eas­ier to pro­nounce than Mor­fit. A woman from Pitts­burgh sug­gested “Garry Moore.”

He worked in radio until 1950, when CBS launched the day­time vari­ety show The Garry Moore Show. Moore estab­lished a casual and genial per­sona, mak­ing his TV show a wel­come pres­ence through var­i­ous incar­na­tions that remained on the air until 1967. The show was the venue for some of the first tele­vi­sion appear­ances of Carol Bur­nett, Jonathan Win­ters, Alan King, Don Knotts, George Goebel, and Don Adams.

In Sep­tem­ber of 1954, Moore sug­gested that the 3 mil­lion view­ers of The Garry Moore Show each send a nickel to Mrs. Mar­garet Deibel, a Michi­gan house­wife who was vis­it­ing the stu­dio. Within a week, Deibel received $7,000 in nickels.

Moore hosted I’ve Got a Secret from 1953 to 1964 and To Tell the Truth from 1969 to 1977. He died of emphy­sema in 1993 at age 78.