Early Life and Radio Career
Moore was born Thomas Garrison Morfit on January 31, 1915, in Baltimore, Maryland, the son of Mason P. Morfit and Mary L. (née Harris) Morfit. He attended Baltimore City College, but dropped out to pursue a career in radio and writing. Starting in 1937, he worked for Baltimore radio station WBAL as an announcer, writer, and actor/comedian. He used his birth name until 1940, when, while on the air announcing Club Matinee hosted by Ransom Sherman at NBC, Chicago, Sherman held a radio contest to find a more easily pronounceable one. "Garry Moore" was the winning entry, which was submitted by a woman from Pittsburgh who received a prize of $100. It was on Club Matinee where he met his long-time friend and broadcasting partner Durward Kirby. In the years that followed, Moore appeared on numerous network radio shows. He started out as an announcer and then as support for broadcast personalities, one of whom was Jimmy Durante. From 1943–1947, Durante and Moore had a joint show, with Moore as the straight man. Impressed with his ability to interact with audiences, CBS offered him his own show. Starting in 1949, the one-hour daytime variety show The Garry Moore Show aired on CBS. Moore briefly returned to radio as host of NBC's "Monitor" in 1969.
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