Television Host Garry Moore, 78, Helped Launch Comedians' Careers

Garry Moore, the affable, crew-cut host of some of TV's earliest variety and game shows, died yesterday of emphysema at his home in Hilton Head Island, S.C. He was 78.

At The Ed Sullivan Theater in New York, now home to "Late Show with David Letterman," Mr. Moore used his program to help launch the careers of comedians Carol Burnett and Jonathan Winters, said Moore's son, Garry Morfit Jr.

Allen Funt's "Candid Camera" began as a stunt on "The Garry Moore Show," which was broadcast on CBS television from 1950 until 1967.

"Garry Moore was never much of a jokester," said Washington Post television critic Tom Shales. "He was a host. He would surround himself with talented people and try to bring out the best in them, and he did."

Born Thomas Garrison Morfit in Baltimore in 1915, Mr. Moore joined the CBS radio network in 1939. It was on the radio show "Club Matinee" that Mr. Moore first began working with his longtime sidekick, Durward Kirby.

After switching to television, Mr. Moore, who favored white shirts and bow ties, also hosted the quiz show "I've Got a Secret," in which celebrities tried to guess a guest's secret, from 1952 until 1964.

He also hosted "To Tell the Truth" from 1952 until 1968, as well as a syndicated version from 1969 until 1977.

But he was perhaps best known for "The Garry Moore Show." At the height of his popularity, in 1954, he asked viewers to each send a nickel to a Michigan housewife. In two days, she received 48,000 nickels.

In 1958, CBS moved "The Garry Moore Show" from daytime to evening. The network canceled it in 1964.

Mr. Moore sailed around the world, then returned to TV.

"A man needs a place to go to every day . . . the thing is, I love to work," he said.

CBS brought back "The Garry Moore Show" in 1966, but it did poorly against NBC's "Bonanza" and was canceled midseason.

Mr. Moore left television for good in 1977 after he developed throat cancer. He recovered, and spent time sailing at his home in Hilton Head Island and a summer home in Northeast Harbor, Maine.

In 1976, Mr. Moore, former astronaut Edwin E. "Buzz" Aldrin, actor Dick Van Dyke and then-Rep. Wilbur Mills were among 52 notable figures who identified themselves as recovering alcoholics in a move to gain understanding for the disease.

He appealed to the masses, he said, because he was part of them:

"You should never underestimate the intelligence of the audience but you should never overestimate its knowledge, either. Any idea ever conceived by man can be explained to anybody if you don't insist on being stuffy about it."

Mr. Moore is survived by two sons and his wife, Betsy. - Compiled from Associated Press, Reuters and Los Angeles Times.