Fifty years ago today, chestnuts were roasting on an open fire at Channel 3's original studio on McCallie Avenue. It was 9 a.m., and the daily Roy Morris variety show was on the air.
Roy could do it all. He was a decorated World War II veteran, wounded twice in battle, and was a Purple Heart recipient. While recovering from his injuries, he and two other servicemen put together an act to entertain other wounded soldiers in hospitals.
He became one of Chattanooga’s best-known radio personalities in the 1940s, hosting music shows on WDOD, WAPO and WAGC. When Channel 3 signed on in 1956, Roy proved he was just as good on TV, doing everything from news to commercials. Along the way, he owned and operated several radio stations, acted and sang in local theater, emceed dozens of charity shows and beauty pageants, anchored the news, did the weather, and managed radio stations in and out of Chattanooga. In his later years, he hosted a weekend oldies show on WDOD, almost until the day he died in 2006 at the age of 84.
Between 1962 and 1965, he hosted a live variety show each morning after the “Today Show” on Channel 3. O.J. Bailey was his bandleader, Barbara Molloy and Gaye Martin were the vocalists, and Wayne Abercrombie was calling the shots in the control room.
Christmas time on the Morris show was always special, with toy giveaways, and an annual party with kids of Channel 3 employees in the studio. It was pure, live, local black-and-white TV.
Unfortunately, none of it was recorded on videotape, which didn’t become commonplace until the 1970s. To this day, our local channels have only a few snippets of 1960s programs that were preserved on tape. I have however, found an audio treasure of a December 1964 Roy Morris Show, thanks to my friend Earl Freudenberg. While looking through his audio tapes, Earl found the show you’ll hear on the YouTube video at the end of this story. I have excerpted it into a six-minute segment with photos, featuring a full version of “The Christmas Song” by the beautiful Barbara Molloy.
“One morning Roy’s wife Margaret asked him to put a tape recorder by the speakers, just so they would have a show to keep,” Earl said. “They didn’t have a way to record video back then, so this is all we have from the Roy Morris Show.”
Earl was kind enough to share this with me, and I think you’ll enjoy it. There’s the easy back-and-forth bantering Roy was so good at, instrumental music from O.J. Bailey and Jimmy Wilson, and of course Barbara Molloy.
I met Barbara a few years ago, and fell in love immediately. She began singing on WDOD radio when she was a child, and when TV came along, she was on every channel at one time or another as a featured vocalist. You may not know this, but when Channel 9 came on the air in 1958, they brought Johnny Carson to town to host a telethon (he was the star of “Who Do You Trust” on ABC at the time). Barbara was Johnny’s singing co-star during the Chattanooga show, and Johnny, well-known as a ladies man, was quite smitten with her. Let’s just say he flirted a bit, and our Barbara, who was married, let him know she was taken.
When I was putting together my Chattanooga radio-TV book, Barbara was quite generous, sharing her photos and memories. She and Jim Nabors worked together often, and became good friends. During the 1950s and 60s, Barbara was a busy housewife and mother, but enjoyed her hobby of singing, especially the live TV days. A petite woman with a husky voice, her rendition of “The Christmas Song,” is as good as any you’ll hear. Click here and watch.
Speaking of the book, it has blessed me in many ways, but this is at the top of the list: when Barbara and I met to go through pictures, she was quite depressed. Her beloved husband Bill had died, and for the first time in sixty years, she felt alone and lonely. A few months later, the book came out, and some of Barbara’s friends, old and new, saw her pictures in the book. “Is that you, Barbara?” they’d say. “We didn’t know you were a singer. Can you still sing?” Still feeling down, she’d reply, “No, I really don’t feel like singing any more.” However, with all that encouragement, she began to perk up, and started singing again, often accompanied by a combo. She has given me credit for putting a smile back on her face, and while that’s way too generous, I’m glad I played a small part in Barbara’s singing comeback. Thankfully, she still lives in Chattanooga, among friends, and yes she is still singing for churches and clubs today. She’s a local treasure, and I love her very much. I’m happy to honor Barbara, Wayne Abercrombie, and the memory of Roy Morris and his crew with this newly found show.
Used with permission of David Carroll’s ChattanoogaRadioTV.com