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in the cast Durward Kirby: TV's biggest giveaway. C omic Garry Moore, forever on the prowl for gimmicks to add to his daytime TV pleaser, decided recently that it was about time he staged a stupendous giveaway. Scanning the premises of CBS’s Mansfield Theater for the biggest item to give away, Garry’s eyes went no further than his strapping six-foot-four-inch announ¬ cer, Durward Kirby. Big Durward, it was decided, would have to go. As resigned to his fate as a latter - day Patrick Henry, Kirby was im¬ mediately made the subject of a con¬ test: “Why I Want Durward Kirby For My Very Own.’’ The housewives’ reaction to “owning” Moore’s wavy- haired sidekick for 48 hours was amazing. Five hundred entries poured in every day. .Slarled In ('.iiica^o Actually, Durward’s comic abilities were discovered years ago on the Chi¬ cago-originated Club Matinee which starred Garry and Ransom Sherman. Although he was billed as the pro¬ gram’s announcer. Ranee and Garry put Kirby through the same sort of comedy shenanigans he pulls off on the Moore show. Durward uttered his first tone into a microphone as a student announcer at Purdue University. After graduat¬ ing, he landed a job with a radio sta¬ tion in nearby Indianapolis. In Cin¬ cinnati and later in Chicago he built up a reputation as a competent com¬ mercial spieler and special events man and in 1941 Kirby won the H. P. Davis Announcer’s Award. Durward Is Versatile When Garry made his TV debut on CBS, he asked Durward to “live it up” with him as on Club Matinee. Since then Kirby’s announcing chores on the Moore show have really been sec¬ ondary. As announcers go, he is easily the most versatile in the business. Those thousands of letter writers who wanted to “own” Durward knew exactly what first prize meant. Not just Kirby, but Winston L. Mitten- juice, the wisecracking hayseed who thinks he’s irresistible to women. Lots of others, too. An East Indian swami, an Italian chef, a quack doctor named Beebe. They’re all Durward Kirby, one commercial announcer who found the perfect formula for getting strict attention: he went out and got an act. 14