A great thing about blogging: You ask questions, you get answers. My old pal Bruce Simon assures me that the clip of John Daly and Harpo was indeed from The Today Show — or as it was sometimes called then, The Dave Garroway Today Show. Bruce has the longer clip and, says he, it has identifying bumpers. He notes that Daly left ABC in 1960 over a flap about ABC News procuring documentaries from outside the news division. He was replaced by Eisenhower's former press secretary, Jim Haggerty.
Meanwhile, Jason Togyer got curious about the clip and here's what he sent me…
A little dinking around with an online newspaper database turns up a Nov. 17, 1960 Washington Post story, "John Daly Quits ABC In Dispute Over Policy." Daly was then ABC vice president in charge of news, special events and public affairs. His resignation was over a decision by ABC to contract production of four documentaries out to Time-Life. The same story noted that Daly "would continue in his role as host of CBS-TV's What's My Line?"
A story in the May 4, 1961 Los Angeles Times ("Daly by Dawn's Early Light") notes that John Charles Daly was asked to fill in for Dave Garroway as host of NBC's Today for several weeks after the death of Garroway's wife, Pamela. Incidentally, the Harpo Marx interview was taped Tuesday, May 2, for broadcast on May 3.
A July 6, 1961 Washington Post story ("Chancellor Inherits Vexing Problems of Today") reports that John Chancellor had been named permanent host of Today to replace Garroway, who had resigned. The same story mentions that "there have been reports that John Charles Daly was certain to get the job."
Too much information? Probably. But I thought if anyone would care, you would. Well, and possibly Lydia.
Lydia doesn't care about that stuff. No one does except you, me and Bruce Simon.
John Daly occupied an odd position in the annals of television. It wasn't so much an issue in radio but once television news was established, its most prominent practitioners had to wrestle with that capricious dividing line between News and Entertainment. They all had their occasional forays into the latter category, hosting game shows and celebrity-laden talk shows and even playing themselves in movies and sitcoms. They all had moments when they asserted that they were Journalists (with a capital "J") and not entertainers…but there was always more money, fame and probably fun to be the latter. Daly's career arc seems to define the way the industry came to grips with that distinction as he incrementally — and quite deliberately, it would seem — blurred the line.
Anyway, thanks to Jason and Bruce for humoring my curiosity.