Ransom Sherman, Radio Actor and Television Host, Dies at 87

Ransom Sherman, radio writer and actor, television host and monologuist who found and encouraged such talent as Jonathon Winters, Garry Moore and Fran Allison, has died at age 87.

The pixieish comic died in a convalescent home in Henderson, Nev., Tuesday night of the infirmities of age. He had been living in retirement in nearby Boulder.

For nearly 50 years the owlish entertainer was a mainstay on such radio shows as “Club Matinee,” “Grapevine Rancho,” “Hap Hazard,” “Smile Parade,” “Mirth and Madness” and “Fibber McGee and Molly,” on which he and Bill Thompson shared the character of Uncle Dennis.

On television he was the father of the groom on “Father of the Bride” and hosted “And Here’s the Show,” the 1955 George Gobel summer replacement that introduced the zany Winters to national audiences. He had first brought his monologues and wry wit to TV in 1950 as host of “The Ransom Sherman Show,” which featured the Art Van Damme Quintet. Sherman typically called him Art Van Darn.

Character, Comic Roles

He also did character and comic roles in films in “Swing Your Partner,” “The Bachelor and the Bobby Soxer,” “Gentleman’s Agreement,” “Always Leave Them Laughing” and “Pretty Baby.”

He was a small-town boy (Appleton, Wis.) who worked with a partner in the early days of radio, primarily on NBC in Chicago.

In 1937 he became the host of “Club Matinee,” a daily hour of mirth known for its gentle patter and off-key orchestra that gleefully fractured the classics.

A crew-cut youngster named Thomas Garrison Morfit made his debut on the show and became Garry Moore after the station offered $50 in a “rename-Morfit” contest. Moore became not just a performer but a student of Sherman, learning to both write and perform comedy.

Allison was the female singer on the show in the years before she teamed with puppeteer Burr Tillstrom on “Kukla, Fran & Ollie.”

In July, 1941, with “Club Matinee” still on the air, Sherman became “Hap Hazard,” proprietor of Crestfallen Manor, part of the Stop and Flop chain of penurious inns.

It lasted but that single summer as a replacement for “Fibber McGee and Molly.”

‘I’m a-Goin’ Fast’

After “Club Matinee” went off the air in 1942, Sherman moved to CBS for “Grapevine Rancho,” a wine-sponsored program in which Sherman played the owner of a ranch that concerned itself more with comedy than with cattle and where Leo Carrillo was the hired help.

“Mirth and Madness” followed in 1943, another variety series. The program also starred Jack Kirkwood, who was often featured in sketches spoofing Westerns. Kirkwood would invariably get shot, say to no one in particular, “Well, gal, I’m a-goin’ fast. But before I go, I got somethin’ to say. . . .” He would then take up several minutes of air time with his zany non sequiturs.

Whatever the format, Sherman was always the unsophisticated “just plain folks” character who stood just a bit apart from the dramatic insanity going on about him.

“I just feel sorry for anyone who didn’t know him,” Allison said after learning of his death.