Jim Moran (publicist)
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James S. "Jim" Moran (January 1, 1908–October 18, 1999) was an imaginative publicist who was active as a press agent for various clients (film studios, manufacturers, retailers) in a career that spanned five decades, from the 1930s to the 1980s.
Moran made his mark when he went to Alaska on behalf of General Electric and sold a refrigerator to an Eskimo. He promoted a real-estate development by spending days looking for a needle that had been dropped into a haystack. Other stunts included flying midgets in a kite to publicize a candy bar, [1]changing horses in midstream for a political candidate and walking a bull through a New York City china shop. To publicize the 1947 movie The Egg and I, Moran sat on an ostrich egg for 19 days, four hours and 32 minutes.
[edit] Radio
Moran was heard on People Are Funny and other radio programs during the 1940s, and on one radio show he announced that he had written a song titled, "George Washington Bridge." The lyrics consisted of the words "George Washington Bridge" repeated over and over.
He acted in several films: The Body Snatcher (1945), Specter of the Rose (1946), The Mask (1961) and Is There Sex After Death? (1971). He was a panelist on the 1954 TV quiz show What's in a Word? along with Clifton Fadiman, Audrey Meadows, Faye Emerson and Mike Wallace. Moran appeared on The Mike Douglas Show in 1964, and one of his last appearances was promoting the movie Yellowbeard (1983) on Late Night with David Letterman.
The humorist H. Allen Smith wrote extensively about Moran in his books Lost in the Horse Latitudes (1944) and The Compleat Practical Joker (1953). At age 91, Jim Moran died in California on October 18, 1999. [2]
[edit] References
- ^ Wagenvoord, James. Flying Kites, Macmillan, 1968.
- ^ Martin, Douglas. "James S. Moran Dies at 91; Master of the Publicity Stunt." The New York Times, October 24, 1999.
