The Broadcast Pioneers of Philadelphia

Rex Morgan & his hound "Horatio"
WFIL-TV, Philadelphia
1963

Rex Morgan was a fixture on Philadelphia television during the sixties. He had many different programs on WFIL-TV, Channel 6 here in Philadelphia. Although the show fictionalized a community called "Morganville," it was really about the Delaware Valley.

Broadcast Pioneers founding member Jack Steck who produced many of the Rex Morgan programs once referred to Rex by saying, "I'd say that he was a big lovable kid who never grew up. He was an extrovert of the first order. He was as much Mr. Show Business as he could ever be without ever being in theater. He was ham enough so that if you opened the refrigerator door and the lights went on, he would take a bow."

One sidebar about Rex. He was the assistant hangman who carried out the executions of Nazi war criminals. He was also a college football player and became the namesake for the comic strip, "Rex Morgan, MD" that was created by a couple of local college students and decided to name the strip after him. The soap opera comic strip was a big hit for sixty plus years.

The e-mail address of the Broadcast Pioneers of Philadelphia is pioneers@broadcastpioneers.com