Television: Marty's Morgue

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Faye's archenemy and competitor, Howard Miller of Station WIND (TIME, April 29), a disk jockey, says: "Marty's like a vulture, living off the bones of the defenseless." Some of the victims face Faye on the air. He astonished Duke Ellington by asking him if he took dope (The Duke's reply: "No, I never felt the need of it. I never smoked anything that didn't have printing on it" ), brought Singer Jody Sands to tears by telling her she had dirty fingernails and needed a new dress. Explained Faye: "She needed wounding. I did it to help her." When Bandleader Russ Carlyle appeared recently, Faye snatched off Carlyle's toupee. As Carlyle awkwardly rearranged it and stormed out of the studio looking like an enraged Ish Kabibble, Faye taunted:"Put it back on straight." When viewers call in to complain, Faye will leer at the camera and snicker: "You're sick. You better go to bed." Off-camera he oozes a rare brand of sincerity: "Things are bound to happen that are distasteful. The only way to do a successful show is to do it honestly. Be natural. I'm not on TV; I'm in my living room, talking with friends—or enemies. I can't stand sham." Born in Brooklyn, Faye entered TV as a pitchman for kitchen gadgets after eleven years of peddling by patter at such places as the Atlantic City Boardwalk and Macy's basement. "This TV business with all its phonies doesn't faze me," he says. "I have met too many con merchants in my life." After four years as a merchandising record-spinner on WAAF, he was spotted by WBKB as a TV personality. "Now I am the greatest. I am the greatest on the air when it comes to selling products. There ain't nobody who can touch me."

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