It’s hardly unexpected when a man of almost 90 passes away. But colleagues are today mourning the loss of Joe Fitz-Morris, one of the best writers and editors ever to cover the advertising business.
Fitz-Morris, a larger-than-life figure who served as the first editor of DM News, died Sunday at age 89. He had been in ill health for some time, according to his daughter Joy Morris-Krevens.
A self-invented man in the American grain, Joseph Malcolm Morris was born in 1918 in New York City. He graduated from high school in 1934 and entered the U.S. Army during World War II, serving in the Pacific theater.
When the war ended, the 27-year-old infantry captain was ordered to serve as manager of Tokyo’s Imperial Hotel, where senior U.S. officers were billeted during the occupation. He showed up with his duffle bag, little knowing that he would be there until 1952, both as a soldier and a civilian.
On his first day at the hotel, Fitz-Morris stepped out of the shower naked to find a maid waiting for him. Embarrassed, he told the Japanese manager that the maids should knock before entering his room.
Not knowing that Fitz-Morris understood Japanese, the manager told the maids to look through the keyhole and make sure the American was clothed before entering.
Episodes like that became the basis for “The Wise Bamboo” (Lippincott, 1953), Fitz-Morris’ comedic account of his time at the hotel. In one scene, he upheld American honor by drinking a Russian general under the table.
He had plenty of material to draw on — he stayed on the job even after being mustered out of the Army, saying he had to know what could possibly happen next.
But that wasn’t all he did in Tokyo. He also took a bachelor’s degree in economics at Jochi University, and met his future wife Fran, the daughter of an Army officer. They were married in 1947.
The couple agreed that whatever happened to them later, they would always have Japan.
They returned to the states in 1952. To support his family, Fitz-Morris wrote short stories for Collier’s and The Saturday Evening Post. And when the big magazines started dying off, he entered the advertising business.
But Fitz-Morris was too much of a contrarian to tell clients what they wanted to hear. So he moved into journalism, first serving as managing editor of Radio-Television Daily and then as the founding editor of Advertising News of New York (ANNY), the forerunner of AdWeek.
It was in the latter job that he discovered his true calling: Beat reporter. Ever alert for a scoop, he got some of his best stories riding home at night with agency honchos in the bar car of the Long Island Rail Road.
He also started writing highly personal editorials. Case in point: The 1968 column that explained why he was adding the Fitz to his name.
The Advertising Committee of B’nai B’rith had asked him to serve, apparently believing he was Jewish. He pointed out that he wasn’t, and that he would gladly undergo an examination to prove it.
As usual, he enjoyed every minute of the ensuing uproar.
Fitz-Morris left ANNY in 1972. After that, he wrote and produced “The World of Advertising,” a daily radio show on WNCN.
The DM News Years
In 1979, the mustachioed Fitz-Morris was hired by Adrian Courtenay to edit the start-up DM News. Soon, the DM industry was being regaled with stories about revolts, controversies and eruptions at companies and trade groups.
One Fitz-Morris classic was about direct marketing consultant Lauren Januz. An unsigned article published in the Feb. 15, 1982 edition said the following:
“In a letter dated January 15, 1981, Lauren R. Januz, president of Januz Marketing Communications, Inc. and other companies, informed members of the direct marketing community that there would be major changes in his future business conduct because he had discovered he was an alcoholic and had taken steps to overcome that situation. He also stated he had ‘refound someone that I had not accepted in many years — God.’ Since that time, at least two major changes in the way he does business have become evident.
“He now rents his firm’s mailing lists to companies that sell sex-oriented products or services and he has added a ‘no pay’ provision to his previous ‘slow pay’ policy in paying bills.'”
That was just the start of a rant in which Januz was depicted, among other things, as siccing his dog on a deputy sheriff in Lake County, IL.
Another of Fitz’s great hits came in 1985, when he wrote an open letter to the late consumer reporter Betty Furness:
“Dear Madam:
“How do you like being on junk television?
“On Jan. 24, you aired a report on telemarketing in which you referred to “junk mail” and “junk phone calls.”
“When are you going to report on your own medium? On Friday, Feb. 2, we monitored the Late Show Movie between 11:30 p.m. and 1:30 a.m. In that two-hour period we were subjected to 86 commercials, mostly in packages of nine advertisements aired at five minute intervals during which snatches of the movie were shown.
“That makes TV about the junkiest medium we have ever encountered.”
Furness answered a few weeks later, starting her letter, “Dear Sir.”
But Fitz-Morris’ greatest moment came in 1986 when DM News exposed the fact that DMDNY’s directors each received a paid salary of $20,000 a year and other perks. This relevation upset volunteers who worked hard to produce the conference.
“The story is not shocking,” Fitz-Morris wrote in an editorial. “There is no question of wrongdoing involved. All the individuals are honorable men and all are high above suspicion.
“But…
“The situation is surprising.”
Yet Fitz-Morris was merciless a few months later when the late Pete Hoke, publisher of Direct Marketing magazine, resigned from the DMDNY board over the flap.
What irked Fitz-Morris was Hoke’s explanation in The Friday Report newsletter for why he had never reported the payment arrangement: “This reporter muzzled.”
Fitz-Morris wrote:
“We can’t understand ‘this reporter muzzled.'”
“Any self-respecting reporter would bite the hand that tried to muzzle it.”
“Hoke also wrote that ‘DM News broke secret compensation story in February, freeing this reporter to begin to speak out…’
“DM News did not free Hoke to speak out. He was always free to speak out.
“DMDNY is not a secret society in which blood brothers war never to reveal the organization’s dealings.
“That sort of thing belongs in a mythical association called The Mafia.
“Anyone who has been steeped in the world of journalism can tell you that this is a truism:
“Any reporter who allows himself to be muzzled will eventually find his career in a shroud.”
Joe Fitz-Morris never did. Having made DM News a hot read, he stepped down as editor later that year.
When asked how he was doing in retirement, he invariably gave the same answer he did during his career: 60/40 (never saying what the numbers meant).
Fitz-Morris will be buried in a private service on Wednesday.
In addition to Joy, he is survived by his wife; a daughter, Madeleine Akins; and a son, Joseph. Condolences can be sent to Fran Morris at 16 Kay St., Jericho, NY 11753.
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