Personal Award: Jimmy Durante
NBC Television
An award for the best entertainment in television goes to Jimmy Durante. By the sheer impact of his irresistible personality, Jimmy Durante scattered to the winds the stale formulas and dreary routines that were threatening to put television into the same strait jacket that has restricted so-called comedy programs in radio. Durante’s warmth, sincerity, and whole-hearted joy in what he is doing have done more to raise the spirits of television audiences than any single program in the memory of the Peabody Award Committee.