Radio: His Excellency, Stooge

The limits to which a U.S. governor will go were pushed a little further last week.

Charlie McCarthy, world-famed ventriloquist's dummy, began a two-year U.S. tour in which he hopes to put all 48 governors on the air—as stooges to a blockhead. His first victim, Oklahoma's big, burly Governor Robert Kerr, proved that a statesman could be as good a straight man as anyone else.

Sample dialogue:.

Charlie (not recognizing Governor Kerr): Say, your face looks familiar. . . . Are you wanted by the state?

Kerr: No, not after my present term.

Charlie: Oh, on parole, huh?

Kerr: You might say. I've already served two years.

Charlie: Tough rap. No time off for good behavior? Why were you sent up for so long?

Kerr: Oh, it was just politics.

Next up will be Washington's poker-playing, New Dealing Governor Mon C. Wallgren. Wallgren is already getting the welcome mat out at the governor's mansion. Said he: "The suite that Truman occupied will be redone to suit Charlie's personality. After all, this is the greatest timber state in the Union."

Edgar Bergen, who is Charlie's larynx, hopes to broadcast from each governor's mansion (NBC, Sun., 8 p.m., E.S.T.). So far two more governors have proved willing—California's Earl Warren and Illinois' Dwight Green. Not yet approached: New York's Thomas E. Dewey.