Morris Marsh

PVT in 603rd Engineer Camouflage Bn : Co D, 2nd Platoon

Born 1919 in NY, Died 1996

Artist

Other residence(s): Brooklyn, NY; Los Angeles, CA; Van Nuys, CA

United States Army, European Theatre of Operations

Occupation before the war: lithography artist

College education before the war: Pratt

Source: 603rd Camouflage Engineer Roster provided by W. Anderson; Bernie Mason Company D Roster; signature on NAZI Banner at hmtcli.org; photo courtesy Ancestry® and Erasmus Hall High School

Morris Marsh was born on April 29, 1919 in Brooklyn, NY; the older of two children. His father was a musician in a restaurant, played the piano in silent movie houses, and later became a novelty salesman; his mother worked as an operator in the garment trade. Both of his parents had been born in Russia, and spoke Russian and Yiddish.

He graduated from Erasmus Hall High School in Brooklyn in 1936, where he listed “artist” as his career goal. He then went on to study advertising design at Pratt Institute, graduating in 1940. The 1940 census provided his profession as lithography artist; when he registered for the draft on October 16, 1940, he was working at L. H. Philo Corp. in Brooklyn, a stationery and lithography company, and he listed his profession as cameraman.

Morris enlisted on September 20, 1942, and, like dozens of his fellow Pratt students, ended up in the 603^rd Engineer Camouflage Battalion. He served in Europe with the unit during the war, and later told his family that he was the company photographer for his unit. One of his favorite photos was one he took of Marlene Dietrich when she performed for the Ghost Army soldiers in Luxembourg in November, 1944. He was discharged from the Army on October 20, 1945.

Morris’s wife was named Toni, a Polish emigrée. They married in 1945, and became the parents of two daughters: Darrel and Paula. In 1946, the family moved to Los Angeles, CA at the urging of his father who had traveled there as a salesman. Morrie first sold printing and lithography services at Jeffries Banknote Company, and was an officer of the LA Printing Sales Club.

His parents would end up following them to LA.

Morrie eventually moved into advertising at Saul Bass and Associates. Bass was a graphic designer and filmmaker who became a titan of Hollywood title design and corporate branding; he was the same age as Morrie and they were both New York City natives.

Morrie became a business partner of Bass in 1956 and was named general manager of the firm in 1959, primarily responsible for sales and workflow. He is credited as being instrumental in the growth of the firm. As part of the team, Morrie worked on corporate identity programs for AT&T, Lawry’s Foods, Alcoa, United Airlines, and other US clients, as well as for several Japanese clients—making at least six trips to Japan. He also worked on Bass’s films; two of the corporate films they produced were on display at the New York World’s Fair in 1964 in the United Airlines (From Here to There) and Kodak (The Searching Eye) exhibits.

While his direct responsibilities were on the business side, he was an artist with an advertising background, and likely this brought about deeper involvement int the artistic side of the business than his title would indicate. His name appeared in the credits for an Academy Award-winning documentary short film—and both of his daughters volunteered as extras in one of the scenes. He also worked, with Bass, on title sequences and posters for a number of films including Psycho, Grand Prix, and Exodus. He knew many of the film score composers.

A 1970 article quotes Morrie extensively. The team was working on cleaning up the AT&T trademark to make it bolder and cleaner; Morrie admits that “we came within an eyelash of discarding the bell entirely.” In addition to changing the logo, the team also redesigned AT&T’s trucks from dark green to two-tone with stripes. “Stripes say competitive, confident, alert, dedicated,” says Morrie in the article. He would remain at Bass until about 1976.

Morrie’s daughter Darrel Marsh recalls that in 1971 her family of four took a trip to Europe and visited Luxembourg so that “he could visit with an elderly woman and her son. . . . This elderly woman and her husband and family ‘adopted’ my Dad while he was stationed there, feeding him the best hot meals available in wartime, playing classical music and opera, and providing him with all the literature he desired.”

His avocations included art, photography, and music. Over the years he created art in a variety of media, and Darrel reports that “throughout his life, he always had with him his weighty camera bag and a myriad of lenses ‘at the ready.’ He built a darkroom in our house.” He played folk, classical, and flamenco guitar; and sang—including for years in a volunteer classical choir. (His folk guitar had been a regular presence at “hootenannies” at Saul Bass’s home in the late 1950s; his daughter Darrel recalls attending these lavish weekend outdoor jam sessions when she was a pre-teen, and meeting such folk luminaries as Pete Seeger and Ronnie Gilbert.)

Morrie loved sports, attending events during the 1984 Olympics in LA, playing volleyball every week, and taking up tennis after he retired. As a Brooklynite he was a diehard Brooklyn Dodgers fan, and was thrilled when the team moved to LA in 1958.

Morrie and Toni were also animal lovers. The family always had cats, dogs, and even a duck. Darrel reports that, starting in 1954 when they bought their first house on the GI bill, “he and my mother rescued all the stray, abandoned, and feral cats in our neighborhood, fed them, [and] provided vet care and warm bedding.”

Morrie died on Christmas Day, 1996.