McLuhan's closest friend for decades — a Catholic intellectual and business consultant who was best man at the McLuhan wedding and godfather to both Eric and Mary. Cameron traces his reach: with McLuhan at the 1939 first encounter with Finnegans Wake, a McKinsey partner who may have opened corporate doors, and — through a McKinsey associate — the channel through which McLuhan knew about LSD as early as the 1940s.
Across the dialogues
McLuhan's main colleague of the late 1930s — with him at the 1939 Finnegans Wake encounter
Muller-Thym was McLuhan's main colleague of the late 1930s — at his side for the 1939 first encounter with Finnegans Wake.
"He was doing the Wake with Muller-Thym — and that's in '39. So that was his main colleague in the late '30s. He's aware of the Wake, he's looking at it, but he doesn't talk about it much in the '40s."Bob Dobbs, The Resonant Interval, Dialogue 3 (19 Nov 2020), 37:14
Best man, godfather, McKinsey partner — and the channel through which McLuhan knew LSD in the 1940s
Best man at the McLuhan wedding, Muller-Thym became godfather to both twins — a last-minute double arrangement for Eric and Mary.
"Bernard Muller-Thym, who was the best man at the wedding — he was the godfather of both Eric and Mary. They had to come up with a godfather at the last minute."Cameron McEwen, The Resonant Interval, Dialogue 10 (14 Jan 2021), 1:10:04
The Muller-Thyms' eight children gave McLuhan a living image of the Catholic nuclear family to emulate; his wife was close to Corinne.
"Muller-Thym and his wife eventually had eight children, and kind of gave a living picture of [the Catholic family]."Cameron McEwen, The Resonant Interval, Dialogue 10 (14 Jan 2021), 1:11:07
After Navy intelligence work out of Columbia, Muller-Thym moved into business as a market analyst at McKinsey.
"Muller-Thym had been working for Navy intelligence in New York, out of Columbia University, and then became a market analyst working for McKinsey."Cameron McEwen, The Resonant Interval, Dialogue 10 (14 Jan 2021), 1:11:31
As a McKinsey partner (to ~1953) serving IBM, GE and others, Muller-Thym may have helped McLuhan gain a foothold with corporate clients.
"Muller-Thym was a partner up until like 1953 or something in McKinsey Associates. And McKinsey was doing consulting for IBM and GE and everybody else. And so Muller-Thym may have helped McLuhan get a small foothold with some of these people."Cameron McEwen, The Resonant Interval, Dialogue 10 (14 Jan 2021), 1:12:29
Through a McKinsey associate who championed LSD in the 1940s, Muller-Thym made McLuhan aware of LSD's promise and dangers decades before his 1966 review.
"The close associate of Muller-Thym at McKinsey was a very early advocate of LSD and published on it in the 1940s."Cameron McEwen, The Resonant Interval, Dialogue 10 (14 Jan 2021), 1:12:57
The friend as early-warning system — his 1940s market-research talk resurfaces as the seed of surveillance capitalism, sighted decades ahead of the devices that would realize it
Muller-Thym as McLuhan's early antenna on the market — his 1940s account of firms needing to read their consumers is, in Bob's telling, surveillance capitalism sighted long before the devices, the ground on which McLuhan learned to treat ads as anti-environment.
"His friend Muller-Thym was talking about how corporations need to know the tastes and preferences of their consumers in order to make the products that fit with that consumer preference. And so surveillance capitalism was already obvious in the 1940s."Bob Dobbs, The Resonant Interval, Dialogue 50 (9 Jun 2022), 1:58:04
Promoted into the tactility chain — the St. Louis friend added as the one who put Thomistic tactility into McLuhan's hands before Giedion did, making the earliest link personal rather than scholarly
The name Cameron supplies when Bob gropes for "his best buddy in 39 in St. Louis" — the chain's one link that came by friendship rather than by reading.
"Muller-Thym."Cameron McEwen, The Resonant Interval, Dialogue 70 (25 May 2023), 54:31
The credential gets repeated back at the man who had talked past it, and the repetition is what pries open the session's last long stretch of McLuhan biography — so the friend stops being a name in a chain and becomes the hinge the wedding story turns on
Cameron repeats the credential Bob had talked past, and the repetition is what opens the session's last long stretch of McLuhan biography — the wedding on the run, the passport, and the substitute godparent.
"I said that Muller-Thym was the best man at the wedding. And then the godfather of Eric and Mary."Cameron McEwen, The Resonant Interval, Dialogue 74 (17 Aug 2023), 1:43:49
The double godfathership is corrected into an exception rather than a plan — Muller-Thym stood for Mary only because someone else fell through at the last moment, which is the kind of contingency the archive's origin stories usually smooth over.
"they had two separate godparents for the twins."Cameron McEwen, The Resonant Interval, Dialogue 74 (17 Aug 2023), 1:44:18
Connections
McLuhan's closest friend for decades; best man at his wedding and his main colleague back in the late 1930s.
Stood as godfather to Eric (and Mary) — a last-minute double arrangement when a second godparent was needed for the twins.
Godfather to Mary as well as Eric.
Muller-Thym was Eric's godfather (and Mary's).