Arthur Morton Godfrey (August 31, 1903 – March 16, 1983) was an American radio and television broadcaster and entertainer. At the peak of his success, in the early to mid-1950s, Godfrey was heard on radio and seen on television up to six days a week, at times for as many as nine separate broadcasts for CBS. His programs included Arthur Godfrey Time (Monday-Friday mornings on radio and television), Arthur Godfrey's Talent Scouts (Monday evenings on radio and television), Arthur Godfrey and His Friends (Wednesday evenings on television), The Arthur Godfrey Digest (Friday evenings on radio) and King Arthur Godfrey and His Round Table (Sunday afternoons on radio).
In 1953, Godfrey's infamous on-air firing of cast member Julius La Rosa permanently damaged his kindly, down-to-earth, family-man image which resulted in an immediate decline of his popularity that he was never able to overcome. Over the next two years, Godfrey fired over twenty additional cast and crew members, under similar circumstances, for which he was heavily attacked by the press and public alike. A self-made man, Godfrey was fiercely competitive; some of his employees were fired for merely speaking with those he considered to be competitors, like Ed Sullivan, or for signing with a talent agent. By the late 1950s, CBS reduced his on-air presence to hosting his daily radio show, which ended in 1972, and the occasional television special.
Sometimes introduced by his nickname "the Old Redhead", Godfrey was strongly identified with many of his commercial sponsors, especially Chesterfield cigarettes and Lipton Tea. He advertised Chesterfield for many years, during which time he devised the slogan "Buy 'em by the carton"; he terminated his relationship with the company after he quit smoking, five years before he was diagnosed with lung cancer in 1959. Godfrey later became a prominent spokesman for the anti-tobacco movement.
Early life Godfrey was born in Manhattan in 1903 to Arthur Hanbury Godfrey and Kathryn Morton Godfrey. His mother was from a well-to-do Oswego, New York, family, which disapproved of her marriage. An older Englishman, the senior Godfrey was a sportswriter and considered an expert on surrey and hackney horses, but the advent of the automobile devastated the family's finances. By 1915, when Arthur was 12, the family had moved to Hasbrouck Heights, New Jersey.Emblen, Frank. "New Jersey Guide", The New York Times, December 18, 1983. Retrieved July 11, 2019. "Mr. Godfrey, who died on March 16 at the age of 79, was a native of Hasbrouck Heights." Godfrey dropped out after a single year at Hasbrouck Heights High School."The Working Class", Time, June 11, 1951. Accessed July 11, 2019. "Radio-TV Comic Arthur Godfrey, whose formal higher education consisted of 'one short year at Hasbrouck Heights High School' in New Jersey, got an honorary Doctor of Science degree at Rider College in Trenton, N.J." The eldest of five children, he worked before and after school at an early age, and left home at 14 to ease the financial burden on his family. A year later he was a civilian typist at Camp Merritt, New Jersey, and enlisted in the United States Navy at 17, lying about his age.
Godfrey's father was something of a "free thinker" by the standards of the era. He did not disdain organized religion but insisted that his children explore all faiths before deciding for themselves which to embrace. Their childhood included friends of Catholic, Jewish and various Protestant faiths. The senior Godfrey was friends with the Vanderbilts, but was democratic in his associations and enjoyed talking about issues of the day to total strangers. In the book Genius in the Family (G.P. Putnam's Sons, New York, 1962), written about their mother by Godfrey's youngest sister, Dorothy Gene (who preferred to be called "Jean"), with the help of their sister, Kathy, it was reported that the angriest they ever saw their father was when a man on the ferry declared the Ku Klux Klan a civic organization vital to the good of the community. They rode the ferry back and forth three times, with their father arguing with the man that the Klan was a bunch of "Blasted, bigoted fools, led 'round by the nose!"
Godfrey's mother, Kathryn, was a gifted artist and composer whose aspirations to fame were laid aside to take care of her family after her husband, whom she called "Darl'", died. Her creativity enabled the family to get through some very hard times. She played the piano to accompany silent films, made jams and jellies, crocheted bedspreads, and even cut off and sold her long hair, as it was extremely difficult for a woman of her social class to find work without violating social mores of the time. The one household item that was never sold was the piano, and she believed at least some of her children would succeed in show business. In her later years some of her compositions were performed by symphony orchestras in Canada, which earned her a mention in Time. In 1958, at the age of 78, her sauciness made her a big hit with the audience when she appeared on Groucho Marx's quiz show You Bet Your Life. She died of cancer in 1968 at a nursing home in a suburb north of Chicago.
Godfrey served in the Navy from 1920 to 1924 as a radio operator on naval destroyers, then returned home to care for the family after his father's death. Additional radio training came during Godfrey's service in the Coast Guard from 1927 to 1930. He passed a stringent qualifying examination and was admitted to the prestigious Radio Materiel School at the Naval Research Laboratory, graduating in 1929. During a Coast Guard stint in Baltimore he appeared in a local talent show broadcast on October 5 of that year and became popular enough to land his own brief weekly program.
Radio
On leaving the Coast Guard, Godfrey became a radio announcer for Baltimore station WFBR (now WJZ (AM)), then moved to Washington, D.C., to become a staff announcer for NBC-owned station WRC the same year. He remained there until 1934.
Recovering from a near-fatal automobile accident en route to a flying lesson in 1931 (he was already an avid flyer), he decided to listen closely to the radio and realized that the stiff, formal style then used by announcers could not connect with the average radio listener. The announcers spoke in stentorian tones, as if giving a formal speech to a crowd and not communicating on a personal level. Godfrey vowed that when he returned to the airwaves, he would affect a relaxed, informal style as if he were talking to just one person. He also used that style in spoken commercials and became a regional star.
In addition to announcing, Godfrey sang and played the ukulele. In 1934 he became a freelance entertainer, but eventually based himself on a daily show titled Sundial on CBS-owned station WJSV (later WTOP and now WFED) in Washington. Godfrey was the station's morning disc jockey, playing records, delivering commercials (often with tongue in cheek; a classic example had him referring to Bayer Aspirin as "bare ass prin"), interviewing guests, and even reading news reports during his three-hour shift. Godfrey loved to sing, and would frequently sing random verses during the "talk" portions of his program. In 1937, he was a host on Professor Quiz, radio's first successful quiz program. One surviving broadcast from 1939 has Godfrey unexpectedly turning on his microphone to harmonize with the Foursome's recording of "There'll Be Some Changes Made". The same broadcast has him sneezing loudly on the air (which just wasn't done, and still isn't; on-air talent has a kill switch on the microphone that prevents unscheduled sounds from going out on the air).
Godfrey was eager to remain connected with the Navy, but found his hip injuries rendered him unsuitable for military service. He personally knew President Franklin D. Roosevelt, who listened to his Washington program, and through Roosevelt's intercession, he received a commission in the U.S. Naval Reserve before World War II. He would participate in exercises around the Washington area. Godfrey eventually moved his base to the CBS station in New York City, then known as WABC (later WCBS, now WHSQ), and was heard on both WJSV and WABC for a time. In the autumn of 1942, he also became the announcer for Fred Allen's Texaco Star Theater show on the CBS network, but a personality conflict between Allen and Godfrey led to his early release from the show after only six weeks.
Network radio star Godfrey became nationally known in April 1945 when, as CBS's morning-radio man in Washington, he took the microphone for a live, firsthand account of President Roosevelt's funeral procession. The entire CBS network picked up the broadcast, later preserved in the Edward R. Murrow and Fred W. Friendly record series, I Can Hear it Now. Unlike the tight-lipped news reporters and commentators of the day, who delivered news in an earnest, businesslike manner, Godfrey's tone was sympathetic and neighborly, lending immediacy and intimacy to his words. When identifying new President Harry S. Truman's car in the procession, Godfrey fervently said, in a choked voice, "God bless him, President Truman." Godfrey broke down in tears and cued the listeners back to the studio. The entire nation was moved by his emotional outburst.
CBS gave Arthur Godfrey his own morning time slot on the nationwide network. Arthur Godfrey Time was a Monday–Friday show that featured his monologues, interviews with various stars, music from his own in-house combo, and regular vocalists. Godfrey's monologues and discussions were usually unscripted, and went wherever he chose. Arthur Godfrey Time remained a late-morning staple on the CBS Radio Network schedule until 1972.Adams, Val. "Anniversary" (The New York Times, January 19, 1964, Section 2, p.X 17). Retrieved October 27, 2018.
Godfrey was known for sparking impromptu jam sessions on the air with the band, all of them first-rate musicians who could improvise on the fly. He often grabbed his ukulele and launched into songs the band may not have rehearsed. He had insisted on employing musicians in his small orchestra who would be able to accompany him quickly and "follow" him as he sang. At other times, he would jump into a number sung by one of the cast members and continue it, encouraging solos from various band members. It was further proof of his insistence on spontaneity on the air. He later played a baritone ukulele. Over time, tutored by the band's guitarist Remo Palmier, Godfrey's playing took a decidedly jazzy quality. Palmier, a top Manhattan studio guitarist, was also a respected jazz guitarist and the only one of Godfrey's musicians to remain with the show from its 1945 debut until the final 1972 broadcast.
Recordings Two radio monologues proved to be audience favorites and were rebroadcast on several occasions by popular demand, and later on his television show. They were "What is a Boy?" and a follow-up, "What is a Girl?" With the skilled addition of sentimental music, both monologues captured the essence of what made parents love their children, fondly describing the highly varied personality traits of each child as the monologue progressed. "What is a Boy?" in particular proved to be so popular that it was released as one of Godfrey's records, which he issued on Columbia Records (Record no. 39487) in the summer of 1951, with "What is a Girl?" on the B-side of the record. It reached the top of the Billboard charts in August 1951, one of several successful records Godfrey released between 1947 and 1952.