Arthur Godfrey

Arthur Morton Godfrey (August 31, 1903 – March 16, 1983) was an American entertainer, radio and television broadcaster, and Broadway performer born in Manhattan to Arthur Hanbury Godfrey and Kathryn Morton Godfrey. His mother came from a well-to-do Oswego, New York, family, while his father was a sportswriter who specialized in surrey and hackney horses. The family's finances deteriorated with the rise of the automobile, and by 1915 they had relocated to Hasbrouck Heights, New Jersey. The eldest of five children, Godfrey left school after one year at Hasbrouck Heights High School, departed home at 14 to reduce the financial strain on his family, and worked as a civilian typist at Camp Merritt, New Jersey, at 15. He enlisted in the United States Navy at 17, misrepresenting his age to do so.

Godfrey served in the Navy from 1920 to 1924 as a radio operator aboard naval destroyers, then returned home following his father's death. He subsequently served in the Coast Guard from 1927 to 1930, during which time he was admitted to the Radio Materiel School at the Naval Research Laboratory, graduating in 1929. A local talent show appearance in Baltimore during his Coast Guard service, broadcast on October 5 of that year, generated enough audience interest to earn him a brief weekly program of his own. After leaving the Coast Guard, he joined Baltimore station WFBR as a radio announcer before moving to Washington, D.C., where he became a staff announcer at WRC, remaining there until 1934.

A near-fatal automobile accident in 1931 proved formative for Godfrey's broadcasting style. While recovering, he listened carefully to radio and concluded that the formal, declamatory manner of announcers of the era failed to connect with ordinary listeners. He resolved to adopt a relaxed, conversational approach upon returning to the air, speaking as though addressing a single person rather than a crowd. He applied this same informal quality to commercial announcements and became a regional star. In addition to announcing, he sang and played the ukulele. By 1934 he had become a freelance entertainer, eventually anchoring a daily program called Sundial on Washington station WJSV, where he served as morning disc jockey, delivered commercials, interviewed guests, and read news reports. In 1937 he co-hosted Professor Quiz, radio's first successful quiz program. Godfrey later moved his base to the CBS station in New York City, then known as WABC, and for a period was heard on both WJSV and WABC. In the autumn of 1942 he became the announcer for Fred Allen's Texaco Star Theater on the CBS network, though a personality conflict with Allen led to his departure after six weeks.

At the height of his popularity in the early to mid-1950s, Godfrey appeared on radio and television as many as six days a week, at times across nine separate broadcasts for CBS. His programs during this period included Arthur Godfrey Time, a Monday-through-Friday morning program carried on both radio and television; Arthur Godfrey's Talent Scouts, broadcast Monday evenings on radio and television; Arthur Godfrey and His Friends, seen Wednesday evenings on television; The Arthur Godfrey Digest, heard Friday evenings on radio; and King Arthur Godfrey and His Round Table, a Sunday afternoon radio program. Often introduced by the nickname "The Old Redhead," he was closely associated with commercial sponsors including Chesterfield cigarettes and Lipton Tea. He advertised Chesterfield for many years and devised the slogan "Buy 'em by the carton," but ended that relationship after he quit smoking, five years before he was diagnosed with lung cancer in 1959. He subsequently became a prominent spokesman for the anti-tobacco movement.

His career suffered lasting damage in 1953 when he fired cast member Julius La Rosa on the air, an act that undermined the warm, down-to-earth public image he had cultivated. Over the following two years he dismissed more than twenty additional cast and crew members under comparable circumstances, drawing sustained criticism from the press and public. Godfrey was fiercely competitive and, in some instances, terminated employees for speaking with individuals he regarded as rivals, including Ed Sullivan, or for signing with a talent agent. By the late 1950s, CBS had reduced his on-air schedule to his daily radio program, which continued until 1972, along with occasional television specials.

Alongside his broadcasting career, Godfrey maintained a presence on the Broadway stage. A native New Yorker, he appeared on Broadway between 1946 and 1962, with credits that included Three to Make Ready and Never Too Late. Arthur Godfrey died on March 16, 1983.