Happy Felton

Francis J. Felton Jr., known professionally as Happy Felton, was born on November 30, 1907, in Bellevue, Pennsylvania, and died on October 21, 1964, at Mount Sinai Hospital at the age of 56. A bandleader, vaudevillian, Broadway performer, and children's television host, Felton built a career that spanned multiple entertainment disciplines over several decades.

Felton showed musical ability from an early age, performing as a violin soloist with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra at age seven. He attended Bellevue High School and went on to play football at both Allegheny College and the University of Pittsburgh, graduating from Allegheny in 1929. During his college years he organized the Artists of Rhythm orchestra, which performed in Cleveland, Buffalo, and other cities, and he also played violin with the Goodrich Silvertown Orchestra. His nickname derived from his portrayal of the allegorical character Dr. Happy in a production at Allegheny College.

Following graduation, Felton pursued a wide range of performing work. He played drums in a circus, participated in a medicine-man show, sang with the Four Ambassadors quartet, and performed in vaudeville with Adele Jason and the Boys. He also served as a headliner in vaudeville, including a held-over engagement leading the vaudeville show at Loew's State Theatre in August 1943. For ten years he led an orchestra that performed in nightclubs and hotels across the United States. In 1938 he made a Vitaphone Melody Master short subject titled Music with a Smile in the Happy Felton Style.

Felton left his orchestra to pursue Broadway, where he replaced Chic Johnson in the 1938 revue Hellzapoppin, a role he held for fourteen months. He subsequently performed comedic parts in touring companies of Broadway shows and appeared in films including A Guy Named Joe, Swing Shift Maisie, and Whistling in Brooklyn. He also had starring roles in productions at Muny Opera in St. Louis and the Dallas Municipal Opera Company.

His radio career included a stint on Finders Keepers, hosting Stop the Music, serving as quizmaster on Guess Who?, acting as master of ceremonies on Pot o' Gold, and substituting for Ralph Edwards on Truth or Consequences. In 1947 he founded Happy Songs Incorporated, a music publishing company. On television, Felton took the teacher's role in 1948 on School Days, broadcast on Wednesday nights on the DuMont Television Network, a program built around a vaudeville-style premise in which guests seated at student desks received assignments from Felton.

On April 21, 1950, Happy Felton's Knothole Gang debuted on WOR-TV. Each episode began twenty-five minutes before a Brooklyn Dodgers home game, with Felton and three young participants gathered in the right-field bullpen at Ebbets Field. The boys competed in drills evaluated by a Dodgers player on fielding ability, speed, and baseball competence. All three received baseball equipment, and the day's winner returned the following day to speak with his favorite Dodger. Participants were initially recommended by youth leagues and then screened by the American Legion, the Catholic Youth Organization, and the Police Athletic League. The program was originally sponsored by Tidewater Oil Incorporated and the Studebaker Dealers Association of New York. In March 1952, Loew's theaters and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer arranged to co-sponsor the broadcasts, incorporating Saturday morning movie meetings for children at Loew's locations, with 50,000 youngsters registering at 35 theaters on the first Saturday of the arrangement. The Knothole Gang ran until 1958, when the Dodgers relocated to Los Angeles. Felton's obituary in The New York Times noted that the program greatly spurred Little League and sandlot baseball in New York City.

In 1951 Felton added a post-game program, serving as master of ceremonies of Talk to the Stars, which featured one Brooklyn player and one player from the visiting team per episode. The show initially took phoned-in questions from fans before shifting to a postcard format that averaged approximately 5,000 submissions per week. Happy Felton's Spotlight Club, an audience-participation program for children, aired on NBC Saturday mornings from December 4, 1954, through February 26, 1955. Felton also served as master of ceremonies of It's a Hit on CBS Saturday mornings from June 1, 1957, through September 21, 1957, a program in which baseball stars including Duke Snider and Curt Simmons managed teams of contestants who answered questions to score hits and runs and win prizes.

Felton married composer Vi Brantley on June 4, 1942, in Baltimore. They had two daughters.