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Arthur Godfrey

J

joeybabe25

I am a big fan of the old redhead. He was the first morning man in radio, as we knew them for years.

I have lots of his morning shows on my old drive, which unfortunately is back home in the U.S. (living in Isreal now). I'd like to start collecting more of his harder to get shows, particuarly morning shows from the 50's and 60's, his all nighter that he pulled in 1964 to celebrate 30 years with CBS, and some of the shows from the late 50's when he had guest hosts for the longest time because he was recovering from lung cancer.

Anyone know of online sites with AG?

Thanks,

Joe
 
I started listening (and watching) Arthur Godfrey when I was about 12 years old. Even by then, he was not as popular as he had been previously, but he still had the ability to hold his audience either on radio or TV and be able to sell his sponsors' products. His morning show was very popular and his "Talent Scouts" and "Arthur Godfrey and His Friends" weekly TV shows were high in the ratings. It has been said that Godfrey said more words to more people than anyone who ever lived. That's something to think about.
 
Arthur Godfrey on paper should not have been a success on either radio or TV (in fact, given how popular he was on TV in the early 1950's, this thread could easily have been on the Classic TV Board).

But he had an "everyman" charm that appealed to millions.

It is claimed that in one year during the early 1950's, his three TV shows (a morning talk/variety show simulcast on radio, a prime-time variety show and his weekly prime-time "Talent Scouts" show, considered the "American Idol" of its era) reportedly accounted for 12 percent of all of the CBS Television Network's total annual revenues.

And for decades, he sold lots of Lipton Tea! ;)
 
Joseph_Gallant said:
It is claimed that in one year during the early 1950's, his three TV shows (a morning talk/variety show simulcast on radio, a prime-time variety show and his weekly prime-time "Talent Scouts" show, considered the "American Idol" of its era) reportedly accounted for 12 percent of all of the CBS Television Network's total annual revenues.
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...he also had an ukulele instruction program, Arthur Godfrey & His Ukulele, twice a week (Tuesdays and Thursdays or Fridays at 7:45 PM ET) in April, May and June of 1950...

And for decades, he sold lots of Lipton Tea! ;)
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...and probably sold more ukuleles than anyone since Wendell Hall in the earliest days of NBC Radio...
 
I originally posted this in a cart thread, but I think its better here:

In the 27 years (to the day) that Godfrey did his radio show on CBS, was it always fed live?

I know that some stations tape delayed it (that was one of his gripes and reasons for ditching the show...I think CBS would have kept him on for at least a few more years) or got the feed west of the Mississippi.

There are plenty of national network morning shows now. Is there not room for someone who would skew a little older and capture the plus-40 group. Of course, I have to say that the over 40 crowd is more today like a late 20's deployment of the great unwashed. A 45 year old is less mature today than a 45 year old was 45 years ago.

Perhaps?

Joe
 
joeybabe25 said:
In the 27 years (to the day) that Godfrey did his radio show on CBS, was it always fed live?

I know that some stations tape delayed it (that was one of his gripes and reasons for ditching the show...I think CBS would have kept him on for at least a few more years) or got the feed west of the Mississippi.
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...in the later rears, I'm positive that Godfrey's radio show would be pre-recorded more often than not, considering the very frequent trips he took to Los Angeles (where a live feed of the show would have put its production at something like 6:00 or 7:00 AM Pacific Time). Of course, it was a tape-delay for the West Coast that most CBS stations -- including O&Os KCBS/740 San Francisco and KNX/1070 Los Angeles -- were running at the time the news of JFK's assassination broke on 22 November 1963; about 15 minutes' worth of that day's program from the aircheck skimmer at KNX are still downloadable from http://newstalgia.crooksandliars.com/gordonskene/november-22-1963-lest-we-forget (mainly a discussion with guests Morris McLemore of the Miami News and retired Mutual newscaster Gabriel Heatter, and a performance by singer Carol Sloane)...
 
joeybabe25 said:
Great aircheck! I've never heard this before. Was AG's show an hour by 1963 or was it still 90 minutes?
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...I'm pretty sure Arthur Godfrey Time had been cut back to one hour about the time he also gave up his TV shows, circa '59...
 
I recall listening to Arthur Godfrey's radio show on CBS Radio in the Summer of 1965 and believe it was an hour then. Something like 10:00 A.M. - 11:00 A.M.
 
Joseph_Gallant said:
Or technically, "Arthur Godfrey Time" was 50, 52 or 53 minutes from the late fifties onward, after an hourly radio newscast.
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50 mins until 1968 then 30 mins 7 days a week until 1972
 
I wonder what time he would have been fed down the line on a Saturday or Sunday?

Also, does anyone know what day of the week his final program aired?

Thanks,

Joe
 
godfrey on radio & TV

I remember sometime in the 50's when after high school I worked in A radio/TV shop that a customer called in to complain that she had been watching Godfrey On TV and when she turned the TV off, she could still hear him. Turns out she had him tuned in on her kitchen radio at the same time which was still turned on.
 
Bob and Ray used to do a Godfrey spoof character; I think they called him Arthur Sturdley, and played him as the egomaniacal oaf he apparently was off-the-air. Stan Freberg made a record parodying Godfrey, called "That's Right, Arthur," but Capitol refused to release it for fear of Godfrey's lawyers. (I don't know offhand if it's since been released in any of the Freberg retrospective CD sets.)
 
Godfrey never fully recovered from firing Julius Larosa on TV. Godfrey was the king of the live pitchmen when all commercials prior to him were carefully written. He continued to be CBS radio's top and last entertainment personality into the early 70's. I remember the all night anniversary show. I was delivering the Atlanta Journal about 430 AM and Godfrey was still going strong. When I was working at WJAZ AM in Albany Ga in 1971 Godfrey was still being carried on the local CBS affilliate. Someone he knew had recently died and he mentioned that he would no longer tape his shows a week in advance because he missed mentioning the death of the person in a timely manner.
 
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