Beech Tree News Network

Arthur Godfrey (8-31-1903 to 3-16-1983) was an American radio and television entertainer widely popular in the ‘40’s and ‘50’s.  His many broadcast programs launched the careers of numerous popular singers and other entertainers.  

The child of a newspaperman-author-lecturer, Arthur Godfrey grew up in New Jersey.  He left high school and ran away from home at age 14.  After three years of working nondescript jobs, he enlisted in the U.S. Navy, where he was trained to be a radio operator.  After serving four years, he enlisted in the U.S. Coast Guard in 1927.  With this turn, his career as an entertainer began.  He became involved with Coast Gurd entertainment programs.  A Coast Guard program put him in touch with Baltimore radio station WFBR.  When he was released from the service, he found employment there-first as a singer, then announcing, and eventually as station manager.  

When Godfrey first eased into programs of his own, his relaxed manner and quick rapport with other performers made listeners feel part of the group.  He found that a good-humored retort to advertising copy he was reading would entertain and still sell the product.  In the 1940’s, his casual, affable, banter with guests on the air had become so popular that he had two programs daily and one weekly on CBS.  His format, which he successfully transferred to television, was an easy-going and unselfconscious variety show.

In 1959, Godfrey was stricken with lung cancer.  Although he recovered from it, he did not return to radio until 1972.  He never successfully made a comeback on television.  Godfrey was proud of his association with the Navy and Coast Guard, and he was a reserve naval officer.  As far as movies and shows, Godfrey was on quite a few: Arthur Godfrey’s Talent Scouts (1948-58), Aruthur Godfrey and his Friends(1949-’59), movies such as The Glass Bottom Boat(1966),  Candid Camera(1960), 4 For Texas(1963),  Angels Revenge(1979) just to name a few.  Did you know his name was in a song? Confederate Railroad’s self-titled debut album in 1992 had a song called “If You Leave That Way You Can Never Go Back”.  The lyric was “I remember waking in the mornin’ to the sound of the rooster’s crow.  Mama cookin’ in the kitchen.  Arthur Godfrey on the radio”.  

Arthur Godfrey passed away on March 16, 1983, at Mount Sinai Hospital of emphysema and pneumonia.  Ha was 79 years old.