Skip to main content
Use the right side menu to identify relevant boxes and place requests.

Arthur Godfrey papers

 Collection 0035-MMC-LAB

Arthur Morton Godfrey (1903-1983) was the leading personality in American broadcasting during the 1950s. He appeared regularly on network radio from 1945 to 1972, and on television from 1948 to 1959. His radio career began on WFBR in Baltimore in 1930 and concluded with Arthur Godfrey Time on the CBS network in 1972. Through most of the decade of the 1950s, Godfrey not only hosted a daily radio program but two top-ten prime time television shows, Arthur Godfrey's Talent Scouts and Arthur Godfrey and His Friends, all for CBS. By 1959, total advertising billings from Godfrey's TV shows were estimated at an industry-high $150 million.

The Thirteen/WNET Arthur Godfrey collection spans 1923 to 1983, with the bulk of the collection encompassing the years 1950 up through the late 1970s. The collection contains an extensive series of sheet music and business records. It also contains publicity clippings, scripts, personal correspondence,photographs, and recordings of Godfrey's programs.

Dates

  • 1923-1983 and undated
  • Majority of material found within 1950-1978

Use and Access to Collection

This collection is open to the public and must be used in the Special Collections reading room. Researchers must register and agree to copyright and privacy laws before using this collection.

This collection contains restricted material, please check the series and folder listings for additional information.

Duplication and Copyright Information

Photocopies or digital surrogates may be provided in accordance with Special Collections and University Archives duplication policy.

Copyright resides with the creators of the documents or their heirs unless otherwise specified. It is the researcher's responsibility to secure permission to publish materials from the appropriate copyright holder.

Archival materials may contain materials with sensitive or confidential information that is protected under federal and/or state right to privacy laws or other regulations. While we make a good faith effort to identify and remove such materials, some may be missed during our processing. If a researcher finds sensitive personal information in a collection, please bring it to the attention of the reading room staff.

Extent

243.00 Linear Feet

Scope and Content of Collection

The Thirteen/WNET Arthur Godfrey collection spans the years 1923 to 1983, with the bulk of the collection encompassing the years 1950 up through the late 1970s. The collection contains large series of sheet music and business records. In addition, it contains publicity clippings, scripts, personal correspondence, and photograph. . One series of the collection consists not of donated materials but websites about Arthur Godfrey archived from the public web.

Also included in this collection are a wide range of audiovisual material including films, tape reels, and wire recordings of Godfrey's shows including Arthur Godfrey Time, Arthur Godfrey and His Friends, Arthur Godfrey and His Friends, and Arthur Godrey Digest. These materials are not currently listed in the finding aid. Please contact askhornbake@umd.edu for more information.

Biography

Arthur Morton Godfrey was born in New York City on August 31, 1903. He was educated at the Naval Radio School, 1921; Naval Radio Material School, 1929; and took various correspondence courses. Godfrey served in the U.S. Navy, receiving radio training and becoming a radio operator on destroyer duty, 1920-24; served in the U.S. Coast Guard acquiring additional radio training, 1927-30. His broadcasting positions included: radio announcer and entertainer for WFBR in Baltimore, Maryland, 1930; staff announcer for NBC in Washington, D.C., 1930-34; freelance radio entertainer from 1934; joined CBS Radio, 1945; CBS television host of Arthur Godfrey's Talent Scouts, 1948-58; television host of Arthur Godfrey and His Friends, 1949-59; national radio host of Arthur Godfrey Time, 1960-72; starred in films Four For Texas, 1963, The Glass Bottom Boat, 1966, Where Angels Go, Trouble Follows, 1968. Godfrey was a member of ASCAP, National Advisory Committee on Oceans and Atmosphere, and Citizen's Advisory Committee on Environmental Quality. Arthur Godfrey died in New York City on March 16, 1983.

RADIO

1945-1972 Arthur Godfrey Time

1946-1956 Arthur Godfrey's Talent Scouts

TELEVISION SERIES

1948-58 Arthur Godfrey's Talent Scouts

1949-59 Arthur Godfrey and His Friends

Godfrey also appeared well into the 1960s in a number of television specials for CBS, bearing titles like Arthur Godfrey Loves Animals and Arthur Godfrey in Hollywood. Additionally, from television's earliest days into the late 1970s, Godfrey made numerous guest appearances on programs as varied as The Ed Sullivan Show, The Jackie Gleason Show, The Bob Hope Chrysler Theatre, Password, The Love Boat and The Dick Cavett Show.

FILMS

Fifty Years Before Your Eyes, 1950; Four For Texas, 1963; The Glass Bottom Boat, 1966; Where Angels Go, Trouble Follows, 1968; The Great Bank Hoax, 1978

U.S. Variety Show Host

Arthur Godfrey ranks as one of the important on-air stars of the first decade of American television. Indeed prior to 1959 there was no bigger TV luminary than this freckled faced, ukulele playing, host/pitchman. Through most of the decade of the 1950s Godfrey hosted a daily radio program and appeared in two top-ten prime time television shows, all for CBS. As the new medium was invading American households, there was something about Godfrey's wide grin, his infectious chuckle, his unruly shock of red hair that made millions tune in not once, but twice a week.

To industry insiders, Godfrey was television's first great master of advertising. His deep, microphone-loving voice delivery earned Arthur Godfrey a million dollars a year, making him one of the highest paid persons in the United States at the time. He blended a Southern folksiness with enough sophistication to charm a national audience measured in the millions through the 1950s. For CBS-TV in particular, Godfrey was one of network television's most valuable stars, generating millions of dollars in advertising billings each year, with no ostensible talent save being the most congenial of hosts.

After more than a decade on radio, Godfrey ventured onto primetime TV in December 1948 by simply permitting the televising of his radio hit Arthur Godfrey's Talent Scouts. The formula for Talent Scouts was simple enough. "Scouts" presented their "discoveries" to perform live before a national radio and television audience. Most of these discoveries were in fact struggling professionals looking for a break, and the quality of the talent was quite high. The winner, chosen by the fabled "audience applause meter," often joined Godfrey on his radio show and on Arthur Godfrey and His Friends for some period thereafter.

Through the late 1940s and 1950s Godfrey significantly assisted the careers of Pat Boone, Tony Bennett, Eddie Fisher, Connie Francis, and Patsy Cline. An institution on Monday nights at 8:30 P.M., Arthur Godfrey's Talent Scouts always functioned as Godfrey's best showcase and through the early 1950s was a consistent top-ten hit.

A month after the December 1948 television debut of Arthur Godfrey's Talent Scouts came the premiere of Arthur Godfrey and His Friends. Here Godfrey employed a resident cast which at times included Julius La Rosa, Frank Parker, Lu Ann Simms, and the Chordettes. Tony Marvin was both the announcer and Godfrey's "second banana," as he was on Arthur Godfrey's Talent Scouts. The appeal of Arthur Godfrey and His Friends varied depending on the popularity of the assembled company of singers, all clean cut young people lifted by Godfrey from obscurity. Godfrey played host and impresario, sometimes singing off key and strumming his ukulele, but most often leaving the vocals to others.

As he had done on radio, Godfrey frequently kidded his sponsors, but always "sold from the heart," only hawking products he had actually tried and/or regularly used. No television viewer during the 1950s doubted that Godfrey really did love Lipton Tea and drank it every day. He delighted in tossing aside prepared scripts and telling his audience: "Aw, who wrote this stuff? Everybody knows Lipton's is the best tea you can buy. So why get fancy about it? Getcha some Lipton's, fill the pot with plain hot water for a few minutes, then put fresh hot water on the tea and let it just sit there."

Godfrey perfected the art of seeming to speak intimately to each and every one of his viewers, to sound as if he was confiding in "you and you alone." Despite all his irreverent kidding, then, advertisers loved him. Here was no snake oil salesman hawking an unneeded item, merchandise not worth its price. Here was a friend recommending the product. This personal style drove CBS efficiency experts crazy. Godfrey refused to simply read his advertising copy in the allocated 60 seconds. Instead he talked--for as long as he felt it necessary to convince his viewers of his message, frequently running over his allotted commercial time.

CBS owner William S. Paley detested Godfrey but bowed to his incredible popularity. CBS president Frank Stanton loved Godfrey because his shows were so cheap to produce but drew consistently high ratings. In 1955 when Disneyland cost $90,000 per hour, and costs for a half hour of The Jack Benny Show totaled more than $40,000, Arthur Godfrey's Talent Scouts cost but $30,000. This figure was more in line with the production of a cheap quiz program than fashioning a pricey Hollywood-based show on film. In his day Godfrey accumulated a personal fortune that made it possible for him to own a vast estate in the Virginia horse country, maintain a huge duplex apartment in Manhattan, and fly back and forth in his own airplanes. In 1950 he qualified for a Naval pilot's license; the following year he trained to fly jets. Constantly plugging the glories of air travel, Arthur Godfrey, according to Eddie Rickenbacker, did more to boost aviation than any single person since Charles Lindbergh.

As much as the termination of live anthology drama from New York, Godfrey's end symbolized the close of the era of experimental, live television. But Arthur Godfrey should be remembered for more than his skill in performing for live television. Perhaps even more significant is that he taught the medium how to sell. In terms of the forces of that have shaped and continue to shape the medium of television, Arthur Godfrey's career perfectly illustrates the workings of the star system. Here was a person who seemed to have had "no talent," but was so effective that through most of the 1950s he was "everywhere" in the mass media. In the end times and tastes changed. In 1951 that Arthur Godfrey stood as the very center of American television. Eight years later he was back on radio, a forgotten man to all but the few who listened to the "old" medium. Married: 1) Catherine Collins, children: Richard; 2) Mary Bourke, 1938, children: Arthur Michael, Jr. and Patricia Ann.

Arrangement

This collection is organized as 7 series:

Custodial History and Acquisition Information

The Thirteen/WNET Arthur Godfrey collection was donated to the Library of American Broadcasting by the Educational Broadcasting Corporation on September 25, 1997. WNET received the collection from Arthur Godfrey in his will when he died in 1983.

Existence and Location of Copies

The University of Maryland Libraries have digitized a number of Arthur Godfrey programs. Due to the copyright restrictions these recordings are only available on campus. Please visit digital collections at https://digital.lib.umd.edu/ to view this materials or use the links below

Processing Information

Metal fasteners were extracted and replaced with Plastiklips. Original folders were replaced with acid free folders and some oversized materials separated. The original order was mostly preserved. In some cases materials were loose in boxes, were overpacked and had to be moved. The processing archivist assigned folder headings in cases were folders were unlabelled or mislabelled. Materials were rearranged into topical or chronological order.

Title
Guide to the Arthur Godfrey papers
Subtitle
Thirteen/WNET Arthur Godfey collection
Status
Completed
Author
Processed by Ashley S. Behringer
Date
2012-02-01
Description rules
Describing Archives: A Content Standard
Language of description
English
Script of description
Code for undetermined script
Language of description note
Finding aid written in English.

Revision Statements

  • 2012-02-15: EAD checked and verified using Oxgen software by Joanne Archer.
  • 2012: Historical note by Douglas Gomery.
  • 2017-11-03: Finding aid reviewed and edited by Rebecca Thayer.
  • 2019-01-15: Finding aid reviewed and minor edits made by Duncan Griffin.
  • 2021-07-23: Jim Baxter re-wrote the collection abstract.

Library Details

Part of the Special Collections and University Archives

Contact:
University of Maryland Libraries
Hornbake Library
4130 Campus Drive
College Park Maryland 20742
301-405-9212