Arthur Godfrey's unbelievable story | Betty Ann Welch - Screenland Plus TV Land, January 1954

SEVERAL attempts have been made in the past to analyze that "something" which Arthur Godfrey has that brought him such resounding success. That he and his story are slightly phenomenal in the highly competitive world of show business is evident when you take a good look at this man. First of all, to find out what he is, perhaps we can eliminate a few things that he isn't. He is not a comedian. He is not a singer. He is not a musician. He is not a salesman (in the traditional sense of "pitchman"). But being able to do all of these things moderately well and at the same time being absolutely an average human being, has brought him into almost individual touch with each person in his audience. The viewers sympathize and participate through him in everything that he does. So that, starting with no great talent in any one direction, he ends up being just about the greatest comedian, singer, musician and salesman. "Godfrey" vies with "Eisenhower" as a household word in this country, but what kind of a person is he really, and how did he get where he is today? Mil- lions of people want to know "The real inside story of Godfrey." But very 'few know it.

The story starts very humbly, and it is Godfrey's simple background and his slow, hard-working rise to fame that possibly hold a clue to his great appeal to the people whom he knows so well-the average Americans.

Arthur Godfrey started with nothing but the clothes on his back-he started out on his own at the age of 14, joined the Navy when he was 16, worked his way up as a professional entertainer through announcing on the radio, being a disc jockey on a morning show, appearing in vaudeville as "Red Godfrey And His Talking Banjo," and leading his own orchestra. Godfrey worked hard and has never lost touch with the knowledge of how hard and stoney was the climb to fame. He hasn't forgotten the days he hardly had a penny and no one would lend him a dime. He says, "When I was broke, nobody ever gave me anything. Now that I have lots of money, I don't need to buy anything. It's given to me. Ironic, isn't it?"

And pinching pennies has become second-nature to the man who at one time didn't have the pennies to pinch. Even now with a farm worth millions, his two Cadillacs, and several airplanes, he doesn't throw his money around. He gets a nickel's worth for every nickel he spends.

And this brings us to the core of his appeal as an entertainer. Godfrey is "the average American." He pinches his pennies-so do all the rest of us. He enjoys having an airplane to fly-who wouldn't? He likes to try to ice skate and does about as well as any of the rest of us. Arthur Godfrey is doing what we'd like to do and enjoying it just as we'd enjoy it. And his audience listens and applauds, agrees or disagrees, just as they would with a friend who lived next door.

Success has had its drawbacks-just like the "poor little rich girl," Godfrey can no longer enjoy the privileges that come from absolute freedom of movement. He can't lose himself in a crowd- he can't wander unrecognized through the streets. This has been an actual handicap for Godfrey, because he used to draw a lot of inspiration from his direct contact with the public. Now, since TV has made his face familiar to all the nation, he can no longer ride on the subway or bus unrecognized and listen to what people are interested in. He can't go, unknown, into a barber shop and swap gos- sip "one man to another." Because he now can't handle this important part of his contact with the people, he has five writers who do it for him. They can min- gle in crowds and hear the comments and the opinions that Godfrey no longer is able to get for himself.

And in discussing his staff, we come to one of the most important aspects of God- frey's success. He has learned to sur- round himself with a staff of high calibre. He is a smart businessman, which is espe- cially evident when it comes to his staff, which includes such well-known radio writers as Chuck Horner and Hank Miles, Charlie Slocum and Andy Rooney. From radio also he brought the music and lyric writer, Lyn Duddy and Joan Edwards.

When Godfrey went into TV, he real- ized that this new medium required ex- perience from the legitimate theatre, and he added to his staff Al Moritz, whom Variety had just designated as "one of the most excitingly promising young tal- ents." He brought in Harry Rogue, of considerable stage background, as chore- ographer. And he added to his staff two Broadway stage managers-the O'Brien boys, Chet and Snookie.

After surrounding himself with the best people he could find, he has had the courage to try new ways to run his shows. At the present time the Godfrey show is in- troducing to the system a new "twist" never used before. This came about be- cause of "The Operation." With Godfrey on the farm and the cast in New York, it was necessary for Godfrey to be at all rehearsals, but how could this be possible with him an invalid on the farm and the cast several hundred miles away? Well, with Arthur Godfrey's drive and CBS's millions, nothing is impossible. A television sending tower was built on his farm, at the cost, by the way of $65,000. A crew of eleven technicians and camera- men were moved down to Virginia and the rehearsals began.

With the cast seeing Godfrey on their monitor TV screens in the theatre and Godfrey seeing the cast on his set at the farm, rehearsals could continue with the "boss" overseeing everything, as it was conceived and done. This also brought about the use of the technique of the "split-screen" so that it is possible for the television audience to see Godfrey on the farm and the cast in New York at the same time, or each segment individually. And here's a real scoop for you! Mr. Godfrey has been talking, very hush- hush now, of his plans to do a show with segments of the cast all over the country, and using this technique to build them all into one big show.

As one of the writers said, "Oh, Arthur can do it, but I think he'd better be careful. He can carry this split-screen technique too far. Arthur may be on the farm and the cast may be in New York, the orchestra in Alaska, but the audience may be in the movies."

Before this "new look" in the show, the program was plotted in free-for-all conferences which emphasized the closeness between Godfrey and his staff.

Every Thursday morning, with the big Wednesday night show finished and "slept on," Arthur Godfrey would get together with a representative group of his asso- ciates. This group directed the policies and made the decisions for the format for the next Wednesday night show-that is, in theory they made the decision, and surprisingly enough, quite often they actually did.

The group would get together and throw ideas back and forth-words flying thick and fast and no holds barred! A cross-section of the staff, selected by Godfrey, included Will Roland, Larry Puck (producer), Bob Blyer (director), two of the writers, probably Chuck Horner and Al Moritz, and two represent- atives of the cast, often Janette Davis and Tom Lockard, one of the Mariners. From these people came the ideas for the next Wednesday show. Many times these conferences turned into a battle royal with Mr. Godfrey acting as moderator.

Though most of the time the show would be set by unanimity of opinion- still it has happened that a small group of the whole stood up for an idea that finally won out, or that Godfrey had an idea that he wanted to try even if nobody else believed in it as he did.

And the opinions of the listeners and viewers have never been neglected. Doreen Partin, who has charge of Godfrey's office staff, makes up from the mail of the preceding week, a complete "vote sheet" of the letters coming in pro and con for the show-with quotes from any and all letters which she feels would be interesting to the production staff. These reports are carefully read by Godfrey before he meets with his staff and are considered before any final decision is reached.

So the Godfrey that his staff knows is a Godfrey who listens to what each one has to say, but never hesitates to exert his own power as the "boss." He will direct the director, and write for the writers, and he always has the final word. He is approachable, is "Arthur" to most who work on his show, but he is as hu- man as any of them, and has moods and likes and dislikes that must be consid- ered. His staff doesn't think of him as "a being of eternal sweetness and light." He is the "Arthur" who works with them to try to put out the best entertainment they can devise. If he "pulls his rank," it is understandable. If he doesn't, it is appreciated and they all work the harder for him.

He has two secretaries-one personal and one social. His social secretary, Mary Ann Van, says "Sometimes he's just real sweet" and a good illustration for the kind of thing she is thinking of is the real friendship he has shown for some of the people who work for him. For instance, his co-pilot for his DC-6 had to move to Florida seven years ago because of his wife's health. Godfrey bought a home for them, taking a mortgage on it. On the tenth year that the pilot was with God- frey, for his anniversary present Arthur gave him the deed to his house and he had charged him no interest on any of the previous payments.

These are the things which can't be for- gotten, even while we remember that Godfrey is now one of the most wealthy and powerful men in this country. He owns interest in the frozen fruit indus- try, in a bank, in a real-estate develop- ment, in farming and ranch lands, and (it's been rumored) also a few oil wells on the side.

Groucho Marx ribbed Godfrey on his growing power, in a letter which read something like this-

"Dear Arthur Godfrey: I have never met you. I have never had the pleasure of speaking to you. In fact, all I know is that your name is Arthur Godfrey. We are very happy that your operation was a success, and we welcome you back to the network, or should I say, your network."

And, of course, though it isn't true that Mr. Godfrey owns the CBS network, it would be a sad day indeed if he ever went over to NBC. The crash of '29 in Wall Street couldn't compare to what would happen at 485 Madison Avenue!

And whether Mr. Godfrey owns the network or not, his policy is the policy of the network, not the network's policy his. The greatest example of this is his recent public spat with a doctor in Washington, D.C. Right or wrong, the point remains that what Godfrey had to say was no concern of the network. If Godfrey said it, Godfrey said it. And as far as the network was concerned, the only man who could reprimand Godfrey was Godfrey.