Word: godfreys
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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...here's that man himself," cried the announcer-"Arthur, the-man-with-the-natural-look, Godfrey !" Wearing his earphones, a swept-up shock of copper hair and a winning, country-boy grin that belied his 46 years, the big-shouldered man at the desk shifted a candy wafer in his mouth and asked plaintively: "Now what am I gonna do with the last half of this Life Saver...
...Before Godfrey, such words on a commercial program (sponsored by Toni, Inc., in this case) might have cost a radio performer his job. No one on the network air ever had the unbuttoned nerve to talk with his mouth full, use sloppy diction, give free plugs to non-sponsoring products or blithely ad-lib whatever popped into mind...
Beyond such calculated flaunting of the rules of radio and TV, the thing that makes Arthur Godfrey remarkable as a hit entertainer is his relative lack of definable talent. He can neither sing, dance, act, nor perform with skill on a musical instrument. Yet today he is the top moneymaker and the outstanding personality on the air. From radio and TV, records, business investments, stocks & bonds, and other odds & ends, he gets close to $1,000,000 a year. He earns $1,500 for every minute he broadcasts. He is seen & heard-and apparently loved-by 40 million people...
Lifted Eyebrow. Not even Godfrey himself can quite explain how he does it. Some students of what the public likes profess to see the answer in the "shine of naturalness" reflected by his use of such words as "doggone," "ain't" and "gotta" -the sort of determinedly rustic phrasing which led Fred Allen to call Godfrey "the man with the barefoot voice." His drawling, "God-gifted" voice has been variously described as "warty," "briery," "wood-raspy," and even "like a shoebox full of bullfrogs...
With the big punches of Allen and Carman gone on defense, Chase will go with Bill Bliss and Jack Donclan (a newcomer) and Dusty Burke and Duke Sedgwick. All three goalies--Johnny Chase, Phil Clark, and Godfrey Howard--are available...