Wednesday, 23 March 2005 - 8:29 AM EST

I, too,was a fan of Arthur Godfrey's and I greatly respect his achievements. The Biography series on the A&E TV channel showed both his strong points and his dark side. Those who remember Arthur know about his firing Julius LaRosa on air but he also chastised his wonderful announcer, Tony Marvin, once for not doing a satisfactory job on a commercial...also live. Sometimes, however, his candor was wonderful. They show him doing a commercial on his show for Campbell's Soup. He's stirring chicken noodle soup and he says, "Noodles? Yeah, millions of them. Chicken? Ehhhhh." (he wiggles his palm up and down). I agree that his story would make a good one but doubt that it would satisfy Hollywood's love of happy endings. Too many negatives. But he had a TV empire for a few years before it crumbled, like all TV empires. And this all came about well into his broadcasting career after he survived a near fatal auto accident. I remember his numerous shows ( a daily morning radio show simulcast on TV, two nighttime shows: Talent Scouts and a variety show) and how he often took the shows on the road, no easy doing in the fifties. He would broadcast from the beach in Miami and sometimes from his farm in Virginia. But he is still considered the master of TV/radio salesmanship because he had ono-on-one communications skill. He said that he knew his radio audience consisted of many but at any one time only one person in the room might be paying attention to him. So he aimed his talk at that one person. So you felt like he was talking just to you. Now, broadcasters ego's are so enourmous they think everyone is paying attention to just them - watch the baseball and football announcers and you'll see what I mean.

Wednesday, 13 April 2005 - 10:45 PM EDT

I remember his goofy Irish songs, sung to ukelele accompaniment. My favorite was "MacMcGilligan's Ball".

Mike MacMcGilligan one fine day,
Got a lot of money from the U.S. of A.
Owing to the death of his Uncle Joe,
He made a million and a half or so,
Says McGilligan, "I'll give a fancy ball,
Down at the old ancestral hall."
All the neighbors came, then, every one,
For to join in the music and to have some fun.
(Ha, ha, the likes of her.)
So, they all went down to MacMcGilligan's ball,
Where they had to tear the paper off the wall,
To make room for all the people in the hall.
All the girls and the boys made a devil of a noise,
At MacMcGilligan's ball.

Remember that one?