Arthur Godfrey

== Early life ==

Godfrey was born in Manhattan in 1903.<ref name=time1/> His mother, Kathryn Morton Godfrey, was from a well-to-do [[Oswego, New York]], family which disapproved of her marriage to an older Englishman, Arthur's father, Arthur Hanbury Godfrey. The senior Godfrey was a sportswriter and considered an expert on [[Surrey (carriage)|surrey]] and [[Hackney horse|hackney]] horses, but the advent of the automobile devastated the family's finances. By 1915, when Arthur was 12, the family had moved to [[Hasbrouck Heights, New Jersey]].<ref>Emblen, Frank. [https://www.nytimes.com/1983/12/18/nyregion/new-jersey-guide.html "New Jersey Guide"], ''[[The New York Times]]'', December 18, 1983. Retrieved July 11, 2019. "Mr. Godfrey, who died on March 16 at the age of 79, was a native of Hasbrouck Heights."</ref> Godfrey dropped out after a year at [[Hasbrouck Heights High School]].<ref>[http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,814888-1,00.html "The Working Class"], ''[[Time (magazine)|Time]]'', June 11, 1951. Accessed July 11, 2019. "Radio-TV Comic Arthur Godfrey, whose formal higher education consisted of 'one short year at Hasbrouck Heights High School' in New Jersey, got an honorary Doctor of Science degree at Rider College in Trenton, N.J."</ref> Arthur, the eldest of five children, had tried to help his family survive by working before and after school, but at age 14 left home to ease the financial burden on the family. By 15 he was a civilian typist at [[Camp Merritt, New Jersey]], and enlisted in the Navy two years later, lying about his age.
[[File:GodfreyCBS1938.jpg|thumb|upright|Godfrey spoke directly to his listeners as individuals; he was a foremost pitchman into the TV era]]

Godfrey's father was something of a "[[Freethought|free thinker]]" by the standards of the era. He did not disdain organized religion but insisted that his children explore all faiths before deciding for themselves which to embrace. Their childhood friends included Catholic, Jewish and every kind of Protestant playmates. The senior Godfrey was friends with the [[Vanderbilt family|Vanderbilts]], but was as likely to spend his time talking with the shoeshine man or the hotdog vendor about issues of the day. In the book ''Genius in the Family'' (G.P. Putnam's Sons, New York, 1962), written about their mother by Godfrey's youngest sister, Dorothy Gene (who preferred to be called "Jean"), with the help of their sister, Kathy, it was reported that the angriest they ever saw their father was when a man on the ferry declared the [[Ku Klux Klan]] a civic organization vital to the good of the community. They rode the ferry back and forth three times, with their father arguing with the man that the Klan was a bunch of "Blasted, bigoted fools, led 'round by the nose!"

Godfrey's mother, Kathryn, was a gifted artist and composer whose aspirations to fame were laid aside to take care of her family after her husband, Arthur or "Darl'", died. Her creativity enabled the family to get through some very hard times. She played the piano to accompany [[silent film]]s, made jams and jellies, crocheted bedspreads, and even cut off and sold her floor length hair, as it was extremely difficult for a woman of her [[social class]] to find work without violating [[social mores]] of the time. The one household item that was never sold or turned into firewood was the piano, and she believed at least some of her children would succeed in show business. In her later years some of her compositions were performed by symphony orchestras in Canada, which earned her a mention in ''[[Time (magazine)|Time]]''.<ref>{{cite magazine |title=Names make news. |url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,890739,00.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081222115042/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,890739,00.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=December 22, 2008 |magazine=[[Time (magazine)|Time]] |date=December 7, 1953 |access-date=2008-07-18 }}</ref> In 1958, at the age of 78, her sauciness made her a big hit with the audience when she appeared on [[Groucho Marx]]'s quiz show ''[[You Bet Your Life]]''. She died of cancer in 1968 at a nursing home in a suburb north of Chicago.

Godfrey served in the [[United States Navy]] from 1920 to 1924 as a radio operator on naval [[destroyer]]s, then returned home to care for the family after his father's death. Additional radio training came during Godfrey's service in the [[United States Coast Guard|Coast Guard]] from 1927 to 1930. He passed a stringent qualifying examination and was admitted to the prestigious [[Radio Materiel School]] at the [[Naval Research Laboratory]], graduating in 1929. During a Coast Guard stint in [[Baltimore]] he appeared in a local talent show broadcast on October 5 of that year and became popular enough to land his own brief weekly program.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.nytimes.com/video/opinion/1247468129089/a-colossus-of-the-entertainment-world.html|title=A Colossus of the entertainment world (excerpt of ''The Dick Cavett Show'' from May 8, 1972)|work=[[The New York Times]]|date=June 25, 2010|access-date=November 29, 2015}}</ref>