Arthur Godfrey Warning: You are not logged in. Your IP address will be publicly visible if you make any edits. If you log in or create an account, your edits will be attributed to your username, along with other benefits.Anti-spam check. Do not fill this in! ===The firings continue=== {{original research|section|date=September 2022}} {{npov|section|date=September 2022}} {{unreferenced section|date=July 2018}} After his 1953 hospitalization broke his smoking habit, he had concluded that smoking was not beneficial and very likely harmful, a total reverse from his earlier commercials. His once-friendly rapport with the Liggett & Myers tobacco company ended as he spoke out on the air against smoking. The Teterboro Airport incident in January 1954 kept Godfrey's image negative in the media. Godfrey subsequently fired other producers, writers, and cast members including [[Marion Marlowe]], [[Lu Ann Simms]], Haleloke, and [[The Mariners (vocal group)|The Mariners]]. The integrated quartet (two members of the foursome were African-American) believed Godfrey had acceded to continued criticism from CBS affiliates in the South over the group's presence on the show.{{citation needed|date=January 2016}} [[Pat Boone]] and [[Carmel Quinn]] joined the cast for a time. But any thoughts of Godfrey curtailing the fired cast members' network-television exposure backfired somewhat when they continued to perform for Godfrey's substitute host, [[Robert Q. Lewis]], who now had his own afternoon show on CBS. Occasionally, Godfrey snapped at cast members on the air, including Tony Marvin. Other performers, most notably [[Pat Boone]] and, briefly, [[Patsy Cline]], stepped in as "Little Godfreys". Cline, who had won top honors for her appearance on ''Talent Scouts'', declined to become a regular, confining her appearances to a few guest spots. Eventually, Godfrey did away with any regular cast except Marvin, bringing in performers for a stipulated period of time and, if they did well with his audiences, bringing them back at various times. Godfrey's problems with the media and public feuds with newspaper columnists, such as [[Jack O'Brian]] and newspaperman turned CBS variety show host [[Ed Sullivan]], were duly documented by the media, which began running critical exposé articles linking Godfrey to affairs with several female "Little Godfreys". Godfrey's anger at Sullivan stemmed from the variety show impresario's featuring fired "Little Godfreys" on his Sunday night program, including La Rosa. Godfrey later dismissed long-time vocalist [[Frank Parker (singer)|Frank Parker]], an Italian-American known for his Irish tenor. Godfrey had been told Parker made jokes about him during a Las Vegas appearance. Summary: Please note that all contributions to Christianpedia may be edited, altered, or removed by other contributors. If you do not want your writing to be edited mercilessly, then do not submit it here. You are also promising us that you wrote this yourself, or copied it from a public domain or similar free resource (see Christianpedia:Copyrights for details). Do not submit copyrighted work without permission! Cancel Editing help (opens in new window) Discuss this page