Arthur Godfrey

== Later life ==
{{more refs|section|date=September 2022}}
Godfrey was an avid hunter who teamed with professional hunters to [[Big-game hunting|kill big-game animals]] on safari in Africa, employing helicopters to gain close access to his prey.<ref name=life1>{{cite magazine |title=Helicopter Safari in Africa |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Nz8EAAAAMBAJ |magazine=[[Life (magazine)|Life]] |date=June 10, 1957 |access-date=2016-01-06 }}</ref>

In 1959, Godfrey began suffering chest pains. Examination by physicians revealed a mass in his chest that could have been lung cancer. Surgeons discovered cancer in one lung that spread to his [[aorta]]. One lung was removed. Yet, despite the disease's discouragingly high mortality rate, it became clear after radiation treatments that Godfrey had beaten the substantial odds against him. He returned to the air on a prime-time TV special but resumed the daily morning show on radio only, reverting to a format featuring guest stars such as ragtime pianist [[Max Morath]] and Irish vocalist Carmel Quinn, maintaining a live combo of first-rate Manhattan musicians (under the direction of Sy Mann) as he had done since the beginning. Godfrey also became a persuasive spokesman advocating regular medical checkups to detect cancer early, noting his cancer was cured only because it was discovered when still treatable.

Godfrey's initial return to television occurred in a TV special centered on his gratitude to have survived what was by 1959 standards, an almost-certain death sentence. He sang, danced, did commercials and announced that he'd make greater use of the new [[videotape]] technology for the future. Despite appearing healthy on the broadcast, Godfrey, fearing the after-effects of his illness would adversely affect his appearance, announced that he would resume the Monday–Friday ''Arthur Godfrey Time'' on radio only, ending the daily TV broadcasts.

Long-time announcer [[Tony Marvin]], with Godfrey since the late 1940s, did not make the transition to the new program. Marvin was one of Godfrey's few associates who left on amicable terms, and went on to a career as a radio news anchor on the [[Mutual Broadcasting System]]. The Godfrey show was the last daily long-form entertainment program on American network radio when Godfrey and CBS agreed to end it in April 1972, when his 20-year contract with the network expired. Godfrey by then was a colonel in the United States [[Air Force Reserve Command|Air Force Reserve]] and still an active pilot.

He appeared in the films ''[[4 for Texas]]'' (1963), ''[[The Glass Bottom Boat]]'' (1966), and ''[[Where Angels Go, Trouble Follows]]'' (1968). He briefly co-hosted the 1960–61 debut season of ''[[Candid Camera]]'' with creator [[Allen Funt]], but that relationship, like so many others, ended abruptly and acrimoniously; Godfrey hosted at least one broadcast ''without'' Funt. Godfrey also made various guest appearances, and he and [[Lucille Ball]] co-hosted the [[CBS]] special ''50 Years of Television'' (1978). He also made a [[cameo appearance]] in the 1979 [[B-movie]] ''[[Angels Revenge]]''.

===Post-retirement===
{{more refs|section|date=September 2022}}
In retirement, Godfrey wanted to find ways back onto a regular TV schedule. He appeared on the rock band [[Moby Grape]]'s song "Just Like [[Gene Autry]]: A Foxtrot", a 1920s-pop-style piece from their album [[Wow/Grape Jam|''Wow'']]. Godfrey's political outlook was complex, and to some, contradictory; his lifelong admiration for Franklin Roosevelt combined with a powerful [[Libertarianism|libertarian]] streak in his views and his open support for [[Dwight D. Eisenhower]] as president. During his later years he became a powerful voice for the environmentalist movement who identified with the [[youth culture]] that irreverently opposed the "establishment", as he felt that he had done during his peak years. He renounced a lucrative endorsement deal with [[Colgate-Palmolive]] when it became clear to him that it clashed with his environmental principles. He had made commercials for [[Colgate (toothpaste)|Colgate]] toothpaste and the detergent Axion, only to repudiate the latter product when he found out that Axion [[Phosphates in detergent|contained phosphates]], implicated in [[water pollution]]. He did far fewer commercials after that incident.

While Godfrey was a great fan of technology, including aviation and aerospace developments, he also found time for pursuits of an earlier era. He was a dedicated horseman and master at [[dressage]] and made charity appearances at horse shows.

He also found in later years that his enthusiasm for high-tech had its limits when he concluded that some technological developments posed the potential to threaten the environment. During one appearance on ''[[The Dick Cavett Show]]'', Godfrey commented that the United States needed the [[supersonic transport]] "about as much as we need another bag of those clunkers from the moon." The concern that the SST contributed to [[noise pollution]], an issue Godfrey was instrumental in raising in the United States, is considered to have effectively ended [[Supersonic transport|SST]] interest in the U.S., leaving it to Britain and France. ([[Dick Cavett|Cavett]] claims that Godfrey's statement also earned tax audits from the [[Richard Nixon]]-era [[Internal Revenue Service]] for the show's entire production staff.)<ref>{{cite web |url=http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/06/25/a-godfrey-a-man-for-a-long-long-season/ |title=A. Godfrey: A Man for a Long, Long Season |first=Dick |last=Cavett |publisher=New York Times Blogs |date=June 25, 2010 |access-date=May 9, 2013}}</ref>

Although Godfrey's desire to remain in the public eye never faltered, his presence ebbed considerably over the next ten years, despite an [[HBO]] special and an appearance on a [[PBS]] salute to the 1950s. A 1981 attempt to reconcile him with La Rosa for a Godfrey show reunion record album, bringing together Godfrey and a number of the "Little Godfreys", collapsed. Godfrey had initially resisted the idea, floated by his agent, but finally relented. At an initially amicable meeting, Godfrey reasserted that La Rosa wanted out of his contract and asked why he had not explained that instead of insisting he was fired without warning. When La Rosa began reminding him of the dance lesson controversy, Godfrey, then in his late seventies, exploded and the meeting ended in shambles.

===The Arthur Godfrey Collection===
Toward the end of his life, Godfrey became a major supporter of [[public broadcasting]], and left his large personal archive of papers and programs to public station [[WNET|WNET/Thirteen]] in New York. Godfrey biographer Arthur Singer helped to arrange a permanent home for the Godfrey material at the [[Broadcasting Archives at the University of Maryland]] in early 1998. The collection contains hundreds of [[kinescope]]s of Godfrey television programs, more than 4,000 [[magnetic tape sound recording|audiotapes]] and [[wire recording]]s of his various radio shows, [[videotape]]s, and [[transcription disc]]s. The collection also contains Godfrey's voluminous personal papers and business records, which cover his spectacular rise and precipitous fall in the industry over a period of more than 50 years.<ref>{{cite web| url=http://digital.lib.umd.edu/archivesum/actions.DisplayEADDoc.do?source=/MdU.ead.lab.0035.xml&style=ead| title=Thirteen/WNET Arthur Godfrey Collection| publisher=the Special Collections Department of the University of Maryland Libraries| access-date=January 1, 2013| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120622221245/http://digital.lib.umd.edu/archivesum/actions.DisplayEADDoc.do?source=%2FMdU.ead.lab.0035.xml&style=ead| archive-date=June 22, 2012| url-status=dead}}</ref>

===Death===
[[Emphysema]], thought to have been caused by decades of smoking and the radiation treatments for Godfrey's lung cancer, became a problem in the early 1980s. Godfrey died of the condition at [[Mount Sinai Hospital (Manhattan)|Mount Sinai Hospital]] in Manhattan on March 16, 1983, at the age of 79.<ref name=time1>{{cite magazine |title=The Man with the Barefoot Voice |url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,923414,00.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081222020309/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,923414,00.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=December 22, 2008 |magazine=[[Time (magazine)|Time]] |date=March 23, 1983 |access-date=2008-07-18 }}</ref><ref>{{cite news |first= Albin|last= Krebs|title=Arthur Godfrey, Television And Radio Star, Dies At 79 |url=https://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=FA0C1EF63E5D0C748DDDAA0894DB484D81 |work=New York Times |date=March 17, 1983 |access-date=2008-07-18 }}</ref> Godfrey was buried at Union Cemetery in [[Leesburg, Virginia]], not far from his farm.