Arthur Godfrey: Broadcasting's Forgotten Giant

Unlike many biographies in this series, this one had a point of view that is summarized in the title. Arthur Godfrey as a giant in the television medium and he has been virtually forgotten. He came into it just a little too late to be counted as a true pioneer and he was through too early to be part of today's nostalgic TV Land.

As I recall, at his peak, he had at least two shows simultaneously in the top ten, plus a hit radio show at a time when that still mattered.

This bio chronicles his rise and his sad decline, first forever losing his nice guy image, the very heart of his popularity, by firing the beloved Julius LaRosa on the air, then having his kind of TV become passé, then having the public interest in him fade to where his last public appearance singing the "Too Fat Polka", a song he despised, on a telethon.

Indelible passages include, Godfrey appearing to dance in top hat and tails trying to be part of a big production number in the waning days of his show, Julius LaRosa's description of how he went along with somebody's idea of having him and Godfrey publicly reconcile (he says something like, "I figured, OK, this is show biz, why not?" but Godfrey would have none of it), Godfrey's brush with death by cancer in 1959, (ten years earlier it would have been a national tragedy, but by then it would matter little to the public), then his last "Too Fat Polka" and his death months short of eighty, a mostly forgotten man.