Supported by

A. Godfrey: A Man for a Long, Long Season

Dick Cavett

Dick Cavett on his career in show business, and more.

You may feel that this column should bear the cautionary label, “Warning: Oldies Only.”

Because its subject is largely forgotten.

The astute Andy Rooney, who worked for him, predicted that despite decades of huge stardom Godfrey would be forgotten, adding that his effect on broadcasting would be indelible.

He was a colossus of the entertainment world to a degree that may never be equaled; if only for the fact that he had — count ’em — three network shows at the same time on CBS: a simulcast talk show in the morning, and not one but two (live) prime-time shows every week, consistently in the top ten.

Arthur Godfrey was not just an entertainer. If the phrase ever applied to a human being, he was an industry.

Advertisers so craved his then-revolutionary and greatly successful practice of personally delivering, live and ad lib, each and every commercial that sponsors waited in line. He was top salesman in radio and television — so it is said. So large was his take for the network on his morning show that it was avowed in the ad industry that by the time William Paley (Mr. CBS) finished his breakfast, Arthur had paid the network’s bills for the day.

He had vowed he would never praise any product he didn’t totally and genuinely believe in; ironic in the case of the unfiltered Chesterfields with which he was virtually synonymous in the public mind and ear as he intoned the words, “Chesterfields . . . They satisfy.” As he was first to later admit, they also helped kill him, and his guilt over urging them on the populace stayed with him.

Somehow he took a shine to me when I was but a struggling comedian in Greenwich Village and had me on the remnant of his career, the morning radio show. He would have to press the “cough button” frequently, muttering “damn this emphysema” before releasing it.

Starting out from less than nowhere, he achieved immense fame, wealth and success, and lived well past the eventual fading of the epic-length career. In his later years, he self-educated himself (as he had in everything, having had no schooling) on a whole new subject: he became an ardent — and effective — ecologist. He repented in later life about what his enthusiastic boosting of the charms of Florida ultimately (over)did to the area. On the accompanying video he mentions first hearing the word “ecology.”

(Speaking of aviation, by the time he died he had piloted every variety of military aircraft except, to his great regret, a jet helicopter.)

Godfrey’s vigorous opposition, on a show of mine, to the development of the then-controversial Supersonic Transport and what it would do to the atmosphere (“We need that gook in the atmosphere about as much as we need another bag of those clunkers from the moon”) contributed mightily to the pollution of my relations with the Nixon White House. (For creepy verificationsee YouTube’s “PRES. NIXON WANTS REVENGE AGAINST TALK SHOW HOST DICK CAVETT”).

Although other guests had denounced the SST on my show, losing Godfrey, aviation’s great supporter and practitioner (“When Arthur’s not on the air, he’s in it” — Fred Allen), was one too many for the resident criminal of Pennsylvania Avenue.

John Gilroy, my late producer, came into my office a bit shaken. “Guess what,” he said. “The Nixon White House keeps a scorecard on our show.” A grim and humorless voice on the phone, heralded by the chilling words “White House calling,” had informed John that they had counted the times the SST had been denounced on the Cavett show, were seriously miffed, and would be sending a spokesman to praise the SST.

Having my show booked from the White House produced an eerie sensation. It was subtly suggested that Mr. Cavett would, of course, be nice to him.

They sent a crew-cut gent — Nixon liked, in his words, “real men” — named Magruder (not the W-gate one, Jeb). With bone-breaking attempted amiability, Magruder was permitted to do his pitch for the SST, uninterrupted by his, with difficulty, amiable host. When he had said his piece, I thanked him, made clear to the viewers that he had been booked by the White House’s own talent agency, and merely added the few words, “I certainly hope the SST is defeated. But thanks for being here, Mr. . . . Magruder, is it?”

The fan was hit. The city of D.C. was not delighted with D.C.

The Great Unindicted Co-Conspirator (in one of his favorite illegalities), saw that my entire staff was audited, cruelly in the cases of the lesser-paid ones. This, combined with my formal protest of the administration’s attempt to deport John Lennon (henchman H.R. Haldeman, more in tune with pop culture than his boss, had poured into Nixon’s ear, “This guy Lennon could sway an election”) made me persona less than grata at the famous address. Hard to believe I was once earlier invited to a big Nixon do in the East Room — cordially greeted by henchman Haldeman and by Henry Kissinger, in the days before permanently sullying my welcome with the gang.

Much journalistic ink was spilled over the Magruder show, and Arthur called. “Sorry, Richard, if I made trouble for you.” The famous chuckle followed my assuring him I’d enjoyed every minute of it.

(Going through an old box of accreted stuff the other day, I was reminded that each time I had Arthur on a show he immediately penned a cordial thank-you note.)

In my improbable life, which has included meeting nearly all my heroes and heroines in show business and in many other fields, meeting Arthur Godfrey strained credulity. It seemed only a few years earlier that he emerged from our old Majestic, slow-to-warm-up radio five days a week, while I was a school kid in Nebraska. When I interviewed him, I told him that on a scorching Great Plains summer day, without air-conditioning, you could stroll past house after house and hear, through June-bug inhabited screens, the amiable voice, uninterrupted.

Video

A Colossus of the Entertainment World

A portion of the May 8, 1972, appearance of radio and television legend Arthur Godfrey on Dick Cavett's show. Godfrey discusses how he got into show business -- and what he was up to before he did.

By None None onPublish DateJune 25, 2010.

Notice on the video the vigor of Arthur’s entrance. With effort, his limp is not noticeable. The briskness is an act, having to do with the strong will of a man smashed to pieces in a head-on car crash in his younger days. After six months in the hospital, he defied the medic’s assurance that he would spend the rest of his life in a wheelchair; in middle age — on chronically painful wounded hips and knees — he learned to ice skate.

You may have to excuse me now. This column is due and, with the A/C on the fritz, the act of typing is producing moist secretion. (I hope you’re not eating.) So may I close, for now, on a subject I hope will be a pleasant nostalgia trip for many readers old enough to remember Pearl Harbor?

The video excerpt is from a full show with Arthur, and I apologize for the teaser at the end — the one about the Statue of Liberty. I can make it up to you at a future date. And as for the video that will go with that one, if you have a tear, prepare it for shedding.

P.S. Thanks for valuable info on Arthur to a man who survived the sometimes stormy seas of being his longtime agent, Peter Kelley, and to Arthur J. Singer for his excellent book, “Arthur Godfrey: The Adventures of An American Broadcaster.”

What's Next

Loading...

The host of “The Dick Cavett Show” — which aired on ABC from 1968 to 1975 and on public television from 1977 to 1982 — Dick Cavett is the author, most recently, of “Talk Show: Confrontations, Pointed Commentary, and Off-Screen Secrets.” The co-author of “Cavett” (1974) and “Eye on Cavett” (1983), he has also appeared on Broadway in “Otherwise Engaged,” “Into the Woods” and as narrator in “The Rocky Horror Show,” and has made guest appearances in movies and on TV shows including “Forrest Gump” and “The Simpsons.” Mr. Cavett lives in New York City and Montauk, N.Y.

As of October 2013, Dick Cavett’s column can be found ina new location in the Opinion section »

Inside Opinionator

April 26, 2016
Guiding a First Generation to College

Students who are new to America or lack college-educated parents often don’t know their options.Read more…

April 19, 2016
How Dwindling Fish Stocks Got a Reprieve

Giving fishermen a business incentive to fish sustainably can “unleash their creative capacity” to help solve the problem, says one expert.Read more…

April 21, 2016
Fractured: A First Date

It wasn’t my heart that he broke.Read more…

March 17, 2016
Steph Curry, the Prophet of Basketball

What desperate, humiliating steps would I take in order to watch him play?Read more…

April 19, 2016
Should Therapists Write About Patients?

Even when we disguise their identities, we risk betraying them.Read more…

April 12, 2016
Grieving My Patient’s Friend

It isn’t unusual for therapists to get emotionally attached to people we’ve never met.Read more…

April 18, 2016
The Perils of Being a Black Philosopher

After reading so many hateful messages I began to feel sick, literally.Read more…

April 16, 2016
Is That Even a Thing?

What this language trend says about us.Read more…

February 26, 2016
Bruni and Douthat Agree: #OscarsSoPolitical

The Moviegoers pick who should and who will win at the Academy Awards — and pick apart Hollywood’s diversity problem.Read more…

December 28, 2015
Escaping to a Galaxy Far, Far, Far Away

The “Force” holds great appeal compared with our anxieties here on earth, as seen in other films this season.Read more…

February 6, 2016
Not Just a Death, a System Failure

My mother’s death was so wrenching that I applied to medical school to help change the way people die in America.Read more…

January 27, 2016
When the Hospital Is Not a Haven

Had I prolonged my Indian grandmother’s suffering with my stubborn belief in the power of medicine to fix things?Read more…

August 15, 2015
Puzzling Through My Fiction

What I learned about writing from doing crossword puzzles.Read more…

July 11, 2015
Writing Books Very Few Will Read

When a family commissions a work, they’re more interested in stories, lessons and values, rather than in sensation.Read more…

July 27, 2015
10 Things I’d Tell My Former (Medicated) Self

I’ve been drug-free for nearly a month. Here is what I learned about my own seven-month weaning process.Read more…

June 26, 2015
Singleminded

As I decrease my medications, the urgency I feel around men and relationships subsides.Read more…

June 22, 2015
Every Creeping Thing That Creepeth

Why can’t we all just get along?Read more…

June 13, 2015
Birds of New York: A Soundscape

Composing with orchestral instruments was fine. But I found a richer palette of melody, counterpoint and rhythm already in the air.Read more…

June 10, 2015
Disunion: The Final Q & A

Four years ago, Disunion convened a panel of experts to discuss the outbreak of the Civil War. Now, those experts are back to discuss the war’s end, and its legacy.Read more…

June 4, 2015
What Do You Know? A Civil War Pop Quiz.

If you read the series (or if you’re just a huge Civil War nerd), what have you learned?Read more…

January 3, 2015
When Prisoners Are Patients

Should convicted felons receive free health care?Read more…

September 6, 2014
When It’s the Doctor Who Can’t Let Go

Too many physicians think palliative care means giving up.Read more…

November 5, 2014
The Republican Party In Triumph

Brooks and Collins on the full extent of the Election Day devastation of Democrats, including some who weren’t on the ballot.Read more…

October 28, 2014
Political Infections

Brooks and Collins on conflicting responses to Ebola, the meaning of the midterms and the pleasure of voting for effective crooks.Read more…

June 27, 2014
Inequality Is Not Inevitable

Inexorable laws of economics aren’t tearing us apart. Our policies are.Read more…

June 21, 2014
Gaming the Poor

Modern slot machine parlors have sophisticated methods of milking less affluent gamblers.Read more…

March 28, 2014
The Certainty of Donald Rumsfeld (Part 4)

The absence of evidence, the evidence of absence, and the Iraq War.Read more…

March 27, 2014
The Certainty of Donald Rumsfeld (Part 3)

Could Pearl Harbor be called a “failure of imagination,” and in that sense was it similar to the attacks of 9/11?Read more…

Archive

Recent Posts

Fixes
Guiding a First Generation to College

Students who are new to America or lack college-educated parents often don’t know their options.Read more…

Private Lives
Fractured: A First Date

It wasn’t my heart that he broke.Read more…

Fixes
How Dwindling Fish Stocks Got a Reprieve

Giving fishermen a business incentive to fish sustainably can “unleash their creative capacity” to help solve the problem, says one expert.Read more…

Couch
Should Therapists Write About Patients?

Even when we disguise their identities, we risk betraying them.Read more…

The Stone
The Perils of Being a Black Philosopher

After reading so many hateful messages I began to feel sick, literally.Read more…

Followus on@nytopinionator ontwitter

Follow