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Eastern Air Lines was a major United States airline that existed from 1926 to 1991. Before its dissolution it was headquartered at Miami International Airport in unincorporated Miami-Dade County, Florida.^[1] There were plans to restart the airline in 2008.^[2]

History[link]

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The Great Silver Fleet (1939)

Eastern Air Lines was a composite of assorted air travel corporations, including Florida Airways and Pitcairn Aviation, the latter of which was established on April 19, 1926, by Harold Frederick Pitcairn, son of Pittsburgh Plate Glass founder John Pitcairn, Jr.^{[citation needed]}

Pitcairn Aviation's PA-7S CAM-19 Route Airmail aircraft

In the late 1920s, Pitcairn Aviation won a government contract to fly mail between New York City and Atlanta, Georgia, using Mailwing single-engine aircraft. In 1929 Clement Keys, the owner of North American Aviation, purchased Pitcairn. In 1930, Keys changed the company's name to Eastern Air Transport, soon to be known as Eastern Air Lines after being purchased by General Motors and experiencing a change in corporate leadership brought on by the Airmail Act of 1934.^[3]

In 1938, the airline was purchased by World War I flying ace Eddie Rickenbacker from General Motors. This very complex deal was concluded when Rickenbacker presented Alfred P. Sloan with a certified check for $3.5 million. Rickenbacker pushed Eastern into a period of prodigious growth and innovation. For a time, Eastern was the most profitable airline in the post-war era, never needing state subsidy. In the late 1950s, Eastern's position was eroded by state subsidies to rival airlines, increasing industry regulation and the arrival of the jet age. Rickenbacker's position as CEO was taken over by Malcolm A. MacIntyre, 'a brilliant lawyer but a man inexperienced in airline operations'.^[4] on October 1, 1959. His ouster was due largely to his reluctance to acquire jets, feeling that they were unnecessary and expensive. A new management team headed by Floyd D. Hall took over the operation on 16 December 1963, and Rickenbacker left his position as Director and Chairman of the Board on December 31, 1963, aged 73.^[4]

During the beginnings of World War II, military aviation equipment had not been widely produced in the United States. The United States war effort required civilian resources. Due to the efforts of Eddie Rickenbacker, Eastern Air Lines provided the United States with aircraft and personnel.^{[citation needed]}

Throughout the 1940s, competitors were acquired, more advanced planes were purchased and international routes were opened.

By the 1950s, Eastern's aircraft were very prominent up and down the East Coast of the United States. In 1956, the airline purchased Canadian airline Colonial Airlines, which gave the airline their first service to Canada.^[5]

In November 1959 Eastern Air Lines opened its Chester L. Churchill-designed Terminal 1 at New York City's Idlewild International Airport (later renamed John F. Kennedy International Airport). In 1960 Eastern's first jets, Douglas DC-8-21s, started to take over the longer flights, like the non-stops from Chicago and New York to Miami. The DC-8s were joined in 1962 by the Boeing 720, then in 1964 by the Boeing 727, which Eastern (along with American, and United) helped Boeing develop beginning in 1956. Eastern was the first airline to fly the 727 on February 1, 1964 (The 727 became the fastest selling airliner in the world). Shortly after that "Captain Eddie" Rickenbacker retired and a new image was adopted, which included the now famous hockey stick design which is officially Caribbean Blue over Ionosphere Blue. Eastern was also the first US carrier to fly the Airbus A300^{[citation needed]} and the launch customer for the Boeing 757^[6].

An Eastern Air Lines Electra at Washington National Airport in 1975.

On April 30, 1961 Eastern inaugurated the Eastern Air Shuttle, featuring hourly Lockheed Constellations (and later Electras, DC-9s and 727s) between New York-LaGuardia, Washington, D.C.-National, and Boston-Logan airports.^[7]

The groundbreaking service emphasized convenience and simplicity—revolutionary in an era when air travel was both considered and expected to be a luxury. Not only were seat reservations not required, seat assignments were not given, and initially no check-in was required and no boarding passes were issued. Eastern guaranteed availability, however, and planes flew hourly whether empty or full. In the event of a full flight, Eastern simply added another aircraft. Jet airliners were added in 1967 and the shuttle became all-jet in 1978 with a fleet of dedicated Boeing 727s.^{[citation needed]}

The shuttle proved one of Eastern's most successful ventures. Other airlines, including Pan American World Airways, eventually set up competing services.^{[citation needed]}

Eastern Air Shuttle's landing rights and some aircraft were bought by Trump Airlines to run the Trump Shuttle. US Airways later bought the service from Trump Airlines, and respectively named it US Airways Shuttle. Pan Am's shuttle service was bought by Delta Air Lines to become the Delta Shuttle, which directly competes with the US Airways Shuttle.^{[citation needed]}

Internationalization began as Eastern opened routes to new markets such as Santo Domingo and Nassau, Bahamas. Services from San Juan, Puerto Rico's Luis Muñoz Marín International Airport were expanded.^{[citation needed]}

Eastern bought the Lockheed L-1011 and Airbus A300 widebody jets; the former would become known in the Caribbean as El Grandote (the huge one). Boeing 747s, leased from Pan Am in 1970/71 operated between Chicago and San Juan as well as New York to Miami and San Juan. Although Eastern purchased four 747s, they were sold to Trans World Airlines (TWA), before delivery.^{[citation needed]}

Just before Walt Disney World opened in 1971, Eastern established service at Orlando and became the official airline of Walt Disney World. This proved to be extremely beneficial for Eastern as well as Disney. It remained the official airline of Walt Disney World, which even had an Eastern-themed ride at its park (If You Had Wings in Tomorrowland where Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin is currently located), until its contracting route network forced Disney to switch to Delta shortly before Eastern's 1989 bankruptcy filing. The ride was subsequently rethemed.^{[citation needed]}

The famous "Wings of Man" campaign, which began in the late 1960s, was created by advertising agency, Young & Rubicam, and restored Eastern's tarnished image until the late 1970s, when former astronaut Frank Borman became president and it was replaced by a new campaign, "We Have To Earn Our Wings Every Day". The new campaign, which featured Borman as a spokesperson, was used until the mid-to-late 1980s.^{[citation needed]}

Under bankruptcy Eastern launched a "100 Days" campaign, in which it promised to "become a little bit better every day".

The Airline Deregulation Act of 1978 aggravated its position, forcing Eastern into a competitive low-fare environment in which its high cost of operation put the airline at a decided disadvantage.^{[citation needed]}

In 1975 Eastern was headquartered at 10 Rockefeller Plaza in New York City.^[8] After Frank Borman became president of Eastern Air Lines in 1975, he moved Eastern's headquarters from Rockefeller Center to Miami-Dade County, Florida.^[9]

Eastern's massive Atlanta hub placed it in direct competition with Delta Air Lines, where both carriers competed heavily with one another to neither's benefit. Delta's less-unionized work force and slowly expanding international route network helped lead it through the turbulent period following deregulation in 1978.^{[citation needed]}

Eastern Airbus A300 at Sint Maarten in 1986.

In 1980, a Caribbean hub was inaugurated at Luis Muñoz Marín International Airport (known at the time as "Isla Verde International Airport") near San Juan, Puerto Rico. In 1982, Eastern acquired Braniff International Airways' South American route network. By 1985 Eastern was the largest airline in the world in terms of passengers enplaned and operated in 26 countries on three continents.^{[citation needed]}

During this era, Eastern's fleet was split between their "silver-colored hockey stick" livery (the lack of paint reduced weight by 100 pounds) and their "white-colored hockey stick" livery (on its Airbus-manufactured planes, the metallurgy of which required paint to cover the aircraft's composite skin panels).^{[citation needed]}

In 1983 Eastern became the launch customer of Boeing's new 757, which was ordered in 1978. Borman felt that its low cost of operation would make it an invaluable asset to the airline in the years to come. However, higher oil prices failed to materialize and the debt created by this purchase coupled with the Airbus A300 purchases made in 1977 proved to be a millstone around Eastern's neck, contributing to the February 1986 sale to Frank Lorenzo's Texas Air. At that time, Eastern was paying over $700,000 in interest each day before they sold a ticket, fueled or boarded a single aircraft.^{[citation needed]}

In the late 1980s, Eastern needed an aircraft for the Miami-London Route. They ultimately purchased three DC-10-30s from Alitalia, since none of the existing aircraft in the fleet had an adequate range. After the Miami-London route was dropped, due to cited unprofitibility, the DC-10s were primarily used for long-haul flights from Miami to Buenos Aires.

An Eastern Air Lines Lockheed L-1011 "Whisperliner"

In that same year, Eastern reintroduced service to Mayagüez, Puerto Rico, using de Havilland Canada DHC-6 Twin Otter planes under the name Eastern Metro Express. The Eastern Metro Express operation wasn't limited to Mayagüez, however, as, under that name, Eastern Metro Express began service from its San Juan hub to Borinquen and several other smaller Caribbean communities. Also, from Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport it served numerous feeder cities. Bar Harbor Airlines serving as Eastern Express spoked from Miami International Airport to many cities around the southeast.^{[citation needed]}

Eastern began losing money as it faced competition from no-frills airlines, such as People Express, which offered drastically reduced air fares. In an attempt to differentiate itself from its bargain competitors, Eastern began a marketing campaign stressing its quality of service and its rank of highly experienced pilots.^{[citation needed]}

Unable to keep up, Borman agreed to the sale of the airline in 1986 to Texas Air, led by Frank Lorenzo. Lorenzo (who was named as one of Time Magazine's 10 "worst bosses of the century") was known as a ruthless corporate raider and union buster. He had already purchased Continental and lost a bidding war for TWA to Carl Icahn.^{[citation needed]}

In February 1987, the Federal Aviation Administration imposed a $9.5 million fine against Eastern Air Lines for safety violations,^[10] which was the largest fine ever assessed against an airline until American Airlines was fined $24.2 million in 2010.^[11]

In the 1980s Eastern offered "Moonlight Specials," where the airline offered passenger seats on overnight services that were profitable due to cargo from thirty freight companies. The special flights, which operated between midnight and 7 am, stopped at 18 cities in the United States. Eric Scmitt of The New York Times said that the services were "a hybrid of late-night, red-eye flights and the barebones, People Express approach to service." The holds of the aircraft were reserved for cargo such as express mail, machine tool parts, and textiles. Because of this the airline allowed each passenger to take up to two carry on bags. The airline charged $10 for each bag of checked luggage, which was shipped standby. The airline charged between 50 cents and $3 for beverages and snacks. Bunny Duck, an Eastern flight attendant quoted in The New York Times, said that the passengers on the special flights were "a cross section of families, college kids, illegal aliens and weirdos from L.A."^[12]

In 1988 Phil Bakes, the president of Eastern Air Lines, announced plans to lay off 4,000 employees and eliminate and reduce service to airports in the Western United States; he said that the airline was going "back to our roots" in the East Coast of the United States. At the time Eastern was the largest corporate employer in the Miami area, and remained so after the cuts. John Nordheimer wrote in a The New York Times article that the prominence of Eastern in the Miami area decreased as the city became a finance and trade center and as the area had a population increase-based economic growth, instead of a purely tourism-based growth.^[13]

Although Eastern's employees saw Lorenzo at the time as a savior, he would prove to be anything but a hero to the employees by the end of the decade. This event is widely seen as the beginning of the unwinding of the company, and the beginning of a steep decline into a period that saw strikes, empty planes, mass layoffs, bankruptcy, and eventually a ceasing of operations.^{[citation needed]}

During Lorenzo's tenure, Eastern was crippled by severe labor unrest. Asked to accept deep cuts in pay and benefits, on March 4, 1989, Frank Lorenzo locked out Eastern's mechanics and ramp service employees, represented by the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM). Concerned that if Lorenzo was successful in breaking the IAM he would do the same to the pilots' and flight attendants' unions, the pilots represented by Air Line Pilots Association (ALPA) and flight attendants represented by the Transport Workers Union (TWU) called a sympathy strike. Those actions effectively shut down the airline's domestic operations. Non-contract employees, including airport gate and ticket counter agents and reservation sales agents, did not honor the strike. Due to the lockout and sympathy strike flights were canceled, resulting in the loss of millions of dollars in revenue.^{[citation needed]}

According to Jack E. Robinson III's book "Free Fall" about Eastern and its bankruptcy, Lorenzo seriously considered a sale of Eastern to Peter Ueberroth immediately following the lockout. Issues over interim management while the sale was being processed eventually caused the deal to fall through. Although other buyers, such as Jay Pritzker expressed interest in the airline, Lorenzo eventually declared Eastern as being "not for sale".^[14]

Lorenzo sold Eastern's shuttle service to real estate magnate Donald Trump in 1989, under whom it became the Trump Shuttle, while selling other parts of Eastern to his Texas Air holding company and its major subsidiary, Continental Airlines, at terms disadvantageous to Eastern.^{[citation needed]} In 1989, George Berry, the Georgia Industry and Trade Commissioner, asked Eastern to consider moving its headquarters from the Miami area to the Atlanta area.^[15]

As a result of the strike, weakened airline structure, inability to compete after deregulation and other financial problems, Eastern filed for bankruptcy protection on March 9, 1989.^[16] This gave Lorenzo breathing room, and allowed him to continue operating the airline with non-union employees. When control of the airline was taken away from Lorenzo by the courts and given to Marty Shugrue, it continued operations in an attempt to correct its cash flow, but to no avail.^{[citation needed]}

The management in the Miami-Dade county headquarters agreed to shut down Eastern. The airline stopped flying at midnight Saturday, January 19, 1991. During the previous evening reservation agents continued to take reservations and told callers that the airline was not closing. They were unaware of the shutdown decision. After the announcement, 5,000 of the 18,000 employees immediately lost their jobs. Of the remaining employees, reservation agents were told to report to work at their regular times, while other employees were told not to report to work unless specifically asked to do so. At the time many of Eastern's employees lived in the Atlanta, Miami, and New York City areas.^[17]

As a result of the Eastern shutdown, many airline industry jobs were eliminated in the Miami and New York City areas.^[18]

An asset liquidation sale was commenced later that year and provided Eastern's creditors with a payout.^{[citation needed]}

Some of Eastern's former pilots helped found Kiwi International Air Lines.

From 1991 to present, Airline Acquisition Corporation of Atlanta, Ga., led by former Eastern pilots Milton Shlapak and John Ruths, plan to re-start Eastern Air Lines and locate its headquarters in Philadelphia. This was planned with the aid of the son of the founder of Eastern, Stephen Pitcairn, who has since passed away.^[19] This has not happened yet, and for many years the Eastern name was not used for any airline around the world, until the UK regional airline with 35 planes, Air Kilroe Limited, started trading as Eastern Airways.^[20]

Destinations[link]

Fleet[link]

An Eastern Air Lines Airbus A300B4-100 at Miami International Airport. (1990)

An Eastern Air Lines Boeing 727-200 Advanced at Miami International Airport. (1990)

An Eastern Air Lines Lockheed L-1011-1 at Miami International Airport. (1989)

Eastern Air Lines flew many different types of aircraft throughout its history:

• Pitcairn Mailwing with which began operations as Eastern Air Transport Inc.
• Ford Tri-Motor from 1930–1932
• Fokker F.VII
• Curtiss Condor from 1930–1934
• Lockheed Electra from 1935–1936
• Douglas DC-2
• Douglas DC-3 from 1936–1953
• Curtiss Commando
• Martin 4-0-4 of which Eastern had the largest fleet with 60 of the type in operation.
• Douglas DC-4
• Convair 440 Metropolitan
• L-1049 Super Constellation from 1951–1968
• Douglas DC-7B from 1953–1966
• Lockheed L-188 Electra beginning 1959
• DC-8-21 beginning in 1960
• DC-8-61/63 stretched and long-range versions beginning in 1967 and 1968, respectively
• Boeing 720
• Boeing 727-100 beginning in 1 February 1964 with Eastern as the launch customer.
• Boeing 727-200 Advanced beginning in 1968
• DC-9-14 beginning in February 1965
• DC-9-31
• DC-9-50
• Boeing 747-100 leased from Pan Am before the L-1011s arrived^[when?]
• Boeing 747-200
• Lockheed L-1011-1 beginning in 1972 with Eastern as co-launch customer (along with TWA)
• Airbus A300B4 with Eastern as the first U.S. airline operator
• Boeing 757-200 beginning in 1983 with Eastern as co-launch customer (along with British Airways)
• Douglas DC-10 (long-range DC-10-30's leased from Alitalia to operate Miami-London services in the late 1980's)
• Lockheed JetStar for corporate use.

Notable accidents[link]

Eastern weathered crashes over the years of varying damage to the company and passenger injuries and deaths. Some of the crashes contributed to the future safety of American air transportation, such as Eastern's first accident caused by the construction of temporary utility poles at the end of a runway.^{[citation needed]}

Flight 601

• On 26 February 1941, Eastern Air Lines Flight 21 crashed near Atlanta, almost killing Eddie Rickenbacker, who was traveling on airline business. His recovery in the hospital received broad press coverage; during his initial recovery several news reports claimed that he had died.
• On 12 July 1945, a US Army Air Forces A-26C-35-DT Invader, 44-35553, on a training flight had mid-air collision with Eastern Air Lines Flight 45 from Washington, D.C. to Columbia, S.C., a DC-3-201C, NC25647, c/n 2235, at ~3100 feet, 11.9 miles WNW of Florence, South Carolina at 1436 hrs. The A-26's vertical tail fin struck the port wing of the airliner, displacing the DC-3's engine which cut into fuselage; A-26 tail sheared off, two crew parachuted but only one survived. DC-3 pilot belly landed in a cornfield, one passenger, an infant, of 24 total on board killed.^[21]
• On 19 July 1951, Eastern Air Lines Flight 601, operating a Lockheed L-749A Constellation N119A suffered severe buffeting after an access door opened in flight. A flapless wheels-up landing was made at Curles Neck Farm, Virginia. The aircraft was later repaired and returned to service.^[22]
• On 19 October 1953, an Eastern Air Lines flight from Idlewild International Airport to San Juan, Puerto Rico, operated by Lockheed L-749A Constellation N119A crashed on take-off. Two passengers were killed.^[23]
• On October 4, 1960, Eastern Air Lines Flight 375 (a Lockheed L-188 Electra) departing Boston's Logan International Airport for Philadelphia crashed on takeoff after striking a flock of birds. Sixty-two of the 72 passengers and crew were killed.
• On November 30, 1962, Eastern Air Lines Flight 512 (a Douglas DC-7) crashed during a go around after failing to land due to fog at Idlewild Airport (now JFK) in New York City. Out of the 51 passengers and crew on board, 25 were killed.
• On February 25, 1964, Eastern Air Lines Flight 304 (a Douglas DC-8) flying from New Orleans International Airport to Washington-National Airport crashed into Lake Pontchartrain en route due to "degradation of aircraft stability characteristics in turbulence, because of abnormal longitudinal trim component positions." All 51 passengers and 7 crew aboard were killed.
• On February 8, 1965, Eastern Air Lines Flight 663, a Douglas DC-7 departing from New York City to Richmond, Virginia, crashed at Jones Beach State Park after takeoff from JFK when it was forced to evade inbound Pan Am Flight 212. All 84 onboard died. The evasive action was blamed for leaving the plane out of control.
• On March 17, 1970: Eastern Air Lines Shuttle Flight 1320, carrying passengers from Newark to Boston was hijacked around 7:30 P.M. by John J. Divivo who was armed with a .38 caliber revolver. Captain Robert Wilbur Jr., 35, a former Air Force pilot who had only been promoted to captain six months prior, was shot in his arm by the suicidal hijacker. With a .38 slug in his arm and bleeding profusely, he flew his aircraft safely to a landing while talking to the tower, telling them his copilot was shot (but not himself) and needed an ambulance. His copilot, First Officer James Hartley, 31, was shot without warning by Divivo and collapsed. Divivo then turned the gun on the captain, causing his arm injury. Despite being fatally wounded Hartley recovered sufficiently to rip the gun from Divivo's hand, and shoot the would-be hijacker three times before lapsing into unconsciousness, and eventually death. Although wounded and slumped between the seats, Divivo arose and began clawing at Captain Wilbur, attempting to force a crash. Wilbur hit Divivo over the head with the gun he had retrieved from the center console. The pilot was able to land the plane safely at Logan International Airport, and the hijacker was arrested immediately.
• On December 29. 1972, Eastern Air Lines Flight 401 (a brand new Lockheed L-1011) was preparing to land in Miami, when the flight crew became distracted by a non-functioning gear light. The flight crashed in the Everglades This is the first major crash of a widebody jet aircraft.
• On September 11, 1974, Eastern Air Lines Flight 212, a DC-9-31 carrying 78 passengers and 4 crew operating as a scheduled flight from Charleston, South Carolina, to Chicago, Illinois, with an intermediate stop in Charlotte, North Carolina, crashed while conducting an instrument approach in dense ground fog at Douglas Municipal Airport (now called Charlotte/Douglas International Airport). The aircraft crashed just short of the runway, killing 71 of the occupants. 13 people survived the initial impact, but three subsequently died from their injuries. One of the initial survivors died of injuries 29 days after the accident. The aircraft was destroyed by the impact and resulting post-crash fire. Also killed on this flight were James, Peter, and Paul Colbert, the father and older brothers (respectively) of comedian Stephen Colbert.^[24]
• On June 24, 1975, Eastern Air Lines Flight 66 (a Boeing 727) crashed into the runway approach lights, as it penetrated a thunderstorm which was astride the ILS localizer course line to that runway, at JFK in New York City, killing 113 people. The official cause of the accident was a sudden high rate of descent, caused by severe downdrafts from the thunderstorm, and the continued use of that runway by both flight crews and ATC, after they became aware of the location of that hazardous weather. The aircraft hit a motorcyclist on impact, and ABA basketball star Wendell Ladner was one of the passengers killed in the crash. Most of the deceased were killed by fire after impact rather than the crash itself. The two flight attendants in the rear of the plane survived the fire because they were doused with the liquid contents of the rear lavatories, which kept them alive. The aircraft that landed on the same runway just prior to EAL Flight 66 was another Eastern aircraft, an L-1011, that managed to fight through the wind shear by having both pilots put their feet on the instrument panel and pulling back on the wheel with all of their strength.^{[citation needed]} After landing, they radioed the tower to close that runway, but it was too late for EAL Flight 66.
• On May 5, 1983, Eastern Air Lines Flight 855 (a Lockheed L-1011 TriStar) three engines shut down in flight. The pilot got one of the engines going before landing back at Miami International Airport.
• On January 1, 1985, Eastern Air Lines Flight 980 (a Boeing 727) struck Mount Illimani on a flight from Silvio Pettirossi International Airport in Asunción, Paraguay, to El Alto International Airport in La Paz, Bolivia. All 25 passengers and 4 crew were killed on impact.

References[link]

Notes

Bibliography

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Eastern Air Lines

	Miami portal
	New York City portal
	Companies portal
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• [2] has timetables from the 1960s to 1990s, showing actual route maps, schedules, and pricing information.
• [3] has many timetables from the 1930s to 1960, showing where Eastern flew, how often, how long it took and how much it cost.
• Aviation Safety Network list of Eastern Air Lines accidents from 1943 to 1990
• Eastern Airlines Indicted in Scheme Over Maintenance - The New York Times
• SHUGRUE RECOUNTS EASTERN'S FINAL DAYS SAYS FINAL NAIL WAS DECEMBER'S DISMAL SHOWING - Miami Herald
• Airlinecolors.com Images, historical overview, and promotional materials

Arthur Godfrey
Born	(1903-08-31)August 31, 1903 New York City, New York
Died	March 16, 1983(1983-03-16) (aged 79) New York City, New York
Occupation	Entertainer
Years active	1934–1979
Spouse	Mary Bourke (m. 1938–1983; his death)

Arthur Morton Godfrey (August 31, 1903 – March 16, 1983) was an American radio and television broadcaster and entertainer who was sometimes introduced by his nickname, The Old Redhead. No television personality of the 1950s enjoyed more clout or fame than Godfrey until a famous on-the-air incident undermined his folksy image and triggered a gradual decline; the then-ubiquitous Godfrey helmed two CBS-TV weekly series and a daily 90-minute television mid-morning show through most of the decade, but by the early 1960s found himself reduced to hosting an occasional TV special.

Arguably the most prominent of the medium's early master commercial pitchmen, he was strongly identified with many of his many sponsors, especially Chesterfield cigarettes and Lipton Tea.^[1] After many years for Chesterfield (during which Godfrey came up with the idea and slogan "Buy 'em by the carton"), he severed the relationship during one of his television programs, when his doctors convinced him that his lung cancer was due to smoking. Subsequently, he became a prominent spokesman for anti-smoking education.

Early years[link]

Godfrey was born in New York City in 1903.^[2] 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 Hanbury Godfrey. The senior Godfrey was a sportswriter and considered an expert on surrey and 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.^[3] Arthur, the eldest of five children, tried to help them 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 (by lying about his age) two years later.

Godfrey spoke directly to his listeners as individuals; he was a foremost pitchman into the TV era

Godfrey's father was something of a "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 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 by playing the piano to accompany silent movies, making jams and jellies and crocheting bedspreads to sell, and even cutting off and selling her floor length hair, as it was extremely difficult for a woman of her "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.^[4] In 1957, 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 destroyers, but returned home to care for the family after his father's death. Additional radio training came during Godfrey's service in the Coast Guard from 1927 to 1930. He passed a very stringent qualifying examination and was admitted to the prestigious Radio Materiel School at the Naval Research Laboratory, graduating in 1929. It was during a Coast Guard stint in Baltimore that he appeared on a local talent show and became popular enough to land his own brief weekly program.

Radio[link]

On leaving the Coast Guard, Godfrey became a radio announcer for the Baltimore station WFBR (now WJZ (AM)) and moved the short distance to Washington, D.C. to become a staff announcer for NBC-owned station WRC the same year and remained there until 1934.

Recovering from a near-fatal automobile accident en route to a flying lesson in 1931 (by which time he was already an avid flyer), he decided to listen closely to the radio and realized that the stiff, formal style then used by announcers could not connect with the average radio listener; the announcers spoke in stentorian tones, as if giving a formal speech to a crowd and not communicating on a personal level. Godfrey vowed that when he returned to the airwaves, he would affect a relaxed, informal style as if he were talking to just one person. He also used that style to do his own commercials and became a regional star.

Godfrey at the 1948 ceremony marking the 100th anniversary of the Washington Monument.

In addition to announcing, Godfrey sang and played the ukulele. In 1934 he became a freelance entertainer, but eventually based himself on a daily show titled Sundial on CBS-owned station WJSV (now WFED) in Washington. Godfrey was the station's morning disc jockey, playing records, delivering commercials (often with tongue in cheek; a classic example had him referring to Bayer Aspirin as "bare ass prin"), interviewing guests, and even reading news reports during his three-hour shift. Godfrey loved to sing, and would frequently sing random verses during the "talk" portions of his program. In 1937, he was a host on Professor Quiz, radio's first successful quiz program. One surviving broadcast from 1939 has Godfrey unexpectedly turning on his microphone to harmonize with The Foursome's recording of "There'll Be Some Changes Made."

He knew President Franklin D. Roosevelt, who listened to his Washington program, and through Roosevelt's intercession, he received a commission in the U.S. Naval Reserve before World War II. Godfrey eventually moved his base to the CBS station in New York City, then known as WABC (now WCBS), and was heard on both WJSV and WABC for a time. In the autumn of 1942, he also became the announcer for Fred Allen's Texaco Star Theater show on the CBS network, but a personality conflict between Allen and Godfrey led to his early release from the show after only six weeks.

Godfrey became nationally known in April 1945 when, as CBS's morning-radio man in Washington, he took the microphone for a live, firsthand account of President Roosevelt's funeral procession. The entire CBS network picked up the broadcast, later preserved in the Edward R. Murrow and Fred W. Friendly record series, I Can Hear it Now. Unlike the tight-lipped news reporters and commentators of the day, who delivered breaking stories in an earnest, businesslike manner, Arthur Godfrey's tone was sympathetic and neighborly, lending immediacy and intimacy to his words. When describing new President Harry S. Truman's car in the procession, Godfrey fervently said, in a choked voice, "God bless him, President Truman." Godfrey broke down in tears and cued the listeners back to the studio. The entire nation was moved by his emotional outburst.

Godfrey made such an impression on the air that CBS gave him his own morning time slot on the nationwide network. Arthur Godfrey Time was a Monday-Friday show that featured his monologues, interviews with various stars, music from his own in-house combo and regular vocalists. Godfrey's monologues and discussions were unscripted, and went wherever he chose. "Arthur Godfrey Time" remained a late morning staple on the CBS Radio Network schedule until 1972.

In 1947, Godfrey had a surprise hit record with the novelty "Too Fat Polka (She's Too Fat For Me)" written by Ross MacLean and Arthur Richardson. The song's popularity led to the Andrews Sisters recording a version adapted to the women's point-of-view.

Publicity still with Bing Crosby and Perry Como in 1950 for Crosby's radio show.

Godfrey's morning show was supplemented by a primetime variety show, Arthur Godfrey's Talent Scouts, broadcasting from the CBS Studio Building at 49 East 52nd Street where he had his main office. This variety show, a showcase for rising young performers, was a slight variation of CBS's successful Original Amateur Hour. Some of the performers had made public appearances in their home towns and were recommended to Godfrey by friends or colleagues. These "sponsors" would accompany the performers to the broadcast and introduce them to Godfrey on the air. Two acts from the same 1948 broadcast were Wally Cox and The Chordettes. Both were big hits that night, and both were signed to recording contracts. Godfrey took special interest in The Chordettes, who sang his kind of barbershop-quartet harmony, and he soon made them part of his broadcasting and recording "family."

Performers who appeared on Talent Scouts included Lenny Bruce, Don Adams, Tony Bennett, Patsy Cline, Pat Boone, opera singer Marilyn Horne, Roy Clark, and Irish vocalist Carmel Quinn. Later, he promoted "Little Godfrey" Janette Davis to a management position as the show's talent coordinator. Three notable acts rejected for the show were Elvis Presley, Sonny Till & The Orioles, and The Four Freshmen. Following his appearances on the Louisiana Hayride, Presley traveled to New York for an unsuccessful Talent Scouts audition in April 1955; after the Talent Scouts staff rejected The Orioles, they went on to have a hit record with "Crying in the Chapel" and kicked off the "bird group" trend of early rock 'n' roll.

Godfrey was also an avid amateur radio operator, with the station call sign K4LIB. He was a member of the National Association of Broadcasters Hall of Fame in the radio division.^[5]

Television[link]

In 1948 Arthur Godfrey's Talent Scouts began to be simultaneously broadcast on radio and television, and by 1952, Arthur Godfrey Time also appeared on both media. The radio version ran an hour and a half; the TV version an hour, later expanded to an hour and a half. The Friday shows, however, were heard on radio only, because at the end of the week, Godfrey traditionally broadcast his portion from a studio at his Virginia farm outside of Washington, D.C., and TV cameras were unable to transmit live pictures of him and his New York cast at the same time. Godfrey's skills as a commercial pitchman brought him a large number of loyal sponsors, including Lipton Tea, Frigidaire, Pillsbury cake mixes and Liggett & Myers's Chesterfield cigarettes.

He found that one way to enhance his pitches was to extemporize his commercials, poking fun at the sponsors (while never showing disrespect for the products themselves), the sponsors' company executives, and advertising agency types who wrote the scripted commercials that he regularly ignored. (If he read them at all, he ridiculed them.) To the surprise of the advertising agencies and sponsors, Godfrey's kidding of the commercials and products frequently enhanced the sales of those products. His popularity and ability to sell brought a windfall to CBS, accounting for a significant percentage of their corporate profits.

In 1949 Arthur Godfrey and His Friends, a weekly informal variety show, began on CBS-TV in prime time. His affable personality combined warmth, heart, and occasional bits of double entendre repartee, such as his remark when the show went on location: "Well, here we are in Miami Bitch. Hehheh." Godfrey received adulation from fans who felt that despite his considerable wealth, he was really "one of them," his personality that of a friendly next-door-neighbor. His ability to sell products, insisting he would not promote any in which he did not personally believe, gave him a level of trust from his audience, a belief that "if Godfrey said it, it must be so." When he quit smoking after his 1953 hip surgery, he spoke out against smoking on the air and merely shrugged off Chesterfield's departure as a regular sponsor as he knew that other sponsors would easily fill the vacancy.

Eventually Godfrey added a weekend "best of" program culled from the week's Arthur Godfrey Time, known as Arthur Godfrey Digest. He began to veer away from interviewing stars in favor of a small group of regular performers that became known as the "Little Godfreys." Many of these artists were relatively obscure, but were given colossal national exposure, some of them former Talent Scouts winners including Hawaiian vocalist Haleloke, veteran Irish tenor Frank Parker, Marian Marlowe and Julius LaRosa, who was in the Navy when Godfrey, doing his annual Naval reserve duty, discovered the young singer and offered him a job upon his discharge.

LaRosa joined the cast in 1951 and became a favorite with Godfrey's immense audience, who also saw him on the prime-time weekly show Arthur Godfrey and his Friends. Godfrey also had a regular announcer-foil on the show: Tony Marvin. Godfrey preferred his performers not to use personal managers or agents, but often had his staff represent the artists if they were doing personal appearances.

Godfrey was one of the busiest men in the entertainment industry, often presiding over several daytime and evening radio and TV shows simultaneously. (Even busier was Robert Q. Lewis, who hosted Arthur Godfrey Time whenever Godfrey was absent, adding to his own crowded schedule.) Both Godfrey and Lewis made commercial recordings for Columbia Records, often featuring the "Little Godfreys" in various combinations. In addition to the "Too Fat Polka" mentioned above, these included "Candy and Cake"; "Dance Me Loose". "I'm Looking Over a Four Leaf Clover"; "Slap 'Er Down Again, Paw"; "Slow Poke"; and "The Thing". In 1951 Godfrey also narrated a nostalgic movie documentary, Fifty Years Before Your Eyes, produced for Warner Brothers by silent-film anthologist Robert Youngson.

On a memorable evening in 1953, disc jockey Steve Allen was a last-minute replacement for Godfrey on Talent Scouts. When it came time to deliver the live commercial for Lipton tea and soups, Allen impulsively prepared the soup and the tea on camera, and poured both into a ukulele. Shaking the mixture well, he played a few damp notes while reciting the rest of the commercial, to the delight of the studio audience, the viewers, and Godfrey himself. Allen became a national celebrity and within the year he would become the first host of NBC's Tonight show.

Godfrey had been in pain since the 1931 car crash that damaged his hip. In 1953, he underwent pioneering hip replacement surgery in Boston using an early plastic artificial hip joint. The operation was successful and he returned to the show to the delight of his vast audience. CBS was so concerned about losing his audience that during his recovery, he broadcast live from his Beacon Hill estate near Leesburg, the signal carried by microwave towers built on the property.

In his own way, Godfrey was a social pioneer. One of the "Little Godfrey" acts were the Mariners, an integrated vocal quartet of white and black Coast Guard veterans. When the act appeared on his TV show, Southern CBS affiliates and racist Southern politicians complained of their participating in dance sequences with white women. Godfrey responded caustically, decrying the racism and refusing to remove them from the cast.

Godfrey's immense popularity and the trust placed in him by audiences was noticed by not just advertisers but also his friend U.S. President Dwight Eisenhower, who asked him to record a number of public service announcements to be played on American television in the case of nuclear war. It was thought that viewers would be reassured by Godfrey's grandfatherly tone and folksy manner. The existence of the PSA tapes was confirmed in 2004 by former CBS president Dr. Frank Stanton in an exchange with a writer with the Web site CONELRAD.

Aviation[link]

Godfrey (left) with NACA pilot George Cooper and Ames Director Smith DeFrance

Godfrey learned to fly in the 1930s while doing radio in the Washington, D.C., area, starting out with gliders, then learning to fly airplanes. He was badly injured on his way to a flying lesson one afternoon in 1931 when a truck, coming the other way, lost its left front wheel and hit him head on. Godfrey spent months recuperating, and the injury would keep him from flying on active duty during WWII. He served as a reserve officer in the U.S. Navy in a public affairs role during the war.

Godfrey used his pervasive fame to advocate a strong anti-Communist stance and to pitch for enhanced strategic air power in the Cold War atmosphere. In addition to his advocacy for civil rights, he became a strong promoter of his middle-class fans vacationing in Hawaii and Miami Beach, Florida, formerly enclaves for the wealthy. He made a TV movie in 1953 taking the controls of an Eastern Airlines Lockheed Constellation airliner and flying to Miami, thus showing how safe airline travel had become. As a reserve officer, he used his public position to cajole the Navy into qualifying him as a Naval Aviator, and played that against the United States Air Force, who successfully recruited him into the Air Force Reserve. At one time during the 1950s, Godfrey had flown every active aircraft in the military inventory.

His continued unpaid shilling for Eastern Airlines earned him the undying gratitude of good friend Eddie Rickenbacker, the WWI flying ace who was the President of the airline. He was such a good friend of the airline that Rickenbacker took a retiring Douglas DC-3, fitted it out with an executive interior and DC-4 engines, and presented it to Godfrey, who then used it to commute to the studios in New York City from his huge Leesburg, Virginia, farm every Sunday night. Such a quid pro quo would nowadays bring charges of conflict of interest, but in the context of the early 1950s, nothing was said.

The new DC-3 was so powerful (and noisy) that the Town of Leesburg ended up moving its airport.

Incidents[link]

In January 1954, Godfrey buzzed the control tower of Teterboro Airport in his DC-3. His license was suspended for six months. Godfrey claimed the windy conditions that day required him to turn immediately after takeoff, but in fact he was peeved with the tower because they would not give him the runway he asked for.^{[citation needed]} He later recorded a satirical song about the incident, "Teterboro Tower," roughly to the tune of "Wabash Cannonball". A similar event occurred while he flew near Chicago in 1956, though no sanctions were imposed. These incidents, in the wake of the controversies that swirled around Godfrey after his firing of Julius LaRosa, only further underscored the differences between his private and public persona.

Godfrey and the Leesburg airport[link]

The original Leesburg airport, which Godfrey owned and referred to affectionately on his show as "The Old Cow Pasture," was less than a mile from the center of town, and local residents had come to expect rattling windows and crashing dishes every Sunday evening and Friday afternoon.

In 1960, Godfrey proposed building a new airport by selling the old field, and donating a portion of the sale to a local group. Since Godfrey funded the majority of the airport, it is now known as Leesburg Executive Airport at Godfrey Field. He also was known for flying a Navion, a smaller single-engined airplane, as well as a Lockheed Jetstar, and in later years a Beech Baron and a Beech Duke, registration number N1M. In 1964, he became one of the founding members of the board of directors of Executive Jet Aviation Corporation.

Behind the scenes[link]

Behind Godfrey's on-air warmth was a volatile and controlling personality. He insisted that his "Little Godfreys" attend dance and singing classes, believing all should be versatile performers regardless of whether they possessed the aptitude for those disciplines. In meetings with the cast and his staff, he could be abusive and intimidating. CBS historian Robert Metz, in CBS: Reflections in a Bloodshot Eye, quoted Godfrey as having once told cast and staffers, "Remember that many of you are here over the bodies I have personally slain. I have done it before and I can do it again." In spite of his ability to bring in profits, CBS executives who respected Godfrey professionally were not fond of him personally, since he often baited them on and off the air.

Godfrey's attitude was controlling prior to his hip surgery, but upon his return, he added more air time to his morning shows and became critical of a number of aspects of the broadcasts. One night, he substituted a shortened, hastily-arranged version of his Wednesday night variety show in place of the scheduled "Talent Scouts" presentation, feeling that none of the talent was up to standards. He also began casting a critical eye on others in the cast, particularly LaRosa, whose popularity continued to grow.

The LaRosa incident[link]

Like many men of his generation, Julius LaRosa thought dance lessons to be somewhat effeminate—and chafed when Godfrey ordered them for his entire performing crew. Metz suggested that Godfrey instituted the practice because his own physical limitations made him sensitive to the need for coordination on camera. "Godfrey," Metz wrote, "was concerned about his cast in his paternalistic way."

Godfrey and LaRosa had a dispute when LaRosa missed a dance lesson due to a family emergency. He claimed he'd advised Godfrey, but was nonetheless barred from the show for a day in retaliation, via a notice placed on a cast bulletin board. At that point, LaRosa retained topnotch manager Tommy Rockwell to renegotiate his contract with Godfrey or, failing that, to receive an outright release. However, such talks had yet to occur.

Julius LaRosa

LaRosa was also signed to Cadence Records, owned by Godfrey's musical director Archie Bleyer, who produced "Eh, Cumpari!", the best-selling hit of LaRosa's musical career. LaRosa admitted the record's success had made him a little cocky. But after Godfrey discovered that LaRosa hired a manager in the wake of the dance lesson reprimand, Godfrey immediately consulted with CBS President Dr. Frank Stanton, who noted that Godfrey had hired LaRosa on-air (after his initial appearance on Talent Scouts) and suggested firing him the same way. Whether Stanton intended this to occur after Godfrey spoke with LaRosa and his managers about the singer's future on the show, or whether Stanton suggested Godfrey actually fire LaRosa on air with no warning, remains lost to history.

On October 19, 1953, near the end of his morning radio show (deliberately waiting until after the TV portion had ended), after lavishing praise on LaRosa in introducing the singer's performance of "Manhattan," Godfrey thanked him and then announced that this was LaRosa's "swan song" with the show, adding, "He goes now, out on his own — as his own star — soon to be seen on his own programs, and I know you'll wish him godspeed as much as I do". Godfrey then signed off for the day saying, "This is the CBS Radio Network". LaRosa, who had to be told what the phrase "swan song" meant, was dumbfounded, since he had not been informed beforehand of his departure and contract renegotiations had yet to happen. Stanton later admitted the idea may have been "a mistake." In perhaps a further illumination of the ego that Godfrey had formerly kept hidden, radio historian Gerald Nachman, in Raised on Radio, claims that what really miffed Godfrey about his now-former protege was that LaRosa's fan mail had come to outnumber Godfrey's.^[6] It is likely that a combination of these factors led to Godfrey's decision to discharge LaRosa. It is not likely Godfrey expected the public outcry that ensued, a result of the incident running directly counter to Godfrey's avuncular image.

In any event, the LaRosa incident opened an era of controversy that swirled around Godfrey and, little by little, dismantled his just-folks image. LaRosa was beloved enough by Godfrey's fans that they saved their harshest criticism for Godfrey himself. After a press conference was held by LaRosa and his agent, Godfrey further complicated the matter by hosting a press conference of his own where he responded that LaRosa had lost his "humility." The charge, given Godfrey's sudden baring of his own ego beneath the facade of warmth, brought more mockery from the public and press.^[6] Almost instantly, Godfrey and the phrase "no humility" became the butt of many comedians' jokes. Later, he claimed he had, with the firing, essentially given LaRosa a release from his contract that the singer requested. Godfrey, however, provided no evidence to support that contention.

The firings continue[link]

Godfrey would fire others among his regulars, including bandleader Archie Bleyer, within days of LaRosa's public "execution." Bleyer had formed his own label, Cadence Records, which recorded LaRosa. Bleyer married one of The Chordettes, and that group also broke away from Godfrey; Godfrey replaced them with The McGuire Sisters. Godfrey was also angered that Bleyer had produced a spoken-word record by Godfrey's Chicago counterpart Don McNeill. McNeill hosted The Breakfast Club, which had been Godfrey's direct competition on the NBC Blue Network (later ABC) since Godfrey's days at WJSV. Despite the McNeill show's far more modest following, Godfrey was unduly offended, even paranoid, at what he felt was disloyalty on Bleyer's part. Bleyer simply shrugged off the dismissal and focused on developing Cadence, which went on to even greater fame in later years with classic hit records by the Everly Brothers and Andy Williams.

Apparently, Godfrey intended to teach his regulars a lesson by dismissing them from his show and curtailing their network-television exposure. The plan backfired somewhat when they continued to perform for his substitute host, Robert Q. Lewis, who by now had his own midday show on CBS.

Occasionally, a crotchety Godfrey snapped at cast members on the air. A significant number of other "Little Godfreys," including the Mariners and Haleloke, were dismissed from 1953 to 1959 without explanation. Other performers, most notably Pat Boone and Patsy Cline (briefly), stepped in as "Little Godfreys."

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 him to several female "Little Godfreys." Godfrey's anger at Sullivan stemmed from the variety show impresario's featuring of fired "Little Godfreys" on his Sunday night show, including LaRosa.

Exploitation in popular culture[link]

As the media turned on Godfrey, two films, The Great Man (1956) starring José Ferrer, who also directed and produced, and Elia Kazan's classic A Face in the Crowd (1957) starring Andy Griffith and Patricia Neal, were inspired in part by Godfrey's increasingly controversial career:

• The Great Man, adapted from a novel by TV writer Al Morgan, centered on a tribute broadcast for Herb Fuller, a Godfrey-like figure killed in a car crash whose genial public demeanor concealed a dissolute phony.
• A Face in the Crowd creator Budd Schulberg maintained his story was actually inspired by contrasts between the public image and private personality of Will Rogers, Sr.. Also, the film's protagonist, Lonesome Rhodes, with his combination of country singing and country storytelling, superficially resembled popular TV host Tennessee Ernie Ford. Nonetheless, prominent elements of the film, including the scenes when Rhodes (played by Andy Griffith) spoofed commercials on a TV show he was hosting, were clearly Godfrey-inspired. The research by Kazan and Schulberg included attending an advertising agency meeting about Lipton Tea.

Godfrey was a frequent target for parody:

• As early as 1949, comedians Bob and Ray presented an obvious parody in Arthur Sturdley (voiced by Bob Elliott) who, in plummy, folksy tones, constantly ragged his announcer Tony (Ray Goulding imitating Godfrey's announcer Tony Marvin, incessantly answering every question with "That's right, Arthur!").
• Satirist Stan Freberg picked up on this inadvertent catchphrase and recorded a barbed spoof of Godfrey's show. "That's Right, Arthur" depicted the star as a rambling, self-absorbed motormouth and his longtime announcer (Tony Marvin, portrayed by voice actor Daws Butler) as a yes-man, responding "That's right, Arthur" to every vapid Godfrey pronouncement. Fearing legal problems, Freberg's label, Capitol Records, would not release it, to Freberg's frustration. The recording finally appeared on a 1990s Freberg career retrospective CD box set.
• Following the Julius LaRosa episode, singer-songwriter Ruth Wallis, renowned for her double-entendre songs, recorded "Dear Mr. Godfrey," a country tune that implored him to "hire me and fire me and make a star of me."

Godfrey appeared on every major magazine cover including Life, Look, Time, and over a dozen TV Guide covers. He was also the first man to ever make the cover of Cosmopolitan magazine. Despite his faux pas, Godfrey still commanded a strong presence and a loyal fan base. Talent Scouts lasted until 1958.

In later years, WCCO afternoon-drive host Steve Cannon would pay homage to the "Little Godfreys" with three characters he called "The Little Cannons", as in "Ma Linger" (described as "the poor man's Brooke Shields"), "Backlash LaRue" (a play on 1950s B-Western star Lash LaRue) and "Morgan Mundane", billed as "the World's Greatest Prognosticator" and called in to offer sports predictions.

"The Walking Song" by The Turtles features a parody of Godfrey's "Ha-why-ya, ha-why-ya, ha-why-ya" at the end of the song.

Allegations of anti-Semitism[link]

Accusations of anti-Semitism shadowed Godfrey during the height of his career and persist even today. Eddie Fisher, in his autobiography, Been There, Done That, discusses the rumor:

One of the best-known anti-Semites in show business was Arthur Godfrey, the host of radio's most important amateur talent contest. Godfrey owned the Kenilworth Hotel in [Miami] Florida, which supposedly had a sign in front that read NO DOGS OR JEWS ALLOWED. But when I got the opportunity to appear on Talent Scouts, I leaped at it. I didn't care that Godfrey wouldn't let me in his hotel as long as he let me sing on his radio show.

Arthur J. Singer, author of Arthur Godfrey: The Adventures of an American Broadcaster (2000), rejects this accusation, citing Godfrey's good personal relations with a number of Jews in the entertainment industry, including his longtime announcer Tony Marvin. As for Godfrey's association with the Kenilworth, the hotel did establish a "No Jews" policy in the 1920s, but abandoned it when Godfrey acquired a stake in the hotel in the early 1950s.

Dick Cavett, in an opinion piece for the New York Times (July 16, 2010), calls the accusations of anti-Semitism "...purest nonsense".^[7]

Later in life[link]

In 1959, Godfrey began suffering chest pains. Closer examination by physicians revealed a mass in his chest that could possibly have been lung cancer. Later that same year, Godfrey ended Arthur Godfrey Time and The Arthur Godfrey Show (as the prime-time series was known after the fall of 1956) after revealing his illness.

Surgeons discovered cancer in one lung that spread to his aorta. One lung was removed. Yet, despite the disease's discouragingly high mortality in that era, it became clear after radiation treatments that Godfrey had beaten the substantial odds against him. He returned to the air on a prime-time special and resumed the daily morning show on radio, 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'd had since the beginning. The show was the last daily longform entertainment program on American network radio when Godfrey and CBS agreed to end it in April 1972. Godfrey by then was a colonel in the US Air Force Reserve and still an active pilot.

He appeared in the movies 4 for Texas (1963), The Glass Bottom Boat (1966), and Where Angels Go, Trouble Follows (1968). He briefly co-hosted Candid Camera with creator Allen Funt, but that relationship, like so many others, ended 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 Angel's Revenge.

Post-retirement[link]

In retirement, Godfrey wanted to find ways back onto a regular TV schedule. He appeared in a 1920s-pop-style performance on the rock band Moby Grape's second album. Godfrey's political outlook was complex, and to some, contradictory—his lifelong admiration for Franklin Roosevelt combined with a powerful libertarian streak in his views. But 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 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 and the detergent Axion, only to repudiate the latter product when he found out that Axion contained phosphates, implicated in water pollution.

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 SST interest in the U.S., leaving it to Britain and France.^{[citation needed]} (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.)

Despite an intense desire to remain in the public eye, Godfrey's presence ebbed considerably over the next ten years, notwithstanding an HBO special and an appearance on a PBS salute to the 1950s. A 1981 attempt to reconcile him with LaRosa for a Godfrey show reunion record album, bringing together Godfrey and a number of the "Little Godfreys," collapsed. At an initially amicable meeting, Godfrey reasserted that LaRosa wanted out of his contract and asked why he had not explained that instead of insisting he was fired without warning. When LaRosa 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[link]

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/Thirteen in New York. Godfrey biographer Art 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 kinescopes of Godfrey television programs, more than 4,000 audiotapes and wire recordings of his various radio shows, as well as videotapes and transcription discs. 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.^[8]

Death[link]

Emphysema, resulting from the radiation treatments for Godfrey's cancer, became a problem in the early 1980s. He died of the condition in New York City on March 16, 1983.^[2][9] Godfrey was buried at Union Cemetery in Leesburg, Virginia, not far from his farm in Waterford, Virginia.

Personal life[link]

Godfrey was married twice. He had a child with his first wife Catherine. He then was married for many years to the former Mary Bourke from 1938 until their divorce a year before his death in 1983. They had three children.

He was the grandfather to The Real Housewives of Washington, D.C. cast member Mary Schmidt Amons.

Awards[link]

• NBAA Meritorious Service to Aviation Award (1950)
• National Association of Broadcasters Hall of Fame (radio)
• National Aviation Hall of Fame (1987)
• Radio Hall of Fame (1988)
• Peabody Award (1971)
• Hollywood Walk of Fame (at 1551 Vine St.)
• In 2002 Godfrey was one of only three people named on both of industry publication Talkers Magazine's 25 greatest radio, and 25 greatest television, talk show hosts of all time lists.^[10]

References[link]

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (January 2008)

External links[link]

Biography portal

• Arthur Godfrey at the Internet Movie Database
• Arthur Godfrey at the Internet Broadway Database
• Museum of Broadcast Communication: Arthur Godfrey
• Kinescope of an episode of 'Arthur Godfrey Time' at the Internet Archive
• "Arthur Godfrey". Find a Grave. http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=6813947. Retrieved August 10, 2010. 

This biographical article needs additional citations for verification. Please help by adding reliable sources. Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced or poorly sourced must be removed immediately, especially if potentially libelous or harmful. (October 2009)

Frank Borman
NASA Astronaut
Nationality	American
Status	Retired
Born	(1928-03-14) March 14, 1928 (age 84) Gary, Indiana
Other occupation	Test pilot
Rank	Colonel, USAF
Time in space	19d 21h 35 m
Selection	1962 NASA Group
Missions	Gemini 7, Apollo 8
Mission insignia
Awards

Frank Frederick Borman, II (born March 14, 1928) is a retired NASA astronaut and engineer, best remembered as the Commander of Apollo 8, the first mission to fly around the Moon, making him, along with fellow crew mates Jim Lovell and Bill Anders, the first of only 24 humans to do so. Before flying on Apollo, he set a fourteen-day spaceflight endurance record on Gemini 7, and also served on the NASA review board which investigated the Apollo 1 fire. After leaving NASA, he was the chief executive officer (CEO) of Eastern Air Lines from 1975 to 1986. Borman is a recipient of the Congressional Space Medal of Honor. In the HBO miniseries From the Earth to the Moon, Borman was played by David Andrews.

Early career[link]

Borman was born in Gary, Indiana, where the Frank Borman Expressway is named after him. Because he suffered from numerous sinus problems in the cold and damp weather, his father packed up the family and moved to the better climate of Tucson, Arizona, which Borman considers his home town. He started to fly at the age of 15. He is a graduate of the Tucson High School. He graduated from the United States Military Academy in 1950 where he served as an Army Football Manager, and along with part of his graduating class, he entered the United States Air Force (USAF) and became a fighter pilot. He received his Master of Science degree in aeronautical engineering from the California Institute of Technology in 1957. Later, Borman was selected for the USAF test pilot school and became a test pilot.

Frank Borman and Jim Lovell walking up the ramp to the elevator prior to the Gemini 7 mission.

NASA career[link]

Project Gemini[link]

Borman was selected by NASA for the second NASA astronaut group in 1962, and was chosen as the Command Pilot for Gemini 7. He was one of just four of this group chosen to command their first Gemini missions, the others being James McDivitt, Neil Armstrong, and Elliot See. (See was killed in a T-38 trainer jet crash three months before his mission. Astronauts Gerald Carr and Joe Engle, selected later, also commanded their first space flights.)

Borman flew Gemini 7 in December 1965 with Pilot James A. Lovell, Jr. This was a long-endurance flight which set a fourteen-day record, and also acted as the target vehicle in the first space rendezvous performed by Gemini 6A. The two craft came within one foot (30 centimeters) of each other and they took turns flying around each other, taking both still and motion pictures.

Apollo Program[link]

Borman was selected in late 1966 to command the third manned Apollo mission, planned as an elliptical medium Earth orbit test of the second manned Lunar Module (LM) on the first manned launch of the Saturn V lunar rocket sometime in 1967 or early 1968. But in January 1967, the crew of the first manned Apollo mission, Virgil I. "Gus" Grissom, Ed White, and Roger B. Chaffee were killed in a cabin fire aboard their Apollo 1 Command Module, also designated AS-204.

Borman was chosen as the only astronaut to serve on the AS-204 Accident Review Board, charged with investigating the root causes of the fire and recommending corrective measures. In April 1967, while serving on the board, Borman was one of five astronauts who testified before a US Senate committee investigating the Apollo 1 fire. His testimony helped convince Congress that Apollo would be safe to fly again.

In-flight footage of Frank Borman (center) during the Apollo 8 mission.

Borman was then reassigned to his LM test mission, now planned to fly as Apollo 9 in early 1969 after a first, low Earth orbit LM flight commanded by McDivitt in December 1968. But the LM was not ready for its first flight, leading NASA management to decide to replace Borman's mission with a lunar orbit flight using just the Command/Service Module as Apollo 8 in December, making McDivitt's flight Apollo 9 in March 1969. Borman's "Lunar Module Pilot" (and spacecraft systems engineer) was William Anders. The Command Module Pilot and navigator, Michael Collins, had to have back surgery and was replaced by his backup, James Lovell, reuniting Borman with his Gemini 7 crewmate. Apollo 8 went into lunar orbit on December 24 and made ten orbits of the Moon in 20 hours before returning to Earth.

And from the crew of Apollo 8, we close with good night, good luck, a Merry Christmas, and God bless all of you—-all of you on the good Earth.

— Frank Borman, live broadcast from lunar orbit (1968)^[1][2]

The success of Apollo 8 avoided jeopardizing the goal of making the first manned Moon landing by the end of 1969 by not waiting for the delayed LM, and also provided invaluable experience in navigation to the Moon.

Space journalist Andrew Chaikin claims that, following the death of Gus Grissom, Borman became astronaut chief Deke Slayton's choice to command the first Moon landing attempt. In the fall of 1968 Slayton offered command of the first landing to Borman, who turned it down, choosing to retire instead. Slayton then offered the position to McDivitt, who also refused.^[3]

Eastern Air Lines[link]

Borman retired from NASA and the Air Force in 1970, becoming special advisor to Eastern Air Lines. He rose in the ranks of Eastern, becoming CEO in December 1975.^[4] The airline business underwent many changes in the late 1970s, and despite a promising start, Eastern ultimately did not do well under Borman. Borman sold Eastern to Texas Air, headed by Frank Lorenzo, after many contentious battles with labor unions, particularly the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM). Borman retired from Eastern in 1986. A strike by the IAM and intransigence by Lorenzo in 1989 eventually forced Eastern into bankruptcy and finally liquidation.^{[citation needed]}

Retirement[link]

Borman with Jim Lovell and William Anders in December 2008

Borman returned to Tucson, Arizona, to reside, and as of 2006 has been living in Las Cruces, New Mexico, where he enjoys rebuilding and flying airplanes from World War II and the Korean era. Today, he is a member of the Society of Antique Modelers (SAM).^[5][6] Borman gave the Commencement Address to the graduating class of 2008 at the University of Arizona.^[7]

For a time during his retirement, Borman was the majority holder of a Chevrolet dealership founded by his son Fred.^[8]

Borman has since appeared in the documentary When We Left Earth: The NASA Missions. On November 13, 2008, Borman and fellow Apollo 8 crewmembers Jim Lovell and Bill Anders appeared on the NASA TV channel to discuss the Apollo 8 mission.

Borman currently resides with his wife Susan in Bighorn, Montana.

Quotes[link]

"There's no question that it was a coffin, and I'd have flown it gladly." — Public comment on the hazardous design and construction of the Apollo Command Module, while serving on the AS-204 Accident Review Board.^[9]

"Had that rocket not fired, I'd still be orbiting the moon. Forever. And I really didn't want to do that." — Spoken of the Apollo 8 mission during the documentary When We Left Earth: The NASA Missions

"I've long said that capitalism without bankruptcy is like Christianity without hell. But it's hard to see any good news in this." — as chairman of Eastern Airlines^[10]

Awards[link]

This article incorporates information from the equivalent article on the Russian Wikipedia.

• Society of Experimental Test Pilots James H. Doolittle Award, 1976
• Congressional Space Medal of Honor, 1978
• Tony Jannus Award, 1986
• Distinguished Flying Cross
• NASA Distinguished Service Medal
• NASA Exceptional Service Medal

Tributes[link]

• I-80/I-94 in Lake County, Indiana, which runs through his birthtown of Gary, Indiana, is named the Frank Borman Expressway.
• A Department of Defense Education Activity elementary school on Davis-Monthan Air Force Base in Tucson, Arizona is named in Borman's honor.

Notes[link]

References[link]

• Borman, Frank; Serling, Robert J. (October 1988). Countdown: An Autobiography. Silver Arrow. ISBN 0-688-07929-6. 

External links[link]

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Frank Borman

United States Air Force portal

• Official NASA biography
• Spacefacts biography of Frank Borman
• Frank Borman at the Internet Movie Database
• Appearances on C-SPAN
• Works by or about Frank Borman in libraries (WorldCat catalog)
• Borman Elementary School: About our School