John Daly may refer to:

• J. Burrwood Daly (1872–1939), U.S. Representative from Pennsylvania
• John Charles Daly (1914–1991), radio & TV newsman and television host on What's My Line? 1950–1967
• John Corry Wilson Daly (1796–1878), early Canadian politician, first mayor of Stratford, Ontario
• John Daly (American media personality), 1990s American journalist
• John Daly (athlete) (1880–1969), Irish athlete who won an Olympic silver medal
• John Daly (Australian politician) (1891–1942)
• John Daly (bishop) (1901–1985), former colonial Anglican bishop
• John Daly (drink), an alcoholic drink
• John Daly (Fenian) (1845–1916), Irish revolutionary and leading Member of the Irish Republican Brotherhood
• John Daly (footballer) (1870–?), Australian rules footballer
• John Daly (gambler) (1838–1906), New York City criminal
• John Daly (golfer) (born 1966), golfer on the PGA Tour
• John Daly (Irish Member of Parliament) (1834–1888), Irish Nationalist Member of Parliament for Cork City 1880–1884
• John Daly (Irish politician) (1867–1932), represented Cork in the 1920s
• John Daly (Irish TV presenter), Northern Irish chat show host
• John Daly (outlaw) (1839–1864), American Western outlaw
• John Daly (producer) (1937–2008), British movie producer and director of The Big Bang
• John Daly (rugby) (John Christopher Daly), Irish rugby union and rugby league footballer of the 1940s and '50s
• John Daly (skeleton racer) (born 1985), American skeleton racer
• John Donald Daly (1841–1923), American businessman and landowner, for whom Daly City, CA is named
• John Lawrence Daly (1943–2004), self-declared "Greenhouse skeptic"
• John Daly, robber in the Great Train Robbery (1963)

See also[link]

• Jack Daly (1915–1988), Irish politician
• John Daley (disambiguation)
• Jon Daly (born 1983), Irish footballer

This disambiguation page lists articles about people with the same name. If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article.

Simms Thomas is an American actress.

Born in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, she graduated Magna Cum Laude from the University of Tennessee with a B.S. in communications. She is married to actor Bob Thomas and is the mother of three children, including the actor Jake Thomas. She has appeared in several television series and movies. She is also a spokesperson for infomercials and trade shows. She also has experience as a talk show and radio host. She is also an author and has written a few books.

External links[link]

• Simms Thomas Official Site
• Simms Thomas at the Internet Movie Database
• Thomas bio

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Phyllis Diller
Diller on February 25, 2007
Born	Phyllis Ada Driver (1917-07-17) July 17, 1917 (age 94) Lima, Ohio, U.S.
Occupation	Actress, comedian
Years active	1952–present
Spouse	Sherwood Anderson Diller (m. 1939 – 1965) Ward Donovan (m. 1965 – 1966; m. ?? – 1974)
Partner	Robert P. Hastings (c. 1985 – 1996; his death)[1]

Phyllis Diller (born July 17, 1917) is an American actress and comedian. She created a stage persona of a wild-haired, eccentrically dressed housewife who makes self-deprecating jokes about her age and appearance, her terrible cooking, and a husband named "Fang", while pretending to smoke from a long cigarette holder. Diller's signature is her unusual laugh.

Early life[link]

Diller was born Phyllis Ada Driver in Lima, Ohio, the daughter of Frances Ada (née Romshe) and Perry Marcus Driver, an an insurance agent.^[2] She has German and Irish ancestry (the surname "Driver" had been changed from "Treiber" several generations back).^[3] Her mother was about twenty years younger than her father.^[4] Diller was raised a Methodist.^[5] Diller attended Lima's Central High School, then studied for three years at Sherwood Music Conservatory in Chicago, Illinois. She then transferred to Bluffton College in Bluffton, Ohio, where she met fellow "Lima-ite" and classmate Hugh Downs.^{[citation needed]}

Diller was a housewife, mother, and advertising copywriter. During World War II, Diller lived in Ypsilanti, Michigan, while her husband worked at the historic Willow Run Bomber Plant. In the mid-1950s, she made appearances on The Jack Paar Show and was a contestant on Groucho Marx's quiz show You Bet Your Life.^[6]

Although she has made her career in comedy, Diller studied the piano for many years. She later decided against a career in music after hearing her teachers and mentors play with much more ability than she thought that she would be able to achieve. She still plays in her private life, however, and owns a custom-made harpsichord.

Career[link]

Diller began her career working at KROW radio in Oakland in 1952. In November of that year, she began filming a television show titled "Phyllis Dillis, the Homely Friendmaker."^[7] The 15-minute series was a BART (Bay Area Radio-Television) production, directed for television by ABC's Jim Baker. The cameraman later admitted that there was no film: The camera was open during the filming. In the mid 1950s, while residing in the East Bay city of Alameda, California, Diller was employed at KSFO radio in San Francisco. Bill Anderson wrote and produced a television show at KGO-TV called "The Belfast Pop Club," which was hosted by Don Sherwood. "Pop Club" was a half-hour show that combined playing records with "experts" rating them, and dancing girls encouraging audience participation. The show was an early advertisement for Belfast Root Beer, known today as Mug Root Beer. Anderson invited her onto his show on April 23, 1955 as a vocalist.^[8]

Diller first appeared as a stand-up at The Purple Onion on March 7, 1955 and remained there for 87 straight weeks. Diller appeared on "Del Courtney's Showcase" on KPIX television on November 3, 1956. Diller's fame was expanded when she co-starred with Bob Hope in 23 television specials and three films in the 1960s: Boy, Did I Get a Wrong Number!, Eight on the Lam, and The Private Navy of Sgt. O'Farrell. Although only Boy, Did I Get a Wrong Number! performed well at the box office, Hope invited Diller to perform with him in Vietnam in 1966 with his USO troupe during the height of the Vietnam War.

Throughout the 1960s, she appeared regularly as a special guest on many television programs. For example, she appeared as one of the What's My Line? Mystery Guests. The blindfolded panel on that evening's broadcast included Sammy Davis, Jr., and they were able to discern Diller's identity in just three guesses. Also, Diller made regular cameo appearances making her trademark wisecracks on Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In. Self-deprecating to a fault, a typical Diller joke had her running after a garbage truck pulling away from her curb. "Am I too late?" she'd yell. The driver's reply: "No, jump right in!"

Phylis Diller hamming it up for the camera

Though her main claim to fame is her stand-up comedy act, Diller has also appeared in other films besides the three mentioned above, including a cameo appearance as Texas Guinan, the wisecracking nightclub hostess in the 1961 film Splendor in the Grass. She appeared in more than a dozen, usually low-budget, movies, including voice work as The Monster's Mate in the Rankin/Bass animated film Mad Monster Party (1967), co-starring Boris Karloff.

Diller also starred in two short-lived TV series: the half-hour sitcom The Pruitts of Southampton (later retitled The Phyllis Diller Show) on ABC from 1966–1967, and the variety show The Beautiful Phyllis Diller Show on NBC in 1968. More recent television appearances for Diller have included at least three episodes between 1999–2003^[9] on the long-running family drama 7th Heaven, in one of which she got drunk while cooking dinner for the household, and a 2002 episode of The Drew Carey Show,^[9] as Mimi Bobek's grandmother. She posed for Playboy, but the photos were never run in the magazine.^[10] Her voice can be heard in several animated TV shows, including The New Scooby-Doo Movies (1972)^[9] as herself, The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius (2002)^[9] as Jimmy's grandmother, and on Family Guy in 2006^[9] as Peter Griffin's mother, Thelma Griffin.

Diller in 1973

Beginning December 26, 1969,^[11] she had a three-month run^[12] on Broadway in Hello, Dolly! (opposite Richard Deacon)^[13] as the second to last in a succession of replacements for Carol Channing in the title role, which included Ginger Rogers, Martha Raye, Betty Grable, and Pearl Bailey. After Diller's stint, Ethel Merman took over the role until the end of the show's run in December 1970.^[14][15]

In 1993, she was inducted into the St. Louis Walk of Fame.

In 1998, Diller provided the vocals for the Queen in Disney/Pixar's animated movie A Bug's Life. In 2005, Diller was featured as one of many contemporary comics in a documentary film, The Aristocrats. Diller, who avoids blue comedy, did a version of an old, risqué vaudeville routine in which she describes herself passing out when she first heard the joke, forgetting the actual content of the joke.

In 2000, she was awarded the Women in Film Lucy Award in recognition of her excellence and innovation in her creative works that have enhanced the perception of women through the medium of television^[16]

In 2003, after hearing of the donation of Archie Bunker's chair to the Smithsonian Institution, Diller opened her doors to the National Museum of American History and offered up some of her most iconic costume pieces and her gag file, a steel cabinet with 48 file-drawers containing more than 50,000 jokes and gags typewritten on index cards by Diller during her career. From August 12-October 28, 2011, the Albert H. Small Documents Gallery at the National Museum of American History displayed Diller's gag file and some of the objects that became synonymous with her comedic persona-an unkempt wig, wrist-length gloves, cloth-covered ankle boots and a bejeweled cigarette holder.^[17]

On January 24, 2007, she appeared on The Tonight Show and performed stand-up, before chatting with Jay Leno.

Diller had a cameo appearance in an episode of ABC's Boston Legal on April 10, 2007. She appeared as herself, confronting William Shatner's character Denny Crane, alleging to have had a torrid love affair with him. They seemed to have enjoyed a romantic moment in a foxhole during World War II.

Phyllis Diller arrives at Korat Air Base, Thailand for the Bob Hope Christmas show in 1966.

Diller is a member of the Society of Singers, which supports singers in need. In June 2001 at the request of fellow Society member and producer Scott Sherman, she appeared at Kansas City and Philadelphia Pride events. The mayor of Philadelphia officially proclaimed June 8, 2001, as "Phyllis Diller Day." She was presented an official proclamation onstage to a standing ovation. In 2006, Mayor of San Francisco Gavin Newsom proclaimed February 5, 2006 "Phyllis Diller Day in San Francisco," which she accepted by phone.

She has also recorded at least five comedy LP records, one of which was Born To Sing, released as Columbia CS 9523.

Although known for decades for smoking from long cigarette holders in her comedy act, Diller is a lifelong nonsmoker, and the cigarette holders were stage props that she had specially constructed.

Personal life[link]

Diller, a longtime resident of the Brentwood area of Los Angeles, California, credits much of her success to Bob Hope, in large part because he included her in many of his films and his Vietnam USO shows. She is an accomplished pianist as well as a painter.

Family[link]

Diller has been married and divorced twice. She also dated Earl "Madman" Muntz, a pioneer in oddball TV and radio ads. She had six^[18] children from her marriage to her first husband, Sherwood Anderson Diller. Her first child was Peter (b. 1940;^[19] d. 1998 of cancer).^[20] Her second child Sally, born in 1944,^[18] has suffered from schizophrenia most of her life.^[21] Her third child, a son, lived for only two weeks in an incubator.^[22] A daughter, Suzanne, was born in 1946,^[23] followed by another daughter Stephanie (b. 1948^[24] d. 2002 of a stroke)^[25] and a son Perry (b. 1950).^[26] Diller's second husband was actor Warde Donovan (born Warde Tatum), whom she married on 7 October 1965 and divorced the following year; they apparently re-married and divorced for a second time in 1974.^[27] Her youngest son Perry, now 60, oversees her affairs today.^{[citation needed]} Diller is not the mother of actress Susan Lucci, nor TV personality Dorothy Lucey, despite urban legends to that effect, frequently passed through viral emails under trivia headings such as "Did You Know...?"^[28] The husband frequently mentioned in her act, "Fang", was entirely fictional, and not based on either of her actual husbands.

Plastic surgery[link]

Diller has candidly discussed her plastic surgery, a series of procedures first undertaken when she was 55. The results have drawn numerous awards and acknowledgments from plastic surgeons and medical organizations.^{[citation needed]} In her 2005 autobiography, she wrote that she has undergone "fifteen different procedures".^[29] Her numerous surgeries were the subject of a 20/20 segment February 12, 1993.

Health problems[link]

Diller has suffered medical problems, including a heart attack in 1999. After a hospital stay she was fitted with a pacemaker and released. A bad fall resulted in her being hospitalized for neurological tests and pacemaker installation in 2005. She has since retired from stand-up comedy appearances.

On July 11, 2007, USA Today reported that she fractured her back and had to cancel a Tonight Show appearance, during which she had planned to celebrate her 90th birthday. On January 4, 2011, she appeared on CNN's "Anderson Cooper 360" as part of a panel of comedians.

Recent pursuits[link]

She wrote her autobiography in 2005, titled Like a Lampshade in a Whorehouse. A direct-to-DVD version of the project, complete with early live clips of Diller, and interviews with her showbiz colleagues including Don Rickles, among others, was released in December 2006. A screenplay about Diller's early years in stand-up, according to blind items in the trades, is in preproduction with Patricia Clarkson slated to play the comedian. Diller spends much of her time painting, cooking, and gardening.

Filmography[link]

Television work[link]

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Phyllis Diller

• Phyllis Diller at the Internet Movie Database
• Phyllis Diller at Internet Broadway Database
• Interview with Phyllis Diller
• Diller's Entry in the St. Louis Walk of Fame
• Comedy College webpage for Phyllis Diller
• NPR interview, Phyllis Diller: Still Out for a Laugh
• Archive of American Television Interview with Phyllis Diller March 8, 2000
• NPR: Not My Job: Phyllis Diller August 4, 2007 on Wait Wait...Don't Tell Me!
• Early Articles on Phyllis Diller's career
• Literature on Phyllis Diller

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. 

Howard Stern
Stern at WXRK in New York City, 2000
Born	Howard Allan Stern (1954-01-12) January 12, 1954 (age 58) Jackson Heights, New York City, New York, U.S.
Occupation	Radio personality, television host, author, actor, photographer
Years active	1975–present
Political party	Libertarian during 1994 Governor of New York campaign
Spouse	Alison Berns (1978–2001; div.) Beth Ostrosky Stern (2008–present)
Website
www.howardstern.com

Howard Allan Stern (born January 12, 1954) is an American radio personality, television host, author, actor and photographer best known for his radio show which was nationally syndicated from 1986 to 2005. He gained wide recognition in the 1990s where he was labeled a "shock jock" for his outspoken and sometimes controversial style. Stern has been exclusive to Sirius XM Radio, a subscription-based satellite radio service, since 2006. The son of a former recording and radio engineer, Stern wished to pursue a career in radio at the age of five. While at Boston University he worked at the campus station WTBU before a brief stint at WNTN in Newton, Massachusetts.

He developed his on-air personality when he landed positions at WRNW in Briarcliff Manor, WCCC in Hartford and WWWW in Detroit. In 1981, he was paired with his current newscaster and co-host Robin Quivers at WWDC in Washington, D.C. Stern then moved to WNBC in New York City in 1982 to host afternoons until his firing in 1985. He re-emerged on WXRK that year, and became one of the most popular radio personalities during his 20-year tenure at the station. Stern's show is the most-fined radio program, after the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) issued fines to station licensees for allegedly indecent material that totaled $2.5 million. Stern has won Billboard's Nationally Syndicated Air Personality of the Year award eight times, and is one of the highest-paid figures in radio.^[1]

Stern describes himself as the King of All Media for his ventures outside radio. Since 1987, he has hosted numerous late night television shows, pay-per-view events and home video releases. He embarked on a five-month political campaign for Governor of New York in 1994. His two books, Private Parts (1993) and Miss America (1995), spent 20 and 16 weeks respectively on The New York Times Best Seller list. The former was adapted into Private Parts (1997), a biographical comedy film that starred Stern and his radio show staff that earned $41.2 million in domestic revenue. Stern performs on its soundtrack which topped the Billboard 200 chart.

Early life and education[link]

Stern graduated from the College of Public Communications at Boston University in 1976.

Stern was born on January 12, 1954 into a Jewish family who lived in Jackson Heights, Queens in New York City.^[2][3] His parents Ben and Ray (née Schiffman) are children of Austro-Hungarian immigrants, and his sister Ellen is four years older than he.^[2] The family moved to the hamlet of Roosevelt on Long Island in 1955,^[4] where Stern developed an interest in radio at five years of age.^[5] While Ray was a homemaker and later an inhalation therapist,^[6][7] Ben was a co-owner of Aura Recording, Inc., a recording studio in Manhattan where cartoons and commercials were produced.^[8] When he made occasional visits with his father, Stern witnessed actors Wally Cox, Don Adams and Larry Storch voice his favorite cartoon characters,^[9][10] which influenced him to later talk on the air rather than play records.^[11] Ben was also an engineer at WHOM, a radio station in Manhattan.^[8] On completion of sixth grade, Stern left Washington-Rose Elementary School for Roosevelt Junior-Senior High School.^[12] In June 1969, the family moved to nearby Rockville Centre and Stern transferred to South Side High School.^[13]

Stern spent the first two of four years at Boston University in the College of Basic Studies.^[14] In 1973, he started to work at WTBU, the campus radio station where he spun records, read the news, and hosted interviews.^[14] He also hosted a comedy program with three fellow students called The King Schmaltz Bagel Hour.^[15] Stern gained admission to the School of Public Communications in 1974^[16] and earned a diploma in July 1975 at the Radio Engineering Institute of Electronics in Fredericksburg, Virginia which allowed him to apply for a first class FCC radio-telephone license.^[17][18] With the license, Stern made his professional debut at WNTN in Newton, Massachusetts, performing airshift, newscasting and production duties between August and December 1975.^[19] He graduated magna cum laude from Boston University in May 1976 with a degree in Communications^[3][14] and now funds a scholarship at the university.^[20]

Career[link]

Early professional radio career (1976–1981)[link]

After his graduation in 1976, Stern declined an offer to work evenings at WRNW, a progressive rock station in Briarcliff Manor, Westchester County, New York.^[21] He was unsure of his talent, and questioned his future in the professional industry. Stern took creative and media planning roles at Benton & Bowles, a New York advertising agency, followed by a job in selling radio time to advertisers.^[22] He realized the mistake of declining on-air work and contacted WRNW a second time where he agreed to work covering shifts over the Christmas holiday period.^[19][23] Stern was hired full time in 1977 and worked a four-hour midday shift, six days per week a $96 weekly salary.^[17] He subsequently worked as the station's production and program director for an increased salary of $250.^[19][24]

In 1979, Stern spotted an advertisement for a "wild, fun morning guy" at rock station WCCC in Hartford, Connecticut.^[25] He submitted a more outrageous audition tape with Robert Klein and Cheech and Chong records mixed with flatulence routines and one-liners.^[26] Stern was hired with no change in salary with a more intense schedule. After four hours on the air he voiced and produced commercials for another four. On Saturdays, following a six-hour show, he did production work for the next three. As the station's public affairs director he also hosted a Sunday morning talk show which he favoured.^[27] In the summer of the 1979 energy crisis, Stern held a two-day boycott of Shell Oil Company which attracted media attention.^[28] Stern left WCCC a year later after he was declined a pay increase.^[29] Fred Norris, the overnight disc jockey, has been Stern's producer and writer since 1981.^[30]

Management at rock outlet WWWW in Detroit, Michigan praised Stern's audition tape in their search for a new morning man.^[31] Stern was hired for the job which he started on April 21, 1980.^[13] He learned to become more open on the air and "decided to cut down the barriers...strip down all the ego...and be totally honest", he later told Newsday.^[32] His efforts earned him a Billboard award for "Album-Oriented Rock Personality of the Year For a Major Market" and the Drake-Chenault "Top Five Talent Search" title.^[33][34] The station however, ran into problems after Stern's quarterly Arbitron ratings had decreased while it struggled to compete with its stronger rock competitors. In January 1981, WWWW switched to a country music format much to Stern's dislike, who left the station soon after.^[35] He received offers to work at WXRT in Chicago and CHUM in Toronto, but did not take them.^[34][36]

Washington and WNBC New York (1981–1985)[link]

Stern moved to Washington, D.C. to host mornings at rock station WWDC on March 2, 1981.^[37][38] He wanted to develop his show further, and looked for a co-worker with a sense of humor to riff with on news and current events.^[39] The station paired Stern with Robin Quivers, a newscaster and consumer affairs reporter from WFBR in Baltimore.^[40] Though he felt restricted and controlled by management who enforced a strict format, Stern had the second highest rated morning radio program in January 1982.^[41][42] Impressed with his ratings success, NBC approached Stern with an offer to work afternoons at WNBC in New York City. After Stern signed a five-year contract worth $1 million in March,^[43] his relationship with WWDC management worsened,^[44] and his contract with the station was terminated on June 25. He had more than tripled the station's morning ratings during his stay.^[45] In its July issue The Washingtonian named Stern the area's best disc jockey.^[46] Stern released 50 Ways to Rank Your Mother, a comedy album of his radio bits. The record was re-released as Unclean Beaver in November 1994.^[47]

On April 2, 1982, a news report by Douglas Kiker on raunch radio featuring Stern aired on NBC Magazine.^[48] The piece stimulated discussion among NBC management to withdraw Stern's contract. When he began his afternoon program in September,^[49] management closely monitored Stern, telling him to avoid talk of a sexual and religious nature.^[50] In his first month, Stern was suspended for several days for "Virgin Mary Kong", a segment featuring a video game where a group of men pursued the Virgin Mary around a singles bar in Jerusalem.^[48] An attorney was hired to man a "dump button", and cut Stern off the microphone should potentially offensive areas be discussed. This became the task of program director Kevin Metheny, who Stern nicknamed "Pig Virus".^[48] On May 21, 1984, Stern made his first appearance on Late Night with David Letterman, launching him into the national spotlight.^[13] A year later he claimed the highest ratings at WNBC in four years with a 5.7% market share.^[51]

On September 30, 1985, Stern and Quivers were fired for what management termed "conceptual differences" regarding the show.^[52] "Over the course of time, we made a very conscious effort to make Stern aware that certain elements of the program should be changed...I don't think it's appropriate to say what those specifics were",^[53] said program director John Hayes, who Stern nicknamed "The Incubus". In 1992, Stern believed Thornton Bradshaw, chairman of WNBC's owner RCA, heard his "Bestiality Dial-a-Date" segment and ordered his firing.^[50] Stern and Quivers kept in touch with their audience throughout October and November where they toured club venues with a stage show.^[52]

K-Rock, early television endeavors and Fartman (1985–1992)[link]

Stern signed a contract with Infinity Broadcasting worth around $500,000^[54] and returned to afternoons on its New York rock station WXRK on November 18, 1985.^[52] The show moved to mornings on February 18, 1986 and entered national syndication on August 18 when WYSP in Philadelphia first simulcast the program.^[52] In October 1992, Stern became the first to have the number one morning radio show in New York and Los Angeles simultaneously.^[55] In the New York market The Howard Stern Show was the highest-rated morning program for seven consecutive years between 1994 and 2001.^[56] In 1994, Billboard magazine added the "Nationally Syndicated Air Personality of the Year" category to its annual radio awards based on entertainment value, creativity and ratings success.^[57] Stern was awarded the title from 1994 to 2002.^[58][59]

In May 1987, Stern recorded five television pilots for Fox when the network planned to replace The Late Show hosted by Joan Rivers.^[60] The series was never picked up; one executive having described the show as "poorly produced", "in poor taste" and "boring".^[61] Stern hosted his first pay-per-view event on February 27, 1988 named Howard Stern's Negligeé and Underpants Party.^[52] Over 60,000 homes purchased the two-hour special that grossed $1.2 million.^[62] On September 7, 1989, over 16,000 fans packed out Nassau Coliseum for Howard Stern's U.S. Open Sores, a live event that featured a tennis match between Stern and his radio show producer, Gary Dell'Abate.^[52] Both events were released for home video. From 1990 to 1992, Stern was the host of The Howard Stern Show, a Saturday night program on WWOR-TV. The series ran for 69 episodes to 65 markets nationwide.^[63] In February 1991, Stern released Crucified by the FCC, a collection of censored radio segments following the first fine issued to Infinity by the FCC over alleged indecency.^[64] He released a third video tape, Butt Bongo Fiesta, in October 1992 that sold 260,000 copies for a gross of over $10 million.^[64][65] He returned to Saturday night television that November with The Howard Stern "Interview", a one-on-one celebrity interview series on E!.^{[citation needed]}

Stern appeared at the 1992 MTV Video Music Awards as Fartman, a fictional superhero that first appeared in the National Lampoon humor magazine series. According to the trademark he filed for the character that October, he first used Fartman in July 1981.^[66] Stern rejected multiple scripts for a proposed summer 1993 release of The Adventures of Fartman until a verbal agreement was reached with New Line Cinema.^[67] Screenwriter J. F. Lawton had prepared a script before relations soured over the film's rating, content and merchandising rights and the project was abandoned.^[68][69]

[edit] Private Parts, E! show and run for Governor (1993–1994)

In 1993, Stern signed a $1 million advance contract with Simon & Schuster to publish his first book.^[70] Co-authored with Larry Sloman and edited by Judith Regan, the release of Private Parts on October 7 saw its first printing of 225,000 copies being sold within hours of going on sale. It became the fastest-selling title in the history of Schuster after five days.^[71] In its eighth printing two weeks later, over one million copies had been distributed.^[65][70] Stern embarked on a book signing tour that attracted an estimated 10,000 fans at a Barnes & Noble store on Fifth Avenue in New York.^[70] In its first run, Private Parts spent 20 weeks on The New York Times Best-Seller list.^[72] Stern has written forewords for Steal This Dream (1998), a biography of Abbie Hoffman, Disgustingly Dirty Joke Book (1998) by Jackie Martling, Too Fat to Fish (2008) by Artie Lange, and Dear Mrs. Fitzsimmons: Tales of Redemption from an Irish Mailbox (2010) by Greg Fitzsimmons.

Stern hosted his second pay-per-view event, The Miss Howard Stern New Year's Eve Pageant, on December 31, 1993. It broke the subscriber record for a non-sports event previously held by a New Kids on the Block concert in 1990.^[65] Around 400,000 households purchased the event that grossed an estimated $16 million.^[73] Stern released the program on VHS in early 1994 as Howard Stern's New Year's Rotten Eve 1994. Between his book royalties and pay-per-view profits, Stern's earnings in the latter months of 1993 totalled around $7.5 million.^[74] In its 20th anniversary issue in 1993, Radio & Records named Stern the most influential air personality of the past two decades.^[75]

On March 21, 1994, Stern announced his candidacy for Governor of New York under the Libertarian Party ticket, challenging Mario Cuomo for re-election.^[76] He planned to reinstate the death penalty, stagger highway tolls to improve traffic flow, and limit road work to night hours.^[77] At the party's nomination convention in Albany on April 23, Stern won the required two-thirds majority on the first ballot, receiving 287 of the 381 votes cast (75.33%). James Ostrowski finished second with 34 votes (8.92%).^[78] To place his name on the November ballot, Stern was obliged to state his home address and to complete a financial disclosure form under the Ethics in Government Act of 1987. After declining to disclose his financial information, Stern was denied an injunction on August 2.^[79] He withdrew his candidacy two days later. Cuomo was defeated in the gubernatorial election on November 8 by George Pataki, who Stern backed. Pataki signed "The Howard Stern Bill" that limited construction on state roads to night hours in New York and Long Island, in 1995.^[80]

In June 1994, robotic cameras were installed at WXRK studios to film The Howard Stern Show for a condensed half-hour show on E!.^[81] Howard Stern ran for 11 years until the last taped episode aired on July 8, 2005.^[82] In conjunction with his move to satellite radio, Stern launched Howard Stern on Demand, a subscription video-on-demand service, on November 18.^[83] The service was relaunched as Howard TV on March 16, 2006.^[84]

[edit] Miss America and Private Parts film (1995–1997)

On April 3, 1995, three days after the shooting of singer Selena, Stern's comments regarding her death and Mexican Americans caused an uproar in the Hispanic community. He criticized her music and gunfire sound effects were played over her songs. "This music does absolutely nothing for me. Alvin and the Chipmunks have more soul...Spanish people have the worst taste in music. They have no depth".^[85] On April 6, Stern responded with a statement in Spanish, stressing his comments were made in satire and not intended to hurt those who loved her.^[86] A day later, Justice of the Peace Eloy Cano of Harlingen, Texas issued an arrest warrant on Stern for disorderly conduct.^[87]

In 1995, Stern signed a deal with ReganBooks worth $3 million to write his second book, Miss America.^[88] He wrote about his cybersex experiences on the Prodigy service, a private meeting with Michael Jackson, and his suffering with obsessive-compulsive disorder.^[89] Released on November 7, the book sold 33,000 copies at Barnes & Noble stores on the same day which set a new one-day record.^[90] Publishers Weekly reported over 1.39 million copies were sold by the year's end and ranked it the third best-selling book of 1995.^[91] Miss America spent a total of 16 weeks on The New York Times best-seller list.^[72]

Production for a film adaptation of Private Parts began in May 1996 with all shooting complete in four months.^[92] Its premiere was held at The Theatre at Madison Square Garden on February 27, 1997, where Stern performed "The Great American Nightmare" with Rob Zombie.^[93] Making its general release on March 7, Private Parts topped the box office sales in its opening weekend with a gross of $14.6 million, and went on to earn a total of $41.2 million in domestic gross revenue.^[94] The film holds a "fresh" rating on Rotten Tomatoes, a website that aggregates film reviews. 79% of critics gave Private Parts a positive review based on a sample of 48 reviews, with an average score of 6.6 out of 10.^[95] For his performance, Stern won a Blockbuster Entertainment Award for "Favorite Male Newcomer" and was nominated for a Golden Satellite Award for "Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture (Comedy)" and a Golden Raspberry Award for "Worst New Star".^{[citation needed]} The soundtrack to Private Parts sold 178,000 copies in its first week of release, topping the Billboard 200 chart.^[96]

Stern filed a $1.5 million lawsuit against Ministry of Film Inc. in October 1997, claiming it recruited him for a film titled Jane starring Melanie Griffith while knowing it had insufficient funds. Stern, who was unpaid when production ceased, accused the studio of breach of contract, fraud and negligent representation.^[97] A settlement was reached in 1999 with Stern receiving $50,000.^[98]

Return to Saturday night television and productions (1998–2004)[link]

In August 1998, Stern returned to Saturday night television with The Howard Stern Radio Show.^[99] Broadcast across the country on CBS affiliates, it featured radio show highlights along with material unseen in his nightly E! show. The show competed for ratings with comedy shows Saturday Night Live on NBC and MADtv on Fox. Concerned with its risqué content, affiliates began to leave the show after two episodes.^[100] Making its launch on 79 stations on August 22, 1998, this number was reduced to 55 by June 1999.^[101] A total of 84 episodes were broadcast.^{[citation needed]} The final re-run aired on November 17, 2001, to around 30 markets.^[102][103]

In 1994, Stern launched the Howard Stern Production Company for original and joint production and development ventures. He intended to make a film adaptation of Brother Sam, the biography of the late comedian Sam Kinison.^[104] In September 1999, UPN announced the production of Doomsday, an animated science-fiction comedy series executively produced by Stern.^[105] Originally set for a 2000 release, Stern starred as Orinthal, a family dog.^[106] The project was eventually abandoned. From 2000 to 2002, Stern was the executive producer of Son of the Beach, a sitcom which ran for three seasons on FX. In late 2001, Howard Stern Productions was reportedly developing a new sitcom titled Kane.^[107] The pilot episode was never filmed. In 2002, Stern acquired the rights to comedy films Rock 'n' Roll High School (1979) and Porky's (1982). He filed a $100 million lawsuit in March 2003 against ABC and the producers of Are You Hot?, claiming the series was based on his radio segment called "The Evaluators". A settlement was reached on August 7.^[108]

Stern announced in early 2004 of talks with ABC to host a prime time interview special, which never materialized. In August 2004, cable channel Spike picked up 13 episodes of Howard Stern: The High School Years, a second animated series Stern was to executive produce.^[109] On November 14, 2005, Stern announced the completion of episode scripts and 30 seconds of test animations.^[110] Stern eventually gave the project up. In 2007, he explained the episodes could have been produced "on the cheap" at $300,000 each, though the quality he demanded would have cost over $1 million.^[111] Actor Michael Cera was cast as the lead voice.^[112]

[edit] Satellite radio and America's Got Talent (2004–present)

Following Stern's move to Sirius, he assembled the Howard 100 News team.

On October 6, 2004, Stern announced the signing of a five-year contract with Sirius Satellite Radio, a medium free from FCC regulations, that started in January 2006.^[113] His decision to leave terrestrial radio occurred in the aftermath of the controversy surrounding the Super Bowl XXXVIII halftime show in February that caused a crackdown on perceived indecency in broadcasting. The incident prompted tighter control over content by station owners and managers to which Stern felt "dead inside" creatively.^[114] Stern hosted his final broadcast on terrestrial airwaves on December 16, 2005.^[115] During his 20 years at WXRK his show had syndicated in 60 markets^[116][117] across the United States and Canada and gained a peak audience of 20 million listeners.^{[118][119][120]}

With an annual budget of $100 million for all production, staff and programming costs, Stern launched two channels on Sirius in 2005 named Howard 100 and Howard 101. He assembled the Howard 100 News team that covered stories about his show and those associated with it, and a new dedicated studio was constructed at Sirius' headquarters in New York.^[121] On January 9, 2006, the day of his first broadcast, Stern and his agent received 34.3 million shares of stock from the company worth $218 million for exceeding subscriber targets set in 2004.^[122] A second stock incentive was paid in 2007, with Stern receiving 22 million shares worth $82.9 million.^[123]

On February 28, 2006, CBS Radio (formerly Infinity Broadcasting) filed a lawsuit against Stern, his agent and Sirius. The suit claimed Stern had misused CBS broadcast time to promote Sirius for unjust enrichment during the last 14 months of his terrestrial radio contract.^[124][125] In a press conference held hours before the suit was filed, Stern said it was nothing more than a "personal vendetta" against him by CBS president Leslie Moonves.^[126] A settlement was reached on May 25, with Sirius paying $2 million to CBS for control of Stern's 20-year broadcast archives.^[127] In the same month, Time magazine included Stern in its Time 100 list.^[128] He also ranked seventh in Forbes' Celebrity 100 list in June 2006,^[129] and reappeared in 2011 at number 26.^[130]

Stern signed a new contract with Sirius to continue his show for five more years in December 2010.^[131] Following the agreement, Stern and his agent filed a lawsuit against Sirius on March 22, 2011, for allegedly failing to pay stock bonuses promised to them from the past four years while helping the company exceed subscriber growth targets. Sirius said it was "surprised and disappointed" by the suit.^[132] On April 17, 2012, New York Judge Barbara Kapnick "granted a SiriusXM motion for summary judgment, dismissing the lawsuit."^[133]

In May, Stern announced that he would be broadcasting on a reduced schedule, alternating between three-day and four-day working weeks.^[134] On December 15, 2011, Stern announced that he will replace Piers Morgan as a judge for the seventh season of America's Got Talent. Filming will take place in Newark, New Jersey at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center and began in February 2012.^[135]

FCC fines[link]

From 1990 to 2004, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has fined owners of radio stations that carried The Howard Stern Show a total of $3.2 million for indecent programming.^[136]

Personal life[link]

Stern and Beth Ostrosky in 2011

Stern married his first wife, Alison (née Berns),^[137] on June 4, 1978 at Temple Ohabei Shalom in Brookline, Massachusetts.^[138] They have three daughters: Emily Beth (b. 1983), Debra Jennifer (b. 1986) and Ashley Jade (b. 1993).^[139] On October 22, 1999, Stern announced their decision to separate.^[140] The marriage ended in 2001 with an amicable divorce and settlement.^[137] In 2000, Stern began to date model Beth Ostrosky Stern, co-host of Casino Cinema from 2004 to 2007.^{[citation needed]} She also frequently appeared in the American edition of FHM.^[141] On February 14, 2007 Stern announced their engagement.^[137] They married on October 3, 2008, at Le Cirque restaurant in New York City.^[142]

While attending Boston University, Stern developed an interest in Transcendental Meditation, which he practices to this day.^[143] He credits it with aiding him in quitting smoking and achieving his goals in radio.^[144] Stern interviewed the late Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, founder of the technique, twice.^{[citation needed]} Stern also plays on the Internet Chess Club, and has taken lessons from chess master Dan Heisman, although he has recently claimed to have quit playing. Howard's latest passion is photography, where he does private shoots for friends and secured his first paid 'gig' shooting a layout for Hamptons magazine in July 2011.^[145][146] Stern has also shot photographs for WHIRL magazine and the North Shore Animal League.^[147][148] Stern is frequently listed among the most influential contemporary Americans. In 2011, he was rated Forbes Magazines' 49th Most Powerful Celebrity.^[149]

Filmography[link]

Films[link]

Home video releases[link]

Television[link]

Discography[link]

Bibliography[link]

• Stern, Howard (1993). Private Parts. Simon & Schuster. ISBN 978-0-671-88016-3. 
• Stern, Howard (1995). Miss America. ReganBooks. ISBN 978-0-06-039167-6. 

References[link]