Sponsor (Jan-June 1950)

COMMONWEALTH Currently Serving the Nation's Leading TV Stations Offers the Following TV FILM PACKAGES MAJOR FEATURE PROGRAWIS| I with such starsos Barbara STANWYCK Robert YOUNG Jimmy DURANTE Claudette COLBERT Jack BENNY Paulette GOODARD Jimmy STEWART Merle OBERON Melvyn DOUGLAS Raymond MASSEY TOP WESTERNS featuring THE RANGE BUSTERS KERMIT MAYNARD SMITH BALLEW ^igaa »hh Corro/ orro Hoish 8U"*' Crobbe MUSICAL VARIETIES ll'/imin each • featuring MOREY AMSTERDAM 250 SILtHJ 13 SOVJNO 'cMtfOONSl xSsr i/f /3 *»//, °OfA iC&' rtoons^ For further information and complete ~3 list, write to LommoiipuH fyUm .one/ @c/eimi(m, S'ttc. 713 Seventh tlHM, New York It, N.Y. "punch) commercial reduced by Godlii'\ to a single line, or possibly read backwards, or from right to left, are doubtless consoled by the thought that sales results mean more than sparkling sales essays. Arthur's alleged and much-discussed lapses from good taste are another calculated risk which must be weighed bv a Godfrey sponsor. An irreverent adlibber, his comments in a fertile context are always in the lap of the Godfrey. Let's take a look at a typical Godfrey broadcast — Arthur Godfrey Time, heard on CBS Monday through Friday, 10:15-11:30 a.m. At this writing, the first three quarter-hour segments are sponsored by Pillsbury Flour. Gold Seal products, (Glass Wax, etc.) and Nabisco, with Chesterfield taking the last half-hour. Just before airtime, the studio audience in New York is "warmed up" by Tony Marvin, the show's announcer. Marvin is an oil-smooth type whose voice provides an excellent contrast to Godfrey's, and whose suave manner makes him an ideal Godfrey foil. Godfrey strolls in with Mug Richardson, his "Girl Friday," and the show goes on the air. Godfrey clears his throat noisily into the mike. The crowd roars. A six-word commercial for Pillsbury, a song by Janet Davis. Godfrey professes interest in the song's key, and hauls out his celebrated ukelele. A few experimental plunks, and then he's "out of the mood." Picks up a Pillsbury commercial and reads until he reaches the "funny kind of sentence" mentioned earlier, whereupon he adlibs the rest. Arthur then unloads a slight local gag from a sheaf of material prepared by his writing staff. He returns to his ukelele for a few chords with the orchestra, and then: "That's enough. So buy some Pillsbury Flour." That kisses off Pillsbury for the day. Godfrey's theme music comes up again for a few bars and the show moves into the Glass Wax segment. Each segment is introduced as though a completely new show were starting. (A format also followed on such shows as ABC's Breakfast Club, among others.) B) ibis time Godfrey is fooling around with his ukelele again, remarking in an aside to his audience, "This ain't much program, when you come to think of it." (Occasionally Godfrey forgets himself and sa\s "isn't.") The rest of the show follow a like pattern unabashed corn. Joe Miller jokes, light topical references by Godfrey, interspersed with vocal and instrumental numbers by the orchestra, two quartets, a boy singer, a girl singer. two Talent Scouts winners. Then, as 11:30 arrives: "I gotta go now. I'll see }ou tonight on the Chesterfield show on television." As Arthur himself said, that ain't much program, when you come to think of it. Or is it? Where do you get more? Actually, it's all there — with the vest unbuttoned, the stays loosened, and the commercials painless. Oddly enough, Godfrey often devotes as much or more air time to free plugs as he does to paid commercials. On a recent morning broadcast, he unloaded three of them, one a doublebarrelled free ride: "These flowers (gardenias presented to the ladies in the studio audience) were kicked in by my friend Nelson, who runs a florist shop in the lobby of the Lexington Hotel." ( Arthur lives there when he's in New York. I A little later, complaining that there was no milk to wash down the Nabisco crackers he was munching, Godfrey remarked: "Usually if I just mention Anheuser-Busch on the air I get a carload of beer. But I talk about milk and nothin' happens." Again, taking note of a new item announcing that an Administration sympathizer on the island of Crete had given President Truman a goat. Godfrey declared: "I'm sending the President a case of Aii w iek.'" Arthur scaled the free plug heights with his gratuitous efforts on behalf of Mario Maccaferri. a now-celebrated ukelele manufacturer of the Bronx. A ukelele fancier from way back, Godfrey inspected Maccaferri's product last March and was so taken with it that he has been plugging it on the air and on TV ever since. Maccaferri's business — and the whole ukelele industry— has been reaching all-time peaks. Reliable sources indicate that Godfre\ "s opousal of Maccaferri is entirely platonic. Godfrey, who is current!) doing a total of eight hours and 45 minutes in radio and TV broadcasting each week over CBS, has a sizable waiting list of would-be sponsors. He had no such problem back in 1034. when he went to work for the CBS station in Washington. I). C— WJSV (now WTOP) at zero a week. I Arthur had made In 48 SPONSOR