Arthur Godfrey and His Friends was a televisionvariety show which ran from 1949 until 1959. At the same time that this show was on the air, Arthur Godfrey was also performing on Arthur Godfrey's Talent Scouts
Godfrey had been a major star on radio, and the news that he was switching over to television was a sign that television was the Coming Thing. Both Arthur Godfrey and His Friends and Arthur Godfrey's Talent Scouts were top hits for years. Godfrey liked to surround himself with young talent that did not have a major following. Among the more popular of his stars were Frank Parker and Marion Marlowe, Julius LaRosa, Haleloke, The McGuire Sisters, Carmel Quinn, Pat Boone, Miyoshi Umeki and The Chordettes. Godfrey frequently played his trademark ukulele.
The show was live, and frequently Godfrey did away with the script and improvised. He refused to participate in commercials for products he did not believe in.
But toward the middle of the 1950s, Godfrey's image began to tarnish. He began to fire all of his regular co-stars, often for the thinnest of reasons. He even fired LaRosa in the middle of a live broadcast in 1953 for having lost his "humility". He got into press wars with Ed Sullivan, Dorothy Kilgallen and John Crosby, and he had his pilot's license suspended for buzzing an aiport tower. All of this led to a slow decline in his shows' popularity.
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, but also became a strong advocate for his middle class audience to consider vacationing in Hawaii and Miami Beach, formerly enclaves for the wealthy.
Godfrey was also angered that Bleyer had produced a record for Godfrey's Chicago counterpart Don McNeill, host of The Breakfast Club, which had been Godfrey's direct competition on the NBC Blue Network and ABC since Godfrey's days at WJSV.
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