WA2K Radio is now on the air

Well, all. It's time for me to say goodnight, and I just realized that this is the anniversary of Katrina.

Let's do a song for "what once was" in New Orleans, shall we?




Won't you come along with me
To the Mississippi
We'll take the boat to the land of dreams
Steam down the river down to New Orleans

The band's there to meet us
And old friends to greet us
Where all the people always meet
Heaven on earth they call it Basin Street

Basin Street is the street
Where the elite always meet
In New Orleans the land of dreams
You'll never know how nice it seems or just how much it really means

Glad to be oh yessiree
Where welcome's free are dear to me
Where I can lose
My Basin Street blues

Glad to be oh yessiree
Where welcome's free are dear to me
Where I can lose
My Basin Street blues

Ain't you glad you came with me
Way down to the Mississippi
We took the boat to the land of dreams
Steam down the river to New Orleans

and with that "land of dreams", I shall say goodnight until tomorrow.

From Letty with love

This time I'm walking to New Orleans
I'm walking to New Orleans
I'm walking to New Orleans
I'm gonna need two pairs of shoes

when I get through walking these blues

when I get back to N. O.

I've got my suitcase in my hand

now ain't that a shame.
I'm leaving here today

yes
I'm going back home to stay.
Yes
I'm walking to N. O.

You used to be my honey


till you spent all my money.
No use for you to cry

I see you by and by

'cause I`m walking to n. O.

I've got no time for talking.
I've got to keep on walking.
N. O. is my home

that's the reason why I'm gone

yes
I`m walking to N. O.
I'm walking to N. O.
I'm walking to N. O.

Good morning, WA2K folks

edgar, thanks for the walking song. I think that New Orleans will recover just as we all must, Texas.

How about a little blue eyes this A.M.?

verse)
do you make the most of your five senses,
Or is your life like Old Mother Hubbard's shelf?
Well, mark this on your slate,
Life is not an empty plate.
That's if you appreciate yourself.

(refrain)
Ev'ry time you're near a rose,
Aren't you glad you've got a nose?
And if the dawn is fresh with dew,
Aren't you glad you're you?
When a meadowlark appears,
Aren't you glad you've got two ears?
And if your heart is singing, too,
Aren't you glad you're you?

You can see a summer sky,
Or touch a friendly hand,
Or taste an apple pie.
Pardon the grammar, but ain't life grand?

And when you wake up each morn,
Aren't you glad that you were born?
Think what you've got the whole day through,
Aren't you glad you're you?

Raymond Massey
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Birth name Raymond Hart Massey
Born August 30, 1896(1896-08-30)
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Died July 29, 1983 (aged 86) (pneumonia)
Los Angeles, California, USA
Occupation Actor
Spouse(s) Margery Fremantle (1921-1929) 1 Child
Adrianne Allen (1929-1939) 2 Children
Dorothy Whitney (1939-1983) (his death)



Raymond Hart Massey (August 30, 1896-July 29, 1983) was a Canadian actor. Born in Toronto, Ontario, he was a son of Chester D. Massey, the wealthy owner of the Massey-Ferguson Tractor Company. He attended secondary school briefly at Upper Canada College, before transferring to Appleby College[1] in Oakville, Ontario, and graduated from university at University of Toronto where both he and his brother were active members in the Kappa Alpha Society, and Balliol College, Oxford.

At the outbreak of World War I, he joined the Canadian Army, serving with the artillery on the Western Front. He returned to Canada suffering shell-shock and was engaged as an army instructor for American officers at Yale. In 1918, he was sent to serve at Siberia, where he made his first stage appearance, entertaining American troops on occupation duty. Severely wounded in action in France, he was sent home, where he eventually worked in the family business, selling farm implements.





Acting career

Drawn to the theater, in 1922, he appeared on the London stage. His first movie role was High Treason in 1927. He played Sherlock Holmes in The Speckled Band in 1931. In 1936, he starred in H. G. Wells' Things to Come. Although there was a great outcry when a Canadian was cast as an American president, he scored a great triumph on Broadway in Robert E. Sherwood's play Abe Lincoln in Illinois, and repeated his role in the 1940 film version. Early in Massey's career, Lincoln's son, Robert Todd Lincoln, heard him perform and was struck by the similarity between Massey's speaking voice and that of his father. He became a naturalized citizen of the United States in 1944.

Despite being Canadian, Massey became famous for his quintessential American roles, as Abraham Lincoln in Abe Lincoln in Illinois (for which he was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor), abolitionist John Brown in 1940's Santa Fe Trail, Lincoln again in the 1956 production of The Day Lincoln Was Shot on Ford Star Jubilee, Lincoln yet again (a wordless cameo this time) in 1962's How the West Was Won, and again as John Brown in the 1955 low-budget film Seven Angry Men. Interestingly, his second portrayal of Brown was much more sympathetic, presenting him as a well-intentioned, but misguided figure, while in Santa Fe Trail he was presented as a wild-eyed lunatic. Massey only played a Canadian on screen once, in Forty-Ninth Parallel (1941).

On stage in the 1953 dramatic reading of Stephen Vincent Benét's John Brown's Body, Massey, in addition to narrating along with Tyrone Power and Judith Anderson, took on both the roles of John Brown and Abe Lincoln in the same work.

He rejoined the Canadian Army for World War II, though he would eventually be released from service and return to acting work. Following the war, he became an American citizen. Massey became well-known on television in the 1950s and 1960s, especially as Doctor Gillespie in the popular series Dr. Kildare.


Personal life

Massey was married three times.

Margery Fremantle from 1921 to 1929 (divorce); they had one child, Geoffrey Massey.
Adrianne Allen (February 7, 1907-September 14, 1993), the noted London and Broadway stage actress, from 1929 to 1939 (divorce). They had two children who followed him into acting: Anna Massey CBE, and the late Daniel Massey.
Dorothy Whitney from 1939 until his death.
His older brother was the late Vincent Massey, the first Canadian-born Governor General of Canada.

He dabbled in politics, appearing in a 1964 television advertisement in support of conservative Republican presidential candidate Barry Goldwater.

He died of pneumonia on July 29, 1983 (the same day as his The Prisoner of Zenda and A Matter of Life and Death co-star David Niven) in Los Angeles, California, at the age of 86, and is buried in New Haven, Connecticut.


Honors

Massey has two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, one for movies at 1719 Vine Street and one for television at 6708 Hollywood Blvd

Shirley Booth
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


Birth name Thelma Marjory Ford
Born August 30, 1898
New York City, New York, US
Died October 16, 1992 (aged 94)
North Chatham, Massachusetts, US
Spouse(s) Ed Gardner (1929-1942)
William V. Baker (1943-1951)
[show]Awards
Academy Awards
Best Actress
1952 Come Back, Little Sheba
Emmy Awards
Outstanding Lead Actress - Comedy Series
1962 and 1963 Hazel
Golden Globe Awards
Best Actress - Motion Picture Drama
1953 Come Back, Little Sheba
Tony Awards
Best Performance by a Featured Actress in a Play
1949 Goodbye, Mr Fancy
Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Play
1950 Come Back, Little Sheba
Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Play
1953 The Time of the Cuckoo
Other Awards
New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actress
1953 Come Back, Little Sheba
National Board of Review, Best Actress
1953 Come Back, Little Sheba

Shirley Booth (August 30, 1898 - October 16, 1992) was an acclaimed Tony Award, Academy Award, Emmy Award and Golden Globe-winning American actress, whose acclaim on stage and in motion pictures was probably eclipsed by her late-life popularity as television's sitcom maid Hazel.

She was born Marjory Ford in New York, New York, the daughter of Albert James Ford and Virginia Martha Wright. Her sister was Jean Valentine Ford (born 1914).

She began her career on the stage as a teenager, acting in stock company productions, and was briefly known as Thelma Booth Ford. Her Broadway debut was in the play Hell's Bells opposite Humphrey Bogart on January 26, 1925.

Booth first attracted major notice as the female lead in the comedy hit "Three Men on a Horse" which ran almost two years in 1935 to 1937. During the 1930s and 1940s, she achieved popularity in dramas, comedies and, later, musicals. She acted with Katharine Hepburn in The Philadelphia Story (1939) and with Ralph Bellamy in Tomorrow the World (1943) and enjoyed one of the most active careers on Broadway for over three decades.

Booth also starred on the popular radio series Duffy's Tavern, playing the lighthearted, wisecracking, man-crazy daughter (the character was said to carry a marriage license reading, "Miss Duffy . . . and To Whom It May Concern") of the unseen tavern owner on CBS radio from 1941 to 1942 and on NBC-Blue Radio from 1942 to 1943. Her then-real life husband, Ed Gardner, created and wrote the show as well as playing its lead character, Archie, the malapropping manager of the tavern; she left the show not long after the couple divorced, but they were said to have remained friends for the rest of Gardner's life. Booth later auditioned for but did not win the title role of Our Miss Brooks, the role that made Eve Arden a star in 1948.

Booth received her first Tony, for Best Supporting or Featured Actress (Dramatic), for her performance as Grace Woods in Goodbye, My Fancy (1948). Her second Tony was for Best Actress in a Play, which she received for her widely acclaimed performance of the tortured wife, Lola Delaney, in the poignant drama Come Back, Little Sheba (1950). Her leading man, Sidney Blackmer, received the Tony for Best Actor in a Play for his performance as her husband, Doc.

Her enormous success in Come Back, Little Sheba was immediately followed by A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (1951), in which she played feisty but lovable Aunt Cissy, which proved to be another major hit.

She then went to Hollywood and recreated her stage role in the motion picture version of Come Back, Little Sheba (1952), with Burt Lancaster playing Doc. Screen legend Bette Davis, her career recently revitalized, was offered to star in the film version, but felt the part of Lola wasn't right for her. After that movie, Booth's first, was completed, she returned to New York and played Leona Samish in The Time of the Cuckoo (1952) on Broadway.

In 1953, Booth received the Oscar for Best Actress in a Leading Role for her performance in Come Back, Little Sheba, becoming the first actress ever to win both a Tony and an Oscar for the same role. The film also earned Booth "Best Actress" awards from The Golden Globe Awards, The New York Film Critics Circle Awards, and National Board of Review. She also received her third Tony, which was her second in the Best Actress in a Play category, for her performance in the Broadway production of Arthur Laurents' play The Time of the Cuckoo.

Booth was 54 when she made her first movie, although she had successfully deleted a decade off her age, with her publicity stating 1907 as the year of her birth. The correct year of birth was known by only her closest associates until her actual age was announced at the time of her death. Her second starring film, a romantic drama About Mrs. Leslie (1954) opposite Robert Ryan, was released in 1954 to good reviews. (In 1953, Booth had made a cameo appearance as herself in the allstar comedy/drama Main Street to Broadway.

She spent the next few years commuting between New York and Southern California. On Broadway, she scored personal successes in the musical By the Beautiful Sea (1954) and the comedy Desk Set (1955). Although Booth had become well known to moviegoers during this period, the movie versions of both Cuckoo, which was re-titled for the movie Summertime, and Desk Set went to Katharine Hepburn.

She returned to motion pictures in 1958 starring in two more films for Paramount, playing Dolly Gallagher Levi in Thornton Wilder's romance/comedy The Matchmaker (1958), which is the movie version of the nonmusical play that Hello, Dolly! was later based on, and playing Alma Duval in the drama Hot Spell (1958). She was named runnerup to Susan Hayward in I Want to Live! as the year's "Best Actress" by the New York Film Critics Circle for her two 1958 films.

In 1957, she won the Sarah Siddons Award for her work on the stage in Chicago. She returned to the Broadway stage in 1959, starring as the long-suffering title character in the Marc Blitzstein musical Juno, an adaptation of Sean O'Casey's 1924 classic play, Juno and the Paycock.

Frank Capra unsuccessfully attempted to bring Booth back to the screen with Pocketful of Miracles in 1961, but after screening Capra's original version, Lady for a Day (1933), Booth informed him there was no way she could match May Robson's moving, Oscar-nominated performance in the original and so Capra signed Bette Davis instead (who was indeed unfavorably compared to Robson by most reviewers when the film was released.)


In 1961, Booth began starring in the television situation comedy Hazel, based on Ted Key's popular comic strip from the Saturday Evening Post about domineering yet endearing housemaid, Hazel Burke. The show reunited her with Harry Ackerman, who produced the show, and she won two Emmys, in 1962 and 1963, and new stardom with a younger audience. Booth received another Emmy nomination for her third season as "Hazel" in 1964 and in 1966 was also Emmy nominated for her performance as Amanda in a television adaptation of The Glass Menagerie.

She told the Associated Press in 1963, at the height of the show's popularity, "I liked playing Hazel the first time I read one of the scripts, and I could see all the possibilities of the character-the comedy would take care of itself. My job was to give her heart. Hazel never bores me. Besides, she's my insurance policy." She proved prescient with the last comment; the show was seen in syndicated reruns for many years after it ceased first-run production in 1966.

Booth was a distinguished and versatile performer, equally at home acting in theatre, radio, and on the big and small screen. She had a long and prestigious list of stage credits and made numerous appearances in TV movies and programs. Her last Broadway appearances were in a revival of Noel Coward's play Hay Fever and the musical Look to the Lilies, both in 1970.

After appearing as Grace Simpson in the TV series A Touch of Grace (1973), which was directed by Carl Reiner, she did voice work for the animated special The Year Without a Santa Claus (1974), playing Mrs. Santa, then retired.

Booth's second marriage, to William Baker in 1943, lasted until his death in 1951; the actress never remarried and had no children from either marriage. She died after a brief illness at age 94 at her home on the Cape Cod town of North Chatham, Massachusetts; actress Julie Harris lived nearby and would visit her. She is interred in Mount Hebron Cemetery, Montclair, New Jersey.

Shirley Booth has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6840 Hollywood Boulevard in Hollywood.

Trivia

Three actresses earned Academy Award nominations for recreating Shirley Booth's role in motion picture versions of her plays - Ruth Hussey in The Philadelphia Story (1940), Rosalind Russell in My Sister Eileen (1942), and Katharine Hepburn in Summertime (1955).
Shirley Booth was also renowned for her readings of Dorothy Parker's writings, recording an album of these performances for Caedmon Records in the 1950s that is still available today on compact disc.
On an episode of the sitcom "Seinfeld" (entitled "The Subway"), the character of George Costanza (Jason Alexander) invokes Shirley Booth's name while drawing a comparison to his own mother. He claims his mother looked like an "uglier and fatter version of Shirley Booth". The episode aired in January 1992, only a few months before Booth's death.

Joan Blondell
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Birth name Rose Joan Blondell
Born August 30, 1906
New York City, New York
Died December 25, 1979 (aged 73)
Santa Monica, California
Spouse(s) George Barnes (1932-1936)
Dick Powell (1936-1944)
Michael Todd (1947-1950)
Rose Joan Blondell, known as Joan Blondell, (August 30, 1906 - December 25, 1979) was an Oscar-nominated American actress. Considered a sexy, wisecracking, blonde she was a pre-Hays Code staple of Warner Brothers and appeared in more than 100 movies and television productions.





Early life

Born to a vaudeville family in New York City, her father, known as Eddie Joan Blondell, Jr. (né Blustein), was a vaudeville comedian and one of the original Katzenjammer Kids. Her younger sister, Gloria, also an actress, was married to film producer Albert R. Broccoli and bears a strong resemblance to her older sister Joan.

Joan had seen much of the world by the time the family settled in Dallas, Texas when she was a teenager. (She also had a brother, the namesake of her father and grandfather.) Under the name Rosebud Blondell she won the 1926 Miss Dallas pageant and came in 4th for the Miss America pageant in September of that year in Atlantic City, N.J. She was a student attending what is now the University of North Texas, then a teacher's college, in Denton, Texas, where her mother was a local stage actress. Joan did some work as a fashion model as well as posing naked for camera clubs and was noticed by a Hollywood agent in 1930 while performing on Broadway after returning to New York City to become an actress.

She was asked to change her name to Inez "Something", but later dropped the "Rosebud", by which she went during her childhood and cemented "Joan Blondell" for a 49-year professional career. She appeared with fellow newcomer James Cagney on Broadway in Penny Arcade and was one of the WAMPAS Baby Stars in 1931.


Career

Placed under contract by Warner Brothers Studios, making her film debut in 1930, she soon moved to Hollywood. During the 1930s she would embody the Depression era gold-digger, and with her huge blue eyes, blonde hair and wise cracking personality, became a crowd favourite. She appeared in more Warner Brothers films than any other actress, and referred to herself as "Warner's workhorse". The popularity of her films made a great contribution to the studio's profitability.

Blondell was paired with James Cagney in such films as The Public Enemy (1931), and was one half of the gold-digging duo (with Glenda Farrell) in nine films. During the Great Depression, Blondell was one of the highest paid individuals in the United States. Her stirring rendition of "Remember My Forgotten Man" in the Busby Berkeley production of Gold Diggers of 1933 (1933), in which she co-starred with Dick Powell and Ginger Rogers, became an anthem for the frustrations of the unemployed and President Herbert Hoover's failed economic policies. In 1937, she starred opposite Errol Flynn in The Perfect Specimen, from a screenplay by the then "hot" playwright Lawrence Riley et al.

By the end of the decade she had made nearly 50 films, despite having left Warners in 1939. Continuing to work regularly for the rest of her life, Blondell was well received in her later films, and received an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress nomination for her role in The Blue Veil (1951). She also appeared in A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (1945), Desk Set (1957), and Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter? (1957). She was widely seen in two films released not long before her death, Grease (1978) and the remake of The Champ (1979) with Jon Voight and Rick Schroder. In addition, John Cassavetes cast her as a cynical, aging playwright in his film Opening Night (1977). She also starred in the ABC TV series Here Come the Brides about life in the 19th century Pacific Northwest.

Blondell has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for her contribution to Motion Pictures, at 6309 Hollywood Boulevard.


Private life

Blondell was married first in 1932 to cinematographer George Barnes (1892 -1953). They had one child, Norman S. Powell (who became an accomplished producer, director, and television executive), and divorced in 1936. Her second husband, to whom she was married on September 19, 1936, was the actor, director, and singer Dick Powell; they had a daughter, Ellen Powell, who became a studio hair stylist. Blondell and Powell were divorced on July 14, 1944. She married her third husband in 1947, the producer Mike Todd, from whom she was divorced in 1950. Her marriage to Todd was an emotional and financial disaster. She once accused him of holding her outside a hotel window by her ankles. He was also a heavy spender who lost hundreds of thousands of dollars gambling (high-stakes bridge was one of his weaknesses). He went through a controversial bankruptcy during their marriage. While continuing to live the high-life on a huge estate in New York's Westchester County, the irresponsible Todd ran through Blondell's savings and eventually dumped her.

She died of leukemia in Santa Monica, California at the age of 73 with her children and her sister at her bedside. She was interred in the Forest Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery in Glendale, California.

She wrote a roman à clef novel entitled 'Center Door Fancy' (published in 1972), a thinly disguised autobiography.

Fred MacMurray
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Birth name Fredrick Martin MacMurray
Born August 30, 1908
Kankakee, Illinois, USA
Died November 5, 1991 (aged 83)
Santa Monica, California, USA
Years active 1929 - 1978
Spouse(s) Lillian Lamont (1936-1953)
June Haver (1954-1991)
[show]Awards
Golden Globe Awards
Nominated: Golden Globe Best Motion Picture Actor - Musical/Comedy
1962 The Absent-Minded Professor

Fredrick Martin MacMurray (August 30, 1908 - November 5, 1991) was an actor who appeared in over one hundred movies and a highly successful television series during a career that lasted from the 1930s to the 1970s.

MacMurray's most famous role was in the 1944 film noir Double Indemnity, in which he starred with Barbara Stanwyck. Later in life, he became better known as the slightly stammering Steve Douglas, the widowed patriarch on the CBS TV series, My Three Sons. The show ran from 1960 until 1972.





Biography

MacMurray was born in Kankakee, Illinois to Frederick MacMurray and Maleta Martin. The family finally settled in Beaver Dam, Wisconsin. MacMurray was five years old during the year that they settled in Beaver Dam.

He earned a full scholarship to attend Carroll College in Waukesha, Wisconsin.

In college, MacMurray participated in numerous local bands, playing the saxophone. In 1930, he recorded a tune for the Gus Arnheim Orchestra as a featured vocalist on All I Want Is Just One Girl on the Victor 78 label.[1]

Early in his acting career, before signing with Paramount Pictures in 1934, he also appeared on Broadway in Three's a Crowd (1930-1931), and in the original production of Roberta (1933-1934), on which the movie Roberta (1935) was based. In addition to MacMurray, the Roberta cast included Sydney Greenstreet and Bob Hope.[2]

MacMurray's early film work is largely overlooked by many film historians and critics, but in his heyday, he worked with some of Hollywood's greatest talents, including director Preston Sturges and actors Humphrey Bogart and Marlene Dietrich. He played opposite Claudette Colbert in seven films, the first of which was The Gilded Lily (1935); he also co-starred with Katharine Hepburn in Alice Adams (1935) and Carole Lombard in Hands Across the Table (1935), The Princess Comes Across (1936), and True Confession (1937).

Mostly cast as decent, amiable characters in a succession of light comedies, dramas (The Trail of the Lonesome Pine 1936), melodramas (Above Suspicion 1943) and musicals (Where Do We Go from Here? 1945), MacMurray had become one of Hollywood's highest-paid actors by 1943, when his salary reached $420,000.[3]

Despite his "nice guy" image, MacMurray often stated that the best film roles he ever played were two in which he was cast against type by Billy Wilder. He played the role of Walter Neff, an insurance salesman (numerous other actors had turned the role down) who plots with a wealthy heiress Barbara Stanwyck to murder her husband in Double Indemnity (1944). In 1960, he played Jeff Sheldrake, a slimy, two-timing corporate executive in Wilder's Oscar-winning comedy The Apartment, with Shirley MacLaine and Jack Lemmon. In another turn in the "not so nice" category , MacMurray played the cynical, duplicitous Lieutenant Thomas Keefer in 1954's The Caine Mutiny. He gave his finest dramatic performances, though, when cast against type as counterfeit nice-guys or hard-boiled heels: a crooked cop in Pushover (1954).[4]

MacMurray revived his career in the 1960s, starring as good-natured father figures in the Disney comedies The Shaggy Dog (1959), The Absent-Minded Professor (1961) and Son of Flubber (1963).[5]

He was a staunch supporter of the Republican Party who joined Bob Hope and James Stewart in campaigning for Richard Nixon in 1968. He was also, generally, considered one of the most frugal actors in the business. Studio co-workers could not help noticing that even as a successful actor, MacMurray would usually bring a brown bag lunch to work, often containing a hardboiled egg. According to his co-star on My Three Sons (1960-1972), William Demarest, MacMurray continued to bring dyed Easter eggs for lunch several months after Easter.

He was married twice. He married his first wife, Lillian Lamont, on June 20, 1936 and they adopted two children. Lamont died on June 22, 1953. He married actress June Haver in 1954, and they also adopted two children.

During the 1940s, the Fawcett Comics superhero character, Captain Marvel was modeled after MacMurray.[6] (MacMurray had played a caped superhero in a dream sequence in the 1943 film No Time for Love.) The same image was later used in the creation of the 1990s character The Gentleman, from Astro City.[7]

MacMurray died at the age of 83 in Santa Monica, California. He had long suffered from leukemia. He was buried in the Holy Cross Cemetery in Culver City, California. In September, 2007 the first full-length book on the life of Fred MacMurray will be published by Bearmanor Media. The book is titled Fred MacMurray: A Biography by Charles Tranberg with an introduction by Don Grady.

Peggy Lipton
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Peggy Lipton, also known as Peggy Lipton Jones (born August 30, 1946) is an American actress and socialite. She is best known for her portrayal of hip young detective Julie Barnes in the late 1960s early 1970s television show The Mod Squad and conflicted waitress Norma Jennings from the 1990s television drama Twin Peaks.


Biography

Lipton was born in New York City to Rita and Harold Lipton. Her American father had Russian Jewish heritage. Her Irish-born mother was also Jewish, descended from Eastern European immigrants. Lipton was raised on Long Island with her brothers Robert Lipton, also an actor, and Kenneth.

She attended Lawrence High School (New York), and Hollywood Professional School. In 1962, she signed with the Ford Model Agency and enjoyed a successful career. In 1964 her family moved to Los Angeles and Lipton signed a contract with Universal Pictures the same year. She made her debut on The John Forsythe Show in 1965.

Lipton's star rose on The Mod Squad in 1968 and the show was a runaway hit until 1973. Her performance on the show earned her 4 Golden Globe nominations during her tenure. In 1971, Lipton won a Golden Globe award in the category of 'Best TV Actress in a Drama'. Lipton also enjoyed some success as a singer with three of her singles landing on the Billboard Charts: Stoney End (1968), and Lu (1970), both compositions by Laura Nyro, and Wear Your Love Like Heaven (1970) written by Donovan. Stoney End is also included in her only 1968 album "PEGGY LIPTON"(Ode Records),which has never been released as CD yet.

The fresh-faced flower child quickly became a pop culture icon among the youth of her generation. However, the young star was far more interested in settling down and starting a family than maintaining her celebrity status.

Spiritually curious, Lipton explored several religions including Hinduism and Scientology. She dated Elvis Presley for a while, but their relationship ended not long after she tried to convince Elvis to join the Church of Scientology (which he subsequently regarded as a scam).

In 1974, Lipton married music mogul Quincy Jones and began a self-imposed hiatus from acting in order to devote herself to their growing family. The couple had two daughters: Kidada Jones, a fashion stylist, and the actress, Rashida Jones. During the late 1970s and throughout the 1980s Peggy Lipton and Quincy Jones were regarded as one of Hollywood's major "powercouples".

Her ever-increasing focus on her faith and her husband's demanding career eventually created distance in the marriage. They were amicably divorced in 1990 and remain close friends. In 2001, she collaborated with Jones on his book, Q: The Autobiography of Quincy Jones.

After her divorce, Lipton returned to acting and joined the cast of David Lynch's groundbreaking television series Twin Peaks. Lipton also had a recurring role on the TV show Popular. She continues to appear in a number of films and television shows. Lipton's commitment to healthy living and fitness has been consistent. She appeared as an assistant instructor in one of Jane Fonda's workout videos. Her bone structure is cited as a reason for continued success as a fashion model appearing in beauty magazine editorials.[citation needed] In 2002 she was voted TV Guide's 5th 'Sexiest Star of All Time'.

In 2003 she appeared on stage opposite her youngest daughter, Rashida Jones, in the play Pitching to the Star, which was directed by her brother Robert Lipton.

In 2004, Lipton was diagnosed with colon cancer. She has undergone treatment and appears to be in remission. During her year-long treatment, anonymous sources informed the New York Post, she may have been supplied with 24-hour chauffeured car service at the expense of the state of New York, according to a 25 November 2006 story in the New York Post. The car, which the unnamed sources said reportedly took Lipton to chemotherapy appointments as well as on personal errands, is suspected to have been supplied by Jack Chartier, who is reportedly a close friend of Lipton's as well as the chief of staff for Alan Hevesi, a New York politician who is presently under a similar personal-auto-use-related ethics investigation. Lipton "is not accused of any wrongdoing," the Post stated, and the situation is being investigated by the Albany County, New York district attorney's office for possible ethics violations. As the Post reported, "David Neustadt, a spokesman for the comptroller's office, yesterday wouldn't comment on the investigation or answer whether Chartier has repaid the state any money for the Lipton driver."[1]

In 2005, she published her memoir Breathing Out, in which she revealed she had a tryst with Paul McCartney before finding fame on 'The Mod Squad.

Throughout the years Lipton has supported a number of charities, among them Break The Cycle.

Cameron Diaz
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Birth name Cameron Michelle Diaz
Born August 30, 1972 (1972-08-30) (age 35)
San Diego, California, U.S.
[show]Awards
NYFCC Award for Best Actress
1998 There's Something About Mary

Cameron Michelle Diaz (born August 30, 1972) is an American actress and former fashion model. She is perhaps best known for her roles in blockbuster movies such as The Mask, There's Something About Mary, My Best Friend's Wedding, Charlie's Angels, Shrek, and Gangs of New York. Diaz was the second of three actresses (the others being Julia Roberts, and Reese Witherspoon) to join the coveted "$20 Million Club" after receiving this salary for Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle[citation needed].




Biography

Early life

Diaz was born in San Diego, California to Emilio Diaz who worked as a foreman for an oil company, and Billie (née Early), an import-export agent.[1] Diaz's father is a second-generation Cuban-American[2] and her mother has Native American, English and German ancestry.[3][4][5] Diaz attended Long Beach Polytechnic High School at the same time as rapper Snoop Dogg. During her school days, she was called Skeletor by her classmates because she was so thin. [citation needed]


Career

At 17 she began her career as a fashion model. Diaz signed with top modeling agency Elite Model Management. After graduating from high school, she went to work in Japan and met video director Carlo de la Torre. On her return to America, she moved in with him. For the next few years, her modeling took her around the world, working for contracts with major companies. She modelled for designers such as Calvin Klein and Levi's. She also graced the cover of the July 1990 issue of Seventeen magazine.

At 21, Diaz auditioned for the Jim Carrey film The Mask. Even though she had no previous acting experience,[6] she was cast as the female lead. She signed up for acting lessons right after getting the part. Over the next three years, she won roles in low-budget, independent films, such as The Last Supper, Feeling Minnesota, and She's The One. She then regained mainstream success with her roles in My Best Friend's Wedding and There's Something About Mary. She won critical acclaim for her performance in Being John Malkovich, which earned her Best Supporting Actress nominations at the Golden Globes, the BAFTA Awards and the SAG Awards.


During the 1999-2000 period, Diaz starred in many films, such as Things You Can Tell Just by Looking at Her, A Life Less Ordinary, Any Given Sunday, and the hit adaptation of Charlie's Angels. In 2001, she won nominations for Best Supporting Actress at the Golden Globes, the SAG Awards and the AFI Awards for Vanilla Sky, and also voiced Princess Fiona in Shrek, for which she earned $10 million. In 2003, Diaz received another Golden Globe nomination for Martin Scorsese's epic Gangs of New York, and became the second actress (after Wedding costar Julia Roberts) to earn $20 million for a role, receiving the sum for Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle. After Full Throttle, Diaz only appeared in three films, Shrek 2, In Her Shoes and The Holiday . During 2004 and early 2005, Diaz explored some of the planet's environmentally unique locations while discovering ways to help preserve them for the 10-episode MTV series Trippin' which featured numerous celebrities and friends of Diaz, such as Jessica Alba, Drew Barrymore, Mark Hoppus, Eva Mendes and Justin Timberlake.

Future work for Diaz includes a role in Shrek the Third in 2007, where she co-stars with former boyfriend Justin Timberlake. She was set to team up again with The Mask co-star Jim Carrey in the film Fun with Dick and Jane, but she dropped out to star in In Her Shoes. She will also appear in Shrek 4. She will also star in The Box, a horror thriller which is due to start filming in November 2007. [7]

July 7, 2007, Diaz participated at Live Earth in New York by introducing The Police.


Relationships

Diaz dated actor Matt Dillon from 1995 to 1998. She is also the ex-fiancée of actor, musician, and guitarist Jared Leto. They had a low-profile relationship from 1998 to 2002. There had been reports that Leto had broken up with Diaz because he was jealous of her increasing acting popularity. Other reports have said that they broke up because Diaz was concentrating more on her acting as Leto was more concerned about his band.

Most recently, Diaz dated former *NSYNC member Justin Timberlake, whom she met at the Kids' Choice Awards in 2003. The pair issued a joint statement on January 11, 2007, announcing they had broken up, following weeks of breakup rumors.[8]

In October 2004, Diaz and Timberlake were in an altercation with a tabloid photographer outside a hotel. When the photographer and another man tried to photograph them, the couple snatched the camera. Pictures of the incident appeared in US Weekly. Representatives for the pair claimed that they were "ambushed" and acting out of self-defense.[9]

Diaz and Timberlake were involved in another paparazzi incident while walking out of a friend's house. A photographer jumped out of bushes and photographed them. He then entered his car and allegedly drove it towards Diaz, who had to jump out of the way. Diaz pressed charges against the photographer, whose agency supported his actions as legal and safe[citation needed].


Personal life

Diaz has publicly admitted she is deeply germophobic and habitually rubs doorknobs so hard before opening doors to clean them that the original paint fades afterwards[citation needed]. Along with her floors, she says, she washes her hands "many times" each day and uses her elbows to push open doors.[10] Diaz has perhaps modified her fears somewhat, saying on May 10, 2007, "I think I've made my peace with it."[11]

Diaz received "substantial" libel damages from suing American Media Incoporated, after The National Enquirer had claimed she was cheating on then-boyfriend Timberlake.[12]

Diaz has been vocal in her opposition to U.S. President George W. Bush[13]. Before 2000's election (on October 26 to be exact), Diaz (along with her Charlie's Angels co-stars, Drew Barrymore and Lucy Liu) wore a shirt that said "I WON'T VOTE FOR A SON OF A BUSH!" while promoting Charlie's Angels on MTV's Total Request Live.[citation needed] During an Oprah appearance before 2004's election, Diaz said

" Women have so much to lose... I mean, we could lose the right to our bodies. If you think rape should be legal then don't vote. But if you think you have a right to your body and you have a right to say what happens to you and fight off that danger of losing that, then you should vote. "

[14]

When Diaz was asked if she can speak Spanish she said

" I know what you're saying, I really do. I just cannot respond to you back in Spanish. I can barely speak English properly. I didn't grow up in a Cuban or Latin community. I grew up in Southern California on the beach, basically. And I'm third generation. I'm of Cuban descent, but I'm American.

In the year 2007, the Lord came unto Noah, who was now living in Woy-Woy, Australia and said,
"Once again, the earth has become wicked and over-populated, and I see the end of all flesh before me.
You need to build another Ark and have 2 of every living thing along with a few good humans.
You have 6 months to build the Ark before I start the unending rain for 40 days and 40 nights".
Six months later, the Lord looked down and saw Noah weeping in his yard - but no Ark.
"Noah!" He roared, "I'm about to start the rain! Where is the Ark?
"Forgive me, Lord," begged Noah, "but things have changed. I needed a building permit. I've been arguing
with the inspector about the need for a sprinkler system. My neighbours claim that I've violated the neighbourhood
zoning laws by building the Ark in my yard and exceeding the height limitations. We had to go to the Development Appeal Board for a decision.
Then the Department of Transportation demanded a bond be posted for the future costs of moving power lines and other overhead
obstructions, to clear the passage for the Ark's move to the sea. I told them that the sea would be coming to us, but they wouldn't listen.
Then I had problems getting the wood. There's a ban on cutting local trees in order to save an endangered species of bandicoot.
I tried to convince the environmentalists that I needed the wood to save the bandicoots but no go!
When I started gathering the animals, an animal rights group suedme for confining wild animals against their will.
They said it was cruel and inhumane to put so many animals in a confined space.
Then the local council ruled that I couldn't build the Ark until they'd conducted an Environmental impact study on your proposed flood.
I'm still trying to resolve a complaint with the Human Rights Commission on how many indigenous people I'm supposed to hire for my building crew.
The Immigration department is checking the status of most of the people who want to work and I've even had a letter from
Amanda Vanstone asking about my ethnic background!
The trades unions say I can't use my sons. They insist I have to hire only Union workers with Ark-building experience.
To make matters worse, the Taxation department has seized all my assets, claiming I'm trying to leave the country illegally with endangered species.
So, forgive me, Lord, but it would take at least 10 years for me to finish this Ark.
Suddenly the skies cleared, the sun began to shine, and a rainbow stretched across the sky.
Noah looked up in wonder and asked, "You mean you're not going to destroy the world?"
"No," said the Lord. "The Government beat me to it."

Funny one, Bob.

The BD Celebs:

Raymond Massey; Shirley Booth (Interesting that Shirley Booth played the scandalous Aunt Sissy in the Broadway Musical, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, and Joan Blondell played her in the movie version. I remember when that book was banned from the library - unbelievable); Joan Blondell; Fred MacMurray; Peggy Lipton and Cameron Diaz.

Thanks, Bio Bob for the great background on the celebs. So many that catch our attention. I was truly taken by Raymond Massey's biography. I did a lot of searching and found that he was connected to The Prisoner of Zenda. Wow! how many ideas and books have been written about someone impersonating a person of importance while the real one languishes in prison. Thanks for the funny about Noah and the Ark. Loved it!

Hey, Raggedy. Once again you have put face to name with your intriguing montage of celebs. We really appreciate you here on our cyber radio, PA.

Well, let's hear one from Peggy Lipton and written by Donovan.


"Wear Your Love Like Heaven"

[Originally performed by DONOVAN]

Color in sky prussian blue
Scarlet fleece changes hue
Crimson ball sinks from view

[CHORUS]
Wear your love like heaven
Wear your love like heaven
Wear your love like heaven

Lord kiss me once more
Fill me with song
Allah kiss me once more
That I may, that I may
Wear my love like heaven
Wear my love like heaven
Color sky havana lake
Color sky rose carmethene
Alizarian crimson

[CHORUS]

Lord kiss me once more
Fill me with song
Allah kiss me once more
That I may, that I may
Wear my love like heaven
Wear my love like heaven
Lord kiss me once more
Fill me with song
Allah kiss me once more
That I may, that I may
Wear my love like heaven
Wear my love like heaven
Cannot believe what I see
All I have wished for will be
All of our race proud and free

[CHORUS]

Lord kiss me once more
Fill me with song
Allah kiss me once more
That I may, that I may
Wear my love like heaven
Wear my love like heaven

Well, our FM connection has gone belly up, but I'm certain all will be fixed in time, folks.

hbg did a picture of Thelonious Monk on the picture connection forum so I decided to play one of his songs and was totally surprised to find that George Harrison did this was as well as several other jazz singers.

George Harrison - Between The Devil And The Deep Blue Sea

[I'm in. 1, ah 2, ah 1, 2, 3.]

I don't want you
But I hate to lose you
You got me in between the devil and the deep blue sea

I forgive you
Cos I can't forget you
You've got me in between the devil and the deep blue sea

I want to cross you off my list
But when you come knocking at my door
Fate seems to give my heart a twist
And I come running back for more

I should hate you
But I guess I love you
You've got me in between the devil and the deep blue sea

I want to cross you off my list
But when you come knocking at my door
Fate seems to give my heart a twist
And I come running back for more

I should hate you
But I guess I love you
You've got me in between the devil and the deep blue sea

You've got me in between
The devil and the deep (The devil and the deep)
The devil and the deep blue sea

sorry for being so late ! lawn needed some attention , hadn't been mowed in three weeks - we had no rain , so it stopped growing .

reading the text of some of those songs of twenties makes me realize that those were really pretty "swinging" times - if you had the money "to swing" that is !
here is one of those "swinging songs" , some ring-a-dingy , i'd say !
hbg

Great, hbg. No rain here either, buddy. Your song rather reminds me of this one. Let's see if I can remember it.

Who stole my heart away
Who makes me dream all day
Who would I answer yes to
Who?
Noone but you.

That's all that I can remember. Guess I'll have to check that one out, but MSN is giving me a lot of trouble.

Well, it's time for me to say goodnight. We miss the man from the big island and that one in the big state of Texas, but it's Friday night and the beginning of a long Labor Day weekend here in the U.S.

Dearest constellation, heaven surroundin' you
Stay there, soft and blue. virginia moon, I'll wait for you
Tonight
Sweetest invitation, breaking the day in two
Feelin' like I do, virginia moon, I'll wait for you tonight

And now our shades become shadows in your light
In the morning when we're through and tomorrow rescues you
I will say goodnight

Secret fascination, whisper a quiet tune
Hear me callin' you, virginia moon, I'll wait for you tonight

And now our shades become shadows in your light
In the morning when we're through and tomorrow rescues you
I will say goodnight

Virginia moon, I'll wait for you tonight

And now our shades become shadows in your light
In the morning when we're through and tomorrow rescues you
I will say goodnight

I will say goodnight
I will say goodnight

From Letty with love

letty wrote :



yes , this world is a strange place ! here we are , just a bit north of you and it's THURSDAY

and i'm very happy to present the FRIDAY NIGHT song on THURSDAY NIGHT

hbg

Avalanche

Well I stepped into an avalanche,
it covered up my soul;
when I am not this hunchback that you see,
I sleep beneath the golden hill.
You who wish to conquer pain,
you must learn, learn to serve me well.

You strike my side by accident
as you go down for your gold.
The cripple here that you clothe and feed
is neither starved nor cold;
he does not ask for your company,
not at the centre, the centre of the world.

When I am on a pedestal,
you did not raise me there.
Your laws do not compel me
to kneel grotesque and bare.
I myself am the pedestal
for this ugly hump at which you stare.

You who wish to conquer pain,
you must learn what makes me kind;
the crumbs of love that you offer me,
they're the crumbs I've left behind.
Your pain is no credential here,
it's just the shadow, shadow of my wound.

I have begun to long for you,
I who have no greed;
I have begun to ask for you,
I who have no need.
You say you've gone away from me,
but I can feel you when you breathe.

Do not dress in those rags for me,
I know you are not poor;
you don't love me quite so fiercely now
when you know that you are not sure,
it is your turn, beloved,
it is your flesh that I wear.

Last Year's Man

The rain falls down on last year's man,
that's a jew's harp on the table,
that's a crayon in his hand.
And the corners of the blueprint are ruined since they rolled
far past the stems of thumbtacks
that still throw shadows on the wood.
And the skylight is like skin for a drum I'll never mend
and all the rain falls down amen
on the works of last year's man.

I met a lady, she was playing with her soldiers in the dark
oh one by one she had to tell them
that her name was Joan of Arc.
I was in that army, yes I stayed a little while;
I want to thank you, Joan of Arc,
for treating me so well.
And though I wear a uniform I was not born to fight;
all these wounded boys you lie beside,
goodnight, my friends, goodnight.

I came upon a wedding that old families had contrived;
Bethlehem the bridegroom,
Babylon the bride.
Great Babylon was naked, oh she stood there trembling for me,
and Bethlehem inflamed us both
like the shy one at some orgy.
And when we fell together all our flesh was like a veil
that I had to draw aside to see
the serpent eat its tail.

Some women wait for Jesus, and some women wait for Cain
so I hang upon my altar
and I hoist my axe again.
And I take the one who finds me back to where it all began
when Jesus was the honeymoon
and Cain was just the man.
And we read from pleasant Bibles that are bound in blood and skin
that the wilderness is gathering
all its children back again.

The rain falls down on last year's man,
an hour has gone by
and he has not moved his hand.
But everything will happen if he only gives the word;
the lovers will rise up
and the mountains touch the ground.
But the skylight is like skin for a drum I'll never mend
and all the rain falls down amen
on the works of last year's man.

Good FRIDAY morning, WA2K listeners and contributors.

Doesn't hbg have the nicest way of letting your PD know that yesterday was Thrusday? Thanks for being tactful, hamburger. Loved your labor song, too, and thanks.

edgar, both songs, Avalanche and Last Year's Man, are just esoteric enough to be either Dylan or Cohen, but then Letty has been a bit confused of late. Thanks, Texas.

A couple of songs to begin the day, folks.

"The original celebration of Labor Day was May 1st, commemorating those workers killed in Chicago's Haymarket demonstrations for the 8-hour day on May 1, 1886. Most countries around the world still celebrate Labor Day on May 1."


In school we learn the well-known names
The ones whose money was their fame
Who ran the railroads, bought the West
Today we mention all the rest
Who blazed the trail that brought us here
Whose family names we'll never hear
Who laid the track and dug the coal
The brain and muscle, heart and soul.

Chorus:
Labor Day, Labor Day
September or the first of May
To all who work this world we say
Happy Labor Day.

The ones who work behind the plow
The ones who stand and will not bow
The ones who care for home and child
The ones who labor meek and mild
The ones who work a thousand ways
That we might celebrate this day
The ones who raise our cities tall
For those who labor, one and all

Chorus

In history books I often find
That children worked in mill and mine
No time to play, to learn, or grow
Just send 'em in or down below
Today too many have forgot
The goals for which our parents fought
When I grow up I hope to be
As strong as those who fought for me.

Chorus

Better early than never, right hbg?

Calamity Jane, in another of our forums, was talking about things that were worth fighting for, and I found this WWII song that I thought might remind us of another era.

I saw a peaceful old valley
With a carpet of corn for a floor
And I heard a voice within me whisper
This is worth fighting for,

I saw a little old cabin
and the river that flowed by the door
And I heard a voice within me whisper,
This is worth fighting for.

Didn't I build that cabin?
Didn't I plant that corn?
Didn't my folks before me
Fight for this country before I was born?

I gathered my loved ones around me
And I gazed at each face I adore
Then I heard that voice within me thunder,
This is worth fighting for

Fredric March
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Birth name Ernest Frederick McIntyre Bickel
Born August 31, 1897
Racine, Wisconsin
Died April 14, 1975 aged 77
Los Angeles, California
[show]Awards
Academy Awards
Best Actor
1932 Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
1947 The Best Years of Our Lives

Ernest Frederick McIntyre Bickel (August 31, 1897 - April 14, 1975) was a two-time Academy Award-winning American actor. Born in Racine, Wisconsin, he attended the Winslow Elementary School (established in 1855), Racine High School, and the University of Wisconsin-Madison where he was a member of Alpha Delta Phi. He began a career as a banker, but an emergency appendectomy caused him to reevaluate his life, and in 1920 he began working as an extra in movies made in New York City, using a shortened form of his mother's maiden name, Marcher. He appeared on Broadway in 1926, and by the end of the decade signed a film contract with Paramount Pictures.

March won an Oscar nomination in 1930 for The Royal Family of Broadway, in which he played a role based upon John Barrymore. He won the Oscar for Best Actor in 1932 for Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, and again in 1946 for The Best Years of Our Lives. In 1954, March hosted the 26th Annual Academy Awards.


March was one of the few actors to resist signing long-term contracts with the studios, and was able to freelance and pick and choose his roles, in the process also avoiding typecasting. By this time, he was working on Broadway as often as in Hollywood, and his screen career was not as prolific as it had been.

March, however, won two Best Actor Tony Awards: in 1947 for the play Years Ago, written by Ruth Gordon; and in 1957 for a Broadway production of Eugene O'Neill's Long Day's Journey Into Night.

A friend of playwright Arthur Miller, he was favored by the writer to inaugurate the part of Willy Loman in the Pulitzer Prize-winning Death of a Salesman (1949). Director Elia Kazan cast Lee J. Cobb, however, as Willy Loman, and Arthur Kennedy as his son Biff Loman, two men that the director had worked with in the film Boomerang! (1947). March later played Willy Loman in Columbia Pictures's 1951 film version of the play, directed by Laslo Benedek. Perhaps March's greatest late-in-life role was in Inherit the Wind (1960), opposite Spencer Tracy.

When March underwent surgery for prostate cancer in 1972, it seemed his career was over, yet he managed to give one last great performance in The Iceman Cometh (1973), as the complicated Irish bartender, Harry Hope. Ironically, co-star Robert Ryan was entering the final stages of lung cancer, so the film was the last for both March and Ryan.

Fredric March died in Los Angeles, California, at the age of 77 from cancer. He was married to actress Florence Eldridge from 1927 until his death; they had 2 adopted children.

Throughout his life, he and his wife were supporters of the Democratic Party and liberal political causes. His support for the Republican (Second Spanish Republic) side during the Spanish Civil War was particularly controversial.

Arthur Godfrey
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Arthur Morton Godfrey (August 31, 1903 - March 16, 1983) was an American radio and television broadcaster and entertainer.




Early Years

Arthur Godfrey was born in New York City in 1903. His mother, Kathryn Morton Godfrey, was from a well-to-do New York family which disapproved of her marriage to an older Englishman, Arthur Hanbury Godfrey. His father 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. 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's father was something of a "free thinker" by the standards of the era. He didn't disdain organized religion but insisted his children explore all faiths before deciding for themselves which to embrace. Their childhood friends included Catholic, Jewish and every flavor 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 their book, "Genius in the Family" (G.P. Putnam's Sons, New York, 1962), the youngest two children, Dorothy Jean and Kathy Godfrey, reported the angriest they ever saw their father was when a man on the ferry declared that the Ku Klux Klan was 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 was a gifted artist and composer whose aspirations to fame were laid aside to take care of her family. Her creativity came in handy during hard times, which were turned into adventures of playacting and music, usually by candlelight when the electricity was shut off. 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. 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.

Arthur 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. 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

On leaving the Coast Guard, Godfrey became a radio announcer for the Baltimore station WFBR 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. He was already an avid flyer. In 1933, Godfrey nearly died following a violent car crash outside Washington that left him hospitalized for months. During that time, he decided to listen closely to the radio and realized that the stiff, formal announcers could not connect with the average radio listener, as 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 effect 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.

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 Arthur Godfrey's Sun Dial on CBS-owned station WJSV (now WTOP) in Washington. 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 1943, 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.

He provided a first-hand account of the procession of Roosevelt's bier through the streets of Washington, DC, broadcast live over CBS in April, 1945 and later preserved in the Edward R. Murrow and Fred W. Friendly record series, I Can Hear it Now. When describing new President Harry S. Truman's car in the procession --"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.

This led to his joining the CBS Radio Network in his own right, where he was given his own daily program, Arthur Godfrey Time, a Monday-Friday morning radio 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. That radio program was supplemented by Arthur Godfrey's Talent Scouts, a radio program featuring rising young performers.

Godfrey also was an avid Amateur Radio (Ham) Operator with the station call sign K4LIB.


Television

In 1948, Arthur Godfrey Time began to be simultaneously broadcast on radio and television. The radio version ran three hours; the TV version an hour, later expanded to an hour and a half. Godfrey's skills as a commercial pitchman brought him a number of loyal sponsors, including Lipton Tea, Frigidaire, Pillsbury cake mixes and Chesterfield cigarettes.

He found that one way to enhance his pitches was to extemporize his commercials, poking fun at the sponsors (while never disrespecting 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 variety show, began on CBS TV in prime time.

His affable personality on the radio combined warmth, heart, and occasional bits of double entendre repartee. They earned Godfrey 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 The McGuire Sisters, the Chordettes, 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.

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 African-American 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.

Arthur Godfrey's Talent Scouts performers 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. Two notable acts rejected for the show were Elvis Presley and Sonny Til & The Orioles. 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's immense popularity and the trust placed in him by audiences was noticed not just by advertisers but by 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

Godfrey learned to fly in the 1930s while doing radio in the Washington, DC 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, formerly enclaves for the wealthy. He made a TV movie in 1953 taking the controls of an Eastern Airlines 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 Air Force, who successfully recruited him into their reserve. At one time during the 1950's, Godfrey had flown every active aircraft in the military inventory at one time or another.

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 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. The original Leesburg airport, which Godfrey owned and referred to affectionately as "The Old Cow Pasture" on his show, was less than a mile from the center of town, and 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 January 1954, Godfrey buzzed the control tower of Teterboro Airport in his Douglas 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 wouldn't give him the runway he asked for. 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 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. It is believed that this was the first time that CBS conducted a 'remote' broadcast.


Behind the scenes

Behind Godfrey's on-air warmth was a cold, controlling personality. He insisted that his "Little Godfreys" attend dance and singing classes, believing all should be versatile performers whether or not they possessed the aptitude for those disciplines. In meetings with the cast and his staff, he could be abusive and intimidating. In spite of his ability to bring in profits, CBS executives who respected Godfrey professionally were not personally fond of him 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

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. CBS historian Robert Metz, in CBS: Reflections in a Bloodshot Eye, 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. LaRosa also cut a hit single with Godfrey's musical director Archie Bleyer, E Cumpari, the best-selling hit of LaRosa's musical career. LaRosa admitted the record's success had made him a little cocky, but after discovering LaRosa had hired a manager, Godfrey immediately consulted with CBS President Dr. Frank Stanton, who noted that Godfrey had hired LaRosa on-air 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, after lavishing praise on LaRosa in introducing the singer's performance of "I'll Take Manhattan," Godfrey thanked him and then announced that this was LaRosa's "swan song" with the show. 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. 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.

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 harsh 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. Almost instantly, Godfrey and the phrase "no humility" became the butt of many comedians' jokes.


The firings continue

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 and, eventually, the Chordettes, another Godfrey discovery. Godfrey was also angered that Bleyer had produced a spoken word record by 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. 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.

Occasionally, he 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, with no reasons given. 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.

As the media turned on Godfrey, two films,The Great Man (1956) starring Jose 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 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. "Face" creator Budd Schulberg maintains his story was actually inspired by hearing that Will Rogers, Sr., was far from the man of the people he claimed to be. Nonetheless, certain elements of the film, including its protagonist Lonesome Rhodes (played by Andy Griffith) spoofing commercials on a Memphis TV show he hosted, were clearly Godfrey-inspired.

Recordings also mocked Godfrey's controversial side. Following the LaRosa episode, Ruth Wallis, renowned for her double-entendre tunes, recorded "Dear Mr. Godfrey," a country tune that implored him to "hire me and fire me and make a star of me." Satirist Stan Freberg recorded "That's Right, Arthur," a barbed spoof of Godfrey's show, depicting 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 box set.

Godfrey appeared on every major magazine cover including Life, Look, Time, and over a dozenTV 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.


Later in life

In 1959, Godfrey began suffering chest pains. Closer examination by physicians revealed a mass in his chest that could possibly be lung cancer. In 1959, Godfrey left Arthur Godfrey Time and Arthur Godfrey and His Friends 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 Arthur Godfrey Time morning show -- but only on radio. He continued the show, reverting to a format featuring guest stars such as pianist Max Morath and Irish vocalist Carmel Quinn, with a live combo of first-rate Manhattan musicians (the show ended in 1972).

Godfrey by then was a colonel in the US Air Force Reserve and still an active pilot.

He made three movies: Four 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 also made various guest appearances, and he and Lucille Ball co-hosted the CBS special 50 Years of Television (1978).

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, and despite his political conservatism became a powerful environmentalist who identified with the youth culture that irreverently opposed the "establishment," as he felt he had done during his peak years. He was a master at dressage and made charity appearances at horse shows. He made commercials for the detergent Axion, only to clash with the manufacturer when he found that the product contained phosphates, implicated in water pollution.

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". That statement is considered to have effectively ended SST interest in the U.S.A., leaving it to Britain and France. (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 TV reunion special, 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 hadn't 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 70s, exploded and the meeting ended in shambles.

Godfrey was married to the former Mary Bourke from 1938 until his death in 1983. They had three children. Emphysema, resulting from the radiation treatments for Godfrey's cancer, became a problem in the early 1980s and he died of the disease in New York City on March 16, 1983. Godfrey is buried at Union Cemetery in Leesburg, Virginia, not far from his farm in Waterford, Virginia