Early Bird

Redhaired, blue-eyed, freckle-faced Arthur Godfrey, whose matutinal musings from Washington, D.C. are backed by some 30 sponsors anxious to sell everything from razors to dog food, has said he would rather not have any more sponsors. Unable to resist a sizable addition to his $2,350 a week, Godfrey this week begins to plug the wares of the Florida Citrus Commission, which recently lost interest in chirpy Mary Margaret McBride.

As replacement for billowing Mary Margaret, Early Bird Godfrey will provide a drastic change of fare. His voice is wheezy, his manner tough, and he is addicted to spoofing his sponsors. During his rambling ad lib discussions on life, love, flying or coal mining, he frequently salutes his supporters with such outbursts as: "Well, well, Zlotnick the Furrier. Go down and kick old Zlotnick in the shins. Kick him once for me, too."

Arthur Godfrey's schedule is bruising. Six days a week from 5:35 to 6:45 a.m. E.S.T. he broadcasts via direct wire over Manhattan's WABC; then over Washington's WJSV he holds forth from 6:45 to 9. His weekly stint also calls for a couple of 15-minute transcriptions for Carnation Milk, which are mailed to 38 local stations. Betimes he records sea chanteys and sentimental ballads for Decca, by which he makes $7,000 a year.

Born in Manhattan in 1903, Godfrey joined the Navy at 16, mastered the banjo in the course of a four-year hitch. Out of the Navy, he scraped along as short-order cook in a Manhattan diner, master of ceremonies in a Chicago hotspot, salesman of cemetery lots in Detroit, vaudeville trouper in Los Angeles. In 1927 he wearied of it all. enlisted in the Coast Guard. While still in the service, he got involved in an amateur radio show in Baltimore, wound up as "Red Godfrey, the Warbling Banjoist." sponsored by a birdseed firm. With the help of Maryland's late Governor Ritchie, he broke out of the service to make radio his business.

Soon booming away with ad lib gags, Broadcaster Godfrey was frightened in 1934 when NBC, with a lot of ballyhoo, announced a rival morning show. He decided to broadcast all night before his rival took to the air, on the theory that people would tune in on him in the morning just to see if he were still there. They did. He was.

Popular with Washington bigwigs. Godfrey raises blue-ribbon horses, is an honorary buck private in the U.S. cavalry, a lieutenant commander in the Naval Reserve.

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