In December 1948, after more than a decade on radio, principally for CBS, Arthur Godfrey ventured onto prime-time TV by simply permitting the televising of his radio hit Arthur Godfrey’s Talent Scouts. On TV Arthur Godfrey’s Talent Scouts ran until July 1958 on Monday nights at 8:30 for a half hour and proved Godfrey’s best venue on television. Fans embraced this amateur showcase, and during the 1951–52 TV season it reached number one in the ratings. Next season I Love Lucy vaulted into first place, but through most of the 1950s Arthur Godfrey’s Talent Scouts regularly finished in TV’s prime-time top ten.

The formula for Arthur Godfrey’s Talent Scouts was simple enough. “Scouts” brought on their discoveries to a converted New York theater to perform before a live studio audience. Most of these “discoveries” were in fact struggling professionals looking for a break, and so the quality of the talent was quite high. At the program’s conclusion, the studio audience selected the winner by way of an applause meter.

Godfrey significantly assisted the careers of Pat Boone, Tony Bennett, Eddie Fisher, Connie Francis, Leslie Uggams, Lenny Bruce, Steve Lawrence, Connie Francis, Roy Clark, and Patsy Cline. His “discovery” of Patsy Cline on January 21, 1957, was typical. Her scout, actually her mother Hilda Hensley, presented Patsy, who sang her recent recording “Walkin’ After Midnight.” Though this was heralded as a country song, and recorded in Nashville, Tennessee, Godfrey’s staff insisted Cline not wear one of her mother’s hand-crafted cowgirl outfits but appear in a cocktail dress. The audience’s ovations stopped the meter at its apex, and for a couple of months thereafter Cline appeared regularly on Godfrey’s radio program. In short, although Cline had been performing for nearly a decade, and had been recording and appearing on local Washington, D.C., TV for more than two years, it is Godfrey who is heralded as making Patsy Cline a star through his highly rated program. Yet Godfrey proved fallible. He turned down both Elvis Presley and Buddy Holly!

Godfrey’s other top-ten TV hit was Arthur Godfrey and His Friends, which premiered in January 1949. On Wednesday nights Godfrey hosted this traditional variety show, employing a resident cast of singers, which over the years included Julius La Rosa, Frank Parker, Lu Ann Simms, Pat Boone, and the Cordettes. Reprising his role on Arthur Godfrey’s Talent Scouts, Tony Marvin served as both announcer and Godfrey’s “second banana.” The appeal of the hour-long Arthur Godfrey and His Friends rested on the popularity of the assembled company of singers, all clean-cut young people, and guest stars. Godfrey played host and pitchman.

Indeed, to industry insiders, Godfrey ranked as television’s first great salesman. He blended a Southern folksiness with enough sophistication to sell almost anything. As he had long done on radio, Godfrey frequently kidded his sponsors but always “sold from the heart,” only hawking products he had actually tried and/or regularly used. Godfrey made it sound as if he were confiding to you and to you alone, and early television viewers listened to his rich, warm, resonant descriptions and went out and purchased what he endorsed.

During the early 1950s Godfrey seemed unable to do anything wrong, despite a press that could find little reason for his vast popularity. He began a fall from grace in October 1953, when he fired the then-popular La Rosa—on the air. Because of the negative fallout, Godfrey thereafter regularly feuded with a host of powerful newspaper columnists including Dorothy Kilgallen and John Crosby.

By the end of the 1950s Godfrey’s ratings were falling and his brand of variety show was giving way to action and comedy series made in Hollywood. Still, through the 1960s, CBS unsuccessfully sought new ways to showcase Godfrey. He flopped on Candid Camera but appeared on regular specials: Arthur Godfrey in Hollywood, which aired on October 11, 1963; Arthur Godfrey Loves Animals on March 18, 1963; and so on, once or twice a season. His final television special came on March 28, 1973.

Television in the United States is most dependent on the star system, and Arthur Godfrey, despite common-sense declarations that he had “no talent,” must be counted as one of television’s greatest stars. Prior to 1959 there was no bigger TV draw than this freckle-faced, ukulele-playing host. There was something about Godfrey’s wide grin, his infectious chuckle, his unruly shock of red hair that made millions tune in not just once, but again and again.