DogRat regular Jan, who is a devoted fan of Arthur Godfrey, points out that August 31 would have been his 105th birthday. In recognition of this, here is Godfrey in a 1951 appearance on “What’s My Line.”
[flv:http://www.dograt.com/Video/2008/AUG/ArthurGodfrey.flv 440 330]
I have found a connection between Arthur Godfrey and Petula Clark, in the person of Rod McKuen, Pet’s longtime friend and sometimes colllaborator. McKuen appeared on Arthur Godfrey’s Talent Scouts around 1956.
[flv:http://www.dograt.com/Video/2008/AUG/McKuen.flv 440 330]
Jan,
I hope the Arthur Godfrey Talent Scouts show that I posted plays on your computer.
Hi Jan! I thought maybe you used a red bulb too for deterring bugs or to keep glare down, but I thought it was a cute idea, and appreciated the pun! I use solar lights around the outside of the house because regular lighting would be too bright for us and the cats. We have a hanging porch light, 2 small lantern-look lights on each side of the garage door on a timer, plus a motion detector light on a timer out back, all incandescent. That way the cats can see, especially when the weather is bad.
Oh, I know the meaning of “red light district” and “cat house”, and I’ve probably walked through a couple — without stopping! — during my past business travels. For Halloween I use the red light purely as a decoration for its lighting effect.
That reminds me of something I’ll be posting. Studio 100 had a K3 bedroom built as part of the 10th anniversary celebration in Belgium. It was taken from a video they did, sort of like the Beatles in “HELP!” where they all live together. Visitors could walk through it, and some of the kids even had their pictures taken with K3. But no K3 bedroom photos with the fathers! How unfair is that??
Doug, in this case the red porch light is a joke. In the “red light districts” of most towns and cities, a red light outside the door of a building signals that it’s another kind of “cat-house”, i.e., a house of prostitution. Since these are referred to slangily as “cat-houses”, and mine is LITERALLY a cat-house, I just thought it would be funny to put a red light out there and see what kind of reaction I could get.
When we first planned to build it for my kitties, we thought we might need a building permit. So we submitted our plans to the local building inspector and told him what it was. He raised his eyebrows and said, “You can’t build a cat-house on your property!” Then we assured him it was for the four-legged kind, and he laughed and said we didn’t need a permit for that.
Just having a little fun ….
I heard that certain shots should be given to cats in their tails, so if they have a problem later the tail can be removed…? What’s that about?
I put out a red porch light for Halloween, as was seen in the header photo I put up last week. The rest of the year it’s yellow. Do those things really work to keep some bugs away? I’m not convinced.
Hi Jan! I thought you must have a heater in the Cat House since you said your temperatures get so cold. That’s great how you designed the Cat House! I love that you have that red porch light! We figure nothing wrong with spoiling the cats! 🙂 Since my sister and I don’t have kids, these are our children! Or children with fur!
I forgot to mention — my kitty house has a heater in the ceiling that is governed by a thermostat, and in the winter time, I keep it set at about 55 degrees, so when the temps outside drop below freezing, the heater comes on and keeps kitties warm. That’s in addition to all the soft bedding they have. I had the heater put in the ceiling instead of a wall so that kitties couldn’t touch it or jump on it while it was hot and burn themselves.
Just a wee bit spoiled, ya think?
Hi Jan! WOW! I love the description of the “Cat House”! Your cats have a great Cat Mom! We have 2 small insulated plastic dog houses on our porch that we call “cat houses” that we put out, plus feeding stations for the small feral colony in our block. We got the cat houses when we rescued a pregnant cat, just in case she delivered before we got her inside. She had her kids in our basement and after nursing and weaning was done she was spayed. As soon as it gets cold I put pet electric heating pads in the houses. They are cased in hard plastic with a chew-proof cord, then I have old blankets on top. They even have heated food and water dishes for winter. I can’t help but spoil them because I love cats, but the most important thing is spay/neuter! Our own cats are indoor-only and the little sleepy buggers love it just fine! Plus we get unconditional love from them!
Jan,
That’s interesting, because fellow Arthur Godfrey fan Cactus Lizzie is also a bird fancier. But no cats. She has a cute, small dog.
Hubby won’t allow my cats inside our primary residence, so I had a little cat-house built just for them. It even has its own porch light, with a red bulb in it, of course! It IS a cat-house, afterall! This is a little log building modeled after our big log home. It has a little cat door built into the full-size human door, through which my kitties can enter and exit at will. There’s a huge six-foot high, carpeted cat tree with beds and ledges and a cylindar tube that they can climb on and rest in. The window sills are carpted for their comfort. One leg of the cat tree is wrapped in sisel and serves as a scratching post. I have in there a communal feeder that holds a full 18 – 20 lb bag of dry cat food (mine get Meow Mix), and a 5-gallon water bottle beneath that dispenses water automatically. In otherwords, they live like royalty!
Arthur felt that way about his animals, too, and on his farm gave them ritzy (for the animal world) accommodations. As harshly as the media had tried to portray Arthur over the years, he really did have a good heart.
I also like to feed wild birds, and have several feeders out and birdbaths they can drink from. Coming winter here, they’ll need all the help they can get, as -40F temperatures aren’t uncommon. I hang out suet cakes for them, and get all kinds of different species visiting and feeding.
We have five species of woodpecker in our wooded area, twp species of chickadee, one of nuthatch and two of jays. We also get juncos, finches and others. Wild turkeys often visit and around mating season, the Toms will go into full display. It’s quite something to see!
Hi Jan! Great to hear about another pet lover! 🙂 We have a no-kill shelter here in Pottstown called Cat Angel Network that has a facility but also uses foster parents and has an adoption area at the PetSmarts here, and in my hometown. The president of Cat Angel and I swap stories of our cat children, and my sister and I have rescued and adopted out kittens so we know more about socializing and teaching them than we do human children! I always cry after we adopt out kittens at our vet’s office. I feel like my children are leaving me! We have raised 4 kittens who are now healthy grown cats and kept the 2 mother cats we rescued and at least one kitten to be with them. Our cats love our sunroom and sleep out there alot, but at night I usually have a cat on my chest, one on my stomach or near my knees and one between my feet. And boy are they warm! In summer they made me too warm even with the AC on and probably didn’t help my insomnia, but since the nights have been cold they help me sleep like a rock!
Hi, Joan.
I am also a cat person. Always have been. We have a shelter here in town that is a no-kill facility, and is being over-run with cats and kittens that need good homes. I have adopted a few from them, including one that was born with deformed hind legs. He is a real sweety, and charmed everyone’s socks off from day one! Back in 2000, when I adopted him at age 3 months, an orthopaedic vet warned he wouldn’t live a year. Today, he’s going on 8 years! See what love can do?
They need petters at this shelter, to help keep the kitties socialized until homes can be found for them. I go there every now and then and pet the cats and kittens. I’ve learned to bring a heavy quilt with me to place on my lap. Some of those poor kitties are so love-starved that they knead and purr, then climb all over me, and won’t get down to let any others have their turn. The minute I put one back on the floor to pick up another, the first one jumps right back up onto my lap again, and hogs the petting session. They have some real clingers, there.
I wish all kitties and doggies could have loving homes. It’s heartbreaking to see them living in crowded quarters (though they’re as well cared for as possible, there), because nobody wants to take them.
The shelter is right next to a veterinary clinic, and the vet services are often donated.
I would adopt more, but I know it wouldn’t benefit them if I took in too many and couldn’t care for them properly. So I stick with the four I have, all of which have great lives, now.
Spoiled and pampered they all are! And masters of the art of kissing up to Mama!
Nice to read your post. Thanks for sharing.
— Jan
Hi, Jan! That certainly is a plus in a man for me! I hate the thought of anyone neglecting, abandoning, or abusing an animal. My sister and I rescue abandoned and/or homeless cats which, unfortunately due to lousy owners and not neutering or spaying, are numerous in our town. We’ve learned alot about cats and their health and behavior. Since my sister has a registered nurse background, we even gave her first cat Ginger fluids for kidney failure beginning at age 18 until she had to be euthanized at 19 because of multiple organ failure and she refused to eat. Since then we’ve had cats treated and spayed/neutered and found homes for them. I haven’t found Mr. Right yet but when I do he better like animals, especially cats! 🙂
I wish to share this little tidbit about Arthur’s childhood, that his sisters captured in their book, “Genius in the Family” (actually about their mother).
“Arthur never mistreated animals, but he had very little interest in our cats. Once when he was a small boy he found an abandoned baby bird. He cared for it until it was able to fly, only to have a cat catch and eat it. ‘He was heartbroken’ Mother told us. ‘Darned cat gets plenty to eat, why’d she have to go and kill my bird!’ he had wept angrily.”
This is a wonderful insight into Arthur’s heart. Throughout his life, he was good to his animals. When he took his dressage horse to shows, even though he had people who could groom him, Arthur often did that, himself. He wanted to maintain the close, one-on-one contact with his horse, which he really did regard as a pet.
On his farm, his animals lived in luxury. Of course, Arthur could afford to give them the best accommodations, the best food, the best of everything they needed. But just because a man can afford to do so doesn’t mean that every man will. Arthur did — and that says something very good about him.
Wouldn’t you agree?
— Jan
And Arthur, in his spirit form, is probably smiling at this very moment, and thanks you, as well. It meant a lot to him during his life here that he made a positive difference in this world. And he would be gratified to know he still has fans today, despite the efforts of media vultures to destroy him back in the fifties. Irish eyes are smiling ….
When I first opened a mic on a college radio station, even though I wanted very much to speak to the audience, I felt shy and unsure of myself. I thought of all those PEOPLE out there!Or, at least, people who were potentially out there…since realistically speaking, it probably was very few fellow students, at any given time!!! I felt stage fright. Er, make that “mike” fright.
At some time relatively early in my former broadcasting life, it was pointed out to me that the legendary Arthur Godfrey had decided to reject the classic “announcer” formal style that I was using, and instead the great Godfrey had adopted a more relaxed, intimate tone. With great success for Godfrey, of course, who became extremely popular with his method of communicating one-on-one to his single best friend, as if the two of them were just sitting around his family room together.
With that in mind, I began to work on changing my whole approach of relating to a radio audience, taking up the Godfrey style. Instead of being afraid of the mic, it became my close friend. I started getting more and more conversational, as if I were speaking into the telephone to a favorite next-door neighbor. I didn’t tense up any more, every time I opened the microphone. I learned to speak from my heart with genuine warmth and feeling, and it felt absolutely great!!! All thanks to the genius of Arthur Godfrey, who broke the old mold of radio announcing style.
I knew I had accomplished my goal, when a shut-in regular listener who tuned into the show I was a dee jay on, told me this story: A family member was leaving the house, and asked if this lady listener of mine would be okay alone. She replied, “Don’t worry. I have Liz to keep me company.” That, to me, ranks up there among the comments most meaningful to me in my life. I was quite touched by that. And I have the great Arthur Godfrey to thank for it.
Thanks for putting up with this from me. Unfortunately, like most who aren’t actual technicians, I am only somewhat computer literate. I’ve learned a little here and there, enough to basically use it, but when there’s trouble, I’m often up a creek.
The guy who has upgraded my system is good about walking me through most problems.
I’m just going to leave this page up for awhile and see if those two videos you have embedded eventually show up here. It’s a very, very slow download, and I guess I just never have gotten my head around to the possibility it could literally take hours! My tech said in some cases, even days, for some things to download if there’s a lot in them.
I also somehow thought that by upgrading to XP and a 6.5 browser, that everything would be faster. But dial-up is still dial-up, and it’s slower than molasses, sometimes. Can’t get high-speed out here, in any form.
Patience is a virtue, so I’ll try to be patient.
Thanks, Doug.
— Jan
Hi, Jan..
I think somewhere in the first Godfrey post I said that if everything else is OK, a slow Internet connection would be the next issue. And so it seem it is. But at least you aren’t having your software blow up anymore.
I’ll soon be passing along one of my computers to a friend, and I’ll be sure it’s doing everything it should. I’ll be taking the trouble calls on it anyway, so I want to minimize them ahead of time as much as possible.
I consulted with the tech who upgraded my computer system, and together we got some bugs ironed out. This was a previously-owned tower, and that’s a little like buying a used car — you’re inherited a few things someone else did, etc.
Anyway, I went back over to YouTube and now the What’s My Line video runs fine. I think the only reason I can’t see it here is that it just takes a very long time to download. I enjoyed it over there, and as for the Petula Clark one, I guess I’ll just have to be patient and wait however long it will take to download here.
Arthur is very funny in the clip I saw. When Dorothy Kilgallen asked about women’s necklines, he rose to his feet and approached the panel, then just shook hands with Hal Block. Dorothy wore a couple of low-cut dresses in that segment, and a different necklace during different parts of it. Anyone else notice this?
Thanks for sharing, Doug.
I found the WHAT’S MY LINE video on YouTube, and it didn’t work very well at all. It sort of started out, having to be coaxed along repeatedly a bit at a time, then quit working altogether and I couldn’t get it to start working again.
I have checked my control center for programs and software that has been installed, and it shows Adobe Flash plug-in among the list of installments. This has not been removed.
I’ll need to talk to the tech about this one, and see if he can determine why the videos don’t work. With dial-up, they should at least play all the way through, albeit haltingly, then be able to be replayed at the proper speed. I can’t even get them to go at all, here.
Where I live, we can’t get high-speed or DSL like I had hoped. And satellite is pricey beyond what I’m willing to spend. Small-town America for you! Sucks!
Maybe you have some additional ideas on what can be causing the problem?
Thanks — Jan
Jan,
If you can’t get videos working here, they shouldn’t work on YouTube, either. Because even though the player I’m using may look different than YouTube’s, underneath they’re doing exactly the same thing — using Adobe’s Flash player. Please let me know if YouTube works, but the videos here don’t. Thanks.
I’ve checked. Adobe Flash Plug is installed. It’s not that these videos aren’t playing — they won’t download to begin with. In my task bar it says “2 items remaining”, then just sits there forever while nothing else happens.
Nonetheless, I am grateful that you’ve given others the opportunity to see these, and enjoy Arthur’s interactions.
I’ll go over to YouTube and find these there, and see if they’ll do anything.
Thanks — Jan
Hi, Jan
If the embedded videos aren’t playing, check to see that the Adobe Flash plug-in is installed. You’ll also find these videos on YouTube.
Well, for some reason it’s taking forever and six months for these items to download on my upgraded system, which is supposed to be “faster” ???? I wonder if they actually will eventually download? Still getting used to this …
Anyway, thanks for posting these, even though I can’t presently see them. I’m sure many others will enjoy them.
Hopefully, I will, too, as soon as I can find out what to expect from this newer system …
— Jan