"The Golden Age of Radio"
(As originally broadcast on WTIC, Hartford, CT)




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Program 42 - September, 1973 - Kenny Delmar


 
Senator Beauregard Claghorn was a popular radio character on the "Allen's Alley" segment of "The Fred Allen Show". Senator Claghorn, portrayed by actor Kenny Delmar, was a blustery politician whose home was usually the first at which Allen would knock. Claghorn would typically answer the door with, "Somebody, ah say, somebody knocked! Claghorn's the name, Senator Claghorn, I'm from the south." His obsession was with The South, and he would proudly point out his refusal to wear a "Union suit", for example, or claim to drink only out of Dixie cups. When asked a political question by host Allen, Claghorn would respond with a rapid stream of talk, shouting, repetition, and bad puns. After a quip, the senator would laugh uproariously, and quip one of his two catchphrases: "That's a joke, son!" or "Pay attention now, boy!"

Kenny Delmar was already working on the Allen program as the announcer when he introduced the Claghorn character, on the broadcast of October 5, 1945. He would remain on the show until it went off the air in 1949. During this period, the character was oft mentioned or parodied on other programs, especially that of Jack Benny, with fellow Southerner Phil Harris usually playing the part (and Delmar himself guesting in the role at least once). The most famous parody, which ironically has outlasted its source in public memory, is the cartoon character Foghorn Leghorn.

The senator had a life outside of radio, however. Delmar played the character in commercials, in two records (I Love You, That Is and That's a Joke, Son), and a theatrical film. The movie was titled It's a Joke, Son (1947) and co-starred Una Merkel as his wife. Delmar even played a thinly veiled version of Claghorn, retitled Senator Hominy Smith, in the Broadway musical Texas Li'l Darlin. Ironically, however, Delmar recalled that after Warner Brothers copyrighted Foghorn Leghorn, he had to ask their permission to play the character elsewhere. In the 1960s, Delmar took his characterization and catch-phrases back as the voice of The Hunter, a character on the animated series King Leonardo and his Short Subjects.


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Program 42 - September, 1973 - Kenny Delmar

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