Yes, I know this photo makes him seem more like “Sinister Felton” but it was the best photo I could find of Francis “Happy” Felton (1907-1964), prior to the guise he was best known for during the last years of his career, which many Baby Boomers will remember. I save a picture from the last phase for the final paragraph, for Felton did an almost uncountable number of things in the entertainment field prior to that.
Felton was a violin prodigy who played with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchesta at the age of seven (with Victor Herbert conducting). While attending Alleghany College and the University of Pittsburgh, he played with the Goodrich Silvertown Orchestra, and had his own big band The Artists of Rhythm, which played midwestern cities.
After graduating in 1929, Felton proved a jack of all trades in show business. He played the drums in a circus band, travelled with a medicine show, and performed in vaudeville as a singer with the Four Ambassadors Quartet and Adele Jason and Her Boys, and toured the U.S. with Happy Felton and His Pep Boys Orchestra for a decade. In 1938 he starred in his own Vitaphone short Music with a Smile in the Happy Felton Style.
As a bandleader, Felton merged the personalities of several others. Like Paul Whiteman, he was pretty rotund. Like Ted Lewis, he was “Happy”. Like Pinky Tomlin, he was funny. And like Rudy Vallee, he sang.
In 1941, Felton and Jay C. Flippen were hired as replacements for Olsen and Johnson in the original Broadway production of Hellzapoppin. He then performed in regional and touring productions of musicals and operas for a time. In another key year, 1943, he headlined as a solo at Loew’s State and appeared in the movies Swing Shift Maisie and Whistling in Brooklyn.
From the mid to late 40s Felton was heard frequently on radio game shows, like Stop the Music, Pot O’ Gold, Finders Keepers, and Truth or Consequences.
In 1948 Felton hosted the show School Days (based on the old Gus Edwards song and sketch) on the Dumont Television Network. Kenny Delmar replaced him the following year when it became School House.
In 1950, another huge pivot for Felton’s career came when he became the host of Happy Felton’s Knothole Gang at WOR-TV in New York. This was a local show but it made Felton a huge celebrity in NYC. The show preceded every Brooklyn Dodgers game. In every episode, three lucky boys would get to meet and work out with members of the team, who would give them pointers, and evaluate their skills. Then they’d walk away with free baseball gear (balls, bats, helmets, cleats, etc). The kids who made it to the show weren handpicked by their little league coaches and then vetted by reps from the American Legion, the Catholic Youth Organization, and the Police Athletic League. In 1952 Loew’s and MGM became sponsors, a deal that included the use of their theaters for related special events. Kids who didn’t make it onto the show could still participate by being members of the Knothole Gang. There were thousands of members.
Meantime, Felton had added a second baseball program Talk to the Stars, a post-game show that launched in 1951. This one was more of a typical sports program on which he’d interview a player form the Dodgers and one from the opposing team and interview them about moments in the game, with input from the viewers at home.
On national television, Felton hosted the kids show Happy Felton’s Spotlight Show (1954-55) on NBC.
In 1957, it all came crashing down, of course, when the the Dodgers moved to Los Angeles, a blow from which Brooklyn has only just STARTED to recover. Felton went on to host baseball themed game show for kids It’s a Hit (1957) on CBS, and then briefly tried his hand at dramatic acting on tv shows like The U.S. Steel Hour, and The Further Adventures of Ellery Queen. In the ’60s until his early death at age 57, he mostly filled his calendar with personal appearances.
For more about vaudeville consult No Applause, Just Throw Money: The Book That Made Vaudeville Famous, And please stay tuned for my upcoming Electric Vaudeville: A Century of Radio and TV Variety.