Senator Claghorn
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Senator Beauregard Claghorn was a popular radio character on the "Allen's Alley" segment of The Fred Allen Show beginning in 1945. Succeeding the vaguely similar but not nearly as popular Senator Bloat from the earliest "Allen's Alley" routines, Senator Claghorn---portrayed by Allen's announcer, Kenny Delmar---was a blustery Southern 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."
Claghorn's obsession was with the South, and he would proudly point out his refusal to wear a "Union suit" or to drive through the Lincoln Tunnel when he visited New York for example, or claim to drink only out of Dixie cups, or even to refuse to use the word "no" because it was an abbreviation for the North. When asked a political question by host Allen, Claghorn would respond with a rapid stream of talk, shouting, repetition, and punnery. After a quip, the senator would laugh uproariously, and utter one of his two catchphrases: "That's a joke, son!" or "Pay attention now, boy!"
Delmar debuted Claghorn on the Allen broadcast of October 5, 1945, and the character stayed until 1948, when the show phased away the "Allen's Alley" segment into a "Main Street" segment to accommodate Allen's final sponsor, Ford Motor Company. Delmar continued as the show's announcer until its final broadcast in 1949. During this period, the character was often 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, entitled It's a Joke, Son (1947), co-starred Una Merkel as Mrs. Claghorn, and the plot involved the senator running for office against 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.
[edit] Sources
- Dunning, John. On the Air: The Encyclopedia of Old-Time Radio. New York: Oxford University Press, 1998. ISBN 0-19-507678-8
