What musical instrument did Arthur Godfrey play on his long running U.S. TV variety show?

In the baby days of television, the early 1950s, the “Ole Redhead,” as he called himself (Arthur Godfrey) was an undisputed king when it came to playing the ukulele. At the time, Godfrey did more to popularize the ukulele in the United States than even the Hawaiian Pavilion at the 1915 Panama-Pacific International Exposition in San Francisco.

Introduced to the ukulele by a Hawaiian shipmate while he was in the U.S. Navy, Godfrey loved the uke. He played it incessantly. He loved to promote it and those who played it. He even talked CBS his network into sponsoring a 15-minute TV show that taught people how to play it. The show was short lived, but it put the ukulele in the spotlight and helped catapult Godfrey and the instrument into a distinctive category of music history.

Regarding Godfrey as a TV personality, media critics of the 1950s liked him because they felt that he had an all 'American persona'. For them he was the Huck Finn of entertainment. They said that he was “apple pie likable”. One even said that he loved him since he was a guy with a “small boy mischievousness” about him.

Godfrey was very entertaining to the masses and his proficiency as a huckster was incredible. (Review his on-air sales ads.) He delivered great ads for his sponsors.