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Senator Ed Ford
EDWARD HASTINGS FORD (1887-1970) was a vaudeville comedian who created the radio show, Can You Top This?, in which he appeared as the character Senator Ford. Having dropped out of Manhattan’s publi...view moreEDWARD HASTINGS FORD (1887-1970) was a vaudeville comedian who created the radio show, Can You Top This?, in which he appeared as the character Senator Ford. Having dropped out of Manhattan’s public school system after the eighth grade, Ford’s first job was in photoengraving. Ford became a panelist on the comedy quiz show Stop Me If You’ve Heard This One (1939-40). This inspired him to create the similar but far more successful Can You Top This?, co-starring friends and colleagues Joe Laurie, Jr. and Harry Hershfield. The show ran on local radio in New York for two years and was then picked up nationally by NBC, where it ran for another 12 years. Ford died in Greenport, New York in 1970, aged 82.
JOE LAURIE JR. (1891-1954) was an American vaudeville monologist who later performed on radio and on Broadway. In addition to being one of the comedic panelists on the popular joke-telling series, Can You Top This? with Ford and Hershfield, Laurie also portrayed the character of Sniffy on the Mutual daytime drama, We Were Always Young. He collaborated with Abel Green on the show business history, Show Biz: From Vaude to Video (1951), followed by his memoir, Vaudeville: From the Honky-Tonks to the Palace (1953). Laurie died in New York City in 1954, aged 63.
HARRY HERSHFIELD (1885-1974) was an American cartoonist, humor writer and radio personality. A columnist for the New York Daily Mirror, his books include Laugh Louder, Live Longer and Now I’ll Tell One. Born in Cedar Rapids, Iowa to Jewish immigrants, Hershfield studied in Chicago at the Frank Holmes School of Illustration and the Chicago Art Institute. His comics character Abie the Agent debuted in the New York Journal in 1914. After its end in 1940, he became a well-known radio personality, telling jokes on the programs Stop Me If You’ve Heard This One and Can You Top This? He was a frequent guest of early 1950s television programs. He died in Manhattan in 1974, aged 89.view less