Edward Hastings Ford

There are two reasons why I like radio better than vaudeville. The first reason is that in radio you can stay put, and the second reason is that the weekly stipend is greater. The second reason is the first.

Edward Hastings Ford (1887 - January 27, 1970) was a vaudeville comedian who created the radio show, Can You Top This?. He appeared as the character Senator Ford.

Ford was born in 1887 and had a sister, Hattie Lavina Ford. He dropped out of Manhattan's public school system after the eighth grade. His first job was in photoengraving. He married Hilda Engelhardt (?-1957).

Ford also pursued an interest in art, as he "obtain[ed] an art schooling and operated an art studio in New York's lower Broadway, doing commercial illustrating."

A 1943 newspaper article traced the origin of Ford's nickname to a speech he made at New York's Republican Club in the 1910s. The speaker who preceded Ford was future President Warren G. Harding, then a member of the U.S. Senate. Following Harding's remarks, "the toastmaster jocularly referred to Ford as 'Senator' Ford in introducing him to the audience. The title has stuck since."

Ford created the radio broadcast of Can You Top This?. (Another source says that Ford "joined Can You Top This?," implying that he was not the program's creator.) It premiered on October 3, 1950. Other contributors included comedians Joe Laurie, Jr. and Harry Hershfield.

Ford's first wife died in 1957. He married Louise Grace July 11, 1957.

Ford died at Eastern Long Island Hospital in Greenport, Suffolk County, New York on January 27, 1970 of lung cancer and throat cancer.

His papers are archived at Stony Brook University.

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