Senator Claghorn


Senator Beauregard Claghorn was a popular fictional 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, that is. I'm from the South. Suh."

Description

Claghorn had an unshakable obsession with the South, and would proudly voice his disdain for the North in humorous ways. For instance, the Senator refused to ever wear a "Union suit" or drive through the Lincoln Tunnel when he visited New York City, and he claimed to drink only out of Dixie cups. At one point when asked specifically what state he represented, he noted it was in the Gulf of Mexico, south of Alabama. The Senator even rebuked Allen for saying the word "no" in his presence, saying "N-O.. That's North abbreviated!!"
Some of the Senator's other anti-Northisms included:
When Allen was finally able to speak to the Senator, he would ask him a topical question, to which 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!"
Claghorn would also make frequent jabs at Allen, using analogies which would astonish the audience in their ability to paint a picture. After a tirade of invective from Allen, Claghorn responded by advising Allen that "Your tongue's waggin' like a blind dog's tail at a meat market." A torrent of laughter from the studio audience followed such exchanges.
Delmar debuted Claghorn on the Allen broadcast of October 5, 1945, and the character stayed through the show's end in 1949, when the series transitioned from "Allen's Alley" to a "Main Street" segment to accommodate Allen's final sponsor, Ford Motor Company. In one episode, Allen asked the Senator what he was doing to remedy his sleep problem; the Senator said he crooned himself to sleep with his southern lullaby, which went thus:
In another exchange, Claghorn responded to an inquiry by Allen as to whether Washington had done anything to aid in reducing an epidemic of colds currently afflicting the country. Claghorn responded that "The senate, I say the senate reconvened just in time. I was glad to see Senator Aiken back. Achin' back! That's a joke, son." Further discussion regarding cold remedies resulted in this exchange:
Allen's interview with Claghorn generally ended with his bellowing "So long! So long, that is!!"
At the height of popularity, the character was often mentioned or parodied on other programs, especially that of Allen's rival Jack Benny, with Phil Harris usually playing the part. Delmar himself made a guest appearance on The Jack Benny Program in the role on February 12, 1950, months after Allen's show had left the airwaves. The most famous parody, which ironically has outlasted its source in public memory, is the Warner Brothers' Looney Tunes classic animation character, Foghorn Leghorn.

Outside of radio

The senator had a life outside of radio, however. Delmar played the character in commercials, in two records, and a theatrical film. The film, titled It's a Joke, Son!, co-starred Una Merkel as Mrs. Claghorn, and the plot involved the senator running for office against his wife; the film was produced on an unusually tight $650,000 budget and suffered from poor returns, being pulled from theaters after less than a week. 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 Bros. copyrighted Foghorn Leghorn, he had to ask their permission to play the character elsewhere. In the 1960s, Delmar took his characterization and catchphrases back as the voice of The Hunter, a character on the animated series King Leonardo and his Short Subjects.
Dave Sim adopted the same speech patterns for Elrod the Albino, a character in his independent comic book Cerebus the Aardvark; whether these were derived directly from Claghorn or from the cartoon rooster is unknown.