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.

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."

"Senator" Ford 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." Can You Top This? ran on local radio in New York for two years until being picked up nationally by NBC, where it ran for another twelve years.

There were two television versions of the show, the first version ran on ABC from October 1950 to March 1951; the second, which premiered January 26, 1970 (the day before Ford's death), aired in first-run syndication only eight months.

Personal life

Ford lived in the town of Southold for his entire life.

Ford's first wife Harriet Fauth Lavinia died in 1957. He married Louise Grace

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