Jon Arthur

Who is Jon Arthur?

Jon Arthur was the professional name of Jon Arthur Goerss. As Big Jon Arthur he was the host of the Saturday morning children's radio series Big Jon and Sparkie. Sparkie, "the little elf from the land of make-believe, who wants more than anything else in the world to be a real boy,” was actually the recorded voice of Jon Arthur played at a fast speed.

From his home in Pittsburgh, Jon Arthur went to radio school and then began his broadcasting career at radio station WJLS, signing on two weeks after the station went on the air in 1939. Arthur later left Beckley for Ogdensburg, New York and soon headed for the West Coast. Arthur died in California in 1982.