Selwyn Toogood

{{Short description|New Zealand radio and television personality (1916–2001)}}

{{Infobox person

| name = Selwyn Toogood

| honorific_suffix = {{post-nominals|country=NZL|QSO|ED|size=100%}}

| image = Selwyn Toogood at the opening of the Self Help store, Lambton Quay, Wellington, 1956.jpg

| alt =

| caption = Toogood in 1956 at a store opening in Wellington

| birth_name = Selwyn Featherston Toogood

| birth_date = {{Birth date|1916|04|04|df=yes}}

| birth_place = Wellington, New Zealand

| death_date = {{Death date and age|2001|02|27|1916|04|04|df=yes}}

| death_place = Auckland, New Zealand

| spouse = {{marriage|Cynthia Holden Webb|1948}}

| relatives = Richard Webb (brother-in-law)
John Howell (great-grandfather)

| occupation = Radio and television personality

| years_active =

| known_for = It's in the Bag
Beauty and the Beast

| notable_works =

}}

Selwyn Featherston Toogood {{post-nominals|country=NZL|QSO|ED}} (4 April 1916 – 27 February 2001) was a New Zealand radio and television personality.

Early life and family

Born in Wellington on 4 April 1916, Toogood was the son of Henry Featherston Toogood and Ethel Lois Copus "Noonie" Toogood (née Butler).{{cite book |last=Toogood |first=Selwyn |authorlink=Selwyn Toogood |title=Out of the Bag |year=1979 |publisher=Methuen |location=Auckland}} Through his mother, Toogood was the great-grandson of John Howell, who established a whaling station at Riverton, and his second wife, Caroline Brown, whose mother was Māori from the Ngāi Tahu iwi. Toogood did not learn of his Māori ancestry until he was 18 years old.

Toogood was educated at Wellesley College{{cite news | url=https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/EP19280504.2.158 | title=Wellesley College | date=4 May 1928 | work=The Evening Post | accessdate=23 June 2018 | page=15}} and Wellington College, where he had an inauspicious career, apart from excelling in the dramatic arts.{{cite news |url=https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=174215 |title=Quiz king Selwyn Toogood dies at 84 |date=28 February 2001 |work= The New Zealand Herald |accessdate=23 June 2018}}

On 30 June 1948, Toogood married Cynthia Holden Webb at St Peter's church, in Willis Street, Wellington. Cynthia's brother was Sir Richard Webb,{{cite web |url=http://www.webbdnaproject.org/resources/Webb%3AWoolworth%20of%20Dursley%20(Eileen).pdf |title=Webb alias Wolworth |date= |website= |publisher=|accessdate=23 June 2018}} who served as the New Zealand Chief of Defence Staff between 1971 and 1976. The Toogoods went on to have two sons, including Kit Toogood, who was appointed a Queen's Counsel in 1999 and a High Court judge in 2011.{{cite web |url=https://www.nzonscreen.com/person/selwyn-toogood/biography |title=Selwyn Toogood |date= |website=NZ On Screen |accessdate=23 June 2018}}{{cite web |url=https://www.courtsofnz.govt.nz/the-courts/high-court/judges/#the-honourable-justice-toogood |title=Judges and associate judges of the High Court |date= |publisher=Courts of New Zealand |accessdate=24 June 2018}}

Military service

Toogood joined the army following the outbreak of World War II. As an ammunition officer, he saw active service in Greece, North Africa and Italy, rising to the rank of major.{{cite web |url=http://www.aucklandmuseum.com/war-memorial/online-cenotaph/record/C133191 |title=Selwyn Featherston Toogood |date= |website=Online Cenotaph |publisher=Auckland War Memorial Museum |accessdate=23 June 2018}} He was mentioned in dispatches in 1944, in recognition of gallant and distinguished service in Italy.{{London Gazette |issue=36668 |date=22 August 1944 |page=3938 |supp=y}}

In 1953, Toogood was awarded the Efficiency Decoration.{{cite book |editor-last=Taylor |editor-first=Alister |editor-link=Alister Taylor |title=New Zealand Who's Who Aotearoa 2001 |year=2001 |publisher=Alister Taylor Publishers |location=Auckland |issn=1172-9813}}

Acting and broadcasting career

After leaving school, Toogood became involved in theatre and radio, including a role in New Zealand's first radio soap opera. On a troopship on the way home from World War II, he ran his first quiz show. After the war, Toogood picked up where he had left off as a stage actor, voice-over artist and radio announcer.

File:Beauty and the Beast (TVNZ).jpg, Denise Brady, Lorraine Isaacs (director), Shona McFarlane, and Johnny Frisbie]]

He began his career as a radio host in 1946 and was the originator of the game show It's in the Bag, in which he popularised the catch-phrases, "By hokey", and "What will it be, customers - the money or the bag?", in New Zealand. It's in the Bag eventually moved on to network television, where it was equally successful. He published his autobiography Out Of The Bag in 1979. Toogood hosted numerous other TV shows for the Broadcasting Corporation of New Zealand and Television New Zealand, including the panel show Beauty and the Beast and the children's quiz show W3. He retired from It's in the Bag in the 1980s, handing over the mantle to radio and TV host John Hawkesby.

In the 1977 New Year Honours, Toogood was appointed a Companion of the Queen's Service Order for community services.{{London Gazette |issue=47104 |date=31 December 1976 |page=42 |supp=3}} Toogood was awarded a special lifetime achievement award by the New Zealand Academy of Film and Television Arts in New Zealand in 1999.

Death

Toogood died in Auckland in 2001,{{cite news | title=Broadcasting giant Toogood off the air | date=28 February 2001 | work=The Evening Post | page=22}} and his ashes were buried in Karori Cemetery.{{cite web |url=http://wellington.govt.nz/services/community-and-culture/cemeteries/cemeteries-search/details?id=110561&serviceType=AshesBurial |title=Cemeteries search: Selwyn Toogood |date=12 July 2012 |publisher=Wellington City Council |accessdate=16 January 2015}} Cynthia Toogood died in 2005.{{cite web |url=https://wellington.govt.nz/services/community-and-culture/cemeteries/cemeteries-search/details?id=110560&serviceType=AshesBurial |title=Cemeteries search: Cynthia Toogood |date=12 July 2012 |publisher=Wellington City Council |accessdate=23 June 2018}}