First of all, as comedy shows go it was more like Whose Line Is It Anyway, and less like the Daily Show. It was a joke-telling show. Mr. Ford was permanent member of the show's panel of joke-tellers, along with Joe Laurie Jr, and Harry Hersfield. These guys were the kings of vaudeville comedy. Joe Laurie Jr wrote an excellent auto biography in 1953, Vaudeville: From the Honky-Tonks to the Palace. Hersfield was a comedian, author, cartoonist and columnist for the New York Daily Mirror.
The premise of "Stop Me If You've Heard This One" was that listeners submitted jokes to the program. The show's list of guest panelists included Cal Tinney, Peter Arno, Harry McNaughton, Lionel Stander, Ward Wilson, Harry Hershfield and Jay C. Flippen. Their job was to recognize the joke and interrupt host Milton Berle to finish telling the joke. Somehow this resulted in guests getting prizes. That part loses me. But before the series ended in February of 1940, Hershfield was replaced by "Senator" Ed Ford. That was the genesis of the new program.
Nine months later, Ford, Hershfield and Wilson became panelists on Can You Top This?The show ended up running from 1940-1954; a total of 14 years! Later Joe Laurie Jr replaced Wilson. Of the trio Ford was sort of a straight-man. He was droll and witty even dour.Just like the prior program listeners contributed jokes. But here the panelists just tried to top the listeners. The format was simpler and it worked. NBC picked up the show in 1942 and ABC even tried unsuccessfully to move it to television in 1950. CBS tried to reboot it in 1970 also for naught.
In 1947, the Mutual Network tried to revive "Stop Me If You've Heard This One." But their panelists weren't as strong: panelists Tinney, Lew Lehr, George Givot and Morey Amsterdam. It didn't last. They should have invited Senator Ford. He died in 1970 of lung and throat cancer. His personal papers were donated to Stonybrook University near his home in Greenport, Long Island, NY. More here.