Julius La Rosa

Julius La Rosa (January 2, 1930 – May 12, 2016) was an American traditional popular music singer, who worked in both radio and television beginning in the 1950s.

Early years La Rosa was born of Italian-immigrant parents in Brooklyn. He attended P.S. 123K in Bushwick. At age 17, he joined the United States Navy after finishing high school, becoming a radioman. He sang in a Navy choir, at the officers' club, and at bars to pay for his drinks.

Heyday with Arthur Godfrey La Rosa's Navy peers promoted him to Arthur Godfrey, one of America's leading radio and television personalities and a Naval Reserve officer himself. George Andrews from Omaha, Nebraska, was a mechanic on Godfrey's airplane, and he struck up a conversation with Godfrey and told him that he should hear his friend sing. They arranged a time for La Rosa to audition in Pensacola, Florida where La Rosa was stationed. Godfrey was impressed and offered him a job. )

Godfrey did not react well to receiving a formal notification that La Rosa had hired Rockwell. After consulting with CBS president Frank Stanton, Godfrey went before the TV cameras for Arthur Godfrey Time on the morning of October 19, 1953. After the televised portion of the program went off the air, the broadcast continued on the radio network. La Rosa sang "Manhattan"and Godfrey fired him on the air, announcing that La Rosa had become "his own star" and "that was Julie's swan song with us."

Godfrey subsequently explained that La Rosa had been fired because he lacked "humility." This comment backfired badly on Godfrey. Stanton regretted the on-air dismissal, later admitting, "Maybe it was a mistake." Comedians began working the phrase "no humility" into their routines. Singer Ruth Wallis, known for her raunchy double entendre novelty songs, recorded "Dear Mr. Godfrey", a biting satire on the matter, which made it to #25 on the Billboard charts in November 1953.

Almost immediately after firing La Rosa, Godfrey also fired bandleader Archie Bleyer, owner of La Rosa's label Cadence Records, for producing spoken-word records for Cadence featuring Chicago-based talk host Don McNeill. Godfrey considered this an act of treason. Don McNeill's Breakfast Club aired on ABC Radio one hour ahead of Godfrey's CBS morning show, although McNeill's success was nowhere on a par with that of Godfrey.

After Godfrey

The firing did not hurt La Rosa's career in the short run. Ed Sullivan immediately signed La Rosa for appearances on his CBS Toast of the Town TV variety show, which sparked a feud between Sullivan and Godfrey. La Rosa's first appearance on Toast of the Town following the firing (November 1, 1953) got a 47.9 Trendex rating; La Rosa would appear 12 more times on Sullivan's show that year.

Shortly after he left Godfrey, La Rosa's third recording, "Eh, Cumpari", hit #1 on the Cash Box chart and #2 on the Billboard chart, with La Rosa getting an award as the best new male vocalist of 1953. "Eh, Cumpari" was followed by another major hit, "Domani". For thirteen weeks during the summer of 1955, La Rosa had a three-times-a-week television series on CBS, The Julius La Rosa Show, featuring Russ Case and his Orchestra. The Julius La Rosa Show aired in an hour-long format in the summers of 1956 and 1957 at 8 p.m. Eastern on Saturdays on NBC as a seasonal replacement for The Perry Como Show (Como previously had La Rosa, on occasion, fill in for him during the 1954-55 season of his CBS series.)

In 1981, Peter Kelley, who handled Godfrey's commercial bookings, suggested the host reunite with cast members from his morning show and record a reunion album. Though Godfrey initially balked, recalling his disputes with La Rosa and other cast members, he agreed to a meeting, and was amenable to having La Rosa participate. La Rosa, feeling sufficient time had passed, was also amenable. At the meeting, held at Godfrey's Manhattan office, Godfrey brought up the firing and asked La Rosa why he did not tell the "truth" as Godfrey saw it: that La Rosa had asked to be released from his contract and Godfrey had obliged. When La Rosa started to respond by reminding him of the dance-class dispute, Godfrey exploded in anger. La Rosa left, and any talk of a reunion show ended. La Rosa tired of revisiting the Godfrey affair, in part because it had been rehashed so many times, but he was also known to acknowledge Godfrey as the one individual who made his career. Nevertheless, La Rosa always added, "He wasn't a very nice man [to me]."

In 1998 and 1999, La Rosa was a disc jockey on 1430 WNSW based in Newark, New Jersey, hosting Make Believe Ballroom Time.

La Rosa was a frequent contributor to comedian Jerry Lewis's annual Labor Day telethon programmes for the Muscular Dystrophy Association, often hosting the New York venue of the shows.

Personal life In 1953, La Rosa was romantically linked with then-married Dorothy McGuire of The McGuire Sisters. In 1955, while serving as the summer replacement on Perry Como's TV show, he met Como's secretary, Rosemary Meyer, and married her.

In 2008, La Rosa said, "Music is a very egotistical thing [...] It makes me feel good [...] and fortunately, I have the capacity to make people feel good who hear me feeling good."

He and his wife lived for over 40 years in Irvington, New York, until November 2015 when they moved to Crivitz, Wisconsin, where he died of natural causes on May 12, 2016, at age 86.

Discography Albums Julius La Rosa (RCA Victor, 1956) The Port of Love (Guest Star, 1959) Love Songs à La Rosa (Roulette, 1959) On the Sunny Side (Roulette, 1959) The New Julie La Rosa (Kapp, 1961) You're Gonna Hear from Me (MGM, 1966) Hey, Look Me Over (MGM, 1967) Words (Metromedia, 1971) Julius La Rosa (Project 3 Records, 1987)

Singles