Advertisement

Wiki

Julius La Rosa (born January 2, 1930) is an American traditional popular music singer who has worked in both radio and television since the 1950s.

La Rosa was born in Brooklyn, New York. He joined the United States Navy in 1947 after finishing high school becoming a radioman who sang informally. The young sailor's Navy buddies managed to promote him to Arthur Godfrey - at the time one of America's leading radio and television personalities, and himself a Naval Reserve officer, whom the Navy often accommodated as a nod to the good publicity he gave the service. Godfrey, a personality in the early years of network television, heard LaRosa in Pensacola, Florida, where LaRosa was stationed, and offered him a job. Godfrey, for his part, was impressed by La Rosa's singing and had him flown to New York to appear on his television show, with Godfrey ending the spot by saying, "When Julie gets out of the Navy he'll come back to see us."

Discharged from the Navy on a Friday, La Rosa went to Godfrey on the following Monday, and a week later he appeared on Godfrey's variety show. He was a regular on both the morning Arthur Godfrey Time (broadcast on both the CBS radio and television networks) and the Wednesday night variety show Arthur Godfrey and His Friends. LaRosa was joining a show that was extremely profitable for the new CBS television network. But Arthur Godfrey was caught between the enmity of CBS owner Bill Paley and the admiration of CBS management for running a successful show. Godfrey was subject to aesthetic criticism by Paley, as noted by Time magazine in 1950. "earing that William Paley thought the Godfrey TV show 'lacked movement,' Arthur brought on a line of hula dancers and leered into the TV camera: 'Is that enough movement for you, Bill?'" The same Time magazine article also found Godfrey to be vulgar and "scatological". However CBS management realized the show was extremely successful and cost little to produce, in turn earning their admiration.

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License.
It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Julius La Rosa."