Julius La Rosa
| Julius La Rosa | |
|---|---|
La Rosa in 1955
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| Background information | |
| Born |
January 2, 1930 Brooklyn, New York, U.S. |
| Died | May 12, 2016 (aged 86) Crivitz, Wisconsin, U.S. |
| Genres | Traditional pop music |
| Years active | 1951–2016 |
| Labels | Cadence RCA Victor EMI |
| Website | Official Julius La Rosa Web site |
Julius La Rosa (January 2, 1930 – May 12, 2016) was an Italian-American traditional popular music singer, who worked in both radio and television beginning in the 1950s.
La Rosa was born in Brooklyn, New York. 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.
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, who the Navy often accommodated as a nod to the good publicity he gave the service. The Navy buddy most instrumental in this was George "Bud" Andrews, from Omaha, Nebraska, the seaman mechanic on Godfrey's airplane. While working on Godfrey's plane, Andrews struck up a conversation with Godfrey and told him that he really should hear his buddy sing. They arranged a time for La Rosa to audition in Pensacola, Florida, where La Rosa was stationed. Godfrey was impressed, offering La Rosa a job. Godfrey had La Rosa 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, in November 1951, 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.
La Rosa was joining a show that was extremely profitable for the new CBS television network. CBS owner William S. Paley disliked much of the show, in which a Time magazine article found Godfrey to be vulgar and "scatological." Hearing that William Paley thought the Godfrey TV show 'lacked movement,' Godfrey brought on a line of hula dancers and leered into the TV camera: 'Is that enough movement for you, Bill?'" But CBS management supported the show, which was extremely successful and inexpensive to produce.
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