In October of 1953, singer Julius La Rosa--who died May 12th,
at age 86--was part of one of the most interesting, and most peculiar, moments
in broadcasting history.
He was
fired--live, on the air--by his boss, television and radio giant Arthur
Godfrey.
The show was Arthur Godfrey Time, a morning program
simulcast on CBS Radio and TV--although La Rosa's dismissal, from the Godfrey
family of entertainers, was not seen by television viewers. The TV portion of
the simulcast had ended, for that day; the firing was heard only by Godfrey's
radio listeners.
At the end of the show--after La Rosa, at Godfrey's request,
sang the song "Manhattan"--Godfrey
told his audience the following:
"Thanks ever so much, Julie. That was Julie's swan song, with us. He goes now, out on his own, as his own star,
soon to be seen in his own programs. And
I know you wish him Godspeed, same as I do."
Andy Rooney, who wrote for the program, said, in an
interview years later for A & E's Biography program, that La Rosa asked, after leaving the
stage, "Was I just fired?"
Godfrey later said that the dismissal took place because La
Rosa had come to lack "humility."
The relationship between Godfrey and La Rosa had
deteriorated--at least in part--as a result of a couple of incidents.
Godfrey, during this time, had insisted that his family of
performers take dance classes, to help with their sense of movement, on-stage. La Rosa--who in addition to appearing on
Godfrey's morning TV/radio show also appeared on the weekly TV program Arthur Godfrey and His Friends--missed
one of the classes, due, he said, to a family matter. Godfrey then suspended him for a day.
As Arthur J. Singer writes, in the biography Arthur Godfrey:
The Adventures of an American Broadcaster (McFarland & Company, Inc., 2000): "La Rosa insists he had gone to see
Godfrey to tell him he had a family conflict and that Arthur had seemed to
understand but told him to try to get back if he could."
Singer continues, regarding the suspension:
"La Rosa was enraged. He
went over to the Lexington Hotel, where Godfrey lived, and had the operator
ring his room. He was told Godfrey was
out. But Julius had seen his car on the
street and decided to wait for him to come down to the lobby. Finally, according to La Rosa, Godfrey came
down with two of his assistants and brushed by La Rosa without acknowledging
him. 'I said to myself, Okay. So I went and got a manager and...an
agent."
Godfrey did not want his "Little Godfreys"--as the
performers on his shows were called, collectively--to hire agents or managers; he preferred
to deal with his performers directly, and had made this known. Soon, Godfrey received a letter from the
agent, Tommy Rockwell, of General Artists; the letter, Arthur J. Singer summarizes,
said that "in the future, all dealings with La Rosa would be handled through
the agent's office." In an
interview, years later--seen on A & E's Biography--La Rosa spoke about the
letter. It was, he acknowledged, a
"big slap in the face" to Godfrey. Godfrey--with the approval of executives at
CBS--decided to fire La Rosa; it was agreed the firing would take place on the
air.
The public firing, and Godfrey's subsequent remarks to
reporters about La Rosa's lack of humility, were not well-received. For years Godfrey had been known for his generally
easygoing, genial manner. His public
image--as commentators have noted, over time--was certainly affected by the
controversy; the episode, to many, suggested an unlikeable, perhaps imperious,
side to his personality.
Here is a YouTube video featuring part of the 1996 A & E
broadcast of Biography, about Arthur Godfrey (its Executive
Producer was Godfrey biographer Arthur J. Singer, referred to above). The video includes the audio recording of the
firing, as well as interviews with La Rosa, and others, about it:
Here, too, is an obituary about Julius La Rosa, from The Washington
Post:
