From Bill Diehl’s Magazine Rack
Julius La Rosa was hired as a disc jockey on WNEW in 1970. That’s when I got to know him while working as a newscaster on the station. Off the air Julie was great to know-personable and willing to talk
about his time with Arthur Godfrey when he was fired in 1953. Godfrey said later it was because Julie lacked humility, but what really angered ‘the old redhead’ was La Rosa had hired an agent, a big no-no-no because Godfrey wanted total control over his so-called ‘little Godfrey’s’.
Firing La Rosa backfired. Ed Sullivan immediately hired La Rosa for appearances on his “Toast of the Town.” During the summer of 1955, La Rosa had a three times a week TV series on CBS. In ’56 and ’57 he hosted summer shows as a seasonal replacement for Perry Como. Shortly after leaving Godfrey La Rosa had several hit records, including “Eh Compari” and “Domani.”
Years later when I got to really know Julie we talked about his career and Godfrey. Julie said, “As an entertainer he was the best salesman in the world. I was a 20-yr-old kid in the Navy from Brooklyn and Godfrey gave me a golden opportunity to be on his shows. Happy memories? Are you kidding?! There was a year and a half of total and complete joy, I mean look at me ma, that kind of thing. I was doing what I had one day dreamed I would do.”
Julie told me that after the firing <he> met Godfrey in his office, “offered my hand in friendship and he rejected it.” Godfrey died in 1983 at 79. “Now that he’s gone,” said La Rosa, “I shall pray that he will rest in peace.” La Rosa said they met briefly once on Fifth Avenue walking in different directions. “I took his hand and said, you’re looking well, and he said thank you. And I said, you better watch it, or they’ll make an item of us.”
In the late 1970s, I gave my high-school English teacher Frank Nash a tour of WNEW. As we walked through the control room, Mr. Nash spotted Julie in the studio.
“Who’s that, Andrew?” he asked.
“That’s Julius LaRosa, Mr. Nash,” I replied.
“THE Julius LaRosa?”
“Sure! Let’s go in and say hello.”
We walked into the studio.
“Julie,” I said, “this is Frank Nash, who taught me the English language.”
Julie lit up with one of those 50-kilowatt smiles. “Frank,” he said, “you did a hell of a job!”
It was one of the few times I ever saw Mr. Nash — a war hero with dreadful memories — smile.
Bill’s remembrances of Julius LaRosa are on-the-money! Like Bill, I had occasion to do the news on Julie’s afternoon show at the Big W, a few years later. Despite the expanse of his performing career before finding the radio studio, Julie could not have been nicer to this young colleague and most always had a moment to trade a story or two! I always marveled that after he settled-in at WNEW, he was so at home. Being an accomplished singer and a radio air personality are definitely not synonyms, yet for Julie LaRosa his tenure on New York radio at that premiere music station was, indeed, time well spent!