Celebrity
Julius La Rosa dead: Singer fired live on Arthur Godfrey show was 86
Julius La Rosa
In this Oct. 26, 1953, file photo, Julius La Rosa, who was fired from the Arthur Godfrey shows, listens to a question during a news conference in Ed Sullivan’s apartment in New York.
Julius La Rosa, a pop singer known for hits including “Eh, Cumpari,” whose firing live on the air by Arthur Godfrey in 1953 overshadowed his successes that followed, has died at age 86.
La Rosa, a native of Brooklyn, New York, was in the Navy when Godfrey heard him sing and invited him to appear on his CBS TV show. Godfrey also urged him to come back after his discharge. La Rosa became a star of Godfrey’s show from 1951 to 1953, recording several hits including “Eh, Cumpari.”
Godfrey said he fired him because he lacked “humility” and because he had hired an agent
“I was 23 years old then and filled with myself,” La Rosa said in a 1991 interview with The New York Times. “Who isn’t at 23, especially if you’re a celebrity?”
La Rosa lived for 42 years in Irvington, in New York’s Westchester County, his daughter said, and continued to tour, perform and act for decades. He was also a longtime disc jockey on WNEW-AM in New York.
He and his wife moved to Crivitz, a small town in northeastern Wisconsin, only last November, said Smith, who added that her mother was originally from Wisconsin. She said the La Rosa family vacationed in Wisconsin every summer and spent every other Christmas with her mother’s family. Smith also said her brother, Christopher, lives in Crivitz.
“It’s a different way of life but he was ready for that,” she said. “He didn’t need the hustle and the bustle at 86 years old. He loved Wisconsin.”
