Wow, I didn't realize it's been almost 2 weeks since my last post. I was under the weather for the past couple of weeks and I mean way below the weather. I think I had the plague or something. Anyway, I'm feeling better and my pal Tim Madigan, heap big philosopher, e-mailed me this evening and told me I better post about my on-air meeting this afternoon with 1950's pop-icon Julius LaRosa on my Sunday Music Festa/Otto Show radio programs on Jazz 90.1.
Unfortunately, LaRosa is probably most famous for his on-air firing by the egomaniacal Arthur Godfrey in 1953. If you want to have some idea about how popular and powerful a media figure Arthur Godfrey was at one time in this country, rent the DVD "A Face in the Crowd" starring Andy Griffith and Patricia Neal and directed by Elia Kazan. The character Griffith plays is based on Arthur Godfrey. However, when LaRosa was fired by Godfrey in 1953 Godfrey made a statement to the press that stuck onto LaRosa and has haunted him ever after. Godfrey said the reason he had fired LaRosa was because "he had lost his humility." Now coming from a man like Godfrey this was a comical statement. To be made about a guy like LaRosa is nothing short of ludicrous.
In the six years that I've been writing and been hosting my radio show, I've been fortunate to meet, talk, and interview a few celebrities, musicians, actors, and writers. I can honestly say I've never met/spoken with anyone more humble and self-effacing than Julius LaRosa. He certainly has legitimate reasons to be bitter and regretful if he wanted to be. His is a substantial talent and yet super-stardom and lasting fame eluded him. The respected music writer/critic/lyricist Gene Lees has said that LaRosa is "the most brilliant singer of the Sinatra school" of vocalists. Ella Fitzgerald once called him "the most under-rated singer in the world." As for LaRosa, he routinely refers to himself as the luckiest guy in the world.
We spoke for a little over an hour on the show this afternoon while we listened to some of his recordings as well as music from Tommy Leonetti, Frank Sinatra, and others. He was charming, funny, friendly, and sincere. I've met him on two different occasions and spoken with him via the telephone a half dozen more. Each and every encounter is the same - he is charming, funny, friendly, and sincere. He also happens to be one hell of a singer.
Many months back, I had a listener write me a little note to tell me how much he enjoyed my show. It was one of those complimentary letters where you heard the "But" coming from the very first sentence until it finally appeared about three-quarters of the way through the letter. This gentleman's beef was my predisposition to play Frank Sinatra's music on my program. Now mind you, when my program started six years ago it was promoted as a "Celebration of the Italian American Legacy in Song." Since that time, I've tried to move slightly away from the Italian American theme but I've always concentrated on The Great American Songbook - the standards of our popular music written by masters such as Cole Porter, Rodgers & Hart, Gershwin, Mercer, Harry Warren, Jerome Kern, Harburg, and the rest. So I ask you, with those two ideas/themes in mind, am I not going to play the music of Frank Sinatra?!
Now, would you like to know why this gentleman protested Frank's airplay? Because Frank wasn't a nice man. I know, I know . . . you think I'm trying to be funny but I kid you not. He said that if I knew what a mean, spiteful, cruel man Sinatra could be I'd never play his music. Well, besides the fact that I've probably read as much that's been written about Sinatra as anyone, besides having talked with and interviewed people who worked with and knew Sinatra, besides having met Sinatra once in 1980, my biggest question to this gentleman was "Who cares?" I mean we all know Van Gogh was a little screwy - he cut his own ear off, for cryin' out loud - does that somehow mean he wasn't an artistic genius when it comes to painting?
Here's my point, there are many artists, writers, performers, and statesman with whom you probably wouldn't want to do a great deal of socializing. That doesn't mean they aren't monumental talents. In fact, their monumental talents and abilities may be what keeps them from being able to relate to people in simple, everyday situations. It would be nice if all the famous people we admired were also people we could be friends with in our own lives. Normally, this is not the case. However, every once in a great while, we are lucky enough to meet someone whose talent we admire and whose accomplishments we praise and they are everything we hoped they'd be and more. It's very rare but it happens - Julius LaRosa is one of those rare exceptions.
PLAY BALL!
Baseball season began this evening in Chicago. Besides the birth of a baby, the beginning of a new baseball season may be the only other event that truly gives me a feeling of hope. I know it sounds hokey but despite the pathetic personalities that have ruined our great national past time, the Mark McGwires, Pete Roses, Barry Bonds' and Bud Seligs, nothing can ruin the game. It's still the most wonderful game on earth. I spent the first sixteen or seventeen years of my life wanting nothing more than to be a professional baseball player.
The late, great Kirby Puckett proved that baseball truly was a "field of dreams" where anybody with enough heart could carve a niche for themselves in the storied history of the game. In a world where you need to be 300 lbs and at least 6' 6" to play football, and just slightly lighter and substantially taller to play basketball, baseball remains the one place where every kid can at least dream of the possibility of someday making the big leagues.
One of my favorite MLB players is David Eckstein of the St. Louis Cardinals. This kid is about 5' 8" tall and weighs about 165 pounds. He's been playing for about seven years and he has a .282 lifetime average. He was an integral part of the Anaheim Angels World Championship season a few years back. He gives hope to every scrawny little kid playing little league that maybe, just maybe he can make it. That's why I love this game.
Here's to a season with faster games, close pennant races, an injured Barry Bonds, and a real Commissioner. In case you're wondering, I do not now, never have, and never will, recognize Bud Selig as a legitimate Commissioner. Lucky for him too, he wouldn't want to have screwed up so much while actually being a real commissioner!
Let's play ball!
