OT: #331B--Scandals

[vtcwbuff]

From a NY Times article by Dick Cavett - I'll preface it by saying that I was never a Godfrey fan and it's not my intent to defend him. Just trying to tell it like it was.

"There are two versions. One is that Arthur heartlessly, publicly fired a personable young singer — a member of the Godfrey “family” — live, on-the-air. So great was Godfrey’s size in the entertainment world that the dramatic phrase “the nation was shocked” is no exaggeration.

In fact, re-examining the incident, it’s hardly the unmitigated evil it was depicted as at the time. Not only had Godfrey and La Rosa previously talked about the young lad’s desire to move on, but the big bosses at CBS strongly urged Arthur to handle the parting on the air. Doing so, Arthur used the words “Julie’s swan song” and wished La Rosa well. Listening to it now, it seems both harmless and cordial."

I know that it is fact that LaRosa was looking elsewhere. He had a hit song and was looking to build on that. Godfrey's biographer hinted that LaRosa felt he was too big for the show.

 

[vtcwbuff]

It still seems to me that there could be some validity in the anti-Semitism charge. In becoming a part owner, he's aligning himself with anti-Semites. Also if the only info is that the sign went down "shortly after", how long was the "shortly"?

Again from Cavett in a different NY Times column -

"Then there’s the anti-Semitism matter. At its most fulsome, it goes, “Don’t you know Godfrey owned a hotel in Florida with a sign out front that read, ‘No Dogs or Jews’?” Although purest nonsense, you can still hear it resurrected by seniors from that era.
Unreported was the fact that although he did patronize that hotel, he made a point of checking in with Jewish friends and cast members.
He later bought into the place and abolished the odious policy. Being labeled an anti-Semite was a bum rap that those who knew the man say he emphatically did not deserve. The hotel in question, The Kenilworth, became nationally famous at the time."

WC - pay attention to the part that I underlined. Unless Cavett is wrong, it seems as if the anti semite accusations are dead wrong.