A lack of humility
I made a Julius LaRosa joke about Ellen DeGeneres’ current problems a couple of places on social media yesterday. The LaRosa story happened before I was born, and so it was before my time, but I’d heard about it for years — and I am old enough to at least vaguely remember Arthur Godfrey in his waning days, as a guest star on other people’s shows. Younger people, though, may have no idea what I was talking about.
There was a point in the early 1950s (I was born in 1962) when Arthur Godfrey was a huge star on U.S. television and radio (not everyone had a TV yet). He had a daily morning show that was broadcast on both TV and radio; he also had two weekly prime-time shows, one of them a variety show and the other a talent contest.
Godfrey was known for his warm, relaxed, welcoming on-air personality. He was just likable in front of the camera, like a favorite uncle.
But it would be nearly impossible for anyone to be as successful as Arthur Godfrey was and not be a little more driven than his on-air personality would indicate.
I remember when I got the chance to do a telephone interview with Wendy’s founder Dave Thomas. Dave was doing all of Wendy’s TV commercials at the…
