1954 Christmas Seals Shows with Julius La Rosa and Jack Benny

Christmas Seals have been a holiday tradition since 1907. Originally a campaign against tuberculosis, today they help the American Lung Association "make progress towards defeating asthma, lung cancer, influenza, tobacco use, air pollution and other lung diseases, including COVID-19."

During the 1950s, the Christmas Seals folks promoted their cause by sending special records to the nation's radio stations, with well-known personalities performing and asking listeners to use Christmas Seals on their greeting cards and packages. I'll have a few such programs for you this year, starting with today's selections, which date from 1954 and feature Julius La Rosa and Jack Benny. I recorded these from the original 16-inch transcription disk. Each program runs for 15 minutes.

The Julius La Rosa Show

Singer Julius La Rosa was at the peak of his career in 1954, just a year after being fired on-air by the dictatorial variety show host Arthur Godfrey, who claimed that Julie "lacked humility," a tactic that backfired badly. People were sympathetic to the 24-year-old talent, and the nation's comics were gifted with a new catch phrase  - "he lacks humility." (Even the announcer for this program refers to it.)

La Rosa had already enjoyed his first hit record with "Anywhere I Wander," from Frank Loesser's score for the Danny Kaye television special Hans Christian Andersen. You'll hear it as La Rosa's theme song during this program. Russ Case is the bandleader, and the vocal group is the Wanderers.

The songs are split between seasonal fare and other material. The holiday items are "Winter Wonderland," "The Christmas Song," "Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer" and "Silent Night." A more predictable program would be hard to imagine, but the selections are nicely done. The non-holiday tunes are "I Love Paris," "Let's Call the Whole Thing Off" and "Ac-cent-tchu-ate the Positive."

This program was taped specially for Christmas Seals, which wasn't the case with a few other such shows that I will present later in the season. As you will note if you enlarge the label above, KTAR (a Phoenix station) aired the show twice in mid-December.

If you like La Rosa, last year my pal Ernie and I collaborated on a 15-song playlist of holiday tunes from the vocalist's long career, including several non-commercial cuts from a Navy LP. It's all well worth hearing.

The Jack Benny Show

Jack Benny was an enormously long-lasting radio and television performer who was on the air regularly from 1932 to 1965. His shows did evolve over time, but by the early 1950s they generally were in a sitcom format with both regular characters and recurring performers.

Jack's Christmas shows at the time usually had one of two plots. In one, Jack goes shopping and drives clerk Mel Blanc to distraction by dithering and changing his order repeatedly. The second involved Jack throwing a cast party. This show is from the latter species. It would seem to have been edited from the December 20, 1953 episode of Benny's radio program.

The program features all of Jack's core cast at the time, which included Eddie "Rochester" Anderson (with Benny in the photo above), Mary Livingstone (in real life, Benny's wife), Dennis Day (who sings a Christmas medley), announcer Don Wilson and bandleader Bob Crosby, who had succeeded Phil Harris in 1952. Jack's most famous multi-character performer, Mel Blanc, shows up as the exasperated but eventually pacified landlord, Mr. Martin.

It's a fun episode, while not being as wacky or imaginative as some. As with the Julius La Rosa Show, there are two Christmas Seals spots. KTAR aired the Benny program once, in early December.

More from Christmas Seals

A few days ago I posted the 1952 Christmas Seals song, "One Little Candle," in Perry Como's excellent recording. This came from a special disk jockey copy that included a Como voice track for radio stations to play as an introduction. That post, on my singles blog, also includes Como's 1950 Christmas songs, together with the voice tracks that were used to introduce them on the air.

LINK TO BOTH SHOWS

Julius La Rosa at Christmas

The terrific singer Julius La Rosa never made a Christmas album, so my pal Ernie and I are doing our best to fill the void. We've collaborated on a 15-song playlist of holiday tunes from the vocalist's long career.

This is an enjoyable listen - La Rosa was one of those singers who were excellent at the outset of their careers, and remained so for a long time. He was skilled at all types of material - from ballads to novelties - and had a beautiful voice, particularly so in the early years.

We start our collection with a Christmas EP from 1953, and end it with a single from 1981.

Christmas EP

La Rosa's first seasonal records come from the time of his early fame, 1953, and hit the market just after his feud with former employer Arthur Godfrey became a cause célèbre. Godfrey was the biggest thing on television at the time, and La Rosa was his star attraction. But Arthur ran his show a bit like a plantation. He thought that Julius was getting too independent - La Rosa had actually hired an agent! This made Godfrey's face as red as his hair, so he fired Julie - on the air. People took sides, and most were sympathetic to La Rosa.

Ironically, the singer's Christmas EP hit the shops at the same time as Godfrey's own holiday LP, which featured a song by La Rosa (discussed next).

La Rosa was already an established recording artist when the EP came out. He had become the first artist signed to the new Cadence label, set up in 1952 by Archie Bleyer, the bandleader on Godfrey's show. The two had immediate success with "Anywhere I Wander" and then with "Eh, Cumpari," the rare novelty that is actually memorable, mainly because of La Rosa's engaging performance.

The Christmas EP includes four of the most well-worn religious numbers associated with the season, freshened by La Rosa's strikingly good singing. He was assisted by the Columbus Boychoir in "Adeste Fideles." Bleyer conducted. This transfer is revamped from one I offered many years ago.

December 1953 - La Rosa 'hasn't changed'

The Christmas Song

Godfrey's Christmas LP was a purported family affair, with all his featured artists - the Mariners, Janette Davis, Lu Ann Sims, Frank Parker and Marion Marlowe, Haleloke and the McGuire Sisters, along with La Rosa and Bleyer leading the band. Note that Santa Arthur called his assistants the "Little Godfreys." 

La Rosa's number on the LP is "The Christmas Song," which he handles well.

Cadence Singles

La Rosa went on to record three songs for Cadence that could be considered holiday fare - the first only in the broadest sense. "The Big Bell and the Little Bell" is a children's fable so charmingly done by Julie that I didn't want to leave it out.

Cadence and La Rosa issued a two-sided Christmas single in 1955. "Jingle Dingle" is the tale of another one of Santa's helpers, who must number in the thousands by now. The second side, "Campanelle," is more interesting. As you may have guessed, "Campanelle" is "Jingle Bells" in Italian, with La Rosa singing in both that language and English. This is a much better record than it has any right to be - very joyful and fun.

October 1955

Winter in New England

After moving to RCA Victor in 1956, Julie had an opportunity to show off his considerable ability on a few romantic ballads, along with the usual novelties and quasi-rock numbers. "Winter in New England" is a superior song by Robert Arthur and Jack Wolf. Lyrically it is nothing new (the usual tale of going back home), but is sensitively handled by La Rosa and band leader Joe Reisman, aided by an mellifluous recording. Composer Robert Arthur was the longtime music director for Ed Sullivan's television show, where La Rosa regularly appeared. (The download has a Cash Box cover photo of Sullivan and La Rosa.)

We All Need a Little Christmas

By 1966, La Rosa had moved on from RCA, cycled through the Roulette and Kapp labels, and ended up with M-G-M. The next holiday item in this collection, "We All Need a Little Christmas," appears on his LP You're Gonna Hear from Me, titled for André and Dory Previn's song from Inside Daisy Clover.

"We All Need a Little Christmas" is from Jerry Herman's score for his big Broadway hit, Mame, where it was introduced by Angela Lansbury and company. Noisy and simplistic, the song is also catchy and amusing. La Rosa shows off his range through his commanding performance, but is let down by an awful recording, both boomy and indistinct, so different from the superior RCA product above. Don Costa conducted.

Sing Noel with the US Navy Band

Ernie contributed the balance of the program from his vast archive, starting with this rare program of Christmas songs with the United States Navy Band, produced for promotional purposes, likely in the 1970s. La Rosa was a Navy veteran - and in fact was discovered by Godfrey in 1951 when he was still in uniform and singing in officers' clubs.

The Navy LP is a high quality production with La Rosa featured on four songs. The record starts off with the self-explanatory "Julie's Christmas Melody," in a fine arrangement.

La Rosa also is heard in "Santa Claus Is Comin' to Town," one of the few readings of "The Twelve Days of Christmas" that I can stand, and "Nature Boy," which I never thought was a holiday song, but who am I to argue with the Navy.

This is a well-performed and produced record, and Julie is in good form.

A Christmas Gift

Our program concludes with another rarity from Ernie's vast collection - "A Christmas Gift" from 1981. It's an unknown but lovely song, enhanced by an accomplished Torrie Zito arrangement.

The 45 label says the song is from a new LP, but I've never seen a copy of that album and wonder it ever was issued.

In addition to the songs described above, the download includes many ads, articles and brief reviews.

My thanks to Ernie for both contributing to and instigating this collection. (Make sure to visit his site for an overwhelming variety of Christmas music.) Let me note that some of the singles come from the vast Internet Archive.

I hope you will enjoy the La Rosa collection as part of your Christmas listening - and that you all have a wonderful holiday!

Julius La Rosa on RCA Victor

This post is in response to a request to honor the memory of singer Julius La Rosa, who passed away last month.

I am happy to do so. I have long admired La Rosa's singing, and while I have never been an assiduous collector of his recordings, I seem to have accumulated most of them.

So for this entry, I have put together the majority of his recordings for RCA Victor, as issued on LP and singles in 1956-57.

This was just after the period of La Rosa's greatest popularity. He had come to notice on Arthur Godfrey's American television show in 1951, only to be summarily dismissed by the legendary broadcaster in 1953 because the singer had hired a manager.

By that time, however, La Rosa had achieved a renown comparable to Godfrey's own. In late 1952, Godfrey's music director, Archie Bleyer, established Cadence Records, with La Rosa as his first artist signing. The next year they had a tremendous hit with their adaptation of the Italian novelty "Eh, Cumpari!" and some of their other records did well.

La Rosa moved on to RCA Victor in late 1955 or 1956, staying there until shifting to Roulette records in 1958. RCA issued one LP and 24 single sides by the singer. This post contains the contents of the self-titled LP along with half of La Rosa's single output.

The LP consists almost entirely of easy-going standards, dispatched with winning sincerity, along with "Don't You Know I Care," a lesser-known Duke Ellington song (with Mack David lyrics), and "I Love My Bed," a weird Bob Haymes tune.

Whether because of his own taste, or that of his arranger-producer, Joe Reisman, La Rosa seemed to favor songs by Dick Haymes's brother. In the selection of single items, he does Haymes's "I've Got Love" and "Lipstick and Candy and Rubbersole Shoes." The latter, as you might guess, is a novelty, and in common with most pop singers of the era, La Rosa had a goodly number in his recorded repertoire.

Promotional EP

In what was probably an attempt to replicate the success of "Eh, Cumpari!", RCA had him do both a ersatz German number, "Augustine" ("To Brünnhilde and Marlene, I've just said 'auf wiedersehen'!"), and a fake Polish item called "Stashu Pandowski" ("She's not very much good for pretty, but she's very much good for strong!"). La Rosa dispatches both these with admirable enthusiasm and no apparent embarrassment.

The other items range from a cover of Eddie Cooley's rockish "Priscilla" to a pop number, "Famous Last Words," by R&B stalwarts Jerry Lieber and Mike Stoller. There also are a few songs from My Fair Lady and a number of lesser known but attractive ballads. In all, La Rosa seems completely at home, showing off the expected influences, from Frank Sinatra to Tony Bennett, without ever sounding like a clone.

The singing on the singles is in some ways superior to the LP, where his intonation is not always secure and where he flubs a few lyrics. (Joe Reisman should have called for retakes.)

The sound is very good for the most part, after adjusting the shrill sonics that afflicted some of singles. There is a bit of surface noise on a few of the sides.

If this isn't enough Julie for you, I invite you to RCA's Julius La Rosa Pajama Party over on Buster's Swinging Singles.

Christmas with the Crooners

A 1953 Julius LaRosa EP leads off tonight's share of Christmas records by some of the popular crooners of the postwar era, which also includes a passel of unusual songs by other singers.

The EP came out shortly after LaRosa's infamous on-air firing by American TV host Arthur Godfrey (a man who struck me as creepy even back then, when I was barely out of diapers). Julie has a reputation among vocal aficionados that is far greater than his popularity, and this record shows why. He performs these songs beautifully (a tendency to sing a little flat aside). He maintains his quality of voice even when singing loud, which is unusual for pop singers. And he is very involved in the repertoire. Excellent support by the Columbus Boychoir and Archie Bleyer. There is a small amount of groove noise on this EP - the second side was defective, but I managed to navigate around almost all the damage.

Billboard ad

We begin the assorted holiday singles with Johnny Mercer's 1946 recording of "Winter Wonderland," made with the Pied Pipers and Paul Weston. This one's a little worn, but the rest of the evening's fare is in excellent shape.

We move ahead to 1950 and Frankie Laine's 78 of "Merry Christmas Everywhere" and "What Am I Gonna Do This Christmas." Also from that year is the first of two singles from that fine singer Johnny Desmond - "Sleigh Ride" and "A Marshmallow World."

Next up is "That's What Christmas Means to Me," a good song and performance by Eddie Fisher. Back to Desmond for 1954's "Happy Holidays to You" and "Santo Natale" (think "Santa Lucia").

Billboard ad

Finally, from 1955 we have Tony Martin's "Christmas in America" and "Christmas in Rio."

The songs on this set range from the overly familiar ("Silent Night") to sorta familiar ("Sleigh Ride") to sorta unfamiliar ("A Marshmallow World") to completely unfamiliar (most of the rest). Many of the non-hits are very worthwhile, and I think that makes for a good holiday listening.