Arthur Godfrey and The Julius La Rosa Firing--Interesting Random Facts:

I'm currently reading The Complete Chester Gould’s Dick Tracy Volume 13: 1950-1951 and there are numerous references to someone named Arthur Godfrey.

After ignoring the first few references, I got curious enough that I googled Arthur Godfrey.

According to Wikipedia: 

Arthur Morton Godfrey (August 31, 1903 – March 16, 1983) was an American radio and television broadcaster and entertainer. At the peak of his success, in the early to mid-1950s, Godfrey was heard on radio and seen on television up to six days a week, at times for as many as nine separate broadcasts for CBS. 

Well, if he was at the peak of his popularity in the 1950s, that would explain why there were so many references to him in the 1950-1951 Dick Tracy comics.  

A little bit further down that same entry, there's a further little bit of interesting information:

The infamous on-air firing of cast member Julius La Rosa in 1953 tainted Godfrey's down-to-earth, family-man image and resulted in a marked decline in his popularity which he was never able to overcome.^[4] 

Oh wow!  An on-air firing?  That does sound dramatic.  I wonder if there's a clip of that online somewhere.

The Wikipedia entry on Arthur Godfrey has a whole expanded section on the La Rosa Incident, which you can read if you want all the details.  But the short version is that the incident isn't nearly as dramatic as I was expecting.  There's no footage of Godfrey snapping and firing La Rosa in a rage.  Instead, it was all a lot more subtle.

On October 19, 1953, near the end of his morning radio show – deliberately waiting until after the television portion had ended – after lavishing praise on La Rosa in introducing the singer's performance of "Manhattan", Godfrey thanked him and then announced that this was La Rosa's "swan song" with the show, adding, "He goes now, out on his own – as his own star – soon to be seen on his own programs, and I know you'll wish him godspeed as much as I do". Godfrey then signed off for the day, saying, "This is the CBS Radio Network". La Rosa, who did not know what the phrase "swan song" meant, was incredulous when told he had just been fired, since he had not been informed beforehand of his termination, and contract renegotiations had not yet taken place. 

Nevertheless, despite the actual firing being very civil, further reading of the entry does make clear that the fallout from this was a pretty big deal for Godfrey.

Well, there you go, huh?  Learn something new every day.