The Great Man
Joe Harris is a popular, established local radio news reporter covering Broadway entertainment with a wise-guy attitude.Amassing the research into a script, Harris has to choose between praising the beloved, amusing and warm-hearted Fuller the public saw or unmasking the phony beneath the image.While the movie was based on the controversy surrounding Arthur Godfrey, whose real-life persona contrasted with his warm-hearted public demeanor, the fictional Fuller's failings differed greatly.That situation, originally private, became public with the October 19, 1953, on-air firing of singer and popular Godfrey show discovery Julius La Rosa.Accusations in 1955 of anti-semitism that grew out of Godfrey's part-ownership of a Miami Beach hotel notorious for refusing to accommodate Jews also dogged him, though few believed the charges.