Mario Lanza And Friends

TO THE FANS OF MARIO LANZA WORLDWIDE:

My name is Jim Thompson and I live in Connecticut, USA. My career has been in radio and television. News reporting and entertainment have been my forte. Over the years at different radio stations, I produced and presented a program I call "MARIO LANZA AND FRIENDS". The show featured the great voices of today and yesterday singing from their recorded repertoire: opera, popular songs, Broadway musicals and songs from countries worldwide. The show is available anytime you choose to listen. I hope you'll join us and tell lovers of great singing about it.

Jim Thompson
Host, Mario Lanza And Friends		 On past radio shows I've had the pleasure of having very special guests as co-hosts and whose admiration of Mario is total: Licia Albanese, Richard Leech, Renee Fleming, Eileen Farrell, Robert Merrill, Jerry Hadley, Roberta Peters, Sherrill Milnes, Elaine Malbin and others. I am very excited about doing my show on the Internet. To be able to bring Mario's voice to audiences worldwide is thrilling and to have the additional artistry of other great singers is a marvelous bonus. I hope you will think so and find the program worthwhile listening. Exceptional music, exciting personalities and intelligent commentary. These are the ingredients of MARIO LANZA AND FRIENDS.

Toscanini reportedly said Lanza had, quote, "The greatest voice of the twentieth century".
The young tenor from Philadelphia had an all too brief career, but in a dozen years recorded operatic arias and million-seller songs, made hit movies and left a legacy that inspires many of today's top classical singers. I am tempted to say as Mario did on his radio shows: "May I wish you the very best of everything in life always"... but I am sure you will, at some time, hear it on our show! Until we meet surrounded by great music on MARIO LANZA AND FRIENDS, Ciao!

Jim Thompson [Email Jim]

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LINKS TO MARIO LANZA

BOOKS ABOUT MARIO LANZA

  • "Mario Lanza - A Biography" by Derek Mannering (publisher: Robert Hale - London)
  • "Singing To The Gods" by Derek Mannering (publisher: Robert Hale - London)
  • "Singing To The Gods" (U.S. edition) by Derek Mannering (publisher: University Press of Mississippi)
  • "Mario Lanza - A Life In Pictures" by Derek Mannering (publisher: Robert Hale - London)
  • "Mario Lanza - An American Tragedy" by Armando Cesari (publisher: Baskerville Publishers)
  • "Tenor In Exile" by Roland Bessette (publisher: Amadeus Press)
  • "Be My Love" by Damon Lanza and Bob Dolfi (publisher: Bonus Books, Inc.)
  • "Jussi" by Andrew Farkas and Anna-Lisa Bjorling (publisher: Amadeus Press)
  • "Caruso, My Father, My Family" by Andrew Farkas and Enrico Caruso, Jr. (publisher: Amadeus Press)

About Jim Thompson

Jim Thompson has been involved in broadcasting for over thirty years. He has appeared on radio and television in the United States both as a newsman and a performer. Following service in the U.S. Army, he sang on the Ed Sullivan Show. He grew up in ten countries and speaks Spanish, French, and some Italian. Jim Thompson was News Director in Greenwich, CT for over two decades and anchored the morning news program "Greenwich This Morning". Other places of employment include Cablevision of Connecticut, WNCN-FM New York, NY, WTIC AM/FM/TV Hartford CT, WHYN-TV Springfield MA, and Armed Forces Radio and Television, U.S. Army.