A stocky, 30-year-old ex-truck driver, Mario Lanza,
has show business gasping because his MGM movies
(latest, The Great Caruso), cross-country concerts and records
have made him overnight the hottest singing star in the U.S.
Facing almost hysterical acclaim, Lanza takes pride that he's "a man's singer"
because there are just as many men as women in his vast audiences,
and that he gives the public exactly what it wants.
"You got to sing the words," he says.
"It's the words that count.
I sing from the heart and with the great voice God has given me."
Lanza's bonanzas surprise, flatter and delight him.
Lanza throws his 190 pounds into a tough workout
as lustily as he projects his strong voice in the movie
The Great Caruso and on his best-selling records.
Lanza as the young Caruso:
He say he learned to sing, aged 5,
from listening to Caruso's records.
The newly prosperous Lanzas in Beverly Hills:
Mario's mother, Maria Lanza Cocozza; baby Colleen; Mario,
his Irish wife, Betty; and his father Tony, a disabled war vet.
As Caruso, Metropolitan Opera star:
Lanza has no plans for Met, "but Mr. Bing knows all about me."
With Colleen kibitzing,
Mario runs off do-re-mi's with pianist Constantine Callinikos.
Besides his bonanzas in movies, concerts, records,
Lanza sings on CBS Sundays at 8, pinch-hitting for Edgar Bergen.
Lanzas in garden watch their dog skip a hedge.
Now Mario can rarely stay home:
"My success is sensational, crazy, but I intend to hold on to it."
