Before He Was Mr. C
Fourteen years before he first donned Mr. C's signature cardigan, a 32-year-old Tom Bosley was the toast of Broadway. In 1959, he landed the title role in Fiorello!, a splashy new musical about the life of New York City’s famously fiery and reformist
mayor, Fiorello La Guardia. At the time, Bosley was a relatively unknown stage actor who, by his own admission, thought he was merely auditioning for an understudy part. Instead, he was unexpectedly cast as the lead, a role that would transform his career overnight and showcase a dynamic talent far removed from the gentle patriarch he would later embody.
Becoming 'The Little Flower'
Playing La Guardia was no small feat. The role required a commanding presence, a powerful singing voice, and the ability to capture the politician's scrappy, man-of-the-people energy. Bosley, a Chicago native, threw himself into the part, mastering the larger-than-life personality of the man known as "the Little Flower." The musical itself, with a book by Jerome Weidman and George Abbott and a score by Jerry Bock and Sheldon Harnick, was a massive undertaking, chronicling La Guardia's crusade against the corrupt Tammany Hall political machine. Bosley’s performance was the heart of the show, wowing audiences as he sang with conviction, sometimes in multiple languages within a single song.
A Star Is Born on Broadway
When Fiorello! opened in November 1959, it was an immediate sensation, earning rave reviews. The show was a critical and commercial darling, so much so that it won the rare honor of a Pulitzer Prize for Drama. At the center of the acclaim was Bosley. For his breakout performance, he won the 1960 Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Musical, sharing the winner's circle that year with The Sound of Music, which tied for Best Musical. It was the kind of career-defining moment actors dream of, cementing Bosley as a bona fide Broadway star.
The Shadow of a Sitcom
So why did this triumphant, Tony-winning performance become a footnote for so many? After the success of Fiorello!, Bosley worked steadily through the 1960s in film and television, but another role of that magnitude proved elusive. Then, in 1974, he was cast as Howard Cunningham. Happy Days became a cultural phenomenon, running for 11 seasons and turning Bosley into one of the most recognizable and beloved faces in America. The gentle, wholesome image of Mr. C was so powerful and pervasive that it largely eclipsed the memory of his dynamic stage debut. For the millions who invited him into their living rooms each week, he wasn't a Tony-winning dynamo; he was simply America's dad.
