Gerussi began acting in high school in
New Westminster, British Columbia, when he played the lead in a school production of
The Valiant. He won a scholarship to the Banff School of Fine Arts and, after graduating, joined the
Seattle Repertory Theatre. In 1949, he returned to Vancouver where he played
Stanley Kowalski in Totem Theatre's production of
A Streetcar Named Desire and co-starred with
Lon Chaney, Jr. in
Of Mice and Men. During the next few years he went on to act in many stage productions in Canada and the United States, including performing the role of Feste in
Twelfth Night, which he later reprised on
CBC Television in 1964, and as Romeo opposite
Julie Harris in the Stratford Festival's first production of
Romeo and Juliet in 1960. His wife Ida died in 1965. As a single parent raising two children, Gerussi was less able to travel for work and so he joined
CHIN radio as its
morning man hosting
Gerussi, Words and Music for four hours a day from 6a.m. to 10a.m. After the show began in January 1967, the
Toronto Daily Star's
Barbara Frum reported that the show had no listeners for the first two-and-a-half hours of its premiere. The show became popular, however, and in the fall of 1967,
CBC Radio gave him a national daily morning show,
Gerussi!, which aired until 1971 and became the model for the network's
This Country in the Morning and
Morningside in the 1970s and 1980s. ==
The Beachcombers years==