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CONTENTS Editorial.................................................................................................l1 Ernest Borgnine exclusive Interview............................................2-3 Constantine............................................................................................4 Five Centuries of Italian American History.....................................5 NIAF Monthly news...........................................................................6 Festa Sciiliana.......................................................................................8 Angela Alioto........................................................................................9 Communicato.................................................................................... 10 Cinque Terre..................................................................................11-12 History of Italian names................................................................... 12 Candy article Autism........................................................................ 13 Venus Travel Conenna..................................................................... 15 Capri Region................................................................................16-17 Francis Rizzo Opera...................................................................18-19 Filippo & the Chef......................................................................20-21 Recipes for your table.................................................................22-23 316 WW2 Husky part1.................................................................... 24 Restaurant Radio............................................................................... 26 Italian Restaurant guide.................................................................... 27 Kelly Monaco Interview.................................................................. 30 Ron Oneste......................................................................................... 31 Zalute Restaurant review................................................................. 32 Puzzle Italian Trivia.......................................................................... 33 Ringside Report Chuck Giampa..............................................34-35 Ron Santo.....................................................................................36-37 Vincent Pastore Inteerview.............................................................. 40 The Good old days............................................................................ 41
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Copyright © 2004 AMICI JOURNAL PUBLICATIONS, INC. P.O. Box 595, River Grove, IL 60171 www.amiciorgit.net Founders Terry N. Geraci; Andrew Guzaldo; Salvatore Terranova; Joseph Nugara, Sr. Publishers Amici Journal Publications Inc. Editor/CEO Andrew Guzaldo Chief Staff Writer John Rizzo Photographer /Writer Joe Cosentino Creative Designer Teresa Rozanacki Publishing Consultant & Production Joseph C. Nugara, Sr. All Rights Reserved. No part of this publication can be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or by any information storage or retrieval system without written permission of Publisher. All information contained herein is deemed reliable and is submitted subject to errors, Printed by MultiAd omissions, and to change of price or terms without notice.
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AMICI JOURNAL
Editorial B envenuti…..
As always, we at Amici Journal would like to thank our subscribers and advertisers that support our publication. They are a large reason why we have been able to widen the spectrum and now distribute Amici Journal nationally. Together, we are contributing to our shared heritage. Once again, we bring you another exciting and fulfilling issue of Amici Journal. We continue to showcase exceptional individuals that make up our society. Academy award winning actor and writer Ermes Effron Borgnino, better known as Ernest Borgnine, We are honored to have him on our Fall 2008 cover. Mr. Borgnine was born in Connecticut and is the proud son of parents who emigrated from Ottiglio, Italy (Father) and Carpi, Italy (Mother). We couldn’t encourage you more to read his exclusive interview with our staff writer John Rizzo. Mr. Borgnine shares thoughts of his youth and his desires. He also shares with our readers the one point in his life that set him on the path to becoming an actor. Mr. Borgnine credits his mother for encouraging and supporting him. Without a question, we are proud and honored to present such a legendary celebrity on our cover. This is only a taste of what is to come to end 2008 and the start of 2009’s lineup. Once again we treat our readers with a number of interesting articles. Read about Filippo and the Chef and learn about their culinary efforst on the west coast. Famed actor Vincent Pastore gives his take on acting and the mentality of those that denigrate and harass Italian American actors. In this issue, we also showcase the renowned the Italian- American actress Kelly Monaco. We bring to our readers an exclusive interview with Kelly Monaco, which is sure to keep you interested. Our readers have expressed their enjoyment of our WWII stories. Therefore, we will continue to share these legendary, historical memories of those who not only contributed to our shared heritage but to the heritage of the world. These heroes gave of themselves to us many years before we realized the pain and anguish they endured. In the world of sports, we bring the story of Ron Santo, his successes and hard fought battles. We also showcase a particularly interesting story, one of a writer and well-known sports persona, the story of Chuck Giampa, also known as the Las Vegas boxing judge. His story is one of success and triumph that had its beginning as a true resident of the “Taylor Street Era”. In our entertainment section, you will find updates on the Lyric Opera as well as an insight into the Opera World from our interview of the talented Francis “Frank” Rizzo. We also encourage you to browse through our advertiser to experience that delightful products and services. For example, take advantage of the wonderful “Stay and Visit” package Orofino Tours together with Amici Journal is proud to offer to our readers. Don’t forget to check out our Restaurant Radio article as well as our Restaurant Guide. Here we bring to you new restaurants and all services and products they have to offer for your leisure and eating pleasure. We know this information can help you find that particular restaurant of your choice as you travel to enjoy the great neighborhoods in our circulation. The Italian American heritage has not always been highly regarded by others. At times it has been viewed as inferior and therefore degraded. Some have even attempted to paint this heritage as filled with immoral lives revolving around liquor and other vises. However, through the great efforts together with Italian American Organizations such as NIAF, NIASHF, FRA NOI, JCCIA, OSIA and many others. And to our readers that endorse our passion and the accomplishments for our heritage beyond our origins throughout this great country of the U.S.A. Amici Journal is honored to be amongst those that will continue to preserve and promote our Italian American culture. Maybe these things will help to bring together groups of Italian Americans with roots in all Regions of Italy to our shared Italian American Heritage. Send all correspondence to Amici Journal Publications, Inc. P.O. Box 595, River Grove, IL 60171 or email us at amiitalia@sbcglobal.net. Look for AMICI JOURNAL in your local stores or order direct at 773-836-1595 to arrange for your distribution of Amici! Sincerely Andrew Guzaldo Executive Editor Amici Journal
In memoriaM
FUNDRAISER ON SATURDAY, JUNE 21,2008 In Loving Memory
Ivano Mazzulla 09/28/1974 - 03/26/2008
IMazzulla t was the first beautiful spring day in late March. The family children Rosanna, Mara, and Luciano,
ages 10, 7, and 6 were playing outside during their school spring break. Their mother, Anna watched over them as they played. Their father, Ivano Mazzulla, a Stone Park police officer, decided to take a ride on his motorcycle to get a part he needed for his sons 4 wheeler. Shortly after he left home their lives changed forever. That afternoon Ivano was tragically killed in a motorcycle accident. Ivano Mazzulla was a loving father and a dedicated police officer that worked hard to provide for his family, and safeguard the community of Stone Park. Unfortunately, his 7 years of service as a Stone Park police officer fell short of qualifying him for pension benefits. Therefore, this makes resources now available to provide for his family very limited. As a community we are coming together to support his wife and children in this time of need. We ask that you join us in this endeavor. As a local business owner, there are two ways you can help support the Mazzulla family. You can make a monetary donation to The Ivano’s Children Fund. Their fund has been established at Shore Bank and will be used to provide for the children’s education. Please mail or deliver your donation to Shore Bank 1759 North Mannheim Rd. Stone Park, IL 60165 You can also, donate a raffle prize for Stone Park 1st fundraising event to be held on June 21st at Chances R, 10747 W. Grand Ave Melrose Park, IL 60164. Raffle prizes can be mailed or delivered to the Stone Park Police Department Attn: Commander William Cundari 1629 N. Mannheim Road Stone Park 60165 For information regarding this very noble cause for the Family of Ivano Mazzulla. For additional information please call Chief J. Capece (708) 345-2206 Ext. 301, or if we can be in assistance to retrieve a donation. We thank you in advance for the support you give to the Mazzulla Family in their time of need. Fundraiser to be held at Chance’sR10747 W. Grand Ave. Melrose Park, IL Tel-847-455-5512 Starting at 1:00 PM to ???Live Bands, Food, Raffles. Donation $10.00 per person.
This issue dedicated to the Memory of Ivano Mazzulla Fall 2008 /AMICI 1
Academy Award - Winning Actor By John Rizzo
Nominated for the 1955 Acad-
Ernest
emy Award for Best Actor were four Hollywood icons – Spencer Tracy (Bad Day at Black Rock), Frank Sinatra (The Man with the Golden Arm), James Dean (East of Eden) and James Cagney (Love Me or Leave Me). But when, in her last public appearance before becoming Princess Grace of Monaco, the beautiful Grace Kelly presented the coveted golden statuette, it was not to any of these men. The Best Actor for 1955 was Ernest Borgnine, for his unforgettable performance in Marty. This gritty film, that depicted the trials and tribulations of working class Italian Americans in New York, also won Oscars for Best Director, Best Picture and Best Screenplay. Actually it was kind of an Italian Night with Academy Awards going to The Rose Tattoo for Best Actress (Anna Magnani), Best Art Direction and Best Cinematography. This was a cinematic exploration of the lives of working class Italian Americans in Louisiana. (Sadly, if those films were made today, there would probably be some politically correct group or another claiming that the movies were “demeaning to Italians!”) Borgnine’s Italian immigrant parents were not around to celebrate their son’s Oscar triumph, but once the actor’s reputation and renown burst the borders of America, the citizens of the native towns of both his mother and father treated him like a conquering hero. “I was in Parma, where they have the best puppeteers in the world, when I was approached by a man from Carpi (near Modena) where my mother was from. He asked me if I would visit there and I agreed. They picked me up on Sunday morning and drove me to the two-story Carpi city hall, where I found myself surrounded. They treated me like a king – I couldn’t get out of there for a week, but it was a wonderful time.” It was the same kind of thing in his father’s hometown of Ottiglio, above Turin in the Piedmont, a few years later. Who knows if the celebrants realized that they were honoring the greatest Italian American film actor of all time? Today, at age 91, Ernest Borgnine is still working. “Why should I retire? For what?” His advanced years certainly haven’t sapped the spirit out of this man, who is full of life, and ready for more. There’s nothing wrong with his memory either. He quickly recalls and comments on even his earliest acting experiences. “Growing up, going to school, I never even thought of acting.” Such an occupation seemed even more removed as he served in the Navy from 1935-1945. Then, shortly after his discharge, “I was sitting at the kitchen table, I wasn’t really doing anything those days, and my mother said, ‘You got a strong personality, why don’t you try acting?’ It was like a light bulb lit up over my head and I thought it was a great idea. So I went to the Randall School of Drama [in Hartford, Conn.]” After that he was immediately accepted by the Barter Theater Company in Abingdon, Va. Borgnine’s professional career more or less dates back to 1949, when he landed his first part in a Broadway show, playing the part of the male nurse in Harvey (made familiar in the movie version by Jesse “Maytag Man” White). “I was playing the role in the Barter production and Brock Pemberton, the producer of the Broadway production, saw me and asked me to play the role in New York, which I did for $150 a week.” He acted in this play for a while and then joined a cast headed by 2 AMICI / Fall 2008
Helen Hayes to perform in Hamlet (as Guildenstern) at Elsinore Castle in Denmark, the actual setting for Shakespeare’s mighty tragedy. Back in New York, he did some live TV acting for some episodes of Captain Video as well as some other shows. “Thank God for Elizabeth Means, the casting director of Dumont Productions!” His first screen test, for Columbia Pictures, was also in New York. “Before the screen test, I went uptown to St. Patrick’s Cathedral, and I went in. I hardly had enough money in my pocket to get back to Queens. I looked at the man on the cross and I prayed real hard, I prayed for help with this screen test. When I went to the test, the director Bob Siodmak had me sit on a stool and asked me to say the word ‘s---.’ You know when you say that word it kinda makes you smile. And Siodmak said, ‘He’s got a nice smile, put him in the movie.’ I always Ernest Borgnine in Marty thought that was so strange – all that praying to God and everything, and here I got the part by just saying an off-color word!” The movie that Siodmak was to direct, The Whistle at Eaton (1951), was shot in New Hampshire, but before that Columbia film, Borgnine played his first film heavy, Hu Chang, a sinister Chinese crook in China Corsair (1951). Near the end of the flick Hu Chang meets his fate by falling in the ocean. “The script called for my character to fall in the water, so I threw myself in the water – I didn’t know about stunt men.” Thus, with a mistaken splash began the film career of Ernest Borgnine. Just a couple of years later Borgnine came to prominence, once more as a heavy, as Sgt. “Fatso” Judson in the blockbuster hit, From Here to Eternity (1953). “When I heard that Frank Sinatra was going to be in it I thought they were going to make a musical out of it.” He especially liked working with Montgomery Clift. “He was really great to work with and we became good friends. That knife fight where I get killed, we started shooting one evening and worked ‘til five o’clock the next morning. We were black and blue all over.” Borgnine would be black and blue many times in the future, especially in his numerous appearances in Westerns, in which he was very effective and made a lot of friends. In Johnny Guitar (1954) he worked with “My old buddy Ward Bond. With him I was in the first episode of [TV series that ran from 1957 to 1965] Wagon Train and the last episode where I played an Indian.” His next major Western, acting again with Burt Lancaster, was Vera Cruz (1954). While on location filming in Mexico, he and fellow cast member Charles Bronson found themselves with some extra time on their hands and decided to go to the nearest town to get some cigarettes. Still in full costume, wearing their shootin’ irons, they rode off on their horses until they were spotted by some Mexican police, who mistook the actors for bandits and held them at gunpoint until their identities could be verified. The following year Borgnine played a very intimidating character, Coley Trimble, in Bad Day at Black Rock (1955), a “modern” Western. In real life, however, it was he who was intimidated – by the film’s star, Spencer Tracy. “The first time I met him, all I could see was two Oscars coming at me and I was scared stiff. I could hardly talk.”
living legend
Ernest Borgnine’s Autobiography
BORGNINE
Ironically, later on that year, Borgnine played Marty Piletti, the role that would ensure his place in film history, while Spencer Tracy would have to be satisfied with only a nomination for the earlier movie. For Borgnine, his depiction of the vulnerable Italian American butcher came naturally. “It was the easiest thing I ever did. I’m the original wallflower. I just played myself.” Shakespeare was again the source for another Borgnine vehicle, Jubal (1956), the Western version of Othello. Oddly enough, Borgnine was not aware of the film’s Shakespearean roots until after it was made. Rod Steiger, however, who played Pinky, the “Iago” character, may have had an inkling that there was something classical about what they were doing. After one scene, he told Borgnine, “You really made my hair stand on end. We ought to do The Brothers Karamzov together!” In the next movie Borgnine made after Jubal, the Western, he went back to his “Marty” character, with a moving performance as henpecked husband Tom Hurley opposite Bette Davis in The Catered Affair (1956). He loved working with the famous actress, but it was a little touchier toiling for director Richard Brooks, whose impressive writing/ directing credits include Key Largo (1948), Blackboard Jungle (1955), Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958), Elmer Gantry (1960) and Looking for Mr. Goodbar (1977). “Richard Brooks was a real tough director that ate actors for breakfast.” Ultimately, to preserve the dignity of the cast and to make things go a little easier, Borgnine punctured the director’s ego with a very earthy joke. After Marty and The Catered Affair, Ernest Borgnine did not have any high profile Hollywood leads but he became one of the best character actors ever. True, his roles were secondary parts but they were virtually all very memorable. Just to name a few, who can forget the lusty Norse king and Kirk Douglas’ father in The Vikings (1958) or the guy that Katy Jurado called a “real man” in The Badlanders (1958)? The Wild Bunch 1969 Or the stalwart XO in Torpedo Run (1958)? And what about the stressed-out oil worker in Flight of the Phoenix (1965) or the draconian general in The Dirty Dozen (1967)? Then there was the friendly Russian in Ice Station Zebra (1968), William Holden’s loyal sidekick in The Wild Bunch (1969), the strong-willed vacationing detective in The Poseidon Adventure (1972), the sadistic railroad cop in Emperor of the North (1973) and the eternal Manhattan cabby in Escape from New York (1981). Incredibly, all these roles represent only the slightest fraction of the more than 200 performances in the Borgnine canon. No other Italian American actor has even approached the sum and Spencer Tracy and Borgnine on the set of scope of this achievement. Bad Day at Black Rock (1955) Almost all of Borgnine’s portrayals were of fictional characters, unknown to spectators, made vividly real only because of this actor’s talent and work ethic. But there was one character he played that was an actual figure, familiar to billions worldwide. This was the Good Centurion from Matthew 8:5-13 in Jesus of Nazareth (1977). The composition of the two scenes with this character,
“I DON’T WANT TO SET THE WORLD ON FIRE, I JUST WANT TO KEEP MY NUTS WARM” To be released in August, 2008
Borgnine’s interpretation and his reflections on the experience say a lot about the man’s soul and his acting ability as well as Franco Zefirelli’s dramatic directorial skills. While it’s one thing to create characters that no one’s seen before, it’s quite another to portray a character that’s as well known as the Good Centurion, especially with religious sensitivities in play. Yet in the first scene, an almost word-for-word re-creation of the Gospel, Borgnine delivers an interpretation that is totally in tune with the Bible and so moving that it is arguably the actor’s greatest performance. The Centurion’s second appearance is in the Crucifixion scene. This character’s reappearance here is an example of “poetic license” on the part of Zefirelli, but it does not detract from the holiness of the scene. Borgnine’s only lines involve his permission for Mary Magdalene (Anne Bancroft) to approach the cross (another directorial liberty). According to Borgnine, “I was thinking about how wrong this is and how I’d just like to get back to my farm, and then I looked up, and after he says ‘Father forgive them…’ and Jesus’ head fell down, I just broke into tears and couldn’t stop crying, it was so realistic. When the scene was over, Zefirelli said, ‘That was very good, but could we do it over again with a few less tears?’ We shot it again and they almost cut it out – the sponsor thought it was too long. But the Vatican, who sanctioned the movie, said that they wouldn’t put their name on it without that scene. So it stayed in.” As for Zefirelli, “He’s a marvelous director and we still exchange Christmas cards every year.” Of course no story about Borgnine’s career should omit a reference to one of his most entertaining roles, as the wily Lieutenant Commander Quinton McHale in the hilarious TV series, McHale’s Navy. One thing that seemed a little strange was the shift in the show’s setting from the South Pacific to Italy (the series was still shot in Hollywood). “We got a new [executive] producer in ’65, Ed Montagne, an Italian guy. He was producer Ernest Borgnine at of Bilko [The Phil Silvers 74th Academy Awards Show] and he wanted to move that show to Italy. It was fun though. Dick Wilson the guy who said ‘Don’t squeeze the Charmin,’ [“Mr. Whipple”] also an Italian, played the assistant mayor.” The fall guy, or unabashed funnyman of this series, was Tim Conway. And Borgnine is still working with him 40 years later on the popular cartoon program Sponge Bob, Square Pants! In case you didn’t know it Borgnine’s voice is that of “Mermaid Man,” while Conway portrays “Barnacle Boy.” Naturally, Ernest Borgnine is honored regularly for his outstanding contribution to the film and TV industry. But none could be more satisfying than the recognition given him by his fellow Italian Americans. On March 3, 2006, he was given a standing ovation when introduced at the National Italian American Foundation's salute to the Academy Awards, which was celebrating 78 years of Italian-American Oscar winners and nominees. As for Chicago, “I have a great memory. Back when Marty premiered in Chicago, Irv Kupcinet went on stage and said, ‘How would you like to meet Marty?’ And the people clapped so hard and for so long I never forgot it. I love Chicagoans. As a matter of fact, I love all U.S.A.” And so speaks the living Italian American legend. Fall 2008 /AMICI 3
Constantine-
First Christian Emperor of Rome (285-337 CE) In joining together, both church and state sacrificed a great deal. The church sacrificed its freedom and the state sacrificed its power. Constantine’s policies “marked a revolution in the relation of the Church to the Empire, for each made a conquest of the other. “84 In this mutual “conquest,” it is impossible to declare a victor. The two institutions became one force. The empire sacrificed some ofits power to the church, yet gained more control over the church itself. The government ruled through the church; the church ruled through the government. Neither could rule without the support and cooperation of the other. Under Constantine and because of his actions, the development of this Christian state church ushered in a new age, and its ideas were passed down to the successors of the Empire. The Roman Empire has long since disappeared, but in governments throughout Europe and the world, Constantine’s legacy lives on. Most of the Roman Emperors that came after Constantine were Christians. Under them Christianity became the official religion instead of the old Roman religion that had worshipped many Gods.
In 312 CE Constantine was about to lead his army in a battle that would change the world. The soldiers of his enemy Maxentius faced him at the Milvian Bridge outside Rome. The winner would become the Roman Emperor.
In time even the great Roman temples, like the Pantheon in Rome, came to be used as churches. The buildings and church services became very grand to mark
Constantine was a pagan who worshipped the sun, and he was worried about the coming battle. He says he started to pray to the “Supreme God” for help.
Christianity’s power and importance.
The Pantheon in Rome Head of a statue of Photograph by Mike Strange Constantine
Silver pendant or amulet with punched monogram cross (chi rho) found in a grave at Shepto Mallet. It is a rare example of a late Roman Christian artefact. Photograph © Somerset Museums Service
Things did not all change straight away. Constantine was taught about being a Christian, but he could still be ruthless and he did not get baptised until his old age. Coins kept pictures of the old Roman Gods and Constantine’s new church in Rome (San Giovani) was built on the edge of the city to avoid upsetting the pagans. Constantine, and his mother Helena, built great churches in the Holy Land to mark the places where Jesus was born, taught and was buried. The Christian church asked for Constantine’s help when there were problems. He called a meeting of Christian bishops at Nicaea in 325 that decided what a Christian was, and what Christians should believe.
There was a sign in the sky “above the sun” and with it the words “conquer by this”. That night in a dream he said he saw Jesus telling him to use the chi-rho sign “as a safeguard in all battles”. Constantine ordered it to be put on his soldier’s shields - and won the battle. The symbol is made of the first two letters of ‘Christ’ in Greek - chi (X) and rho (P) .
The victory was celebrated by building a new triumphal arch in Rome. Although most people were still pagans, Christianity became the favoured religion of the Roman Empire. The Constantine Arch in Rome 4 AMICI / Fall 2008
Photograph by Su Strange
The baptistry at St. Giovani, built by Constantine
The chi-rho sign
Richard Capozola’s
1947
Luigi Piccolo “You Little”, Columbia’s football coach snap’s Army’s 32-game win streak in 21-20 victory, called “The Little Miracle of Baker Field.” Little coaches for 26 years. Born Luigi Piccolo in Boston in 1893, Columbia’s greatest football coach was known by the Anglicized version of his name, Lou Little. Nothing else in his career, however, was little.
1948
Perry Como Show debuts on NBC, switches to CBS and runs for 15 consecuitive years, becoming the third-longest running television show. “Mr. C” wins Grammys and Emmys while crooning his way into America’s heart. “Dream along with me, I am on the stars.
1949 Frank Zamboni Californian invents a self-propelled, one-man ice resurfacer---- “The Zamboni.” If necessity is the mother of invention, Frank J. Zamboni might be considered its father. This tireless inventor/entrepreneur never came across an obstacle he couldn’t tinker his way around. Ezio Pinza stars with Mary Martin in a’South Pacific”which runs for 1,928 performances with some of the most memorable songs by Rodgers & Hammerstein. Pinza’s rich basso voice was heard in opera houses throughout the world.
1951
Warren Francioni the “Frisbee” is born in California as the brainchild of Warren Francioni and Walter Morrison. Over 200 million of flying saucers have been sold worldwide.
Joe DiMaggio winds up a 15-year career with the New York Yankees. “Joltin Joe” achives a .325 lifetime batting average,three MVP awards, and particcipates in a record 10 World Series. The Hall of Famer’s 56-game hitting streak remains virtually unchallenged in baseball.
Bernadette Lazzara - singer/actress “Bernadette Peters” is born in Queens.”Peters” came from her father’s name. Over the course of an enduring career starting at an early age, she has performed in theatre, films and television, as well as in solo concerts and recordings.
Giancarlo Menotti writes “Amahl and the Night Visitors”, the first opera composed for television. Menotti’s classic appers on Christmas Eve.
NIAF Monthly News
A monthly bulletin for Italian American organizations and media outlets, dedicated to promoting the language, culture and traditions of Italians and Italian Americans.
June 2008
New book capturing emigration from Italy Mark I. Choate, a 2007 NIAF grant recipient, examines the relationship between Italian immigrants,their new communities, and their home country in “Emigrant Nation: The Making of Italy Abroad.” Between 1880 and 1915,13 million Italians left their homeland, launching
the largest emigration from any country in recorded world history. As the young Italian state struggled to adapt to the mass departure, it pioneered the establishment of a “global nation,” an Italy abroad cemented by ties of culture, religion, ethnicity, and economics. In the book’s
Cultivating italy’s brightest for silicon valley
A recently founded non-profit initiative, Mind the Bridge, is generating a buzz in the Italian business community. Founded by Google executive Marco Marinucci the project links Italian entrepreneurs to investors in Silicon Valley. Each year, the organization selects six of the most innovative Italian entrepreneurs for mentoring and consultation. The mentors, experienced Silicon Valley businessmen, help those selected tailor their ideas to American investors. These entrepreneurs are then introduced to a handful of area investors with the hope of spurring new business opera-
tions. Marinucci created Mind the Bridge with the goal of providing an outlet for Italy’s abundant entrepreneurial talent and reinvigorating business ventures in Italy. The project has received significant attention in Italy’s press, particularly because similar projects have had tremendous success in Israel, India, and China. NIAF Regional Vice President for the FarWest Jeffrey M. Capaccio, Esq., serves as a member of its organizing committee. For information, visit www.mindthebridge.org.
NIAF Heritage Tour to Italy’s heartland This year’s NIAF Heritage Tour to the Paola, Pizzo Calabro, Reggio Calabria, Region of Calabria is a nine-day, seven- Tropea, and Vibo Valentia. Guests will night tour departing from New York stay at a four-star hotel. The package City. Costs range from $1,899 to $2,449 includes round-trip airfare from John per person, based on double occupancy F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK) and month of departure. The Heritage in New York City to Lamezia, three Tour to the Region of Calabria visits full-day escorted tours, and three halfthe cities of Altomonte, Capo Vaticano, day escorted tours. Participants may Catanzaro, Crotone, Gerace, Locri, choose from 25 departure dates starting Ferragamo Celebrates Milestone The legendary Italian fashion house of Ferragamo recently celebrated its 80th anniversary. The weekend-long celebration, which took place in Shanghai, highlighted the origins and progression of the iconic company. Events included a fashion show and the unveiling of the exhibit “Salvatore Ferragamo: Evolving Legend 19282008” at the city’s prestigious Museum of Contemporary Art. Celebrities such as Christina Ricci and Jennifer Jason Leigh attended the event. The company’s creator, Salvatore Ferragamo, was born near Naples in 1898. After studying Italy’s selection this year for the Oscars, “The Unknown Woman” (La Sconosciuta) by Giuseppe Tornatore, was also named the year’s best film by Italian critics, won five David di Donatello awards, and garnered Best Director prize for Tornatore at the Moscow International Film Festival. The
September 15, 2008 and running through June 15, 2009. For a brochure and reservation form, write to Italy Travel, c/o Unitours, 3010 Westchester Avenue, Purchase, NY 10557. Call toll-free at 888-8466423 or 914-253-9177, fax to 914-2539001, or e-mail Marianna Pisano at mpisano@unitours.com.
shoemaking, Ferragamo immigrated to Boston in 1914 where he worked in a shoe factory. After 13 years in America, Ferragamo returned to Italy and opened his first store in Florence. He steadily expanded his business to include clothing, fragrances, and accessories until his death in 1960. Today, the company is worth more than $1 billion and is considered one of the top fashion names in the world. Ferragamo is still 100 percent family-owned; eldest\ son Ferruccio and his wife, Wanda, head the company. The company’s chairman, Massimo Ferragamo, received the NIAF US/Italy Friendship Award at NIAF’s 24th Anniversary Gala in 1999.
Italian Film Receives International Acclaim
film will open in New York City on May 30, in Los Angeles on June 27, San Francisco on July 18, and Chicago on August 8, 2008. “The Unknown Woman” is a haunting story of mystery and love. A Russian woman named Irena (Xenia Rappoport) involves herself in the lives of a young, afflu-
discussion of immigrant culture, transnational identities, and international politics, the author not only narrates the story of Italian emigrants but also provides important background to immigration debates that continue today. Visit hup.harvard.edu.
ent Italian family. Stopping at nothing to become the couple’s trusted maid, Irena risks everything in her quest to uncover the truth about the family. Like an intricately constructed jigsaw puzzle, “The Unknown Woman” reveals piece by piece the enigma of Irena’s past. Visit www.theunknownwoman.com.
For more information, visit www.niaf.org/travel
Milan Wins Global Competition The city of Milan, Italy will hold the World’s Fair in 2015. A majority of delegates from more than 150 countries voted for the Italian city to host the prestigious event. Hundreds of Italians celebrated in Paris, where the voting took place, including Milan’s mayor, the Honorable Letizia Moratti, a longtime friend of NIAF. Moratti was the keynote speaker at the NIAF Frank J. Guarini Public Policy Forum on Capitol Hill in 2007. Italy and its leaders saw the nomination as a matter of national pride. Italian President Giorgio Napolitano depicted the announcement as “confirming that the excellence of the Italian system is fully acknowledged and appreciated internationally.” The Milan World’s Fair is entitled “Feeding the Planet, Energy for Life” and is expected to attract more than 30 million visitors. The event will begin May 1, 2015 and will run through October 31of that year.
New Italian-American Multimedia Platform The Italian American Network (IANet), a new multimedia Web site, is available at www.ItalianAmericanNetwork.com. The site includes HD programming, podcasts, blogs, and interactive games. According to Tony Ceglio, its founder and CEO, IA Net “celebrates everything Italian in an entertaining and informative way, re-
gardless of the media platform.” The content is dedicated to many aspects of Italian life – food, travel, sports and music. The Web site aims to attract 26 million Italian-Americans and 70 million “Italophiles” living in the United States. For more information, visit www.ItalianAmericanNetwork.com.
News Monthly Coordinator Natasha Borato 1860 19th Street NW Director of Communications Elissa Ruffino Washington, DC 20009 Contributing Writers Francesca Miele, Alex Massara, Carlo Piccolo This month’s feature was edited by Monica Soladay, publications editor Please send your group’s or city’s news of Italian-American exhibits, cultural events, scholarships and special events to Elissa Ruffino at the above address or e-mail elissa@niaf.org. Events/programs noted are not necessarily endorsed or sponsored by NIAF.
6 AMICI / Fall 2008
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fest a Siciliana SICILIAN FESTA CALIFORNIA By Andrew Guzaldo The music, dance, culture and cuisine of Sicily come to the streets of San Diego’s Little Italy on Sunday, May 18, 2008, 10 am-6 pm, as part of the 15 th Annual FESTA SICILIANA celebration on India Street. The highly popular FREE family event features authentic Sicilian food and entertainment, surrounded by the colorful ambiance of the Little Italy neighborhood of San Diego’s downtown. Four stages will feature a wide variety of Sicilian and Italian entertainment. At noon, a parade of dozens of costumed dancers and musicians will waltz through the streets carrying flags from the different regions of Sicily and Italy. The young, exciting Sicilian-American Tenor Aaron Caruso, direct from NYC, will headline this year’s Festa. Aaron has performed in many operas, concerts and festivals in the US and abroad. His voice is compared to that of the young Mario Lanza. In fact, Aaron was recently selected to sing the role of Mario Lanza on Broadway with the help of actor Danny Aiello, who heard Aaron sing and arranged the meeting with producer Sonny Grosso. Not only will Aaron be singing the music of Mario Lanza, but the son of Mario Lanza, Damon Lanza, will be present at the festival to speak about his father and his tremendous impact on the world’s entertainment scene during his career. Damon will be present at the Lanza Legend booth, located next to the Sicilian cultural area, from 12 noon-5 pm. People will be literally dancing in the streets, and no wonder. The event features the nationally acclaimed Roman Holiday Ensemble, whose repertoire includes a wide variety of Italian and Sicilian music as well as swinging Sinatra and Louie Prima shows. A wide variety of entertainers, many directly from Sicily, will entertain the crowds with everything from Sicilian Swing to Sicilian Jazz, as well as with Sicilian and Italian traditional and folkloristic melodies. As well as swinging Sinatra and Louie Prima shows. Food booths will line the streets to satisfy the hungry crowds by serving up Sicilian specialties of all varieties. Festa visitors will also be able to relax at a wine and beer garden, or shop among the many booths offering Italian-themed artifacts and services. New this year is a recreation of a Sicilian Village, organized by the San Diego Convivio Society for the Italian Humanities. The Village will display such well-worn traditions as wine-making, fishnet repair, embroidery, porcelain design, pasta making and more. As part of this Sicilian Village experience, Martellotto Wines will serve a variety of boutique wines at The Sicilian Wine Grotto, with wine tasting tickets available at $10, individual wine servings at $5. 8 AMICI / Fall 2008
In addition to the Sicilian Village, the area will also house a Sicilian cultural tent that will feature photo displays reflecting the Sicilian American heritage in San Diego, as well as other cultural displays by local authors and artisans, coordinated by the ConVivio Society. There will also be plenty of rides, a Sicilian puppet theatre, and children’s games to make sure that the bambini don’t get bored. “We are proud of our local Sicilian community and this Festa is our way of sharing the rich Sicilian heritage with the rest of San Diego,” said Bernadette Tarantino, executive director of the Sicilian Festival and Tarantino Sausages, one of the Festa’s major sponsors. The Little Italy neighborhood of downtown San Diego has become one of the most desirable urban communities in the nation. With a perfect mix of Old World charm and an avant-guarde chic, it appeals to people of all ages. For more information, log onto the Sicilian Festival website at www. sicilianfesta.com .
Angela Alioto "Straight to the Heart" International Finance and Marketing from No public official has fought harder than the University of Miami Business School Angela Alioto to help society's underdogs. in 1999. After graduating he started to work at the Law Offices of Mayor Joseph Alioto and Angela Alioto as its CFO for 4 years. crimes legislation, protected workers rights, ngela was born and raised in San Fran- Gian-Paolo started his own business consulting assured environmental protection, helped small cisco, along with her five brothers. company, which he currently runs today. business, and furthered efforts to municipalAngela's parents are former San Fran- On November 8, 1988, Angela Alioto was ize the City's electrical utility system. Angela cisco Mayor Joseph L. Alioto and Angelina elected to the San Francisco Board of Supervi- also created the San Francisco Film CommisGenaro Alioto. She attended nursery, elemen- sors after placing second in a field of 24 can- sion and the San Francisco Youth Commission. tary and high school at the Covent of the Sa- didates with over 95,000 votes. She was re- She also Committee. She served as First Vicecred Heart. She graduated from Lone Mountain elected in November 1992, placing first with Chair of the California State Democratic Party College in 1971. Angela Alioto married Adolfo nearly 150,000 votes and became Board President. from 1991-1993 and served as Second ViceVeronese on December 8, 1968 they have four Angela served as Board President from Janu- chair. She was selected as a super delegate children. At the age of 29, after all four of her ary 1993 to January 1995. As President, Angela to the 1992 National Convention, and was children were in school, Angela enrolled in served as Vice-Chair of the Board's Finance elected Co-Chair of the California Delegalaw school. In 1983, she graduated from the Committee. After Angela's term as Board Presi- tion. She also served as California Chair of the University of San Francisco School of Law. dent expired, she served as the Chair of two Jerry Brown for President Campaign in 1992. Their children are Angela Mia, Adolfo, Joseph Board Committees: the Health, Public Safety Angela is a lifetime member of the Dante Soand Gian-Paolo. and Environment Commit- ciety of America, The Society for Professional The eldest child, Angela Mia Veronese, t e e and the Select Journalists, The Bar Association of San Frangraduated from University of California at Committee cisco, and The American Trial Lawyers AssoBerkeley. Angela was married to Jason Lind on Mu- ciation. She also serves as Chair of the Board of in a beautiful medieval church in Ceri, Itnicipal Directors for the National Shrine of St. Francis aly. Angela Mia & Jason have a daughter, Pub- of Assisi, and has supported such groups as the Chiara Mia, and a son, Sebastiano Lind. l i c Equal Rights Advocates, Raoul Wallenberg Adolfo Veronese, graduated from the Culinary Jewish Democratic Club, Bay Area Young Institute of America in Hyde Park, New York. Positives, Mothers Against Drunk DrivAdolfo married Toni Thompson in San Franing, the Harvey Milk Lesbian/Gay/Bisexual/ cisco on at the Shrine of St. Francis of AsTransgender Democratic Club, San Fransisi. San Francisco Archbishop William cisco Tomorrow, and many other DemoLevada married Adolfo and Toni. Toni and cratic clubs and neighborhood groups. Adolfo have a son, Adolfo Antonio. She has also continued her involveJoseph Alioto Veronese graduated ment in community issues. She from the University of California at "Francescos Rock that St. Francis himself used to rebuild the original Porziuncola" served as legal counsel for a grassLos Angeles. He graduated from the Heavenly Father,You gave Your servant Francis great love for each of Your roots based organization, "Citizens San Francisco Police Academy on creatures.Teach us to see Your design in all of creation. for Lower Utility Bills." CLUB November 20, 1996, and served as a We ask this in Jesus Name. Amen. was successful in placing a ballot Senior Investigator for the San Franinitiative establishing a municipal cisco District Attorney's Office. In utility district for San Francisco on 2001, Joseph successfully ran for the Power, the committee she created as Presi- the local November 2001 ballot. Angela has position of Municipal Utility District Director. dent. On January 8, 1997, She left the worked on this issue for over 13 years. In 2004 He was the top vote getter from a field of 23 Board of Supervisors due to term limits. Angela was appointed as the Chairwoman to candidates. This was his first campaign for elec- During her tenure on the Board, She fought San Francisco's Ten Year Plan Implementation tive office and was honored by the San Fran- the tobacco companies with several pieces Council. The Council is dedicated to abolishcisco Bay Guardian as having "The Best First of legislation, including the strongest anti- ing chronic Homelessness in San Francisco Campaign." Joseph is married to Julie Gilman smoking ordinance in the United States. and has been recognized as a national model. in San Francisco on February 19, 2006 at the She also focused on protecting neighborhood Angela wrote a book about her experiences Shrine of St. Francis of Assisi. Gian-Paolo Ve- health care, created a comprehensive home- in San Francisco politics. The book is entitled ronese, attended Oxford University at Exeter on less plan, increased funding for AIDS servic- "Straight to the Heart", and it covers eight years a scholarship and the University of Leonardo Di es, wrote the City's needle exchange legisla- of San Francisco politics appropriately based on Vinci in Florence, and graduated with honors in tion, co-sponsored the minority business laws, Dante's inferno.
A
Fall 2008 /AMICI 9
Comunicato: Comunicato:
di Commercio di Chicago, per due motivi" dice il sindaco "in primis si consolidano i rapporti con il Midwest, già avviati grazie all'attività del Comites, in secondo luogo si può cogliere l'occasione per diffondere un'immagine di Bagheria che non è il solito clichè di una terra di mafia, bensì terra di coltivatori, produttori e lavoratori oltre che fucina di cultura". Fulvio Calcinardi ha raccontato al sindaco la realtà del Midwest illustrando le tante possibilità per poter sviluppare relazioni con l'Italia. "Chicago è un mercato vergine", - dice Calcinardi, - "e si sta diffondendo un grande interesse per il prodotto siciliano, anche i consumatori conoscono ancora poco della Sicilia e dei loro prodotti di qualità". Una soluzione si raffigura quindi nel mettere insieme il mondo imprendi-
By Andrew Guzaldo courtesy of Comite
s
E’ervito per porre le basi per una fattiva collaborazione tra il Comune di Bagheria e la Camera di Commercio di Chicago l'incontro svoltosi stamani tra il sindaco Biagio Sciortino e l'Executive Director della Italian American Chamber of Commerce di Chicago, Fulvio Calcinardi. La Camera di Commercio di Chicago gioca un ruolo fondamentale per diffondere la conoscenza dei prodotti e delle aziende italiane nel Midwest ed in tutti gli Stati Uniti. C alcinardi ha presentato il mercato di Chicago, meno noto di quello New York o di quello della California, ma che potrebbe essere un'ottima vetrina per i prodotti italiani e bagheresi. All'incontro erano presenti oltre il sindaco anche l'assessore al Bilancio Antonino Mineo e il collega delle Attività produttive Pietro Pagano, cui si sono aggiunti il presidente del Consiglio Bartolomeo Di Salvo e del Consiglio circoscrizionale, Giovan Battista Caputo. Si è instaurato dunque un ponte che potrebbe mettere in colleg amento produttori bagheresi con gli importatori del midwest, un legame che permetterebbe di fare entrare Bagheria in un mercato più vasto attraverso reti
Il sindaco di Bagheria ha incontratoFulvio Calcinardi, Executive Director della Italian American Chamber of Commerce di Chicago ed infrastrutture competitive. Le Camere di Commercio italiane all'Estero sono enti privati che il Governo Italiano ha riconosciuto e che collaborano con altri enti, come per esempio il Comites, il comitato di Italiani all'Estero, con il quale Bagheria ha già in atto colloqui e scambi. Fare business è un imperativo per creare sviluppo, anche a Bagheria, e questo primo incontro con Fulvio Calcinardi potrebbe essere una base per diffondere i limoni, le acciughe, l'olio, il vino, e lo "sfincione" bagherese a Chicago. "E' una visita importante quella di oggi del direttore della Camera 10 AMICI / Fall 2008
toriale, quello della sana politica e quello della promozione territoriale italiana. Calcinardi ha anche illustrato un'importante expo che si svolgerà IL 19, 20 e 21 settembre a Chicago, l' "Italian Style 2008" un'esposizione del prodotto italiano di eccellenza. La Fiera, organizzata al navy Pier dall'Italian American Chamber of Commerce di Chicago riceve 70 mila visitatori ogni anno e promuove diversi settori dell'eccellenza italiana; dalla moda, ai gioielli, dalle macchine di lusso al turismo, dal vino al cibo e alle ceramiche. Una possibile vetrina per Bagheria e per i suoi prodotti quindi , da considerare per valorizzare i prodotti sia dal punto di vista imprenditoriale che culturale, sociale ed artistico. L'assessore Pietro Pagano che si occupa di Attività produttive ha colto al volo l'idea di una eventuale partecipazione di Bagheria all'expo, prossimamente si getteranno le basi per verificare la fattibilità della presenza di una delegazione di produttori e prodotti bagheresi in uno stand del navy Pier.
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agano, tra l'altro, è già al lavoro per un progetto che mira alla realizzazione di un paniere di prodotti cui verrà applicato il marchio del "Made in Bagheria". " Non solo l'expo" aggiunge l'assessore Mineo, "occorre gettare le basi affinché si possa mettere in piedi un rapporto che diventi stabile e che non si limiti all'esposizione. Proporre il prodotto bagherese all'estero, ed in specifico nel midwest, è un'occasione che l'amministrazione non si lascerà sfuggire".
Marina Mancini
Cinque Terre Cinque Terre FIVE COSTAL VILLAGE "Costa Ligure of Levante" T By Renee Fortuna
he hike to Corniglia travels up and around the back of Vernazza to the tiptop of the adjacent mountain. From the sea, this town looks like a few small buildings and a church dangling on the top of a mountain….and that is exactly what it is. There are one or two small places for hikers to rest and eat but beyond that there is very little in this town. It is the most unspoiled and underdeveloped of all the Cinque Terre towns. If your not there for the hiking, the only other easy way to get to this town is via train as the ferry obviously does not stop. Hiking level for this path is moderate to difficult.From a highperched Corniglia to the sea level Manarola, you will head to the end of the town, which will lead you to several flights of stairs (thus the suggestion to walk from Corniglia to Manarola and not Manarola to Corniglia), which will take you down to the rest of the path to Manarola. This is a fairly moderate path compared the others that have already been introduced. Manarola is a fantastic town, restaurants, hotels and a setting that is something out of a storybook. A small terrace overlooks the main street the leads down to the water. Families and friends gather on the terrace, treating it like an extension of the town square. The main street between the terrace and harbor is about 2 blocks long and is filled with restaurants and shops. Manarola from the ferry is very deceiving, as it appears small, due to the fact there is only a very little bit of the town on sea front. You might not be able to see the long and narrow town that falls behind it.
Vernazza
Cinque Terre T
he town of Monterosso is the trendiest of all the Cinque Terre towns; there you will find the most hotels, clubs and restaurants. The younger crowd tends to settle there as they have the only real beach area in the Cinque Terre region. This is considered the resort area of Cinque Terre. It is the largest of the Cinque Terre towns with street after street of shops, and restaurants, not to mention this is the town with the laundry mat! Pulling away from Monterosso on the ferry, one can see the path through the trees and around the mountain only because they spot the various hikers moving along the coast. It is perfectly hidden by greenery and dips into the well-wooded hill. The path from Monterosso to Vernazza is a difficult hike, plenty of water and being in good shape are a prerequisite. Fortunately, if you need to rest, you will never be lonely. There are numerous hikers of various levels along the path. The hike from Monterosso to Vernazza takes about 1 ½ - 2 hours.
Monterosso T
he view of Vernazza from the sea resembles a make believe town, put together with colorful blocks and small toy boats, it is almost surreal. Vernazza is a charming town that sprawls from the sea up the side of the mountain. The sea level includes several restaurants and shops. Consider dining at an outdoor café and indulge the regions own pasta with pesto – try Ristorante Gianni Franzi (1 Piazza Marconi) or Da Piva Trattoria (off the main street). If you want to enjoy the regions pesto at home stop at Enoteca Sotto l’Arco or purchase online at at www.enotecasottolarco.it
Cornigilia
T
he most pleasant hike is actually a stroll from Manarola to Riomaggiore. It is a paved path along the coast where you can soak up all the sun and serenity in a 20-30 stroll. Riomaggiore is a medium sized town that does have some accommodation and dining options. One could miss the beauty of this town, if they don’t make it all the way down to the harbor; the sea view and the view looking back to the town are fabulous!
Continued on next page Fall 2008 /AMICI 11
T
he sun and serenity in a 20-30 stroll. Riomaggiore is a medium sized town that does have some accommodation and dining options. One could miss the beauty of this town, if they don’t make it all the way down to the harbor; the sea view and the view looking back to the town are fabulous!
T
HISTORY OF ITALIAN NAMES, AND WHERE THEY DERIVED FROM
T
Riomaggiore Ocean view
hink about going one town further to Protovenere via the ferry. This is a large town with various historical structures…. Churches and Forts. There is an option to take a 3-island ferry ride. There is an abundance of shopping and dining.
P
eering over the edge of the ferry, traveling from Monterosso to Riomaggiore, the 5 main towns of Cinque Terre pour over the sea. Things to know when you arrive in your first Cinque Terre town: - Purchase the Cinque Terre Card for 1, 3 or 7 days – Write your name on it and stamp it in the yellow machine. This entitles you to unlimited train trips between Levanto and La Spezia, unlimited buses and access to all paths. - Accommodations * Vernazza – Albergo Barbara – www. albergobarbara.it * Vernazza – Bed and Breakfast di Veroni Gemma 0187821170 - Getting Around * Hiking * Train – Included in your Cinque Terre Card - Milk Run between Levanto and La Spezia (additional stops Monterosso, Vernazza, * Corniglia, Manarola and Riomaggiore) * Ferry – Consorzio Marittimo Turistico (Monterosso to Portovenere (additional stops Vernazza, Corniglia, Manarola and Riomaggiore)
Manarola from the Sea
Cinque Terre 12 AMICI / Fall 2008
he Greeks had founded a colony at Cumae in the C8th BC that established another at nearby Neapolis (New City, which is now Naples) but during the Macedonian domination of the Greek world under Alexander the Great, the Romans began to emerge as one of the stronger peoples of Italy. Their second war with Macedonia (200-197 BC) led to a recognition of the rise of Rome throughout the Mediterranean. he Roman Empire finally gave way to Germanic invasion with the Ostrogoths in control by AD 493 and the Lombards establishing their kingdom in the north. This became part of the Frankish Empire in 744. During the C9th and 10th, Italy was invaded by Magyars from the north and Saracens from the south. The Ottonian Empire of the Frankish Otto I led to a strong culture of urban wealth in Lombardy and Tuscany. The Christianisation of the Roman Empire had made Rome the world centre of the Catholic religion and the Papal Patrimony was increasing in size and power. Pope Gregory VII excommunicated the Holy Roman Emperor Henry IV in 1076 and made alliances with his enemies, the Normans of southern Italy and the German nobility, but the papacy could not prevent the conquest of the Norman kingdom of Sicily at the end of the C12th which made the Hohenstaufen family the richest rulers in Europe. The struggle to remove the Germans from Italy led to Pope Clement IV asking Charles of Anjou, brother of Louis IX of France, for help. His victories at Benevento (1266) and Tagliacozzo (1268) removed the Germans but the papacy was in open conflict with the French monarchy over sovereignty and taxation of clergy by 1296. French and Italian enemies kidnapped Pope Boniface VIII and in 1309 his successor was based in Avignon under French supervision. he economic and political problems of C15th Europe left Italy fragmented. The Habsburgs gained control of Naples, then comprising over half the country, in 1504 and of Milan in the north in 1535 as well as the islands of Sardinia and Sicily which they had ruled since the late C13th. The Republics of Venice, Florence, Siena and Genoa in the north were independent and the Papal states separated them from the Habsburg lands. taly had lost its primacy in Europe mostly as a result of the creation of the Habsburg Empire under Charles V in 1519. The Ottoman Turks, despite defeat by a Spanish, Venetian and Papal fleet at Lepanto in 1571 continued their expansion in the Mediterraean. By the C18th, the Austrian Habsburgs ruled Milan, the Spanish Bourbons, Naples and Sicily, Savoy had neutralised Sardinia and Tuscany had fallen to a junior branch of the Habsburg family. This was ended by Napoleonic France's conquest of Italy when several new fter Napoleon's defeat, there were several unsuccessful nationalist revolts in Italy but the sudden expansion of the kingdom of Piedmont-Sardinia led to the creation of a United Italy by 1861. Although it lost Nice and Savoy to France in 1860, it acquired Venetia in 1866 and in 1870 annexed the remaining part of the Papal States containing Rome which was to become the capital. Italy acquired some territories in Africa (Eritrea, Italian Somaliland, Libya) but was never a major colonial power. ost Italian first names are derived from those of Roman Catholic saints or modern forms of Roman ones. In medieval times, there was a wider range including Germanic names that originated with the Lombards but these are now very rare except as surnames.
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T I
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One reason why most men from Italy are named Tony? On the boat over to America they put a sticker on them that said: TO NY
Parents of Autistic Child Continue To Spread Awareness, Awareness By BOBBY CHILVER Journal & Topics Newspaper Reporter
When Park Ridge residents Sandy and Robert Waters were sitting in their basement writing a song for their autistic daughter Candace, they had no idea how it would change their lives. Now that day of writing has helped them bring awareness to the growing disease and they don’t plan to stop anytime soon. They have received recognition from leaders as high up as President Bush; perform their song at numerous events throughout the year and even host their own radio show to help others in similar situations. On Sept. 8, 2000, Sandy Waters gave birth to a healthy young girl named Candace. However, as she became a toddler, the doctors noticed that she wasn’t able to put words together well. After numerous tests, therapy sessions and doctor discussions, 3-year-old Candace was diagnosed with autism, something that at first came as a shock. “No one in our family had it,” Sandy said. “We didn’t even know what it was.” However, they quickly learned and now say there is only one word to describe the disease, “devastating.” They knew their lives would change forever but they didn’t know a Christmas night in the basement would add to their changes. Robert had always dabbled in music and he often played the guitar for Candace, something she still loves to this day. One Christmas, Robert and Sandy were in the basement while their daughter slept and they decided to write some lyrics. “We decided to write the song mostly because it was therapeutic,” Sandy said. The song was called “Faith, Love & Hope” and the two said it just sat in their basement for the next two years. However, as Candace reached preschool, they realized how poorly recognized autism is and the lack of services in the area. So they sent out the song to conferences and legislators across the nation to help improve awareness. “It just took off from there,” Sandy said.
They have received countless letters, recognitions, and proclamations from communities all across the nation and even a letter from President Bush thanking them for their work. “It has brought a lot of inspiration to a lot of parents,” Robert said. Most recently, Rosemont proclaimed May 21-25 Autism Awareness Days in the Village. Sandy said the late Donald Stephens was the first to honor the proclamation and son Brad has now done the same this year. But of course it’s not about the recognition for the Waters’, it’s about the cause. “We’re just trying to get the word out about awareness,” Sandy said. They now host their own monthly radio show on the Autism One network where they often talk with people who have been affected by the disease. Guests have included Jessie Jackson, Jr., Billy Dean, Eric Roberts, brother of Julia, Susan Garrett and Dan Kotowski. “We call it the Wayne’s World of radio,” Robert laughed as the show is pre-recorded out of the home’s basement. They continue to perform the song whenever possible. This month they will attend at the Autism One Conference, from May 21-25, at the Westin O’Hare and later in the year they will perform a duet with actor Joe Montegna at the grand opening of the new Easter Seals Autism Facility in downtown Chicago. Candace is now seven and attends a special school where she learns how to cope with her condition. Sandy said she is doing well and now has a set of pictures to help her communicate with others. But their work is not done and both Sandy and Robert plan on using their song and radio show to continue the effort. “We want to show our community and politicians that we need to look into this,” Sandy said. “We’re trying to get your attention; wake up and do something about it.” If someone would like a free copy of the song e-mailed to them please e-mail Robert & Sandy Waters at rwaters@autismone.org
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VINCENT CONENNA “VENUS TRAVEL SERVING THE COMMUNITY FOR 40 YEARS”! By John Connena
On Belmont Avenue just west of Har-
lem stands a Chicago landmark, Venus Travel. The travel agency, owned and operated by Vincent Conenna, opened in December of 1968. With a desire to live the American dream and to start his own business, 20-year-old Vincent Vincent & Son John came to the United States in 1948 from the small town of Mola di Bari, Italy, Starting his career in banking, a young graduate of Northwestern University stayed in banking for many years and opened a small office in one of the original Italian neighborhoods, on Chicago Avenue. During that time, after working a full day at Mid City National Bank on Madison and Halsted, Vincent would spend countless hours at his office on Chicago and Lawndale Avenue pursuing his dream. His true passion was having his own business, starting a travel agency and preparing income taxes. In 1968 Vincent was promoted to Vice President of International banking. Once again his dream and desire did not stop there. In December of 1968, Vincent opened Venus Travel, located at 7418 W. Belmont Avenue. To this day, Venus Travel is still family owned and operated. Ironically this neighborhood where he opened his office became the neighborhood still known as “Little Italy.” In 1977 I joined my father at the agency, at the age of 17. I loved working there after school, delivering brochures, and helping my dad. When I am asked why this small agency on the northwest side of Chicago still survives, I reply,” it’s because of my father’s dedication and work ethics. He makes you want to strive to be the best.” I also have the same dedication and determination as my father. After attending Loyola University and studying Broadcast Journalism, I have proudly carried on the family traits and
values instilled by my father by working long hours to help others with all their family travel needs. My passion for hockey started at the very young age of seven. To this day, hockey is an expensive sport. Growing up, the expense was almost too much to bare for my parents. With their sacrifices and hard work, I was able to live my dream of playing hockey. I still give back to the sport I love by coaching. I have coached at many levels. To this day, I coach the DePaul University hockey team and the CHS varsity hockey team, a combined high school team consisting of Conant, Hoffman Estates and Schaumburg high schools. In 40 years Venus travel has seen it all; airline strikes, gas embargoes, commission reductions, and airline bankruptcies all which have taken its toll on the travel industry. The internet has also made drastic changes to the travel industry. So many of our competitors are gone. The reason Venus Travel has stood the test of time is because of two things. First, Venus Travel has changed with the times and has never stood still. The second reason is because of its founder Vincent Conenna. His dedication and hard work has made this place a truly special place to return to when you have personal and business travel needs. You can still find the 80- year old founder at his desk, Monday through Saturday, making sure that his dream never dies. If you’re ever in Chicago and want special expertise on travel or accounting, this place is truly the place to see. It’s old world, it is father and son owned, but most of all it is family. We have had our good and bad days since the doors opened in 1968, but the main goal since that day is to serve our customers. Remember when making that next trip to Europe, or that Caribbean cruise, call Venus Travel. With forty years of experience, you can let us worry about the details. Visit our website, www.venustravel.com.
Come visit us at Florence in a Box, a Florentine based, on line artisan home and gift ware Internet store featuring authentic and unique handcrafted Tuscan products. We provide a truly high quality on line shopping experience and , help people discover and acquire the finest gift ware and handcrafted items available in Tuscany. Florence in a box offers exquisitely designed items in a variety of traditional and contemporary styles. All products are the highest quality and produced in Tuscany by experienced craftsmen with century old techniques. Wonderful items for your home and for gifts.
Fall 2008 /AMICI 15
Focus on Italy
Capri marvelous region in italy
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ne of the loveliest resorts in Italy, a dramatic island soaring upward from the sea, with sweeping views, whitewashed homes and villas, fragrant lemon trees, narrow winding lanes, and flower-filled courtyards. It’s completely overrun in summer from Easter week to the end of October, as throngs of international tourists and vacationing Italians arrive every day to soak up its romantic atmosphere and gorgeous scenery. Capri has enchanted visitors since the 4th Century B.C., the Phoenicians settled Capri, followed soon after by the Greeks and the Romans. The Roman Emperor Tiberius, who ruled from 27-37, built 12 villas scattered all around the island. In the early 1800’s, the British started developing Capri, but the French briefly inhabited the island and soon left. The influence from Roman times can still be seen in the form of ruins scattered all over the island. Today, it’s tourists who scatter all over the island, filling the town during summer months. Capri has also been an inspiration for numerous authors. Many very distinguished celebrities, writers and artists alike lived in Capri around the turn of the 20th Century. His most famous novel, Summer Wind, was set here. Capri is off of Italy’s west coast, three miles west of Sorrento, near Amalfi and Salerno. The nearest big city is Naples, a little over an hour away by boat. While here, don’t miss the Blue Grotto, Capri’s most famous tourist attraction. Do some people watching in Piazza Umberto I, in the heart of Capri. Enjoy the local cuisine and the vivacious nightlife. Whatever you choose, you will be surrounded by panoramic views and enveloped by cool sea breezes. From Capri, a short bus ride will deliver you to Anacapri, also perched at the top of the island near Monte Solaro. The only other settlement you might want to visit is Marina Piccola, on the south side of the island, with the major beach. There are also beaches at Punta Carnea and Bagni di Tiberio.
16 AMICI / Fall 2008
Contact “Stay and Visit Italy” for for your Venice Tour and much more!.. Look AD on page
I remember it like it was yesterday. On a September night in 1989 my wife and I attended an outstanding production of Tosca at Lyric. This evening was all the better for the bravura performance of Hungarian soprano Eva Marton in the title role. As the tumultuous second act neared the end, she sang her penultimate passage – Ế morto! Or gli perdono! Unexpectedly, at the sound of these words, the sound of laughter rippled through the audience. It was not a loud, raucous, laugh but it was quite audible and definitely contrary to the somber mood of the opera at this point. The cause of the laughter was obvious, of course. The supertitles – that flowing line of words over the proscenium that presents the Italian libretto in English – had translated Tosca’s lines, “He’s dead! Now I forgive him!” That’s actually a fairly literal translation, but one that struck the audience as funny, despite the violent death of Scarpia and Tosca’s understandable emotional reaction to having just killed a man for the first time in her life. When the third act began, no supertitles appeared, and I whispered to my wife that the machine or the projector must have broken down. A couple of days later, when I casually mentioned it to a friend of mine in the Lyric orchestra, I was told that after the second act there was a big scene on stage behind the curtain. It seems that Ms Marton was so enraged by the inappropriate outburst of laughter that she threatened to walk out on the performance unless the supertitles were discontinued for the third act – which they were. What happened that night was a classic example of what master titleist Francis Rizzo (no relation to this reporter) calls the “Bad Laugh,” which is dreaded most by those who create supertitles. “That wasn’t my work,” claims Frank, as he prefers to be called. “If I did it, I would leave out the ‘he’s dead’ line and just have ‘I forgive you.’” That makes sense to me. After all, everyone can see that Scarpia’s dead, and the Bad Laugh could be avoided. But leaving out a line here or there, while not necessarily an insurmountable obstacle to understanding a libretto’s meaning, can still get you in trouble with effete, idiotic critics, who should know an opera well enough without reading the supertitles anyway. Consider this from the New York Times, Sept. 24 1989: “Francis Rizzo’s supertitles, which skipped many key lines and seemed unsurely deployed, hardly helped.” (The opera in question was Berg’s nightmare, Lulu, which is beyond the help of any supertitles.) So often, a titleist is damned one way or another. Besides the Bad Laugh, the “Drunken Husband Syndrome” is also a potential disaster. According to Rizzo, this happens when a dutiful husband reluctantly accompanies his wife to the opera and “knocks back a few at intermission,” to help survive the evening. Being in a giddy mood, he is liable to laugh at anything, or even say something that gets others laughing. Once again, the titleist gets the blame. “Music and singing have to be 70 percent of an opera performance,” asserts Rizzo, “and the words about 10 percent.” Perhaps. But remember, without words or a story there would be no opera. Therefore, it behooves a spectator to clearly know what is going on and what is being said to get the absolute most out of an opera. I personally have mixed feelings about supertitles. Of course, I know quite a bit about most operas I see and sometimes I find myself staring at the supertitles and neglecting the music and performers. In such moments I wish that there were no supertitles. But most folks just don’t have the time to learn about opera as I have and the supertitle is probably the best solution to the problem presented by a work performed in a foreign language. It’s far better than performing in English, which just isn’t meant for bel canto singing. Francis Rizzo also “deplores” the idea of supertitles and yet has become an artist in this singular translation technique.
Rizzo was captivated by opera as a child, and is as knowledgeable about the Grand Art as anyone I have ever met. “My father, a doctor, had two great passions – the Brooklyn Dodgers and opera. He took me to both,” recalls Frank, “but it was opera that I really loved.” The first opera he ever saw was La traviata. “When the curtain went up and I saw all those fancy things set up for a party, it opened up a whole world for me. And I can still see the big radio that we used to listen to on Saturday afternoons when the Texaco opera was on.” A natural enough reaction from a boy just two generations removed from Salerno, from whence his grandfather came as a waiter. His Italian heritage is apparent in his manner of presenting supertitles. It’s not just the literal translation that’s important but the way the titles are shaped. “I’ll always have the top line longer than the following ones.” This makes an easier scan for a viewer’s eyes, and thus makes comprehension more likely.
ENTERTAINMENT
Neither a singer nor a conductor, Francis Rizzo wanted to be a stage director, and he did direct many productions, on the East coast and at Santa Fe. In the late ‘50s, he joined the Spoleto Festival in Italy and became the personal secretary for Giancarlo Menotti. “I traveled all over the world with Menotti,” and he also directed a number of the famous composer’s operas. But soon he realized that “I just didn’t have the temperament to be a stage director,” so Frank channeled his considerable talents to more administrative functions. One of the first Artistic Administrators of the Wolf Trap Center for Performing Arts in Virginia, it was a logical move to become one of the moving forces of the still struggling Washington National Opera in the late ‘70s. Associated with this fine organization for over 30 years, Rizzo served as its Artistic Director for several seasons. Today Rizzo lives in D.C. (in the same building as Placido Domingo) and creates titles for Washington National Opera, Lyric Opera and the Metropolitan Opera of New York. Born of the desire to make opera understandable, especially to English speaking audiences, the idea of supertitles was not universally embraced at first. Rizzo remembers James Levine (the great music director of the Met) exclaiming “Over my dead body!” when first approached with the concept. Starting with the New York City Opera in 1983, supertitles “wormed their way in,” according to Rizzo, until they are now “as much as lighting and stage directing, at one with the music.” For those who are still dead set against the titles, or simultaneous translations of any kind, it should be remembered that when most of the opera that is enjoyed today was first performed in lighted theaters, the real opera lovers in Rossini’s, Donizetti’s or Verdi’s audience followed their librettos religiously. Even if you speak fluent Italian, not all the vocalized words of opera are intelligible. The pre-electricity theater is also why you find the various quartets and other ensembles of early Romantic opera scored for different melodies supporting different words and sentiments at the same time. The composers knew that the audience would understand everything because they were reading their librettos! So for someone who really and truly wants to comprehend the glory of opera, loving the music, beautiful as it is, is not enough. The music can only be completely appreciated by fathoming its dramatic significance, which can only happen if the words are understood. So supertitles, or those fantastic LED panels on the back of the seats at the Met (which you can turn off if you want), definitely serve a good purpose and are here to stay. But like anything else, there are good ones and some that are not so good. For me the best are the translations “that make the text clear, so the audience doesn’t have to think.” Those are the ones done by Francis Rizzo.
Fall 2008 /AMICI 19
T By Andrew Guzaldo
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f you grew up on a farm in Iowa, the high point of every summer, the event you impatiently waited for, the one thought of, which, sent tingles of excitement to your skin, was the “State Fair.” For Italian Americans, whose lives were spent mostly in inner cities the excitement was the same but the event was Festa “the Feast.” Put on by the local church or social club the Feast was the annual celebration of life as an Italian. The custom, brought from the old country, over time, took on a distinctly Italian American flavor. Many of those inner city neighborhoods are gone but “the Feast” lives on, bigger than life, in keeping with the American way of doing things. There are hundreds of Italian American Festivals happening every year in the US. In big cities and in small towns Italian Americans get together for a day or a week and celebrate the Italian American way to live, the family, the food, the music and every aspect of what makes being Italian American wonderful.
he radio show began with Filippo and Chef Richard talking, maybe arguing, about something, anything Italians cook, eat, say or do. The recipe is discussed and the cooking begins. In the middle of the show, while waiting for the pasta to boil, or something, Filippo will play a song. The recording would be one of his, or one of a friends or an old favorite like the opera singer, Caruso. The show would end with the dish being finished and their toast “To Love Good Food is to Love Life and To Share Good Food is to Enjoy” as a sign off.
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fter a year of doing radio shows Filippo and Chef Richard came up with the idea to bring in the artists, whose music they were playing on the show, and let them share their stories with our audience. Though the show had already gotten some momentum, it really took off when they started this new format. The San Gennaro Feast of Los Angeles, the city where the show originates, asked Filippo and Chef Richard to do a live version of the show on their Main Stage, which is the ABC Jimmy Kimmel Live stage. In September, the first Filippo and the Chef Live Festival Show debuted. A festival cooking demonstration that before was a “small stage,” not so well attended event, all of a sudden became “main stage” event and everybody wanted “in on the act” literally.
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ilippo and the Chef along with the Festival organizers pulled out all the stops and had a special cooking set ast year we were one of the first built, that could be wheeled publications to do a feature story about onto the stage, just for their “Filippo and the Chef.” International singshow. Filippo and the Chef er and recording star Filippo Voltaggio and hired a small band and called Fillippo and Penny Marshall Entertaining! former restaurateur, celebrity chef Richard upon some of their friends Lombardi make up the performing duo. in the business to be part Their show started as an Internet podcast and was quickly picked up and of the show. Some celebrities they didn’t know personally were also put on radio. They came to the attention of Amici after having grown interested. Fabio had his agent call and ask if we would postpone the from one station, once a week to fifteen radio stations across the country date of the festival so he could appear. Dom DeLouise said he didn’t two times every week. We wanted to see what they were all about and feel up to getting on stage but if we would come to his house he would we’re glad we did. We have been following them ever since. They are be happy to video tape something. He’s enjoyed singing with Filippo in taking their show on the road this year and what better way to talk about the past and thought maybe they could do that again. Cindy Williams the Italian Festival scene, than to talk about what Filippo and the Chef wanted to postpone her rehearsal start date for a musical in New York,
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Filippo and the Chef will be doing there. There are very few Italian-American acts that travel to all the major Italian Festivals and since Filippo and the Chef is such a unique show we felt we should make the trip with them.
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s for their show, the formula is quite simple, Filippo is the host and Chef Richard “il cuoco,” is the chef, that’s it. Of course it’s never been done, quite this way before. Why? Filippo also sings and Chef Richard also cooks with celebrities, among other things. The two of them banter back and forth while cooking and talking about things Italian Americans and everyone, for that matter, like to talk about. They talk about food, wine, Sunday dinners, good times, hard times, getting in trouble, getting out of trouble, growing up, you get the picture. They get their celebrity connections to join in the fun and share their stories, as well.
20 AMICI / Fall 2008
but couldn’t so she promised to be with us next year. Penny Marshall did postpone a rehearsal for a show in Los Angeles, so she was close to home and would have no problem appearing. Other celebrities who also appeared were, Uncle Frank, from the Jimmy Kimmel Live show, Jimmy Kimmel’s mom, who cooked pasta fagioli with Chef Richard, Tanya Memme, Marisa Petroro, Comedian Mike Marino, Mark DeCarlo and Mario Macaluso.
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ilippo’s big thrills were singing to Penny Marshall and dancing with Marisa Petroro, on stage. Chef Richard had fun on stage with his buddies, actors Johnny Capodice and Bobby Costanzo and doo wopping the background for Filippo as the new fifties group “Filippo and the Chef’s.” Back stage was a family scene that was just so Italian. Celebrity guests, crew and anyone who was nearby eating and enjoying what we cooked on stage. When Filippo and the Chef say “In Our Kitchen You’re Family” there is no doubt.
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ord whole group, traveled including Tony, pretty quickly, Jerry, Filippo, Chef Richard, or was it the smell of the Vince, Yogi and pasta fagioli; the the audience the National joined in and Italian Amerisang along. can Foundation wanted them to he Filippo come to Washand the ington, D.C. Chef Show is to participate a piece of ItalDoo Wop with Filippo and TV actors Bobby Costanzo in the annual ian-Americana, Penny Marshall cooking with Filippo and the Chef at and Johnny Capodice flanking Chef Richard. Convention and we will be Hollywood San Gennaro Festival. and Gala just hearing more a few weeks after San Gennaro. They loaded up their pots and pans and from them. Several food companies have sponsored their shows and off to NIAF they went to spread their version of Italian Americana to NIAF honored them with a 2008 grant. They will be seen this year at another great event. Filippo knew the NIAF organization, having sung (at last count and the list is still growing) 15 festivals or shows around for the Gala and for the Board of Directors on several occasions and they the country. The information about dates and places is available on their knew him. He had won a NIAF grant in the past. The Filippo and the web site mentioned later. Chef Show though would be new to them. Also, this was a last minute addition to the convention line up and the coordinators, sort of, “fit” hef Richard continues teaching cooking the show in at an “interesting” time in classes and works on new recipes. Filippo the schedule. Filipo and Chef Richard maintains a healthy singing career. In April you managed to line actor Tony Lo Bianco will be able to hear Filippo singing in a new and singer Jerry Vale, to be interviewed movie called “Noise.” He is especially proud of by Filippo and to cook with Chef Richthis song because he was asked to be a part of ard in a half hour stage show. NIAF is this project by Denny Diante, a fellow Italianthe ultimate Italian American “get toAmerican and a legend in the music industry. gether” so the unpredictable happened, Denny has produced many of the greats includsinger Deana Martin joined the guys on ing Barbara Streisand, Michael Jackson, Johnny stage. Former football great Vince FerMathis and others. Filippo and Denny comragamo, known for his wine expertise posed two songs for the film, one that will be also joined in. Jerry Vale took some used in the film itself and the other for the sound ribbing from his friend in the audience, track. The one in the film is a traditional SicilYogi Berra and many of the NIAF brass ian song named “Ciuri, Ciuri,” but with original came to watch the show too. It goes words by Filippo Voltaggio and an original Uncle Frank of the "Kimmel Show" and mom Joan, without saying that keeping this party arrangement by Denny Diante. along with Filippo and Chef are preparing at a half hour was impossible; everyone Pasta Fagioli. was having too much fun. Talk about ilippo and Chef Richard are also currently nostalgia, Deana started singing her working on a cookbook. The book is not yet father’s theme song “Everybody Loves Somebody Sometimes,” and the titled but we are told that Family Cooking is a great description.
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The Show on the Road Filippo and the Chef will be appearing at the following locations this year. Please visit the Filippo and the Chef web site for up to date information as this schedule is subject to change: June 6 7 8 - Cleveland - Summer Festival 12 13 14 15 – Chicago - Festa Pasta Vino 27 28 29 - Canton - Italian American Festival July 10 11 12 13 - Chicago - Mt Carmel 18 19 20 - East Boston - Italia Unita 24 25 26 27 - Milwaukee - Festa August 9 - Salt Lake City - Festa 14 15 16 17 - Boston - Fisherman’s Feast 22 23 24 - Portland - Festa 29 30 31 - Clarksburgh - Italian Heritage Festival September 4 5 6 7 - Hoboken - Italian Festival 13 - Darien - Sergio Franchi Event
14 - Norwalk - Oyster Festival 20 - Worcester - Private Show 21 - Hempstead - Hofstra Festival 26 27 28 - Hollywood - San Gennaro October 11 12 13 - San Diego - Little Italy Festival November 1 2 - Jupiter - Festa 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 - tuscany, it - cooking tour
Complete information about Filippo and Chef Richard is available at www.FilippoandtheChef.com. You can hear radio shows, see the complete photo gallery, see a video of the Hollywood San Gennaro Festival and click on “Filippo’s Blog” for a different take on the “Italian-American Experience.” In bocca al lupo to Filippo and to Chef Richard, we are proud to call you “Amici” of the Journal.
Photo: Gian Luici Scarfiotti Photographed at Badia a Coltibuono, Italy
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Recipes for your Table
CARCIOFI ALLA NEPITELLA Artichokes with Calamint
Nepitella (satureia calamintha) is an herb that grows wild in Tuscany and many other areas of Italy during summer and autumn. It is used especially to add flavor to mushrooms and artichokes. The herb belongs to the mint family if necessary/ mint can be used as a substitute.
Ingredients: 6 globe artichokes juice of 1 lemon 3 tablespoons fresh calamint, catnip/ catmint or mint salt and freshly ground pepper 3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil Directions: Clean the artichokes and remove the tough outer leaves and spiky tips. Drop them into water acidulated with the lemon juice so they do not darken. Peel the artichoke stalks and chop them with the calamint. Season with salt and pepper. Open up the leaves slightly and fill the spaces with the calamint mixture. Drizzle the artichokes with 2 table足spoons oil. Stand the artichokes upright in an oiled skillet. Pour a few tablespoons of water over them and cover the pan. Cook over low heat until artichokes are tender, about 20 minutes, basting from time to time with the pan juices.
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AGNELLO AL FINOCCHIO Lamb and Fennel
The Sardinians have special expertise in the breeding of sheep. Their lambs are particularly tender because they are slaughtered when very young weighing no more than 20 lb (10 kg). Lamb is almost the only meat eaten on the island of Sardinia.
Ingredients: 1 shoulder of lamb, about 3 lb (1.5 kg) 1/4 cup (2 fl oz/60 ml) extra virgin olive oil 1 onion, chopped salt and freshly ground pepper l lb (500 g) canned peeled tomatoes l lb (500 g) small wild fennel stalks, or 2 fennel bulbs with leaves Directions: Wash and dry the lamb and cut it into pieces. Heat the oil in a large skillet, add the onion and lamb and saute over moderate heat until the lamb is browned. Add salt, pepper and tomatoes, cover and cook over low heat for 10 minutes. Trim the fennel and cut into small pieces. Add to the lamb and cook uncovered until the meat is very tender, for about 11/2 hours, adding a little water if necessary. Adjust the seasoning. Arrange the lamb in a dish and serve.
The 316th Troop Carrier Group Its War in Sicily
SGT. Frank Fekete 44th TCS
Part I of 2
In December 1942, a study was instituted by planners for the invasion of the European continent. There were differences among the Allies. The Americans favored an invasion of France, while the British supported an invasion of Sardinia. At the Casablanca conference in January 1943, President Roosevelt, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, and the Combined Chiefs of Staff selected Sicily as the next Allied objective. By late April, preliminary invasion plans called for the use of paratroops in both the British and American operations, immediately prior to committing ground forces to face off against both German and Italian forces.
By Mike Ingrisano
D
-Day for HUSKY 1, code name for the first American airborne mission into Sicily, was set for the evening of July 9-10, 1943. The mission would put 226 planes in the air, 84 from the 51st Troop Carrier Wing and 142 supplied by the 52nd TC Wing. The latter included 35 C-47s from my own 316th Troop Carrier Group, manned by combat crews from its Headquarters, 36th, 44th, and 45th Squadrons. All in all, a total of 3,400 men from the 504th and 505th Parachute Infantry Regiments (PIR) of the 82nd Airborne Division, were to be dropped near Gela, Sicily, between 2340 hours on July 9 and 0030 hours on July 10. At this early phase of the war in Europe, HUSKY was to be the largest air drop, and the first major paratroop operation to be performed at night. The 316th Troop Carrier Group—HUSKY 1, Friday-Saturday, July 9-10, 1943 The 316th was next to the last TC group to take off for HUSKY 1. It left from Enfidaville, Tunisia, at 2340 hours, carrying Colonel James F. Gavin, leader of the Parachute Task Force and units of the 505th PIR. These included Headquarters Personnel, Headquarters Service and Demolition Squad, the 307 Engineers, the 456th Artillery, and the Medical Corps. The route was to be south and east to Malta, passing on route over the island of Lam24 AMICI / Fall 2008
padusa. Then the 316th TCG was to turn to the north across the tip of Sicily to a point about a half mile east-southeast to the DZ (drop zone). As the planes followed this route, it became evident that the velocity of the wind was 35 to
40 miles an hour at 400 feet altitude, instead of the predicted and favorable 10 to 15 miles per hour. This much stronger wind blew the C-47s east of the objective, and they reached landfall with the shore on its left, instead of its right as expected. To rectify being blown off course, the 316th made a 180-degree turn and followed the coast line back to the southwestern shore, near Gela, where the DZ was located. The formation then encountered enemy flak just before reaching the DZ, and had difficulty recognizing check points because of poor visibility. The aid
of forecasted moonlight had not materialized as expected; moreover, pre-invasion bombing by Allied planes caused haze and smoke. As the Group approached the Sicilian shore, the crews sighted numerous anti-aircraft bursts at Ponte Olivo, Gela and Licata. Some crews also reported that ground fire was light and inaccurate, and appeared to be erratic and spasmodic. Gela, itself, was on fire and around it was a perimeter of light anti-aircraft fire from German and Italian forces. Although it was assumed that HUSKY 1 would be an easy “milk run,” two aircraft from the 44th Squadron were shot down after dropping their troopers. The plane piloted by Captain Lawrence D. Lichliter, a/c 42-23492, exploded in mid-air killing the entire crew: Flight Officer Harry R. Pawlowski (copilot), T/Sgt. Olin J. Thornburg (crew chief), and Sgt. John M. Leonard (radio operator). It was later surmised that the plane was hit in one of the parapacks of live explosives carried under the belly of the C-47. The second plane, a/c 42-09256, was piloted by F/O Ernest W. Terry. He successfully landed his disabled ship with one of the engines on fire. He turned on his landing lights just before hitting the ground. He and his radio operator, Corporal Felix H. Pientka were both killed when they stumbled into a German pillbox. The co-pilot, F/O Clyde Casey, and the crew chief, T/Sgt. Charles A. Porter, laid in a ditch all night until some U. S. paratroopers captured the pill box the next morning. The remaining 316th TCG planes
job of flying. Hit drop right on the nose.”] The men of the 316th TCG made their private evaluations of HUSKY 1. S/Sgt. Frank W. Fekete flew with the 44th TCS as a radio operator. He was not on the HUSKY 1 mission but made the following entries in his war time diary Saturday, July 10, 1943 “The actual invasion of Europe has begun, it is very costly; it cost our sqdron. two ships and crew. We were scheduled to make another paratroop mission tonight but it was called off for some unknown reason. Oh if Margy were only here”. Sunday, July 11, 1943 “We are really going on our mission tonight. Dropping paratroops over Sicily. I am going this time and I hope everything turns out OK.” To be continued: HUSKY 2.
returned to North Africa and Enfidaville at approximately 0220 hours on July 10. An Allied foothold was established in Sicily, but the evaluation of the success of the HUSKY 1 mission was quite varied. The 52nd Wing stated that the “group airplanes hit the DZ accurately.” The 316th TCG officially considered the mission “highly successful.” But overall, the results of HUSKY 1 were disappointing in that less than a sixth of the paratroopers were delivered on or near the DZ. The paratroop assessment was quite negative: “The 316th fared worst of all. Deflected by the wind, it missed Linosa; it missed
Malta; and it missed the south east coast of Sicily.” Three planes, carrying a demolition section dropped their troops south of Syracuse, 65 miles from their objective. “Over Sicily the rest of the 316th promptly lost its way again, dispersed, dropped their passengers, including the task force commander [Gavin], all over southeastern Sicily.” [Later in the war the 316th dropped the 82nd and the then General Gavin into Holland on September 17, 1944, for Operation Market Garden. A week later, Major Ben Kendig, Commanding Officer of the Group’s 44th Squadron, received a message from Gavin, who was the first to jump from Kendig’s plane: “Congratulations and appreciation for a fine
By Mike Ingrisano
Fall 2008 /AMICI 25
R E S T A U R A N T
The Message is Clear!…promotions, marketing, advertising are the way to deliver yours! Tom Reboletti
R A D I O
will tell ten (10) others of their experience.!!
Let’s talk about marketing. During the hard economic times we are presently experiencing the last thing we should do is to stop promoting our place of business. The way we think though, is “why should I spend money on this…nothing is going to work.” Well, I am hear to tell you that your thinking is WRONG!!. During these hard times is the right time to keep promoting and keeping your name in front of the public. You need to decide just how much you can spend, then put together a budget that will, ultimately, get you the most for your dollar. If you check the mail that you receive every day at your home, if it’s anything like mine, you probably get coupons from every restaurant or pizza place in the area. Why is that??? Well, it’s probably because consumers today are trying to get the most for their hard earned dollars, just as you are, and they welcome those discount coupons. If your choice of marketing is in newsprint, door-to-door flyers cable or radio. Those are definitely direct ways to reach your customers. If you are thinking about opening a restaurant or moving, one way of marketing and promoting your business is through a successful Grand Opening Celebration. Restaurant Radio Chicago can assist you in making the event a total success and ensure that you are getting your money’s worth. We can even assist you in developing your Marketing Budget and put together the plan that will be most effective. However, as a consultant in the restaurant industry, I always tell my clients that the Grand Opening should take place somewhere after the place has been open 30 days or so. I recommend that a “Soft Opening” take place, which means just opening the door and letting things happen naturally. It is important to get all of the kinks worked out before promoting and exposing yourself to the public, and putting your best foot forward. Remember the best advertising you can get is “word of mouth.” Also remember that an unhappy customer
Dane Neal
When you think about, it does make sense, if you need or want more customers, you need to let more people know what you are doing and have to offer. So regardless of whether you want customers to maintain your restaurant, or you need LOTS more people to show up at your 300 plus locations, advertising and marketing are essential. A unique message that really sets your place and your products apart is great, lets face it there is a lot of competition out there and you real have to put your best foot forward. Recently Tom and I covered the National Restaurant Association show at McCormick Place in Chicago, and outside of us interviewing celebrity Chefs and Restaurant owners, we got a great chance to see and meet hundreds (maybe thousands) of people and companies trying to do just that, set them selves apart and show why they are special. From a few people with a dream to market their Menus that talk to you in 10 languages, to beepers shaped like lobsters, and of course the biggest Restaurants and food product companies in the world, one thing shines through for all of them, the ones that are successful are people and have people, that share a pride and passion in themselves and what they do…they are excited about what they have to say and have to share! That is easy to do one to one and in person, but NRA only comes once a year and now everyone will have to look for other ways, through advertising, promotion and marketing, to share their business and have their unique message and passion shine through. We look forward to bringing great people and great products and great places together through Restaurant Radio Chicago, and here in the Amici Journal, so keep reading, keep listening and until next time…we’ll save you a table!
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2008 national italian restaurant guide Email us for info on CHICAGO AND SUBURBS, IL 3 Olives Restaurant / Twist Lounge 8318 W. Lawrence Ave. Norridge, IL 60706 Phone: (708) 452-1545 Amalfi Ristorante 298 Glen Ellyn Rd. Bloomingdale, IL 630-893-9222 Caponies Trattoria 3350 N. Harlem Ave. Chicago, IL 60634 Phone: (773) 804-9024 Capri Ristorante Italiano, Inc. 1238 W. Ogden Ave. Naperville, IL 60563 Phone: (630) 778-7373 Custom House 500 S. Dearborn St. Chicago, IL 60605 Phone: (312) 523-0200 Gioacchino’s Ristorante & Pizzeria 5201 St. Charles Rd. Bellwood, IL 60104 Phone: (708) 544-0380
Vince’s Italian Restaurant 4747 N. Harlem Ave. Chicago, IL 60634 Phone: (708) 867-7770 Cafe Zalute & Bar 9501 W. Devon Rosemont, Il Phone: (847) 685-0206
BOSTON, MA Bacco Ristorante & Bar 107 Salem St. Boston, MA 02113 Phone: (617) 624-0454 Fiorella’s 187 North St. Newton, MA 02460 Phone: (617) 969-9990 Sorento’s Italian Gourmet 86 Peterborough St. Boston, Ma, 02215 Phone: (617) 424-7070
MILWAUKEE, WI Bellagio of Naples 492 Bayfront Pl. Naples, FL 34102 Phone: (239) 430-7020
La Piazza 410 Circle Ave., Forest Park, IL Phone: (708) 366-4010 www.piazzacafe.com
Alioto’s 3041 N. Mayfair Rd. Milwaukee, WI 53222 Phone: (414) 476-6900
Osteria via Stato 620 N. State St. Chicago, IL 60610 Phone: (312) 642-8450
Buca di Beppo 1233 N. Van Buren St. Milwaukee, WI 53202 Phone: (414) 224-8672
Spacca Napoli Pizzeria 1769 W. Sunnyside Ave. Chicago, IL 60640 Phone: (773) 878-2420
Carini’s La Conca D’oro 3468 N. Oakland Ave. Milwaukee, WI 53211 Phone: (414) 963-9623
Venuti’s Ristorante & Banquets 2251 W. Lake St. Addison, IL 60101 Phone: (630) 376-1500
NAPLES, FL
Via Carducci 1419 W. Fullerton Chicago, IL 60614 773-665-1981
Trattoria Milano Italian 336 Tamiami Trail N Naples, FL 34102 Phone: (239) 645-2030
Stars Restaurant Review Rating! Trattoria Milano Italian 336 9TH St. N Naples, FL 34102 Phone: (239) 643-2030
NEW YORK, NY Borgo Antico Italian Restaurant 22 E. 13th St. New York, NY 10003 Phone: (212) 807-1313 Carmine’s 2450 Broadway New York, NY 10024 Phone: (212) 362-2200 Carmine’s Rhode Island 100 Twin Rivers Rd. Lincoln, RI 02865 Phone: (401) 475-8600 Massimo al Ponte Vecchio 206 Thompson St. New York, NY 10012 Phone: (212) 228-7701
PHILADELPHIA, PA Dante & Luigi’s 762 S. 10th St. Philadelphia, PA 19147 Phone: (215) 922-9501 Dolce` 241 Chestnut St. Philadelphia, PA 19106 Phone: (215) 238-9983 Mama Yolanda’s Italian Restaurant 746 S. 8TH St. Philadelphia, PA 19147 Phone: (215) 592-0195
Mescolanza 2221 Clement St. San Francisco, CA 94121 Phone: (415) 668-2221 Puccini & Pinetti 129 Ellis St. San Francisco, CA 94102 Phone: (415) 392-5500 Ristorante Umbria 198 2nd St. San Francisco, CA 94105 Phone: (415) 546-6985
ST. LOUIS, MO Favazza’s 5201 Southwest Ave. St. Louis, MO 63139 Phone: (314) 772-4454 John Mineo’s Italian 13490 Clayton Rd. St. Louis, MO 63131 Phone: (314) 434-5244 Modesto Tapas Bar & Restaurant 5257 Shaw Ave. St. Louis, MO 63110 Phone: (314) 772-8272 Tony’s Restaurant 410 Market St. St. Louis, MO 63102 Phone: (314) 231-7007 Concetta’s Italian Restaurant 600 S. 5th St. St. Charles, MO 63301 Phone: (636) 946-2468 Ricardo’s Italian Cafe 1931 Park Ave. St. Louis, MO 63104 Phone: (314) 421-4833
Mio Sogno Italian Restaurant 2650 S. 15TH St. Philadelphia, PA 19145 Phone: (215) 467-3317
Carrabba’s Italian Grill 10923 Olive Blvd. Creve Coeur, MO 63141 Phone: (314) 872-3241
SAN FRANCISCO, CA
The Old Spaghetti Factory 727 N. First St. St. Louis, MO 63102 Phone: (314) 621-0276
Kuleto’s 221 Powell St. San Francisco, CA 94102 Phone: (415) 397-7720
CONTACT US FOR RATES TO BE LISTED IN OUR NATIONAL RESTAURANT GUIDE Fall 2008 /AMICI 27
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monaco
KELLY K E L LY By Kathy Catrambone She is Kelly Monaco, the spirited middle child of five ItalianAmerican girls raised in Philadelphia and the Poconos. But to millions of daytime TV fans, she is Samantha McCall, the sexy and rebellious brunette who kicks up dirt on “General Hospital.”
Monaco originated the role of Samantha McCall in October 2003. And in 2006, she was nominated for an Outstanding Lead Actress Daytime Emmy. She also made TV history as the first winner of the wildly popular, “Dancing with the Stars.” Such a career path is a far cry from a childhood of sports and high school drama and a family life flavored with the rich spices of Italian ancestry. How did she become a soap star? “I was one of the lucky ones, I guess,” she says. Monaco had been auctioning for the soaps, one of as many as 1,000 actresses. She tested for the “General Hospital” role and was one of the final five candidates. That led to four or five auditions and then a test shoot on set with actors already on the show. “Then they bring it the network and whoever sticks is picked. I guess I stuck,” she recalls. By “sticking,” she joined the cast of the popular daytime drama, in which since 1963, passion, intrigue and adventure takes place in the fictional town of Port Charles, in upstate New York. Maybe birth order in the Monaco family was the foundation for Kelly’s future. “I think I had the typical middle-child syndrome,” she says. “I was always starving for attention and performing and wanting to be noticed from the middle of the pack. But I don’t think being an actor was in the foreseeable future for one of five girls growing up in Philadelphia; it was just something I did to occupy my imagination. I was, of course, in school plays, theater. But acting, as a job and something to be educated about and pursue, was not a reality.” Not until she graduated from high school and watched her sisters going off to college did Monaco start to think about her future. “I went to college because that is what you are supposed to do, but I knew it was not for me,” she says. So, at 19 she moved to Los Angeles. By herself. And her parents supported her efforts to go out and explore the world. She survived, she recalls, because, “I had a head on my shoulders and was street-smart and knew how to take care of myself. That was something my parents instilled in us. They had confidence that I would be OK.
Monaco Actress
“Kids get out here and are so naïve, and that can take a whole different turn.” She grew up in a typical Catholic Italian-American family. “There were certain things we did that our friends didn’t do, like going to church three times a week and attending religion class.” But after the Monacos moved from a troubled Philadelphia to the peaceful Poconos, they became more of an individual family instead of part of a community. Her mother’s family is from Sicily; her father’s, from Calabria. Her great-grandparents immigrated to America. Monaco is the family name, not a stage name. Her father is Michael; her mother, Carmina Angelina Lucia Travagline. Kelly is not a typical name for an Italian girl, but she says some of her sisters have unusual names: Amber, Marissa, Christina. However there is a Carmina, after their mother. Her parents and many of her cousins are fluent in Italian, but she and her sisters are not, she laments. Monaco is one Italian-American who has secured a spot in pop culture, with her winning the first “Dancing with the Stars” competition. “Dancing” contestants learn thousands of dance steps, but none so challenging, Monaco says, as the step she took outside her comfort zone when she did the show. “It was a such a new show then, No one knew what to expect,” she says. “My journey was different for me. It was stepping into the unknown; and doing a show that no one knew anything about. For me, it was more of stepping out the box and exploring the possibilities. Now I think (future contestants) think about what the show may do for their careers.” The success of the show has opened the doors to many opportunities, and she is pursuing them. She’s even been invited to the Super Bowl, something that never would have happened, she jokes, without her sucess on “Dancing with the Stars.” She reprised one of her dance routines on a recent “Oprah” show that featured the cast of the current season’s competition. Also, since the show’s debut, she has had more than 20 million hits on her Web site, www.officialkellymonaco.com. Monaco’s television credits include co-hosting the 33rd Annual Daytime Emmy Awards when they were broadcast for the first time from Hollywood. Before joining the cast of “General Hospital,” she had a three-and-a-half-year stint on the ABC daytime drama “Port Charles,” where she garnered her first Daytime Emmy nomination for Outstanding Supporting Actress in 2003. She debuted in TV work in 1997, when she landed a recurring role on “Baywatch.” While shooting “Port Charles,” she also guest starred opposite Charlie Sheen and Heather Locklear in a season finale of ABC’s “Spin City.” She also appeared in the feature films, “Idle Hands,” “Mumford” and “BASEketball”. Her life and career in California and the entertainment world has been exhilarating, she says. And because of her experience, she encourages every young person to follow his or her dream. Because, as an ItalianAmerican girl from Pennsylvania has learned, you never know where life will take you.
RON ONESTI ENTERTAINMENT
AND
THE NATIONAL ITALIAN AMERICAN SPORTS HALL OF FAME By John Rizzo
W
ouldn’t it be great to go hear some real good singer in Chicago at a place called the Frank Sinatra Center for the Performing Arts – on Taylor Street no less? In possibly less than a year from now, you may be able to do just that, thanks in great part to the efforts of George Randazzo and Jerry Colangelo of the National Italian American Sports Hall of Fame. Ron Onesti, president and founder of Onesti Entertainment “It’ll have about 240 seats,” says Onesti, “and located on the lower level of the famous National Italian American Sports Hall of Fame.” at 1431 W. Taylor St. What a wonderful idea! But we should be used to this kind of neat ideas from this man who “designed the exhibits” for the shrine to Italian American sports heroes. In advance of the actual opening of the Center Onesti will “produce a performance of Hizzonor (about the late Richard J. Daley) on May 18, 2008 on the second floor of (NIASHF).” This is just the latest chapter in Onesti’s connection to Frank Sinatra. In his “first brush with greatness,” in 1985, Onesti was instrumental in bringing about a generous contribution from Sinatra to the Villa Scalabrini. Booked for five concerts at the Arie Crown, the singer donated the entire proceeds of one evening to the Villa. Since Sinatra passed away, Onesti has been “working on the estate with Nancy.” Getting permission to use the Sinatra name is a huge part of firing up the Performing Arts Center. By the way, Nancy Sinatra is not the only Famous Daughter Onesti works with. “I manage Dina Martin (Dino’s daughter) and Louis Prima’s daughter, Lena.” Ron Onesti is one of those lucky individuals that have a certain affinity for their future early on in life. “I always liked planning events. In high school I was Homecoming chairman and Prom chairman, getting tickets and posters printed.” A graduate with an Advertising major from DePaul University, he tried, unsuccessfully, to hook up with a top agency. So he started his own one-man shop where he at least learned how to run a business. He also wrote a column in the Fra Noi, “Focus on Youth.” But it did not take him long to find that his true calling was in planning and producing events. Onesti Entertainment is an institution in the Chicago area Italian American community, of which Ron is a proud member. “My father’s people came from Salerno and my mom came from Florence. My grandfather came through Ellis Island in 1905.” For all his achievements Onesti is returning to the scene of so many immigrants’ first real contact with America to receive the prestigious Ellis Island Medal of Honor later on this year. He ought to get some kind of award for just the sheer amount of work he does in just the local events. It is virtually impossible to attend any prominent Italian event in the area without enjoying a very professional Onesti production. Actually, the best part about one of these events is that you’re not aware of the production crew, etc. They do their job so skillfully that all you have to do is sit back and enjoy the show. The local events are only part of Onesti’s activities. “The most exciting thing for me is the variety of different types of events. About 70 percent of what we do is in Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Orlando, New York and New Jersey, where we do the Hoboken Italian Festa every
year.” Onesti will even bring Las Vegas to Chicago, as he did with the big Venuti’s Gala last year. Not only did this event feature top entertainment that included Bobby Avalon and the Temptations, but he had a host of pretty girls Las Vegas-style outfits serving the guests. But, fortunately for us, he produces plenty of local events, including “the top three Italian Festas in the Chicago area.” In St. Charles, he has a going concern at the venerable Arcadia Theater. “We saved the Arcadia from the wrecking ball and restored it to its original splendor of 1926. There are usually two or three events there every week.” The professional entertainment there runs the gamut from opera to rock and roll. Onesti Entertainment is very competitive because it is a one-stop production company. The alternative to Onesti would involve dealing with a number of different entities and personalities. “We do everything from concept to production,” Ron explains. “We hire the entertainment and do all the sound and technical work,” which can mean the use of film as well. And nowadays these kinds of shows require the highest quality of computer technology. “My brother, Rich, is Vice President and he is wellversed in all the technical aspects of production.” Now don’t you wish everybody had a brother like that?
Like so many Italian American businesses, chances are that this one will be passed on to succeeding generations. “My daughter, Giuliana, has a great feel for the business. She had a microphone in her hands at the age of nine months,” Ron beams. “There’s a very good chance that she will be part of this business some day.” That’s probably down the road a bit. What is most intriguing is how this Frank Sinatra Center for JOEL GOULD & ASSOCIATES the Performing Arts plays out. In its prospective location it would surely be a great attraction for both locals and tourists. And it’s ATTORNEY AT LAW about time that somebody, at least, has recognized that a venue forCivil American music should be namedLitigation after perhaps the greatest exponent of that music in history Medical MalPractice – Frank Sinatra. And it definitely should be in Chicago. After all, Chicago was “his kind of town” DUI
L AW O F F I C E S
. . . . .Criminal Law
205 W. Randolph Suite 1550 5839 W. Belmont Ave. Chicago, IL
Tel: 773.281.8744
We also speak Polish Fall 2008 /AMICI 31
By John Rizzo
T
radition. What a great word, rife with meaning, yet one that is forgotten far too often for my money. But that word sure comes to mind when you enjoy a super meal and a fun night out at Café Zalute! in Rosemont. Tradition is definitely the best word that describes how brother and sister owners Ralph “Butch” Navarro and Roseanne Navarro Irgang dish out great Italian food and hospitality as a loving testament to their mother, Teresa. That’s because Teresa’s traditional southern Italian recipes are the heart and soul of the delightful fare offered by this excellent restaurant. Nor can you forget tradition when it comes to partner Joe Macchitelli. He’s the founder of Shoeless Joe’s, that outstanding sports bar in Rosemont, whose surprisingly quality food is supplied by Butch and Roseanne. This place either keeps alive the memory of one of Chicago’s most legendary professional athletes (“Say it ain’t so, Joe!”) or stands as a monument to exploited ex-husbands. (“Some people say that’s the way my wife left me,” as Joe puts it.) You can also feel tradition in the cozy dining areas, redecorated to suggest the appearance of a typical trattoria in Italy. There are actually three sections on the first floor – an inviting outdoor café, a well appointed main dining room and a subtly lit multi-purpose room facing the fully stocked bar. This section features live entertainment every weekend, usually a jazzy offering by swinging musicians like Vito Zatto. Downstairs is another neat room set aside for banquets and private parties. It also serves as a disco bar on the weekends where you can work off some of the extra calories you’re sure to consume from the ample portions of those delicious meals served upstairs. My wife and I were fortunate in being able to sample a number of items available in each course. We started out with some homemade garlic rolls, baked fresh every day. From these tempting treats, I knew it was going to be a real eating adventure! Then came the special soup-ofthe-day, a thick, creamy tomato soup with a tasty crostino floating on top. I added a touch of fresh parmigian’ cheese (the first of many times), and I was off to the races! The soups are all homemade, of course, and depending on what day you come, they have pea soup, lobster bisque, barley, chicken, pasta farfalle or wedding soup (“It’s not wedding soup, it’s minestra!” Roseanne protests.) Besides the daily specials, minestrone is always available. The appetizers we tried were all traditional ones and they were all dandy! One of Mama Teresa’s most famous recipes is her scrumptious carciofe hearts, and for good reason! Try ‘em and you’ll see why. And here’s a place where I can recommend the bruschetta. Not that it’s not good at other restaurants. I just don’t usually order it because the way I handle it, the tomato chunks tend to fall off the toast into my lap. With the tasty bruschetta here, however, you can conduct Pagliacci and the nifty concoction will hold together, such is the consistency of this yummy appetizer. We also had some perfectly cooked fried calamari, some succulent and lightly breaded baked clams and some delicious mussels in red sauce (my favorite of the group). The appetizers were quickly followed by a very fresh, crisp 32 AMICI / Fall 2008
Joe Machitelli, Roseanne Navarro Irgang & Butch Navarro
salad, nicely highlighted by a tangy raspberry vinaigrette. I was in a white wine mood that evening, so I had a few glasses of some very decent pinot grigio, but I checked out the wine list for future reference. Zalute stocks all the best wines you can expect at a premier Italian restaurant – red, white, domestic, imported – they’re all well represented at reasonable prices. We shared two extremely good pasta dishes. The eight-finger cavatelli was very well prepared – each individual piece was distinct from the rest, but all were joined together by a dynamite vodka sauce. The other item, one that I’ll surely order when we go back is called pasta calabrese. This was a savory helping of rigatoni with a creamy basil sauce, also available with chicken. My, oh my, was that good! I could have gone on grooving on that, but the entrees were coming right up. By this time, I had already consumed quite a bit, but the prime dishes were so seductive, that it just didn’t matter. We were served portions of six (count’em, six) entrees and they were all terrific. First there was the chicken cardinale. This was akin to parmigian’ style, lightly breaded with the melted mozzarella and marinara, but also with prosciutto and baby asparagus spears. Another nice treat was the sausage with peppers and potatoes. This could easily be a first choice because the meat is of such fine quality. Then there were the barbequed ribs. These are cooked so well that they really do melt in your mouth, and the zesty sauce is right on! We also had a helping of veal gorgonzola. This combination of prime cutlet with the pungent cheese flavor is truly remarkable. My favorites of the entrees, however, were the luscious tilapia, stacked with spinach, mozzarella and marinara, and the super thick and tender blackened pork chop. It was only later that I realized why I loved these dishes so much. They both are served with the most flavorful Italian style mashed potatoes I ever tasted, combined with garlic, melted blue cheese and some other goodies. Mmmmmmmm! Believe it or not, we also had some dessert – homemade tiramisu, some real down home bread pudding and mini cannolis. How did we eat so much? Because everything was so
good, that’s how! And, by the way, at Café Zalute!, it’s all very traditional Italian!
Restaurant: Fri: 11am to 11pm Sat: 4pm to 11pm Sun: Private Party Retro Bar Fri & Sat: 12pm to 4am
TRIVIA ITALIAN-AMERICAN STYLE Based on materials from “Heritage Italian-American Style”
Across 4. The Primo Viaggio Interno al Mondo was written by Italian adventurer Antonio Pigafetta. It detailed the exploits of what explorer’s expedition that circumnavigated the world? 6. Giogetto Giugiaro of Italdesign-Giugiaro Spa, has designed more of these than anyone in the 20th century. 9. Italian-American writer that many regard as America’s greatest forgotten literary genius. Ask the Dust is considered by critics to be on a par with The Great Gatsby. Other works include Full of Life, The Road to Los Angeles, and Wait Until Spring, Bandini. 11. Identify this role model for liberal Republicans and working mothers, who was once the highest ranking woman in Congress, representing Staten Island and parts of Brooklyn. 12. The Latin phrase, E pluribus unum, is used by the U.S. as a motto on its great seal. The phrase translates to Out of many, one. What Roman poet and author was this phrase taken from? 14. The architect for one of America’s greatest monuments had Italian roots. Frederic Auguste Bartholdi was born in France of Italian immigrant parents in 1834. He used the face of his mother as the model for what famous statue? 15. Luigi Faccuito, a legendary teacher and dancer on the Broadway stage and over 40 films including such Hollywood classic musicals as Singin in the Rain, An American in Paris, and White Christmas, is known as the father of American _______ dancing. 17. The country Italy defeated for the World Cup soccer title in 1982. 18. Born in Padua in 1508, he is considered the most influential architect in the history of architecture. 19. Jacopo Berengario Da Carpi was a 16th century Italian physician and anatomist who was the first to describe this mechanism of the human heart.
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Down 1. This charismatic Italian hero is the only historical figure to appear on both American and Soviet postage stamps during the cold war period. 2. Mark P. Frissora, who makes his home in Lake Forest, Illinois, is chairman, president, and CEO of what global auto parts manufacturer that employs over 23,000 in 22 countries with over $3.5 billion in sales? 3. The nautical term starboard is derived from what uniquely designed Italian boat’s right, or steer-board, side? 5. A vaccine for this disease, the first in the world, has been discovered by Italian research scientists. The major innovation in its development is found in the formation of a particular protein’s DNA information. 7. After serving as president and CEO of Eastman Kodak, Patricia Russo now heads an AT&T spin-off company she helped launch in 1996. 8. Child prodigy Maria Gaetana Agnesi, was born in Milan in 1718. She is considered the first woman in the western world to achieve a prominent reputation in what academic discipline? 9. He headed a group of Italian scientists that included Emilio Segre, that gained a U.S. Patent in July of 1940 (filed in Oct. 1935) that was for a process for the production of radioactive substances. 10. The tradition of St. Joseph’s Day began in this Italian region during the Middle Ages. 13. The family of new Supreme Court Justice Samuel Anthony Alito Jr. hails from this region of Italy. 16. Ruggedly handsome film and television actor’s breakthrough feature role came opposite Timothy Dalton’s James Bond in License to Kill in 1989. Younger audiences will remember him as an opera-singing villain in The Goonies from 1985.
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CHARLES VALLONE Broker Associate Fall 2008 /AMICI 33
In Las Vegas, it started with………
“If you think you can do better, why don’t you become a boxing judge?”
That statement from my friend, Jay Blood, back in 1981 actually put the wheels in motion for me to become a professional boxing judge. I am often asked how I became a boxing judge. Here is how it all began. I have been a boxing fan for as long as I can remember. I remember listening to the Rocky Graziano-Tony Zale championship fight on radio as a child when I was 5 years old. My father, Louie, who was a photographer for the Chicago Sun-Times took me with him on his newspaper assignments to boxing gyms and some boxing matches in Chicago during that time. I was fascinated by the work outs and training of the boxers. I actually wanted to become an amateur Golden Gloves boxer and eventually become a pro boxer. However, I had stomach problems as a child and I wouldn’t be able to take body punches. It wasn’t until I was 21 years old that I was finally diagnosed as having Crohn’s Disease, which is an inflammation of the small intestines.
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his tr h t i w o
s in C a w ” Rock ous “The was graci a e r and h to pose fo . h enoug with me.. e pictur
In a previous article I wrote about my father bringing Rocky Graziano to our house the night he beat Tony Zale for the Middleweight Championship and how Rocky returned the next day to have his picture taken with me, my brother and a bunch of friends (I’ve reproduced the picture again in this article). In November 1955, my father came to my school (I was in eighth grade), took me out of class and told me he had a surprise for me. He took me to a downtown hotel, where he introduced me to the Heavy weight Champion of the World, Rocky Marciano. “The Rock” was in Chicago with his trainer and he was gracious enough to pose for a picture with me, dressed in his boxing trucks and in his boxing stance (that picture is also reproduced in this article along with a picture I took of Marciano and my father). Even though I couldn’t box, I attended as many fights in Chicago as I could. So when I moved to Las Vegas in 1980, I couldn’t believe the amount of boxing matches being held here at that time. There were weekly boxing matches at the Silver Slipper Casino, several matches per month at the Showboat Casino, and the beginning of the mega fights at Caesars Palace, The Dunes, The Riviera, The Sahara and The Hacienda. Back to Jay Blood’s comment. He and I regularly attended boxing matches. I can honestly now say that I was one of the most vocal boxing fans. I’d got so involved in the fight, I’d yell, complain of the official scoring and refereeing. I’d talk to the officials and ask them how they arrived at their scores; I’d ask the referee why he did or didn’t stop the fight or what I perceived as fouls. It was during my complaining during a fight that Jay Blood made the remark, “If you think you can do better, why don’t you become a boxing judge.”
34 AMICI / Fall 2008
“Check out next edition of Amici Jurnal for exlusive interview with Chuck Giampa”
That comment stopped me in my tracks. Why not, I thought. I immediately met with a boxing commissioner to inquire how I could become a boxing judge. I was told that I would have to donate my time to be an amateur judge for at least one year, which I did. I started scoring fights on TV; I scored live fights that I attended. Instead of complaining about the officiating, I asked the officials how and why they scored the rounds the way they did. I went to the Golden Gloves gym every day to sit ringside and unofficially score boxers while they sparred. In short, I immersed myself in the role of a boxing judge. Finally in 1984, several of us amateur referees and judges took the written test administered by the Nevada State Athletic Commission. In November 1984, I was appointed as a professional boxing judge.
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I have difficulty putting in words how excited and proud I was. I thought back to my days as a child listening to fights on radio, then watching fights on TV. I thought about my unfulfilled desire to become a boxer. And now I was an official in a sport that I loved for as long as I could remember.
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As many of us transplanted Las Vegans have discovered: moving to Las Vegas had provided opportunities for us that were unimaginable. In May 1987, I was fortunate to judge my first championship fight at The Riviera Hotel. In November 1987, I achieved another goal: I was assigned to judge my first championship fight out of the country……IN SICILY. I can still remember sitting at the ring before the start of the fight and thinking: HOW LUCKY I AM…HERE I AM FULFILLING A DREAM OF BEING A BOXING JUDGE AND IN SICILY. That was my first of many fights that I judged in Italy. I’ve been fortunate to travel as a judge to Italy, France, England, Wales, Germany, Panama, Argentina, Korea, Japan as well as many other cities throughout the USA.
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Please understand that the reason I’m telling you my story is not to list my travels but to motivate others. We can accomplish so much in life. I refused to let Crohn’s Disease stop me from leading a full life. Later in life I was able to become a boxing official although I couldn’t be a boxer when I was young. It has also been my pleasure to share this story with individuals and families of Crohn’s Disease patients. To let them know that there is so much to experience in life. As Sylvester Stallone said in Rocky VI, “It’s not so much how hard you get hit; it’s how many times you keep moving forward after you get hit.” In boxing, we have a saying: KEEP YOUR GUARD UP; YOUR CHIN TUCKED IN AND YOUR BUTT OFF THE CANVAS.
Fall 2008 /AMICI 35
Sp o rt s Ron Santo’s By Joe Cosentino
R
View from the Press Box
on Santo looked out from the WGN radio booth in Wrigley Field high above the baseball diamond where he spent 14 seasons, from as a star at third base for the Chicago Cubs. His uniform number 10, retired by the team on Sept. 28, 2003, was flapping in the wind on a pinstripe flag from the left field foul pole. He looked comfortable and ready to do color commentary on the radio broadcast of a game between the Cubs and the Milwaukee Brewers with play-by-play partner Pat Hughes. With slightly more than an hour before the game, Santo took time to welcome me in the booth and talk about his career, businesses, baseball, life, and, of course, the Cubs. With Santo it’s hard to draw a line between any of these subjects. It all becomes intertwined into one storyline. Sitting next to him, I was about to get his views on all of it – from the press box. He was born in Seattle on Feb. 25, 1940. He arrived in Chicago in 1960 to play for the Cubs and has remained here ever since. In his baseball career that spanned 15 seasons, including one year with the Chicago White Sox in 1974, he played in 2,243 games, hit 342 home runs, was named to the All-Star team nine times and won the Golden Glove Award five times. What makes his career and life even more amazing was that Santo was diagnosed with Type I (Juvenile Onset) diabetes at age 18. He played with the disease and not only excelled on the baseball field but in his life as well. As a result of his diabetes, he has had both his legs amputated below the knee, the right in 2001 and the left one year later. If anyone has the right to stay in bed in the morning and pull the covers over their head it would be Ron Santo. But when you spend time with him, you quickly realize his tremendous capacity to appreciate every aspect of life. There’s not a glimmer of despair. His positive approach in the face of misfortune is contagious. In 2004, Santo and his battle against diabetes was the subject of a documentary, “This Old Cub”. The film was written, co-produced, and directed by one of Santo’s sons, Jeff. “I tell people when something traumatic happens to you and you have a lot of adversity,” Santo said. “You do what you have to do. You don’t think about it. You think you can’t do it. But you can do it! You can only go two ways – positive or negative. You always have to think positive. “When I first found out I was going to lose my leg, I would think about it off the field, but when I came up here in the radio booth, I never thought about it.” Santo is a board member of the Juvenile Diabetes Foundation, which has raised more than $54 million since he began his involvement with the group. In 2002, he was named the foundation’s “Person of the Year.” He also inspired Bill Holden to walk 2,100 miles, from Arizona to Chicago, to raise $250,000 for diabetes research. In 1960, there were only 16 teams in the major leagues, eight in the National League and eight in the American League, and 400 players. He was playing in Double A with Houston for a month and a half when he was called up he was called up by the Cubs on June 26, 1960 for his first game in the major league against the Pittsburgh Pirates in their old home in 36 AMICI / Fall 2008
Forbes Field. “It was the first major league ballpark I had ever been in,” he recalled. “I only saw minor league parks in Seattle. I was in awe. I sat in the Pirates dugout and watched them hit. I was going to face Vern Law and Bob Friend in a doubleheader. “Ernie Banks came and talked to me and asked if I was nervous. He was that kind of a guy. He said think of Law and Friend like they were Double A pitchers. I looked at Ernie and said, ‘That’s easy for you to say.’” Pittsburgh won the 1960 World Series against the New York Yankees on a walk-off home run in the seventh game by Bill Mazeroski. “First time up, I got a base hit through the middle. We won both games. I had four hits and five runs batted in and we went to Chicago,” Santo said. The other 15 teams wanted to sign Santo for more money than the Cubs offered. However, the reasons he signed with the Cubs was the opportunity to play in Wrigley Field and with Banks. “There was something I felt about the Wrigley Field,” Santo says. “I’d never been out of Seattle and now two years later I was playing with Ernie.” Santo was worried about staying in the big leagues, but once he went around the league a couple of times, he became more confident. The Cubs were always a fifth or sixth place team in the National League. Things really changed when Leo Durocher came in to manage the club in 1966. At the time there ten teams in the National League. “Leo said we were not an eighth place team – we ended up in tenth that year,” Santo said with a laugh. “Next year we ended up in third place and that’s when the change started to come together.” Santo and Banks were joined by Ferguson Jenkins, Billy Williams, Glenn Beckert, Bill Hands, Randy Hundley, and Don Kessinger to develop a powerful core of stars for 1967 and 1968. The Cubs finished third both years. They were leading the league for most of 1969 and drew 1.7 million fans to Wrigley Field. Before 1969, the Cubs were drawing an average of six to 8,000 fans a game. Additionally, the Bleacher Bums were born. “We knew them by their first names and they followed us on the road,” Santo says. “The 1969 club related to the fans real well. That’s why they remember us. It was a love affair. In those days, we all signed autographs. (Pitcher Dick) Selma was
didn’t win. That’s when we started the real tradition that exists today of this ball club.” Also, Santo became a cheerleader that year by clicking his heels after each victory at Wrigley Field. “We had a doubleheader with Montreal. We lost the first game. Jim Hickman hits a walk off home run to win the second game. I ran to the clubhouse, which was in the left field corner back then. I jumped and clicked my heels,” he says. “I don’t even remember it, I was so excited. That night the news came on and they showed me kicking my heels. The next day, Leo said that ought to be our victory kick, only at home and when we won. Fans would wait for me to do that. It was a spur of the moment thing, I was so excited.” Unfortunately, the 1969 Cubs fell victim to a late season surge by the New York “Miracle” Mets who won an astonishing 38 of their last 49 games. The Cubs were 8-17 in September. The Mets took over first place in the National League East Division for good on Sept. 9 and went on to sweep the West Division champion Atlanta Braves in the three-game National League Championship Series. The Mets went on to defeat the powerful Baltimore Orioles in five games in the World Series for their first championship. “When I walked across the white lines, I was all business,” he said. But off the field, Santo was all business too. While still playing with the Cubs, he started his first venture with Pro’s Pizza. He paid the other Cubs’ players $200 each to put their pictures on the boxes. The 12inch pizzas were sold in Wrigley Field. “I was having a real bad day,” he recalled. “Someone threw a pizza on Photo Courtesy of the field like a Frisbee. I told the batboy to reheat and resell it!” After his playing days ended, he went into the oil business. He was part of a group that formed Torco Oil, which “did very well.” He started Nova Oil and purchased Interpoint Corp., a trucking company. He was in business for a while when WGN called. “My audition was so bad I didn’t think they would hire me,” he says. “I was always good on the other side of the microphone but never on the broadcast side.” Dan Fabian, WGN general manager, told Ron that he listened to the audition tape and saw originality in Santo’s approach. He was told to be himself. “That’s when I quit trying to be a broadcaster and just tried to be myself,” he says. “I never looked at myself as a broadcaster, but it’s been 19 years – 13 with Pat (Hughes).” Before joining WGN, Hughes worked 12 years on the radio with Milwaukee Brewers’ broadcaster Bob Uecker. “I have a slither of sanity left,” says Hughes. “When I came here he welcomed me. He’s an absolute iconic figure in Chicago,” says Hughes. “Ron’s the No. 1 Cubs’ fan. He’s the biggest fan of his team of any player in sports and he takes loses so hard, I just worry about his health.” Hughes also notes that after a game he will take a break, go home and rest for the next day. However, Santo continually talks baseball before, during and after the game. After the broadcast, he heads right down to the clubhouse to talk to Cubs’ manager Lou Pinella about the game. “What you hear on the air is him 24 hours a day.” “No doubt this is a very good ball club,” he says about the 2008 Cubs. “We are better than last year when we won the (National League Central) division. If we stay healthy, I got to believe we are favored to win it all. I like us a lot. Lou was concerned about hitting in spring training, but we have the ability to hit, better defense, solid starting pitching and a good bullpen. “I believe very strongly we have a real good chance to win our division again. Once you win your division and get into the post season,
you can do anything.” Santo doesn’t offer players advice. He says they have a great coaching staff headed by manager Pinella. “We travel with the team and stay in the same hotel,” he says. “If they come to me, I’m available to them.” Williams, Santo, and Banks formed a potent hitting combination for the Cubs during that era. They were the three, four and five hitters in the lineup and would drive in 100 runs each. Pitchers couldn’t pitch around any one of them. “The pitcher was thinking about each of us,” says Santo. “I made my first $100,000 in 1969 … when that was a lot of money,” he laughed. “Today you couldn’t pay us. We probably wouldn’t be on the same ball club.” Santo notes that the game has changed dramatically over the years since he played. Big money, agents, and more rights have given the players the power to do things their own way. He recalls playing with the best hitters, like Hank Aaron, Willie Mays, and Willie McCovey and against the best pitchers, like Don Drysdale, Sandy Koufax, and Bob Gibson. Pitchers in those days would pitch nine innings. “Mays was the best overall player in baseball. Drysdale, Koufax, and Gibson were very aggressive. They’d pitch you right here,” he says, motioning with his hand under his chin. “When I played, starters like Fergie (Jenkins) would pitch 33 complete games and do that every fourth game.” He feels very strong that the emergence of the multiyear contract has taken the competitive edge off the game. A player has a good year because he’s looking to get a multiyear deal through free agency. Players get millions of dollars but only play hard when they’re in the last year of that contract. That’s the only Chicago Cubs incentive a player has to do well. “I think it takes a way from the game,” he says. “With a one year contract, the player knows he has to get it done every year. Billy, Ernie and I were together 12 years and the core of the team was together for nine years.” With the advancement in medical procedures, Santo has a prosthetic on each leg equipped with the “Harmony System” that allow him to walk, drive and ride his horse. He has been married to his second wife, Vicki, for 25 years and has a stepdaughter, Kelly. They live in north suburban Chicago where “it’s very nice and quiet” and also have a home in Arizona. Santo was married to his first wife, Judy, for 23 years and had three children, Ron Jr., Jeff, and Linda (David) Brown. He has two grandsons, Sam and Spencer Brown. Santo is a member of the inaugural Cubs Walk of Fame Class of 1992 and was selected to the allcentury team in 1999. But for all his achievements in baseball, he hasn’t been elected to Baseball’s Hall of Fame in Cooperstown. He has the credentials to support his selection. He’s been getting closer each time a vote is taken. He missed by five votes in the last vote in 2007; the next Old Timer’s Committee election is January 2009. “They changed the voting format to every two years,” he says. “I have to wait two years for the next vote. If it was every year it would be better. But I don’t think about it. When I got my number retired here in Wrigley Field … Ernie and Billy were there … That was my Hall of Fame.” Fall 2008 /AMICI 37
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By John Rizzo
Vincent Pastore “
I
’ve got a nice round artsy career right now,” says stage, screen and TV actor Vincent Pastore. Come again? “Artsy?” The man who is known to millions as Sal Bonpansiero on The Sopranos? And if not Pussy, then some kind of wise guy in a host of movies and TV shows. But it’s not a stretch to apply the term “artsy” to someone who sings and dances in a musical like Chicago on Broadway. Or someone who stars in the latest incarnation of The Apprentice. And those are just a couple of things that Pastore has been doing lately. Nevertheless, once an actor becomes associated in the public mind with one of the most compelling characters in an incredibly popular series like The Sopranos, it’s hard to think of him as anything else. And whose fault is that? “I’ve played doctors, and all kinds of roles,” asserts Pastore, “but the gangster movies are the ones that sell the most.” In the heated debate that rages in the Italian American community over whether Mafia- and gangster-type shows are “demeaning to Italian Americans,” it is often insinuated that the actors are the main culprits in socalled “negative stereotyping.” The argument goes that if Italian American actors would only stop playing wise guy roles, Italian Americans would no longer be connected with organized crime, at least in a theatrical way. But what this point of view ignores is the indisputable fact that Americans, and plenty of other people throughout the world for that matter, just cannot get enough of Italian-style heavies. The reasons why so many are thoroughly captivated by the glamorizing of criminal activity, or at least anti-social behavior, are numerous and intriguing. It could be that deep down; people resent the government and like to fantasize about beating City Hall. Or maybe the rampant consumption of gangster shows indicates an angry backlash on the part of the public against political correctness. There is also the appeal of the criminals’ “code of honor,” a virtue that seems to be sorely lacking today in big business and government. In most of these dramas, within the criminal subculture, there are still “good guys” and “bad guys,” and the bad guys usually get what they deserve. This quirky kind of morality play seems to have replaced the Western as the favorite genre of the modern chivalry tale, American-style. As for the Italian thing, it could be something as innocent as the public sharing the same preference for the type of food and wine that the various wise guys seem to be eating and drinking all the time. In any case, there is unmistakably a demand for shows like The Sopranos, and for an actor to get paid for acting is what this business is all about. As Pastore says, “Why should I feel guilty? I love what I do, and I’m not really into turning down work.” Just looking at an image of Vincent Pastore, especially after seeing him portraying cosa nostra types in so many movies, one might arguably think that he was the poster boy for Made Men. There’s the swarthy complexion, the thick curly, almost kinky, hair and the bushy eyebrows – real Italian-looking. You might think that this guy just has to be a wise guy – unless you consider that James Farentino could be described the same way, in his portrayal of St. Peter in Jesus of Nazareth. The full story about Vincent Pastore is not about some small-time hood, but about an Italian American man who worked very hard, legally, to get the rewards of the fulfilled American Dream, just the way many of us have. Vincent Pastore’s grandparents came from Calabria and Campania in the early part of the last century. His father worked on the New Haven 40 AMICI / Fall 2008
Railroad and Pastore was born in New York. At the age of 17, he enlisted in the Navy and served three years, then went to Pace University on the G.I. bill. It was about this time that Pastore got heavily involved with Community Theater and got the bug to be an actor. “I used to drive my wife crazy with rehearsals and having parties for the company,” he recalls. But this was strictly amateur stuff and he still had to make a living. “I was in the bar business for about 20 years – setting up bars, running bars, tending bars and selling bars,” he sighs. Then he worked for a while with Greyhound and met Danny Aiello. As Pastore tells it, “Danny Aiello had a big influence on me. He was a dispatcher and he was turning his life around. So I thought to do the same thing.” There was still a lot of drudgery ahead for Pastore. Getting a job as a suburban limo driver, he was able to fit in some auditions with his schedule. “I would always ask for a trip to Manhattan,” he remembers, “where I would drop my customer off, make an audition, then pick the customer up and go home.” He did this for a while, but nothing big came of it. “So I had my last club adventure with a place called the Crazy Horse. There I met Matt and Kevin Dillon, who both liked me and set me up with the people who got me into my first film, True Love.” This was the big break that all aspiring actors dream of, but rarely happens. This role led to a host of appearances in both films and TV series. Undoubtedly though, his most memorable role was as “Big Pussy” Bonpensiero on The Sopranos. Interestingly, this was probably the easiest part he ever got. As Pastore puts it “I just met David Chase and he said ‘You’re Big Pussy.’” The end of the Sopranos long run has not brought an end to Pastore’s career. Besides doing live Broadway theater he hosts a weekly radio show and is working on a new TV show, his favorite medium. “With TV, you block, you shoot and it’s over,” he claims. “Most of all, I’d like to have my own sitcom someday.” If it could happen with a perennial bit player like Jackie Gleason, why not Vincent Pastore? The show he’s working on now is of the “reality” variety called FoodFellas, “about three guys who start a restaurant in the Bronx.” Pastore also engages in more serious activities, like arranging benefits for wounded soldiers in the Knightsbridge Veterans Hospital. His Italian American pastimes include acting as Grand Marshal for the Bronx Columbus Day Parade and the St. Joseph’s Day Parade in New Orleans. The controversy will go on about actors feeding the defamation of Italian Americans. “If it were any other minority…” the anti-defamation leaders say. Yet it’s hard to remember any serious ruckus from the typically sensitive Jewish American community when Lee Strasberg played Hyman Roth in Godfather II. And the truth is, other American ethnic minorities don’t have the same history as Italian Americans – they all have their own unique heritage, good and bad. Perhaps all the energy going into making pariahs of the Italian American actors who succeed in their profession, could be better spent promoting all the glories of Italian culture.
TAYLOR STREET ARCHIVES
The good old days “Where are you going?” “No place, ma…I’m just going to the club.”
byVince Romano
D
uring the 30s and 40s and on through the decades of the 50s and 60s, Taylor Street had clusters of Social Athletic Clubs (S.A.C.s). Growing up in Little Italy you were identified as a member of one of these clubs as much as you were identified with the school you attended or the street you lived on. Like fiefdoms, they were spread throughout Taylor Street’s “Little Italy”…from Halsted Street on the eastern boundary of Little Italy to ing its outer fringes. Western Avenue border Clubs that proliferated our neighborhood bore names such as the Cecilia Boosters’ S.A.C., the Morgan Fads’ S.A.C., the Vernon Park S.A.C., the Survivors’ S.A.C., and a host of others too numerous to mention here. The clubs licensed as a type of neighborhood social center were actually poolrooms. The social gathering of men, ages 20 through retirement age, had more to do with gambling than any social events. The athletic events were limited to shooting pool, tossing a pair of dice or shuffling a deck of cards. Most of our organized sports activities took place elsewhere--at the CYO, the Duncan Y, Sheridan Park, or Hull House. Of course there was also Cinder Stadium and Dante schoolyard with their one dimensional, straight center field, softball fields. oday there exists, within the eastern vestiges of what remains of Taylor Street’s Little Italy, three “clubs.” Barely 25% of their members still reside in “the neighborhood.” The remain ing 75% reside outside the neighborhood. Most, if not all of these men who return to the old neighborhood to be with their boyhood friends, are retired. Some make daily pilgrimages to the “old neighborhood” to spend a few hours with their friends each day. As predictable as the migratory habits of the Alaskan caribou, virtually all of those former residents are part of the weekend migration that returns to Taylor Street’s Little Italy. Visit one of the clubs in the neighborhood, specifically the Blue Boy’s Club at Polk and Aberdeen, on a Friday evening and the aroma of the traditional southern Italian dishes will fill your nostrils. The men use this opportunity to practice the culinary skills they acquired from their mothers. At the Blue Boys’ Club, you can always find a pot of pasta fasule on the stove. The aroma of freshly cooked homemade pizza and all of the childhood memories it conjures up may also be present on any particular day. Among the several culinary artists who are members of the Blue Boys’ club is Johnnie Parise, the youngest of the Parise boys raised by Nick and Mildred Parise who emigrated from St Cartran, Sicily along with a multitude of other emigrants from the shores of Southern Italy at the turn of the century. They settled on DesPlaines and Arthington Streets to raise their family. I mention Johnnie Boy’s name because he is recognized as the unofficial President and caretaker of the club. The club, priding itself on the culinary skills of its members, has a roster of
T
chefs ranging from auxillary chefs on through to the executive chef. They include Marnell, Freddie, Horse, the Bad Vince, Duffy he mostly collects the money, and whoever decides they want to give a demonstration on “real” Italian cooking. Stop by! Whether you were Taylor Street bred or not, you will, as part of the southern Italian tradition, be treated as an honored guest. ard playing also serves as a staple catalyst that brings together the competitive juices that once defined Taylor Street’s young men. You will hear words that applied only to card games that are rooted in our Italian ancestry, card games such as briscola and scopa. If you’re observant enough, you may see some games, steeped in Italian tradition, being played where they not only deal from the bottom of the deck but also deal the cards out counterclockwise. The number game (mora) is also a staple when a club sponsors a major function. However it’s played mostly by 2nd and 3rd generation Italian Americans at these reunions. The old timers seem content to simply watch and recount stories of the “old days.” e never knew how good we were as card players until we were old enough to venture out of our neighborhood. One club, the Morgan Fads S.A.C., produced 2 international champion gin rummy players plus a third contestant that came within a whisker from making it 3 out of 3 for the Morgan Fads. Imagine, in the whole world, one little known inconspicuous club harbored, arguably, the best gin rummy players on the planet. Jerry “Bugsy” Piscatello won the first Las Vegas International championship. Eddie “Steady Eddy” Giampa won the international championship just two years later. And Joe “Hammer” Delessandro barely missed winning the championship (7th place). All three were from Taylor Street. All three were from just one of the numerous clubs that saturated our neighborhood. All three were first generation Italian Americans. It seems that we, as the prologue to the Taylor Street Archives attests, did “excel in virtually everything the larger society had ordained for us…from digging sewers to enterprises in which only the most tal ented and courageous could excel.” ne afterthought that I must record in these archives for posterity: During a Friday night poker session at the Morgan Fads Club, we experienced what statistically was a billion to one shot. All eight players, in a poker game of seven card stud, face down, were dealt three of a kind. Needless to say, the betting was ferocious and all the players stayed in until the last card. All eight players wound up with a pat hand (full house or better). Nick Balice beating out aces full, kings full, four jacks, four deuces, etc held the winning hand, four queens. A billion to one shot! It was a glorious time and we were part of a special breed!
C
W
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Fall 2008 /AMICI 41
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Fax (708) 453-3562 Fall 2008 /AMICI 43
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Borgnine Pictures Tovern Inc. Sports by Joe Cosentino Santo Courtesy of Chicago Cubs Restaurant Review by John Rizzo Francis Rizzo Courtesy of Lyric Opera House.
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Homemade Cheesecake
“SAY CHEESE“ CAKE
Rosemary
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44 AMICI / Fall2008
SOLUZIONE
3 OLIVES REST.....................................................29 ACTION PAWN.....................................................39 AMICI d’ITALIA ..................................................13 AMICI JOURNAL..................................................44 CAFÉ FILIPPO.......................................................43 CAR WASH ...........................................................43 CITGO SHOP.........................................................43 CUMBERLAND CHAPELS..................................42 FLORENCE IN BOX ............................................15 FLOWER FANTASY.............................................42 GOULD LAW OFFICE .........................................31 JACONETTI D.D.S................................................43 LEGION AUTO......................................................38 MARENA READINGS......................................... 39 MIDWAY INT’L.................................................... 29 MORI MILK.......................................................... 38 MY ITALIAN FAMILY................... BACK INSIDE ONESTI................................................................. 25 OROFINO TOURS . ..............................................14 PUZZLE SOLUTION.............................................44 RESTAURANT AD................................................26 RESTAURANT GUIDE.........................................27 ROMANUCCI.................................. BACK INSIDE ROSEMARY;S CHEESE...................................... 44 ROSSI TASCIONI..................................................15 SPACCA NAPOLI..................................................38 STAY & VISIT........................................................14 SUPER LOW FOODS........................................... 28 TROY REALTY.................................................... 33 VENUTI’S............................................................... 7 VILLAGE PROFILE..............................................13
Small FirmRomanucci Big &Results Blandin
Romanucci & Blandin,LLC
Experienced, sensitive representation in catastrophic personal injury, wrongful death and workers’ compensation claims
Antonio M. Romanucci, Stephan D. Blandin
33 North LaSalle St. 20th Floor Chicago, IL 60602
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Jury verdicts against the City of Chicago for spinal cord injury case $17,682,000 Ranked among the top 8 Illinois firms in Aviation practice Ranked among the top 12 Illinois firms for the amount of settlements and verdicts Ranked as a Top 100 Illinois Super Lawyer Nearly three dozen recoveries for clients of $1 million-plus Phone (312) 458-1000
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Serving justice and restoring lives ~ one client at a time THE NO. 1 SOURCE FOR FAMILY RESEARCH IN ITALTY
Our network of professional genealogists located throughout Italy, Will research your family tree and take you to your village of origin We also process requests for individual records and help You with dual citizenship applications!
For more information visit our web site or write to: My Italian Family, 6597 Upper York Road New, Hope, PA 18938 www.myitalianfamily.com • E-mail: ask@myitalianfamily.com • Telephone: 1-888-472-0171
Summerfest Grounds – Milwaukee, WI Convenient ways to purchase advance tickets and SAVE! Visit festaItaliana.com or call 414.223.2194
Experience Italy • Great entertainment on 8 stages featuring Joe Piscopo on Thursday & Friday and Jay & The Americans on Saturday & Sunday • Michelangelo’s Pietà – rare bronze replica • St. Valerie Mosaic – originally displayed in the Vatican • Pompeii Church Art Exhibit • Sunday Catholic Mass and Procession at 11 a.m., celebrated by Bishop William Callahan • Cucina Showcase featuring Famous TV Chef Nick Stellino on Saturday & Sunday • US Cellular® – Italian style fireworks all four nights
• Gold Medal U.S. Pizza Team – presented by Bolla Wines • Golden Age of Opera Exhibit • Region of Campania Exhibit • Fantastic Italian food from more than 40 local vendors • Mad Hot Ballroom Dancing – youth competition and show • Children’s stage • Family carnival & video arcade • Italian Idol