Dear Readers,
An August assortment of Italian connections:
American-built Fiat automobiles were manufactured in Poughkeepsie, New York from 1910 to 1918. Fiat won more great racing victories than any other automobile and was one of the first automobile manufacturer to produce a successful six-cylinder motor.In 1910, Fiat sought to increase its share of the American market, the world's largest, by establishing a Fiat branch factory at Poughkeepsie, New York.
The parent company furnished the engineering staff, working drawings and some materials and parts. The processes of construction were identical in Poughkeepsie to those in Torino. The American location also made it possible to eliminate payment of a 45% duty imposed on all imported autos.Rolls-Royce, Mercedes and others also established American factories during this period to make their cars more price competitive with U.S. models. Due to WWI and other causes, U.S. Fiat factory production ceased in 1918.
In the early days of motoring wealthy Americans took special pride in Fiat ownership. Fiat automobiles were noted for their elegant finish and appointments, noiseless operation, simplicity of mechanism, speed and reliability.
If you want to see a 1914 American built, Seven Passenger Fiat Touring Car, then priced at $5,150, and one of only two known to exist worldwide, stop by the National Automobile Museum (The Harrah Collection at 10 South Lake Street, corner of Lake and Mill Streets in Downtown Reno, Nevada, tel. 775 333 9300. Open daily except national holidays.)
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Bebop, Swing and Bella Musica: The History of Italian Americans in Jazz, the first-ever book documenting the contributions of Italian American musicians to jazz is scheduled to be published in time for Christmas gifting.
Thanks to the efforts of Joe Maselli, founder since 1973 of the quarterly Italian American Digest (P.O. Box 2392, New Orleans, Louisiana 70176, tel. 504 522 7294, subscriptions $10 per year) known as the “Italian American Voice of the South”, much has been documented about Domenick “Nick” La Rocca (1889-1961) and Tony Sbarbaro, a drummer who in 1914 formed the first jazz band, “The Original Dixieland Jazz Band.”
In 1917, the quintet made the first jazz record, “Downtown Strutters Ball” which sold a million copies to victrola owners all over the world. “Nick” La Rocca also wrote “Tiger Rag”, now known as “Hold That Tiger”, the official song of the Louisiana State University.
The book “Bebop, Swing and Bella Musica: The History of Italian Americans in Jazz” by authors Bill Dal Cerro and David Anthony Witter will give wider coverage to the influence Italian Americans have had on America's “Bella Musica”, from early Dixieland jazz in New Orleans to the modern fusion styles of today. The surprising thing to me is that the large number of Americans of Italian heritage who have contributed to America's musical heritage far exceeds my most expansive of estimates.
This, in large part is due to the fact that for professional or personal reasons many family names were Americanized. For example, Flip Philips (Fillipelli), Eddie Lang (born Salvatore Massero), George Wallington (Giacinto Figlia), Louis Bellson (Balassani), Joe Pass (Passalaqua), to name a few.
Furthermore, from the first to today, Italian American musicians were there at the forefront of every major stylistic innovation in America's “Bella Musica.”
For more info on “Bebop, Swing and Bella Musica: The History of Italian Americans in Jazz,” contact Bill Dal Cerro at bdcerro@yahoo.com or 6864 N. Northwest Highway-1A, Chicago, Il. 60631....
As Colma, California, with greater frequency, becomes a place of eternal rest for many of our favorite family members and friends I thought I would share some funny epitaphs with you:
- Here lie the bones of my former honey. He thought the mushrooms tasted funny.
- Praises on tombs are trifles vainly spent. A man's good name is his best monument.
- Here lies an Atheist. All dressed up with no place to go....
Dolls made by the Lenci Company of Torino were made of a special weight felt developed by the Borsalino Hat Company especially for Lenci.
The Beautiful Boudoir Dolls were designed as decorative objects, not as play things for children but as toys for the rich and famous.Lenci dolls first appeared in the U.S. in 1920 (and were concurrently introduced both in Paris and at the Leipzig Fair). Despite their high prices, Lenci dolls sold very well and were a great success until the Great Depression of the 1930s and the ensuing wars (Italy's war with Ethiopia and World War II) curtailed both production and distribution and the company fell on hard times.
Founder Elena Scavin stayed on as artistic director but Flavio and Pilade Garella, brothers and Torino businessman, took over the company in 1933.
To their bevy of boudoir beauties add two Fascist Boy Dolls to please their friend Mussolini.The Mussolini Fascist Boy: 17 1/2 in military-style uniform of the Gioventu' (young folk) which was an organization preparing boys to become part of Fascist movements (Mussolini believed that a uniform effaced all individuality and could mold future generations of warriors); doll has swivel head; painted side-glancing eyes; mohair wig; dressed in gray wool short pants; black shirt with patch; blue kerchief; fez-style hat tassel; cobbled leather shoes.
A little Balilla Brother, (the second level of the youth organization) was issued shortly after. Between 1941 and 1943 the Lenci Company made blankets and Pyjamas for the Italian military field hospital.
Ethiopia's army, hoping for another Adowa, was put on a war footing August 1935 in anticipation of an Italian invasion which did not come until early October when Mussolini's Fascist troops marched into Ethiopia and war-drums called Emperor Haile Selassie's people to fight.
The League of Nations in Geneva faced its greatest test since it was formed in 1919. Mussolini had long coveted Ethiopia, the only independent black state to survive the scramble for Africa, which inflicted such a humiliating defeat on Italy at Adowa in 1896, which he was later mined to avenge.
The Ethiopians resisted strongly, in spite of being attacked by gas and cabled the league, claiming that the first bombs on the country struck a hospital bearing the Red Cross.
Neither Britain nor France - the most interested of the world powers - seemed anxious to intervene.
Between them, they could close the Suez Canal to Italian troopships, but France treaty bound with Italy not to oppose the invasion, and Britain's Foreign Secretary, Sir Samuel Hoare, did not want to alienate Mussolini and drive him into the arms of Hitler....
Ferraro, Geraldine, the first woman to be nominated by a major political party, for the office of vice president of the United States, was born August 26, 1935 in Newburgh, New York.
It was at San Francisco's Moscone Center at the Democratic National Convention in 1984 that Geraldine Ferraro, a three-term congress-woman from Queens, a lawyer, wife to John Zaccaro, and mother of three was introduced as the Democratic Party's vice presidential nominee.
Ferraro taught second and fourth grades in the New York City public schools while going to law school at night.
Her father died when she was eight years old, but her mother, who worked as a crochet beader, tediously crocheting beads and sequins on gowns and dresses, one bead at a time, was determined that her children would have an education. When Ferraro became a candidate the first dirt was “mob ties.”
She expressed mine and the frustrations of millions of law abiding Italian Americans, when a reporter from the N.Y. Daily News began the interview with: ”Tell me, are you or your husband involved with organized crime?”
Her response was: “If I were a Jew and you stereotyped me, I'd call you an anti-Semite and you'd back off.If I were a black and you stereotyped me, I'd call you a racist and you'd back off. What do I as an Italian-American call you?”
Unfortunately we can be maligned with impunity for there will be no repercussions and the magic word mafia continues to undermine any Italian-American candidate who runs for office.
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