Dear Readers,
November notes with an Italian Connection: Americans with Italian “roots” now have a place (a museum) to call home in the heart of the neighborhood where their ancestors first set foot, if they arrived and settled in old New York. A museum dedicated to telling the experiences of the immigrants who arrived in Little Italy opened its doors recently on the corner of Mulberry and Grand Sts., across from 193 Grand Street E. Rossi Company.
The museum is located inside the community’s former bank, operated from the 1880s to 1932 and was known as Banca Stabile. It will display exhibits and documents found in the building’s storage basement and safe deposit boxes, including old passports, deeds and bankbooks.
The museum curator, Nancy Cataldi said “the museum is very important because Little Italy has changed so much and the museum will give people the history of what it was like down here for the new Italian arrivals.” The Italian American Museum began after a 1999 exhibition on Italian Americans at the New York Historical Society drew 50,000 visitors, five times what had been expected. The museum received its charter in 2001 and became a CUNY affiliate in 2003.
The Italian American Museum had been leasing space from CUNY (City University of New York) prior to the purchase of three historic buildings near the corner of Grand and Mulberry Streets. The spruced up Banca Stabile portion of the property that opened its doors on Columbus Day, is only the beginning. The museum purchased the building for $9 million and will begin raising money toward $19 million worth of renovations.
Joseph Scelsa, Ph.D., a professor at Queens College and president of the museum, said the three buildings are at the “epicenter of the Italian American community,” despite the fact that fewer than 1,000 Italian Americans now live in the area. “Little Italy has become Littler Italy,” said Scelsa, “but this is the symbolic place.”
He said tourists will help make the site viable. Total square footage for the three three-story buildings is just under 10,000 square feet. Plans call for a two-story addition on top, raising total square footage to 20,000. The buildings were once a bank founded in the 1880s by Francesco Rosario Stabile. His great grandson Dr. Jerome Stabile III, a retired surgeon, sold the buildings to the museum.
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Benefit event, Red Tie Gala 2008, took place recently and a good time was had by all. This remarkable November event, held every other year, was “ideato” in 1982 by Yvonne Giuntoli Sangiacomo, and benefits the Little Sisters of the Poor, who operate St. Anne’s Home in San Francisco. The Galas (this is “numero” 13) have raised millions for the organization, which cares for the poor and elderly residents at its Lake Street facility.
Thanks to generous “Angels” and other donors, 100 percent of ticket sales directly benefit the home. Tom Sweeney, wearing his red Beefeater suit, ushered more than 2000 Sir Francis Drake guests into the mega soirée via the revolving Neiman Marcus doors on Geary Street, across from San Francisco’s Union Square. Inside, a team of designers had transformed the multi floored department store and replicated the atmosphere of the Cotton Club, the Sands, A Place in the Sun, Bimbo’s 365 Club, the Rainbow Room, A Night at the Roxy and Moulin Rouge.
Energetic guests danced the night away to fantastic sounds emanating from six guest bands, while others spent major time sampling the “abbondanza” of food and drinks. For example along with “The Sands” street level atmosphere and tribute to Frank Sinatra, Tony Bennett and Elvis entertainment provided by the “Second Opinion Jazz Band” was a Taste Catering, Tsar Nicoulai Caviar Café Bar, Crab Cakes, Pizzettas, Mini Fabrini Burgers, Italfoods Antipasti, Buffet and much more.
And that was just the first floor! This month when Thanksgiving and gratitude are November month themes, I am sure thousands of Red Tie Gala attendees through the years and the poor and elderly beneficiaries living at St. Anne’s Home in San Francisco, join me in saying “Mille Grazie” to Red Tie Gala founder Yvonne Giuntoli Sangiacomo for her generosity through the years and her effective low-key leadership that has helped sustain the event by keeping donors, volunteers, guests and everybody else connected with the Red Tie Gala, happy and enthusiastically looking forward to the next Red Tie Gala 2010.
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The Constitutional “Assemblea” of Italy elected a temporary or provisional president after a post World War II election voted out the monarchy. The “Assemblea Costituente” in June 1946 elected Enrico De Nicola, a law professor at the University of Naples. His election was the result of an “arrangement” achieved by De Gasperi, Togliatti and Nenni, leaders of the major parties at the time.
Technically one might say he was Italy’s first president, but most Italians consider Luigi Einaudi elected in 1948 as their first president, just as Americans consider George Washington, who served from 1789 to 1797, the first president of the United States of America. The Italian presidency, a new chapter in the history of modern Italy, began in April 1948, when Italy’s politicos gathered in a place called Montecitorio, to elect the first President of Italy.
Luigi Einaudi was elected in 1948 by the first Repubblica Parliament. The election of the President is the prerogative of the entire Parliament and Representatives of the six Regions with a Special Statute (constitution). Einaudi is regarded s the father of the Italian Economic Miracle. After all, he was an economist, and as such he lent a strong voice in all economic decisions taken by the various governments during his term.
Giovanni Gronchi became the second elected President in 1955. His election came as a result of an arrangement reached by the left coalition (Socialists and Communists), some of the forces of the Right (Neo-fascists and Monarchists), and by a few Christian Democrats hostile to the Christian Democratic Prime Minister, Amintore Fanfani, a left-leaning Christian Democrat. The third President elected in 1962 was Antonio Segni, who lasted only two years.
In 1964 it was the turn of Giuseppe Saragat, a Social Democrat, the first candidate from the Left. He was instrumental in leading the choice of new Governments leaning to the Left. A scandal shortened Saragat’s term. His 7-year term was only six. Saragat had nothing to do with the much-heralded scandal, but left office early. Giovanni Leone, a Christian Democrat, became the fifth President.
He too had serious problems with the entire political spectrum. He was accused of dissolving the Parliament much earlier than required under suspicion that he paid too much attention to pressures from his own political party. Leone lasted only a short term, barely three years. Sandro Pertini, a Socialist, followed Leone as the sixth President. The Government people he nominated were Spadolini and Craxi. Francesco Cossiga was the seventh President.
He was followed by Oscar Luigi Scalfaro, the eighth President, who experienced serious encounters with Silvio Berlusconi during his first term. Carlo Azeglio Ciampi followed as the ninth President, succeeded by the present and tenth President, Giorgio Napolitano.
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