L'Italo-Americano

THURSDAY, MAY 16, 2019 www.italoamericano.org 14 L'Italo-Americano LA VITA ITALIANA TRADITIONS HISTORY CULTURE D ear Readers, may is the month our world was blessed with the birth of Perry Como, May 18, 1913 and saddened by the passing of Frank Sinatra on May 14, 1998, at 10:50pm from an acute heart attack in the emergency room of Cedars- Sinai Medical Center, Los Angeles, California. Sure both Como and Sinatra were outstanding perform- ers and vocalists, however, to many of us with Italo-American "roots" they were like members of our fam- ily and we have many happy mem- ories that included either Perry or Frank. For example, I can recall my mamma Caterina and I sitting on our sofa watching that "nice man" Perry Como on our "televi- sione," or one of the barbers in our family commenting proudly on "Pierino" and his success like he was the son of a family "Cugino." *** Pierino Rolando Como was born in 1913 to Pietro and Lucille Como in the small coal- mining town of Canonsburg, Penn- sylvania. His father had come to the United States from Italy and worked as a mill hand at Standard Tin Plate Corporation. Perry had loving memories of his parents, who "raised 13 children on $35 a week and taught us we were our brother's keepers." Pierino was the lucky seventh son of a seventh son. Apprenticed to barbering at age ten, he opened his own shop at age 14. The drive for excellence began early. He wanted to be the best bar- ber in town; besides, cutting hair seemed a lot more glamorous than mining in dark coal pits. Young Como was running a three-chair barber shop when he was induced by a friend to take the day off from his duties and audition for Frankie Carlone's band. He got the job. In 1933, Perry went to work as singer with the Carlone band for a whopping $28 a week. This was the year that he married his child- hood sweetheart, Roselle Belline, whom he had met when he was 16 years old at a weenie roast.  Perry remained with the Carlone band for three years. One night in a gambling casino in Warren, Ohio, Perry struck it lucky - not at the tables but while performing on stage. Bandleader Ted Weems was taking a break from a win at roulette when he heard Perry sing. Weems was part of the big band craze that was tak- ing America by storm. Weems liked what he heard and signed Perry on the spot. Perry worked with Ted Weems from 1936 through 1942. During those years, Perry traveled with the nationally renowned band as a vo- calist, doing the one-night-stands and perfecting the mellow style that was to become his hallmark. When Ted Weems entered the army in 1942, the band broke up and Perry returned to Canonsburg and to barbering. He was negotiat- ing a lease for a barber shop when an offer came from CBS for him to star in his own radio show. Perry was reluctant; by now he had a three-year-old son and entertain- ment wasn't the best vocation of a family man. But Roselle assured him he could always go back to his old profession if things didn't work out. In 1943, Perry signed his first recording contract with RCA Records, and his first single, Good- bye, Sue was released. In 1944, his radio show, "The Chesterfield Supper Club," became a huge success. Then Perry's big date at the Copacabana - New York's premiere night spot - and several hit records (Till the End of Time) brought him a Hollywood contract. *** During the late 1940s and early 1950s, thanks largely to that new invention called TV, his Chester- field-sponsored 15 minute "Perry Como Show" was the most popular quarter-hour TV show in the country. Perry Como's televi- sion career spanned over four decades, and in 1990, he was in- ducted into the TV Hall of Fame.  The popularity of his recordings was not limited to America. Eng- land, Japan and Italy became three of his biggest markets. In Latin America, Australia, New Zealand and other countries of Western Eu- rope, his name became a household word. In Dream Streets, the Big Book of Italian Culture edited by author Lawrence Di Stasi, writer Lorenzo Carcaterra described watching the Perry Como Show thusly: *** "The family sat together. My mother settled in at the far right of the couch, next to the battered bu- reau with the cracked lamp. My fa- ther sat toward the left, a mug of bubbling seltzer balanced on his knee. I was crunched in the middle, facing a nineteen-inch Zenith black- and-white, topped buy a Christo- pher Columbus flower boat and the framed pictures of three grandchil- dren. My parent's best friend, Ada and Louie, sat on the second couch, next to the small bookcase, under a portrait o a Venetian gondolier, a bowl of pretzels between them. It was 9 p.m. on a cold midwinter night, one week before Christmas. We sat and waited for the sat of the 'Perry Como Special.' In Italian American homes, watching Perry Como, a former South Philadelphia barber turned crooner, was a twice- a-year Easter and Christmastime rit- ual.  "Italian moms saw him as the complete man — religious, devoted to wife and family, a gifted singer. Italian fathers sat and watched out of habit, ending up as teary-eyed as their wives when Como hit those Ave Maria high notes. He appeared on screen, surrounded by well-lit trees and fake falling snow, the sounds of an off-camera chorus fill- ing the room, a dignified white- haired man with a gentle face and cream colored sweater. The first song, sung softly and with passion, was Silver Bells. " 'He looks so young,' Ada said with respect, and in Italian. 'He never seems to get old.' 'He leads a good life,' my mother said, shooting a negative glance at my father. 'He really loves his wife.' "My mother had never even seen a picture of Mrs. Como. Perry himself never talked about her. The Italian women of the neighborhood held her up as a model of a perfect wife. In truth, for all we knew, Perry Como could have been living with Diana Ross. 'The money never went to his head,' my father said, as Perry and little Donny and Marie plowed into a rousing rendition of Jingle Bells Rock. 'Not like Dean Martin,' my mother said, sipping a cup of hot tea with milk. 'I don't watch his show since he left Jean- nie.'"

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