L'Italo-Americano

THURSDAY, APRIL 2, 2020 www.italoamericano.org 18 L'Italo-Americano LA VITA ITALIANA TRADITIONS HISTORY CULTURE D ear Readers, April comes from the Latin word apertura which means to open. This is the month to open your umbrellas for April showers and watch the buds open for Spring flowers and "Italian Connections…" April Fool's Day is a day people play silly pranks. So be alert. St. Francis of Paola was born in Paola (Calabria), Italy, circa 1416. He cured the sick, prophesied the future and was a major influence on five kings and seven popes. He was educated by the Franciscans at San Marco and at the age of 15 went to live as a hermit in a cave. He eventually founded nearly 500 monasteries and was canonized just twelve years after his death at age ninety- one. The religious communi- ty he founded was officially recognized by Rome in 1474 as the Hermits of St. Francis, but they changed their name t o t h e M i n i m F r i a r s . F r . Boyle was with Columbus when he sailed the ocean blue on his second voyage of discovery to America in 1493. That St. Francis of Paola is n o t b e t t e r k n o w n t o t h e English-speaking world is, to a large degree, the fault of those who immigrated to the U S A a n d C a n a d a f r o m Calabria and did nothing to p r o p a g a t e t h e s a i n t f r o m Paola. In 1976, Mario Segreti, born near Paola, in Belmonte Calabro, sought to rectify this situation by co-authoring the first work in English on the L i f e o f S a n F r a n c e s c o d a Paola. It was published by TAN Books, and has been reprinted by the same publi- shing house from Rockford, Illinois. L o u M o n t e " K i n g o f Italian-American hit-records" was balm to the ears of young Italian Americans uprooted from Italian enclaves as fami- ly fortunes improved and moved to suburbs. Born April 1 9 1 7 i n L y n d h u s t , N e w Jersey, Lou's hobby was to entertain friends and neigh- bors by singing and playing the guitar. He enlisted in the Army and after his discharge, got a break on a local radio station, WAAT in Newark, N J . I n 1 9 5 3 R C A R e c o r d decided to record him. The first song, I know How to Feel, has been forgotten, but t h e f l i p s i d e D a r k T o w n Strutters Ball (Italian style) suggested by George Brown, his personal manager, sold over 400,000 copies in 1954 and Lou Monte was a hit! Lou Monte passed away in 1989 but left us a legacy of happy music, clever lyrics and lot of smiles. Charles J. Margiotti was born in April 1891. One of America's leading criminal lawyers, he was attorney gen- e r a l f o r t h e S t a t e o f Pennsylvania serving three different governors, until his death ion 1956. Umberto Nobile, pio- neer in Arctic aviation, born at Lauro (near Salerno), with Amundsen of Norway and E l l s w o r t h o f U S A w a s , i n 1 9 2 6, f i r s t t o f l y o v e r t h e North Pole in the dirigible "Norge" from the North of N o r w a y ( S p i t s b e r g e n ) t o Alaska. Nobile was the first to f l y o v e r t h e s p o t w h e r e e x p l o r e r R o b e r t E . P e r r y stood in 1909. Perry was the first man to travel across ice and snow to reach the North Pole, the top of the world. Umberto Nobile, the first to fly over it. The US Mint was estab- l i s h e d i n P h i l a d e l p h i a , P e n n s y l v a n i a o n A p r i l 2 , 1792. It is said that George W a s h i n g t o n , o u r 1 s t President (1789-1797) provid- ed his own household silver for those first coins. The Titanic sank April 14, 1912. Guglielmo Marconi's invention, ship to shore radio, helped save many lives, but due to strong opposition from telegraph companies was not yet mandated to be installed on all ships. Guglielmo Marconi was b o r n i n A p r i l 1 8 7 4 i n Bologna, Italy and died in 1937. An engineer, he discov- ered the new world of space and wireless telegraph. His father was an Italian business- m a n . H i s m o t h e r w a s t h e Scotch-Irish heiress to the Jameson whiskey fortune. As a young boy, little Guglielmo was fascinated by electricity and liked to play with batter- ies. He started work quite young, but after experiments at Pontecchio, he, like many Italians, found that he would be more appreciated abroad. And at the suggestion of his Scotch-Irish mother, he went to England and established the historical Radio Station at Poldhu in Cornwall, and in 1901 transmitted signals to St. J o h n ' s N e w f o u n d - land Canada. Marconi also invented the directional aerial, ship to shore radio, early radar and set the foundations for our modern communication systems. Angela, my firstborn, in April 1961 was named after her paternal "nonna." While convalescing on April 12, I read in the newspaper that cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin, in h i s s p a c e c a p s u l e V o s t o k , become the first human to orbit Earth. Thus began a "Space Race" with Russia. In 1962, John Glenn was the first American to orbit the Earth, circling it three times, but it was in 1969 that the US w o n t h e " S p a c e R a c e " with Russia. Neil Armstrong (1930- 2012) was an American astro- naut and aeronautical engi- neer and the first person to walk on the Moon. On July 2 0 , 1 9 6 9 A r m s t r o n g a n d Apollo 11 Lunar Module pilot Buzz Aldrin became the first people to land on the Moon. When Armstrong stepped onto the lunar surface, he famously said:"That's one small step for man, one giant leap of mankind."

• Cover