L'Italo-Americano

L'Italo-Americano THURS DAY,   APRIL  25,   2013 Dear Readers: Another April shower of Italian Connections for you: Architectural records indicate that the Winter Palace in St. Petersburg, formerly Leningrad, was built in great part by Italian masons and Italian architects. Peter the Great's effort to turn St. Petersburg into one of the world's major cities was supported by Italian architects who gave the city its superb architecture, in a style that became known as Russian Baroque. In addition to the Winter Palace, Summer palaces, churches and many other buildings were also designed by Italian architects. *** Botanical Gardens, in the western world, were first established in Italy. In 1543 and 1545 two botanical gardens were established in Padova. The much hyped English botanical garden in Oxford, England, was not established until 1621. *** Codfish, that dried slab of salted cod , once a staple on Italian immigrant family menus, is called "baccalà", that stiff slab of cod, found its way in common parlance, as expression of silliness, stupidity or wishy washy. "Non fare il baccalà" means "don't act like a fool". *** Drei Benedetto, the head gardener of the Vatican flower garden, in 1625 invented the first mosaic patterns using fresh flowers. Drei's example spread to many parts of Italy and began "infiorata" festivals like the one at Genzano, celebrated on the feast of Corpus Christi and the infiorata in Noto, on the Italian island of Sicily. *** Gestures of Italians, who often "talk with their hands" are like a second language and one that foreigners, often misunderstand. In 1994 Bruno Munari saved the day for tourists and visitors to Italy with a guide to gestures of Italians. In an Italian nightclub where the music is so loud that talking is useless, if you look around, you'll see people communicating with hand signals. A guy looks at his date and points his thumb downward toward his mouth. Translation: "Would you like a drink?". His date holds her hand to her waist, palm down. Translation: "No, thanks. I'm starving". Than she makes a scissors movement with her two fingers. Translation: "Let's get out of here". *** Angelo Joseph Rossi, former Mayor and pride of San Francisco's Italian community in years prior to WWII died in San Francisco on April 5, 1948. He was born January 22, 1878 in Volcano, Amador County, California. In 1890 his family moved to San Francisco were he attended the North Cosmopolitan School. He began work as an errand boy for the florist firm Carbone & Manti eventually heading the firm as president and manager. He served as director of the Downtown Association of San Francisco for many years and as its president during 1920 and 1921. Mayor James Rolph Jr. appointed him a member of the Playground commission and he deserved on this board from 1914 to 1921. He was elected to the Board of Supervisors in 1925 and again in 1929. Angelo Rossi served the administration of "Sunny Jim Rolph" who with "There are Smiles That Make You Happy" as his theme song, after 19 years as S.F. Mayor was elected Governor of California. Upon the election of Mayor James Rolph Jr. as Governor of California, Rossi was elected Mayor by the Board of Supervisors on January 7, 1931 and re-elected by the people in 1935 and 1939. *** Umberto Nobile, pioneer in Arctic aviation, born at Lauro (near Salerno), with Amundsen of Norway and Ellsworth of U.S.A. was on April 6, 1926, the first to fly over the North pole in the dirigible "Norge" from the North of Norway PAGE  23 (Spitzbergen) to Alaska. He is remembered today because he was the first to fly over the spot where explorer Robert E. Perry stood on this day 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. *** Topo Gigio's American debut on television in April 1963 really lit up the switchboards. Topo Gigio made 17 appearances in only 12 months. He never appeared anywhere else in this country except on the Sullivan program which signed him to an exclusive contract. Ed Sullivan, syndicated columnist and televi- Topo Gigio sion idol, was an international favorite. His popular Sunday night television hour over the CBSTV network brought to the American TV screens stars from Japan, Australia, England, France, India, the Philippines, Hawaii, Israel, Russia, Germany, Canada, the United States and Italy. Topo Gigio, the Italian mouse was Ed Sullivan's discovery. He had blond hair, blue eyes, a high pitched voice with a heavy Italian accent, 10 inches tall and was made of foam rubber. This lovable little puppet appeared regularly on the "Ed Sullivan Show". Sullivan discovered Topo Gigio (which means Little Louis Mouse in Italian), in London. He was preparing a program which starred Judy Garland and Peter O'Tool when British talent agent Lew Grade showed him a tape of the little mouse. Ed immediately added a third star. The show was broadcast April 1963 and marked Topo Gigio's American television debut. *** Sicily declared itself independent of Naples April 13, 1848, but in May 1849, Neapolitan troops entered Palermo completing their re-conquest of Sicily. *** Abraham Lincoln's assassination by actor John Wilkes Booth at the Ford Theater, in April 1865, was indirectly responsible for the growth of Pullman, the Company town outside Chicago, where many Italian-Americans worked building Pullman railroad cars for George Mortimer Pullman (1831-1897) a cabinet marker, inventor and manufacturer of the first modern Pullman sleeping car "Pioneer" built in 1863. Mario Avignone, Pullman civic organization historian and late long time "Fra Noi" columnist (Petals from Roseland) once informed me that if not for the assassination of President Lincoln in 1865 there probably would not be a Pullman town, Pullman Bank, or Pullman Company. In 1865 Mr. George Mortimer Pullman was building railroad cars in Detroit, but his business was not successful. The railroads were not interested in his railroad cars; however Mr. Pullman's luck changed on April 14th, 1865 because that day our country was saddened to learn that President Lincoln was assassinated in Washington, DC, at the Ford Theater by John Wilkes Booth. It was decided to bring Lincoln's body to Springfield, Illinois via Chicago for burial. When President Lincoln's body arrived in Chicago, Colonel James Bowen, a personal friend of Mr. Pullman, was put in charge of the funeral arrangements. Colonel Bowen wanted a railroad car worthy of carrying the body of President Lincoln to his final resting place, Springfield. He could not find a railroad car suitable to be part of the funeral train for President Lincoln. Then he remembered that George M. Pullman had a car in Chicago named the "Pioneer". He asked Mr. Pullman if he could use his car for President Lincoln's funeral train. Mr. Pullman said yes and on May 2, 1865 the funeral train containing the body in Mr. Pullman's car, Pioneer, left chicago for Springfield, Illinois only 200 miles away. The train took two days to reach Springfield because the trains stopped at every small town between Chicago and Springfield to permit the people to pay their final homage to the late president. When the people saw what a beautiful railroad car Lincoln's body was in they wrote letters to their relatives and friends telling about Lincoln's funeral and Mr. Pullman's car, the Pioneer. All the publicity began to make Pullman famous as a train car manufacturer and orders began to come into Pullman car factory in Detroit. By 1879 he could not handle all the business at the Detroit factory so he set out to find a location in which to build a larger factory. He purchased 2,000 acres of land on west shores of Lake Calumet. He then used 400 acres to build the Pullman factory and what would someday become a historic landmark district, the town of Pullman, for his employees. This would be located about one mile east of the small Dutch community of Roseland, now part of Chicago. Mr. Pullman also received awards from the US and Italian governments for providing employment to Italians and ItalianAmericans on both sides of the Atlantic. ***

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