L'Italo-Americano

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 18, 2021 www.italoamericano.org 32 L'Italo-Americano How a Tukwila businessman helped inspire Nintendo's Super Mario F or nearly 40 years, he's been an international cult figure, with his royal blue coveralls, bright red hardhat with a white M emblazoned on the front, bushy mustache and startling blue eyes. In fact, a 1991 poll discovered that more American children rec- ognized this cheerful little character than Mickey Mouse. H i s n a m e i s S u p e r Mario and he is Nintendo's i c o n i c h e r o . M a r i o w a s launched as part of the wild- ly successful Donkey Kong a r c a d e g a m e i n t h e e a r l y 1980s. But what most people don't know is that Mario was n a m e d a f t e r a n I t a l i a n American businessman and m u l t i m i l l i o n a i r e c a l l e d M a r i o S e g a l e , w h o w a s born in Seattle in 1934. In the early 1980s, Mario S e g a l e o w n e d a b u s i n e s s park in Tukwila, a communi- ty of 20,000 residents just south of Seattle. There, he rented one of his warehouses t o a s t a r t - u p v i d e o g a m e company called Nintendo of America. Nintendo's f a m e d g a m e d e s i g n e r , S h i g e r u M i y a m o t o , h a d already created Mario for the classic arcade game, Donkey Kong. In the game, the little cartoon character tries to rescue his girlfriend from a giant ape. It was a huge suc- cess and went on to become one of the hottest- selling video games in the industry. But cute and colorful as they were, Miyamoto's main c h a r a c t e r s l a c k e d m e m o - rable names. The hero was simply called Jumpman; his g i r l f r i e n d w a s k n o w n a s Lady. And initially Mario w a s a c a r p e n t e r , n o t a plumber. W h i l e w o r k i n g o n t h e video game, employees at t h e N i n t e n d o f a c i l i t y i n Tukwila noticed the similari- t i e s b e t w e e n t h e i r l i v e l y , dark-haired protagonist and their landlord, Mario Segale. S o o n , t h e N i n t e n d o t e a m started to refer to their car- t o o n h e r o a s M a r i o . T h e name stuck. The girlfriend was called Pauline after the wife of a Nintendo employee. S e g a l e s e l d o m s p o k e about this connection and never sought out the spot- light, He also did not profit f r o m i t . A p r i v a t e , s o m e would say secretive, busi- nessman who could drive a hard bargain when he need- e d t o , S e g a l e p r e f e r r e d spending his time growing his construction company a n d l a t e r , h i s r e a l - e s t a t e holdings. Mario Segale was born in Seattle on April 30, 1934, the only child of first-generation Italian immigrant farmers Louis and Rina Segale. After graduating from Burien's H i g h l i n e H i g h S c h o o l i n 1952, Mario started his own construction company with a single dump truck. A few decades earlier, his father Louis had started buy- ing property in the area, with his first purchase in 1909 in the Tukwila valley. Louis c o n t i n u e d t o m a k e s m a l l purchases over the years. As a n a d u l t , M a r i o a d d e d t o those holdings. One of those parcels became the Segale Business Park in Tukwila where Nintendo of America got its start. A self-taught and shrewd businessman, Segale worked long hours in his construc- tion business, M.A. Segale Inc., which became one of the Northwest's most well- known heavy construction general contracting firms. The company specialized in many areas, from site devel- o p m e n t t o h i g h w a y c o n - struction to building dams. In 1998, Segale sold the construction business to an Irish firm for $60 million and turned his attention to his real estate holdings. By t h i s t i m e , S e g a l e P r o p e r t i e s h a d a l r e a d y established itself as a signifi- cant player in the commer- cial real estate market. In 2002, Segale sold the land under Emerald Downs race- tr ack to the Muckl eshoot Tribe for more than $73 mil- lion. The next year, the com- pany bought 120 acres of industrial property in Kent, Wash., from Boeing. One of the company's cur- rent projects, Tukwila South, is an enormous development covering 500 acres in south King County. In 2009, after five years of negotiations, Segale and Tukwila officials came to an agreement and the project started to move forward. The development's master plan includes a cam- pus of midrise office and research buildings surround- ed by stores, restaurants, town houses, condos, a hotel and more – about 10 million square feet of development. T h e f a m i l y a l s o o w n s thousands of acres of ware- houses, a shopping center, a v i n e y a r d i n e a s t e r n W a s h i n g t o n , a n d t i m b e r holdings. Although work consumed m u c h o f h i s l i f e , S e g a l e enjoyed hunting and fishing. He loved Italian food, good cigars and the beauty of the Pacific Northwest. The fami- ly also was a significant play- er in politics, and heavily supported the Democratic Party. Segale died in 2018 at the age of 84, leaving behind his wife of 62 years, four children and nine grandchil- dren. Since first introduced to video gamers in the 1980s, Super Mario has become leg- endary. Before Donkey Kong burst onto the scene, video games had been developed by engineers and program- mers; there was little playful- ness or storyline. Nintendo's S u p e r M a r i o c h a n g e d a l l that. After appearing as a char- a c t e r f o r s e v e r a l y e a r s i n Donkey Kong, Mario got his own game. A new character w e a r i n g g r e e n c o v e r a l l s , Mario's brother Luigi, was successfully introduced. The game was bundled with the home console so when con- sumers bought one, they got the other. Today the hugely success- ful Super Mario franchise e n c o m p a s s e s d o z e n s o f g a m e s f r o m c a r r a c i n g t o tennis. Super Mario Bros is the second best-selling single video game in history (after W i i S p o r t s ) w i t h s a l e s i n excess of 40 million units. For Mario's 35 th anniversary in 2020, Nintendo released new video games worldwide and scheduled a series of anniversary events through March 2021. In a 1993 interview with The Seattle Times, one of his few public interviews, Segale was asked what he thought about "lending" his name to the video game that sold mil- l i o n s o f c o p i e s a n d m a d e Nintendo one of the most profitable companies in the world. His answer, delivered with just the hint of a smile: "You might say I'm still waiting for my royalty checks." The colorful hero of Nintendo's Super Mario Bros was named after a self-made Italian millionaire named Mario Segale who was born in Seattle and raised in Tukwila (Angga Ranggana Putra) RITA CIPALLA SEATTLE ITALIAN COMMUNITY

• Cover