07/26/2023
Wondering research regarding Tony Bennett and his family…
Tony Bennett's father grocer Giovanni (John) Benedetto (1895-1936) from Podargoni (Calabria) arrived at Ellis Island on board the Berlina on May 27, 1914.
On Nov 20, 1919, John Sr married seamstress Anna Suraci (1899-1977) born in NYC, after crossing the ocean in her mother's womb.
She later gave birth to Mary (1920-2004) and John Jr (1923-2006). Son Anthony (1926-2023) was the first member of his family born in a hospital at Long Island City's St. John's Hospital in Queens.
A new US immigration policy, 1924-1965, would ethnically restrict immigration of Italians along with other Southern Europeans, as well as Eastern Europeans, Asians, Africans and Latin Americans.
That ended the 1880-1924 immigration wave that brought John Sr. and Anna to America.
The Benedetto family was living in Greenwich Village at 142 Sullivan, when John Sr gained US citizenship in 1929, then working as a superintendent.
They soon moved to Astoria (Queens), living at 21-15 33rd St, where John Sr was in poor health in his 30s.
The Benedetto family suffered the hard times of one-term 1929-33 President Herbert Hoover's Great Depression (1929-39). That shaped the lifelong politics of Anthony.
Ailing father John Sr passed onto his son a passion for art and literature, and an empathy for anybody suffering. John Sr, 40, then died on Aug 7, 1936. Only days after Anthony's 10th birthday on Aug 3.
Only a month earlier on July 11, 1936, Mayor Fiorello La Guardia had patted young Anthony, 9, on the head after he sang at the opening of the Triborough Bridge, connecting Queens, The Bronx and Manhattan.
Anthony's uncle Vincent, a chauffeur, later moved in to help his widowed mom, now in great poverty.
1940s-50s, they lived at 23-14 32nd St in Astoria. Anthony's childhood home still stands. 23-07 32nd St (updated) is in the photo. At 13, he was a singing waiter nearby at local Italian restaurants in 1940.
Though his Uncle Dick, a tap dancer, brought Anthony into the vaudeville world already, Anthony at P.S. 141 was aiming to be a painter.
He entered High School of Art and Design, studying music and painting. But he dropped out at 16 in 1942 to help his widowed mom Anna.
Executive Order 9066 (Feb 19, 1942) in WW II had caused 600,000 Italian men in America to be declared "enemy aliens," including 1898 Sicilian immigrant and restaurateur Giuseppe Di Maggio (1872-1949) in SF, whose sons had enlisted. Giuseppe had lived in America for 44 years.
His son New York Yankees star Joe DiMaggio had just become a national hero for his still unbeatable 56-game hitting streak in 1941.
At Giuseppe's Fisherman's Wharf restaurant, one regular customer was 1931-44 SF Mayor Angelo Rossi. America's 1st Italian mayor. 1934-46 NYC Mayor La Guardia was the second.
Many Southern Italian immigrants arriving 1880-1924 were poor and illiterate. Many consequently could not gain US citizenship, as the citizenship test required literacy.
Under Executive Order 9066, many Italians and Germans in New Jersey and New York were rounded up in 1942 and secretly detained for years on Ellis Island. Many detained beyond WW II.
1903 Sicilian immigrant, boxer, firefighter and saloon operator Marty Sinatra (1892-1969), father of Frank Sinatra (1915-1998), escaped this fate, despite being illiterate. His wife Dolly Sinatra (1897-1977) was very powerful in Hoboken, NJ, working in Citizenship Court.
Dolly essentially represented the entire Italian community in matters of immigration and citizenship in Hoboken. With her help, Marty, 50, became a US citizen.
After WW II, Dolly helped elect 1947-1953 Hoboken Mayor Fred De Sapio, an Italian American who immediately made Sinatra Day official in 1947.
Giuseppe DiMaggio, 70, however, was placed under house arrest, unable to work at his waterfront restaurant. He was not allowed cameras, maps or flashlights. 3000 Italians were evicted for being too near the California coast. Their fishing boats were seized.
The New Yorkers detained on Ellis Island had no US citizenship but many had lived in NYC for decades. They also included students, journalists and 1939 World's Fair workers.
But Germans and Italians still had more political clout in America than coastal Japanese families. Japanese men, women and children were rounded up for internment camps out west. Men in Manhattan were also rounded up.
The largest ethnic group in Hawaii on Dec 7, 1941, was Japanese. Why US defenses in Hawaii were faced inward in fear of domestic insurgency instead of outward, heeding warnings of imminent invasion.
While parents were detained at US camps or under house arrest, Japanese, German and Italian sons also fought for the US in WW II. The segregated 442nd Infantry Regiment remains the most decorated US military unit in history for rescuing the Lost Battalion. They ran uphill into sniper fire. They also helped liberate Dachau and capture Eagle's Nest. They were Japanese American.
Anthony Benedetto, 18, was drafted in Nov 1944. Italian Americans in the US military like Anthony suffered ethnic abuse as did Jewish soldiers he saw in WW II. They then entered hell, the front line in March 1945, during the bitter cold, living in foxholes under fire.
He had close calls with death many times. His 255th Infantry Regiment (63rd Infantry Division) had replaced the heavy casualties suffered in the Battle of the Bulge (1944-45). What he saw made him a lifelong pacifist.
"Anybody who thinks that war is romantic obviously hasn't gone through one. It was a nightmare that's permanent."
He saw the horrors of a N**i concentration camp as well near Dachau. "I saw things no human being should ever have to see."
After WW II, in now US-occupied Germany, Anthony was demoted to Graves Registration Service after dining with his African American friend Frank Smith. The US had the only segregated troops among Allies.
The Harlem Hellfighters (369th Infantry Regiment) were not allowed a farewell parade in NYC or to fight alongside White New Yorkers in WW I (or WW II). Instead, they fought alongside the French and introduced jazz to France in WW I.
They socialized in English with Brits and Canadians at WW II military clubs but had to leave when White Americans arrived. When they returned to Manhattan, there was civil unrest as African American soldiers were upset about unequal treatment.
NYC's Stuyvesant Town (built 1942-47) began as Whites Only public housing, anticipating returning GIs. By 1948, the US military finally desegregated.
Returning from WW II, Anthony was on the GI Bill, going to American Theatre Wing (est. 1917) at 730 5th Ave in 1946 to learn bel canto, a style of operatic singing.
He also joined Associated Press (50 Rockefeller Plaza) as a copyboy and runner.
By 1949, Pearl Bailey invited Anthony, 23, to open for her in Greenwich Village. She also invited Bob Hope to see him sing.
Hope invited Anthony to tour with him, but he wanted his stage name to be less Italian than Anthony Benedetto. And that's how he became Tony Bennett.
"Ethnic" names in music were uncommon on Billboard charts like in Hollywood. The Sound of Silence (1964) producer Tom Wilson saw Simon & Garfunkel as breaking the mold.
Until then, it was common for Robert Zimmerman to become Bob Dylan and Carole Klein to scroll down the phonebook for a nearby industry "acceptable" name like King.
Columbia signed Tony Bennett in 1950, who was told not to imitate Sinatra, who was then leaving the label.
Among Tony's influences was the Queen of Swing Mildred Bailey (1907-1951) whose signature Native American vocals were inspired by the songs of her youth. She grew up on Coeur d'Alene Reservation in Idaho.
Tony's 1951 cover of Because of You (1940) with arrangement by Canadian Percy Faith reached #1, selling a million copies. A major jukebox hit.
His 1951 cover of Hank Williams' Cold, Cold Heart (1951) reached #1 too. Rags to Riches (1953) became his 3rd #1 hit with Toronto's Percy Faith.
1955+ rock then made it harder for crooners to rise, but Tony remained Top 10. He shifted towards jazz artistry 1954-65.
New Yorkers Jack Kerouac and Neal Cassady headed west and drank beer at Denver's Mexican resto El Chapultepec (1933) in On The Road (1957). It later became a 1968 jazz venue where Tony Bennett sang, now in the shadows of Coors Field (1995).
4.5-octave singer Pat Benatar (born 1953) grew up on Long Island, inspired by Tony Bennett.
Before Paul Colby booked acts at Bitter End (147 Bleecker), he sold furniture 1955-65 to artists like Tony Bennett, who dined regularly at PJ Clarke's (915 3rd Ave).
The British invasion then nearly killed jazz with the 1964 arrival of The Beatles in NYC. Tony then shifted his focus on Civil Rights.
In 1965, Tony participated in marches from Selma to Montgomery. On a stage made of coffin crates, Nina Simone sang Mississippi Goddam (1964) to 10,000 marchers, including Tony, at City of St Jude (Montgomery).
Mother of five, Viola Liuzzo, 39, a Civil Rights activist from Detroit loyal to MLK, later drove Tony to the airport on March 25, 1965. She was then murdered in Selma same day by the K*K.
Quincy Jones would conduct and arrange music on Tony Bennett's The Movie Song Album (1966).
Quincy was Hollywood's first go-to Black composer with The Pawnbroker (1965) and Mirage (1965).
He had not been allowed to work as an arranger in NYC because Movie/TV scores and arrangements were not seen as Black music. So he moved to Paris.
By 1959, Q was conducting a 30-piece orchestra of African Americans on tour in France, before returning to America.
Early 1960s, Q once slept in a morgue in the South. There was often no place to stay on the Chitlin Circuit where Q and Jimi Hendrix could gig pre-1964 Civil Rights.
The Green Book (1936-66) launched in Harlem to show where Black tourists could go without issue in Manhattan. Black-friendly locations got scouted by African American postal carriers in Manhattan. The travel guide then spread nationally.
Q later won 28 Grammys (2nd most for men) and also produced Lesley Gore's anthem for the Second Wave women's movement, You Don't Own Me (1963). It was #2 behind only The Beatles' I Want To Hold Your Hand (1963), signaling a change in songwriting about women.
On Oct 18, 1970, Tony Bennett was on Ed Sullivan Show with The Carpenters and BB King. It was BB's first time on national tv.
"Thrill is Gone" was recorded nearby at Hit Factory (701 7th Ave) in Times Square. But Ed Sullivan did not shake BB's hand. Times had not changed for him.
Meanwhile Tony Bennett would struggle 1965–1979, as classic rock was killing his career.
In 1965, even Lena Horne and Barbra Streisand were pressured to rock. Clive Davis told Tony to rock. The psychedelic looking Tony Sings the Great Hits of Today! (1970) bombed, so Tony left Columbia in 1972 for Verve, which also went nowhere.
Tony Bennett then started his own jazz label Improv, releasing critically-acclaimed The Tony Bennett/Bill Evans Album (1975) and Together Again (1976). But the label ended in 1977, lacking major label distribution.
Despite going broke, with the IRS about to seize his home in 1979, Tony Bennett still refused well-paying gigs in Apartheid South Africa unlike The Beach Boys, Linda Ronstadt, Cher, Liza Minnelli, Frank Sinatra, Olivia Newton-John, Dolly Parton, Rod Stewart, Elton John and Queen.
Tony was now manager-less, label-less, venue-less (outside Vegas) and had a life-changing near fatal co***ne overdose. He pleaded with his sons Danny and Dae for help. "Look, I'm lost here."
"It seems like people don't want to hear the music I make."
Tony survived and reinvented himself as a critically-acclaimed painter under his real name Benedetto.
Son Danny also became his music manager, bringing him back to NYC, away from Vegas. He booked him at colleges and theatres in a major comeback, with an IRS payment plan.
Columbia even re-signed Tony Bennett and he charted for the first time since leaving in 1972, with The Art of Excellence (1986). He was also Oscar-nominated for singing in That's Life (1986).
Tony suddenly found a younger audience 1990-95, booked by his son on Letterman, Conan O'Brien, MTV, The Simpsons and The Muppets. Tony even sang at alt-rock benefit shows.
"I realized that young people had never heard those songs. Cole Porter, Gershwin—they were like, 'Who wrote that?' To them, it was different. If you're different, you stand out."
His Sinatra tribute Perfectly Frank (1992) and Fred Astaire tribute Steppin' Out (1993) both went Gold and won Grammys. He was now hanging out with Red Hot Chili Peppers and Flavor Flav of Public Enemy at the MTV Music Video Awards.
He also appeared on MTV Unplugged in 1994, featuring k.d. lang and Elvis Costello as guests. His MTV Unplugged (1994) album went platinum and won a Grammy.
He then helped A&E launch Live by Request (1996-2004) and won an Emmy. He sang at a rainy Glastonbury Festival in 1998 in a suit.
By 1999, he was worth up to $20 million. He would win 11 more Grammys in coming years (20 total), selling 50 million records in his career.
In 2001, he won a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award, but he was far from done.
Tony crushed the generation gap like no other. Not just once but twice. Enter Amy Winehouse, 27, and Lady Gaga, 25, in 2011. That launched a decade-long new career into 2021.
Amy Winehouse (1983-2011) was discovered at East Village Radio, over the transom by Mark Ronson, stepson of Foreigner's Mick Jones. He grew up on the Upper West Side with Sean Lennon. He would produce Back To Black (2006) at Brooklyn's Daptone Records (115 Troutman) where Amy sang in a booth smaller than a phone booth.
Five years later, Amy Winehouse recorded with her hero Tony Bennett at The Beatles' Abbey Road Studios (March 2011). Amy passed away at 27, four months later.
That year, Tony also met New Yorker Lady Gaga (born 1986) and called her a "jazz singer." They soon sang The Lady Is A Tramp together in 2011, and later released Cheek to Cheek (2014).
Lady Gaga supported Tony during his 2016+ battle with Alzheimer's disease (not publicly known until 2021), releasing their final album together Love for Sale (2021). They sang at Radio City during the pandemic in August 2021 to promote it.
Tony could still sing live without issue as soon as the music came but had long forgotten Lady Gaga's name at rehearsals and in the studio. Then he shocked her by calling out her name at Radio City.
Photo from Tony Bennett – Astoria: Portrait Of The Artist (1989)
