Frank Capra – Italian American Film Director

Frank Capra – Italian American Film Director

by | Sep 10, 2020 | Blog, Film

One of my favorite movies of the Golden Age of Hollywood is Arsenic and Old Lace. When looking for Italian American film directors, I came across the name Frank Capra. While I’d heard this name before, I never realized all the movies he directed, including Arsenic and Old Lace. His life story is very interesting, and definitely lives the definition of the American Dream.

Francesco Rosario Capra (Frank Capra), was born in Palermo, Sicily, on May 18, 1897, the youngest of Salvatore Capra and Rosaria Nicolosi’s seven children. When Frank was six years old his family left Sicily for Los Angeles, California. Capra fought to go to college against his parents’ wishes, working several jobs to pay his way through the California Institute of Technology. After graduating and serving in the army, he had trouble finding a decent job. His relatives on the other hand, none of whom had college degrees, were all employed. While in San Francisco, Capra, with twelve cents to his name, answered a newspaper advertisement placed by an actor who was looking for a director to help him create film versions of his favorite poetry.

After working with multiple studios and having great success, Capra started directing his own films and soon became one of America’s most influential directors during the 1930s. He won three Academy Awards for Best Director from six nominations, along with three other Oscar wins from nine nominations in other categories. Among his leading films were It Happened One Night (1934), You Can’t Take It with You (1938), and Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939); Capra was nominated as Best Director and as producer for Academy Award for Best Picture on all three films, winning both awards on the first two. During World War II, Capra served in the U.S. Army Signal Corps and produced propaganda films, such as the Why We Fight series.

After World War II, Capra’s career started to decline as his later films, such as It’s a Wonderful Life (1946), performed poorly when they were first released. It wouldn’t be until decades later that It’s a Wonderful Life and other Capra films were revisited favorably by critics. Outside of directing, Capra was active in the film industry, engaging in various political and social activities. He served as President of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, worked alongside the Writers Guild of America, and was head of the Directors Guild of America.

Capra died in his sleep in 1991 at the age 94. Frank’s son Frank Capra Jr., was also a director and producer, and his grandson Frank Capra III is currently a film producer. 

Sources: Notable Bio’s, Wiki

Walter Lantz – Italian American Animator

Walter Lantz – Italian American Animator

by | Sep 9, 2020 | Film, Television

Walter Benjamin Lantz was born in 1899 in New Rochelle, New York, to Italian immigrant parents, Francesco Paolo Lantz (formerly Lanza) and Maria Gervasi from Calitri. Lantz’s father was given his new surname by an immigration official. At the age of 15, Lantz was hired as an office boy in the art department of The New York American newspaper where he washed paint brushes for legendary illustrator Winsor McCay. Lantz attended art school at night while working at the newspaper.

By the age of 16, Lantz was working in the animation department. Lantz then worked at the John R. Bray Studios on the Jerry On The Job series. In 1924, Lantz directed, animated, and even starred in his first cartoon series, “Dinky Doodle”, which included the popular fairy tale animated shorts Cinderella (1925) and Little Red Riding Hood (1925). He also worked briefly for director Frank Capra and was a gag writer for Mack Sennett comedies.

In 1929, Lantz began producing “Oswald, the Lucky Rabbit” cartoons. Later he used Oswald in Universal’s first major musical, “The King of Jazz”. When Oswald had worn out his welcome, Lantz needed a new character. After creating multiple characters, one character, Andy Panda, stood out and soon became Lantz’s headline star for the 1939–1940 production season.

In 1940, Lantz married actress Grace Stafford. The same year, Woody Woodpecker made his debut, along with his iconic laugh, in an Andy Panda short entitled “Knock Knock”. According to Lantz, he came up with the character during his honeymoon, when he and his wife kept hearing a woodpecker incessantly pecking on their roof. Woody Woodpecker became an instant hit and got his own series during 1941. Grace Stafford would later become one of those who supplied Woody Woodpecker’s voice. In 1948, the Lantz studio created a hit Academy Award-nominated song titled “The Woody Woodpecker Song”, featuring Woody’s iconic laugh. 

In 1979, Mr. Lantz received an Academy Award for life achievement and for contributions to the art of animation. In 1982, Lantz donated 17 artifacts to the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of American History, among them a wooden model of Woody Woodpecker from the cartoon character’s debut in 1941. In 1990, Woody Woodpecker was honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Walter Lantz died in Burbank, California from heart failure in 1994, at age 94.

Some characters in the Walter Lantz cartoons (both cartoons and comics) are Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, Andy Panda, The Beary Family, Maggie & Sam, Maw and Paw, Space Mouse, Woody Woodpecker, Inspector Willoughby, Homer Pigeon, Chilly Willy, Lil’ Eightball, Charlie Chicken, Wally Walrus, and many more.

 

Cory Pesaturo – Episode 4

Cory Pesaturo – Episode 4

by | Sep 8, 2020 | Podcasts

On this episode of The Italian American Entertainment Podcast, Vince Chiarelli, of The Vince Chiarelli Band, interviews Cory Pesaturo.Cory (“C Pez”) is the only person to win World Championships on acoustic, jazz and digital accordion, has performed at the White House multiple times, has given the only accordion TED Talk, and is a visionary on how the accordion should be used and played in modern music.

Visit https://www.cpezmusic.com/ to follow Cory and what he’s doing.

Adriana Caselotti – The Voice of Snow White

Adriana Caselotti – The Voice of Snow White

by | Sep 6, 2020 | Blog, Film

Adriana Caselotti was born in Bridgeport, Connecticut to Italian American immigrants. Her father, Guido Caselotti, was an immigrant from Udine, and worked as a teacher of music and a vocal coach. Her mother, Maria Orefice, from Naples, was a singer in the Royal Opera Theatre of Rome.  When Caselotti was seven years old, her family left Connecticut for Italy while her mother toured with an opera company. When her family returned to New York three years later, Caselotti relearned English and studied singing with her father.

In 1935, after a brief stint as a chorus girl and session singer at MGM, Walt Disney hired Caselotti as the voice of his heroine Snow White. She was paid a total of $970 for working on the film (equivalent to $17,251 today). She was not credited and had trouble finding new opportunities later in life. Jack Benny specifically mentioned that he had asked Disney for permission to use her on his radio show and was told, “I’m sorry, but that voice can’t be used anywhere. I don’t want to spoil the illusion of Snow White.” Caselotti had two more jobs in the film business. The first was an uncredited role in MGM’s The Wizard of Oz (1939); she provided the voice of Juliet during the Tin Man’s song, “If I Only Had a Heart”, speaking the line, “Wherefore art thou Romeo?”. In 1946, she had an uncredited role in Frank Capra’s It’s a Wonderful Life, singing in Martini’s bar as James Stewart was praying.

Adriana Caselotti appeared in several promotional spots for Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, signing memorabilia. On November 22, 1972, she guest-starred on an episode of The Julie Andrews Hour saluting the music of Walt Disney, singing “I’m Wishing” and “Someday My Prince Will Come” with Julie Andrews. Caselotti later wrote a how-to book, “Do You Like to Sing?”.

Later in life, she sold autographs and also made an attempt at an opera career. In the early 1990s, when the Snow White Grotto at Disneyland was refurbished, Caselotti re-recorded “I’m Wishing” for the Snow White Wishing Well at the age of 75. In 1994, she was named a Disney Legend.

On January 18, 1997, Caselotti died of respiratory failure from lung cancer at her Los Angeles home at the age of 80. At the time of her death, she was the last surviving cast member of the 1937 animated film, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.

 

Sources: Wiki

 

Pat Cooper – Italian American Comedian

Pat Cooper – Italian American Comedian

by | Sep 5, 2020 | Blog, Comedy

Pasquale Caputo (Pat Cooper) was born in Brooklyn, NY in 1929 to Italian parents Michael Caputo, from Mola di Bari, Italy, and Louise Gargiulo. Cooper started performing stand-up in the 1950s, originally for primarily Italian-American audiences. In 1963, he got his big break on The Jackie Gleason Show. After this, he played top nightclubs and Vegas casinos, with famous stars such as Frank Sinatra, Jimmy Durante, Ella Fitzgerald, Tony Bennett, Sergio Franchi, Sammy Davis Jr., and more. 

On May 2, 1969, Cooper and singer Jimmy Roselli premiered in their two-man show at Broadway’s Palace Theatre, New York. He has performed at celebrity roasts and was also a frequent guest on many radio shows, such as The Howard Stern Show. Billboard Magazine gave his album Our Hero (1965) a special merit review and said that it “does for the Italian-American community what Jackie Mason did for the Jewish-American community.” 

In addition to his stand-up, Cooper has acted in the films Analyze This and This Thing of Ours, and guest-starred in multiple television series.  Pat Cooper has been married three times and has two biological children.