Thursday, December 12, 2019-From the Archives of Focus on History from the Daily Gazette-One of the great capitals of Europe
Thursday Podcast "3 1/2 Minutes" with info on The Great Feed and History
You Can't Go Wrong with bacon and eggs
Friday, December 13, 2019-Episode 296-Leigh Eckmair is village of Gilbertsville and town of Butternuts historian in Otsego County, New York. She explains why the entire village of Gilbertsville has been named an historic district.
Pisciotta - one of the great capitals of Europe?
By Bob Cudmore, Focus on History, Daily Gazette, 5-26-2012
Many Italian-Americans who settled in Amsterdam’s West End came from the small, southern Italian hilltop community of Pisciotta, in the Campania region of Salerno province. St. Agnello is a popular saint in Pisciotta and there used to a St. Agnello feast day in Amsterdam.
The Pisciotta connection led to theatrical hijinks in 1967 during the Amsterdam recreation department production of “My Fair Lady.”
According to Jahnn Swanker-Gibson, now a Johnstown resident, a plan was hatched at a gathering of actors at the home of Stella DeTura.
Swanker-Gibson said, “Mischief was afoot on this indolent summer afternoon 45 years ago, mischief concerning a line to be delivered by Eddie Schwartz, as Zoltan Karpathy, to Phil Bracchi, playing Henry Higgins. The line involved was, ‘I have made your name famous in all the great capitals of Europe: London, Paris, Rome.’”
The news went out that Schwartz was going to change one word in that line. When the play’s ballroom scene was in progress before a packed house that night, Swanker-Gibson said the backstage also was crowded with cast and crew members awaiting the stunt.
Instead of what was written, Schwartz as Karpathy said to Bracchi as Higgins, “I have made your name famous in all the great capitals of Europe: London, Paris, Pisciotta.”
Swanker-Gibson said, “The audience roared. (Director) Bert DeRose was in stitches backstage. And Phil? Well, his eyes widened a bit in surprise, his head went back an almost imperceptible amount and his mouth twitched ever so slightly. Only those looking closely for a reaction were able to discern anything unusual in his demeanor, as he calmly went on with his lines as though Pisciotta were indeed one of the celebrated capitals of Europe. Here, indeed, was a professional actor at his best.”
When asked if he recalled the incident, play director DeRose said, “Yes I do and I gave them both you know what. I always stayed with the script in respect to the playwrights.” DeRose was well aware of Amsterdam’s connection with Pisciotta although his own family came from the province of Benevento.
PISCIOTTA AND AMSTERDAM
Amsterdam residents whose roots are in Pisciotta include Alderman Joseph Isabel, Rita Robusto Mucilli, Guy Capuccio and many others including the Sansalones, Catenas, Tambascos and Pepes.
Isabel’s grandfather and father came from Pisciotta and the family operated a well-known West Main Street restaurant for many years.
Mucilli said, “My father, Aniello Robusto, opened a barber shop, paint and glass shop at 123 West Main Street. He taught himself English words with the help of the Sears catalog nights, looking at pictures and putting the names together.”
Aniello Robusto’s name is inscribed on an altar at a church in Pisciotta as he helped raise money in Amsterdam for the structure.
Guy Capuccio’s father and mother were both from Pisciotta. His father, Joseph Capuccio, came to America in 1910. Initially he lived in Syracuse but then joined friends from Pisciotta in Amsterdam where he worked at the Sanford carpet mill. When World War I broke out, he served in the American military in France. He came back to Amsterdam and worked at the Mohawk carpet mill. He returned to Pisciotta to marry a woman from his hometown, Rose Tambasco. They came back to the United States for good in 1927.
Their son Guy Capuccio visited his cousins in Pisciotta in 1991 and slept in the room where his mother was born. That home and many others are made of stone.
Capuccio marveled at ancient fortifications in Pisciotta, built to head off an invasion by the Moors centuries ago, “When you look at a structure that’s fourteen hundred years old, you say ‘Wow.’”
The Amsterdam Weather
High pressure will allow for mainly clear skies today,
but temperatures will remain rather cold. Clouds will increase for
Friday with moderating temperatures. The next storm system will
bring periods of rain to the region for Friday night into Saturday
with milder temperatures. Colder weather will return for the end of
the weekend into early next week.
Saturday, December 14, 2019 at 7 a.m., Bob Cudmore will speak at the Men’s Breakfast, United Methodist Church, 347 Golf Course Rd., Amsterdam. To invite Bob to speak to your organization, email bobcudmore@yahoo.com
Sunday, December 15, 2019
People in Schenectady are still talking about the early December snowstorm. News colmnist Sara Foss from the Daily Gazette, is Bob Cudmore’s guest this weekend on Magic 590’s Talk of the Town and takes up that subject and other stories in the local news. Listen Sunday morning at 6:30 on Magic 590 and 100.5, also heard in the North Country on 1410 and 96.9.
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