Frank Sinatra in The Burg and Trenton Area

Frank Sinatra in The Burg and Trenton Area

City provided food, friends
Times, The (Trenton, NJ) - Saturday, May 16, 1998
Author: RANDY ALEXANDER, Staff Writer

City provided food, friends

TRENTON _ Frank Sinatra sat down to eat in Trenton more
times than he sang here.And more than a decade after his final
Trenton performance in 1951 at the War Memorial, Ol' Blue Eyes
was still making special trips to his home state capital to
sample Italian cuisine with friends. Sinatra's Trenton friends
included Lou Crecco , owner of Crecco 's Cafe in Chambersburg;
and Ernie Kovacs, Trenton's beloved TV pioneer.
Sinatra began visiting Trenton as a big band singer with the
Tommy Dorsey Orchestra. He played the Trenton area twice with
Dorsey from 1940 to 1942 _ once at the Trenton Arena on
Stockton Street, long since leveled by fire; and once at
the Trenton Armory on Eggerts Crossing Road.
Frank Iero, drummer for the Jerry Rice Band, still likes to tell
the story about almost hitting Sinatra and other Dorsey band
members with his car one Sunday afternoon. ''We were on our way
home from his show,'' Iero recalled, ''and who's running across
Montgomery Street but Sinatra and a couple of other guys.
I had to stop my car before I hit them. It was close. My wife,
who was my girlfriend at the time, says to me, 'Oh my God,
you almost hit Frank Sinatra!' ''
When Sinatra played the Armory with the Dorsey band, he got a
home-cooked dinner at the Brunswick Avenue house where Sam and
Josephine Plumeri lived with Sam's parents.
Sam's cousin, Don Lodice, played sax with Dorsey at the time
and became godfather to Sinatra's daughter Nancy.
''My brother brought him to my house to have a spaghetti dinner
that my mother provided,'' Sam Plumeri remembered. ''He came
with the band.''
''He was skinny then,'' added Josephine Plumeri. ''Word got
around that Tommy Dorsey and Sinatra were around the
neighborhood and people went crazy.''
It was also during World War II that Ann Hoffman Hunt _ widow
of Trenton resident Robert Hunt of Bellevue Avenue _ flew to
California with her infant cradled in her arms. The baby started
crying while the plane was taking off, and only got louder as
the flight continued. When a pacifier didn't work, a man across
the aisle offered to help her. Within a few minutes, the baby
was in his arms and didn't cry the rest of the way to
the West Coast. THE MAN WAS Frank Sinatra.
After the war ended, Sinatra was back in Trenton, eating at
Trionfetti's Restaurant _ a newspaper story about the visit
hung on the wall at Trionfetti's in Chambersburg.
Also at the table that night was boxing great Rocky Graziano
and actress Rose Marie, wife for many years of the Bobby Guy,
the celebrated late Trenton trumpet player.
''Sonny T'' Trionfetti, who hung out at his uncle's restaurant,
says it was not uncommon for stars to come to Trionfetti's in
those days.
''It was a speakeasy,'' he explained. ''It was like the Cotton
Club in New York. They had bands every night on the weekends.''
But Sinatra's most famous public appearance in Trenton was
March 11, 1951. He headlined the War Memorial in the only solo
concert performance he ever gave here. At the War Memorial
''The Frank Sinatra Show'' with Buddy Williams and his Golden
Echo Orchestra came to the War Memorial as Sinatra's life
and career were fast falling apart. He had just been granted
a legal separation from wife, Nancy, and his scandalous affair
with Ava Gardner had become tumultuous.
Sinatra's half-hour CBS variety program, ''The Frank Sinatra
Show'' was struggling for ratings. His record sales had
plummeted. The previous year, he had been released from
his MGM film contract and dropped by his agent.
Ten days before he came to the War Memorial, Sinatra would
be secretly interrogated in New York about his alleged Mafia
connections by the Senate Special Committee to Investigate
Crime in Interstate Commerce.
At the end of the month, the singer would give what's
considered one of his most emotional studio performances _
on March 27, aching with anguish over his relationship with
Gardner, he recorded ''I'm a Fool to Want You.''
Sinatra arrived at the War Memorial on a Sunday evening. He
had been brought to town by three Trenton residents who were
trying to launch a concert promotion company: 21-year-old booking
agent Tony Angeli Jr. spearheaded the effort, backed by Golden
Gloves champion boxer Jimmy ''The Trenton Buzz Saw'' Corti
and building contractor Peter Chiaradia.
THEY DIDN'T CARE that Sinatra's career was bottoming out
at the time. ''Jim liked him so much, they wanted him here
anyway,'' explained Corti's wife, Millie. ''They were trying to
start a business and have entertainers come to Trenton.''
They brought in Domenic Castaldo, a former Chambersburg iron
worker and the owner of Lola's Pizzeria, to bodyguard Sinatra
that night. Pete Rossi, a longtime Trenton political figure who
was backstage that night, remembers Sinatra asking Castaldo to
bring him some pizza and tea before the performance. Castaldo
dashed off to the 'Burg to fill the order.
''The Frank Sinatra Show'' at the War Memorial had six acts on
the bill: master of ceremonies Benny Rubin, comedian Sid Rice,
accordionist Johnny Felice, the dance team of Mick and Gracie
Carol, impressionist Dick ''Tiny Stanley,'' and finally,
Sinatra himself. It was a big night for Trenton.
''Everybody was buzzing,'' recalled Millie Corti. ''I was all
dolled up. Everybody was all dressed up.''
Though her husband watched the show from the wings, Millie was
not allowed backstage. So she sat in the third row _ right
behind Ava Gardner.
A photo of Sinatra singing on the War Memorial stage still hangs
in Diamond's Restaurant in Chambersburg _ the restaurant is owned
by Corti's daughter, Philomena Zucchetti.
''I took care of him,'' said Jimmy Corti. ''Everything he wanted,
I took care of. He was behind me because I fought. He wanted to
talk about the fights I was in, and I wanted to talk about movies
and show business. He was polite, too. Frank Sinatra treated me
like I was his buddy.
''I didn't let too many people go near Frank Sinatra because I
knew he wanted to be himself. I made him feel at home.''
Rossi, a friend of the three promoters, remembers seeing
Sinatra backstage in his shorts. ''And he was as skinny as can
be,'' said Rossi. Corti, then 26, had hoped the War Memorial
show would launch a successful promotion venture that would
allow him to quit boxing. ''It was a big, big, big deal,''
he said. ''Everything felt good to me.''
But the concert, he said, did not come close to selling out
the 2,000-seat hall. The three men would never book another show
and Corti didn't hang up his boxing gloves for another six years.
The story around Chambersburg, says Sonny T., is that Sinatra
was so upset with the War Memorial turnout that he vowed
never to play Trenton again.He never did.
A Trenton friendship
But Sinatra kept up his connections to the capital city.
He befriended Trenton's greatest show-biz export, TV comic
Ernie Kovacs, as soon as Kovacs moved with his wife, Edie Adams,
from New York to Hollywood in 1957.
The bond was so tight that the Kovacs settled in Hollywood on
Bowmont Drive because Sinatra lived up the road.
''Ernie and Frank were a set,'' Adams recounted. ''They adored
each other. With Ernie's Hungarian family stuff and Frank's
Italian family stuff, they covered everything.''
As neighbors, the Kovacs were often part of the all-night card
games at Sinatra's house. Regulars included Dean Martin, Aaron
Spelling and Carolyn Jones. ''Frank would like us to stay there
all night long,'' said Adams. ''He would pull the curtains to be
sure we didn't know it was dawn. He didn't want anybody to
leave until early morning.'' A running practical joke between
Sinatra and Kovacs involved the continued placement of green
portable toilets and large wooden cigar store Indians in front
of each other's house. Sinatra adored Kovacs so much that he
occasionally appeared in a monkey suit on Kovacs' innovative TV
show to be part of the famed Nairobi Trio.
And Sinatra was the first to call Adams after Kovacs was killed
in a 1962 automobile accident. More than simply console the
grieving widow, Sinatra immediately offered to pay off the huge
debts Kovacs had left.''I'll never forget that,'' said Adams.
''He was like nobody I ever knew. He was always a big source
of strength for me. He's always been like a big brother. The man
was just absolutely unbelievable.''
Back for dinner
But if Sinatra never sang again in Trenton, he continued to
visit _ and eat. In the early '60s, his limo pulled up to Cedar
Gardens in Hamilton on its way from New York to a gig in
Philadelphia. Back then, Cedar Gardens was owned by Ray Agabiti
a friend of Trenton's Carl ''Pappy'' Ippolito, who knew Jilly
Rizzo, one of Sinatra's closest friends. Oldies disc jockey
Jerry Blavat was along for the ride. ''Pappy invited Jilly and
myself and Sinatra to have dinner,'' Blavat remembered.
''Sinatra's favorite dish was clams and spaghetti, and for him
they cooked it special.'' By the mid-1960s, Sinatra started
showing up at Crecco 's, for 40 years one of the 'Burg's famed
celebrity hangouts. Sinatra ate at Crecco 's because of Pat Henry,
the comedian who was his warm-up act at the time. Henry was a
dear friend of owner Lou Crecco , who eventually befriended
Sinatra too _ the three men dined together at Rizzo's New York
restaurant. ''Frank was a tough guy,'' said Crecco . ''He was a
nice guy with a heart of gold, but when he got into that vodka on
the rocks, he got mean. One night at Jilly's, I had to break up
him and Pat Henry from a fight. Otherwise, he was a great guy.''
Both of Sinatra's visits to Crecco 's were very late at night.
Crecco would get an advance call from Henry, and Sinatra would
be set up at the only round table in the bar area.
''That was the 'in' place,'' said Crecco . ''If you sat in the
bar, you were a big person. He ate at the No. 1 table.''
Sinatra was a great pasta man, but he wouldn't allow any
autographs while he ate. He did, however, welcome a wave of jokes
at the dinner table. ''It was all jokes,'' said Crecco .
''He told 'em. That whole gang did. Sammy Davis, Joey Bishop,
Dean Martin, all through dinner. That's all they did was
tell jokes.''
When playwright William Mastrosimone witnessed Sinatra leaving
his limo to walk into Crecco 's one night in the early '70s,
''it changed my life for a couple of years.'' A quarter-century
later, Mastrosimone would be hired by Sinatra's daughter Tina to
script ''Sinatra,'' the five-hour CBS miniseries which aired
in 1992.
Mastrosimone was living in the 'Burg, struggling as a writer and
making pizzas at a bar near Crecco 's the night the long, black
limo pulled up after midnight. He had been a fan of Sinatra's since
age 12, shunning rock 'n' roll for the music and sound of the
Voice from Hoboken.
Mastrosimone remembers he was walking home from work, flour caked
on his jeans, carrying an old Army knapsack filled with his
writings. ''There were a bunch of people there,'' said
Mastrosimone. ''And someone stopped and said, 'Frank Sinatra's in
that car.' I didn't believe it and I just stood there. He got out
of the car, looked over toward me, just nodded and walked in.
If someone had tapped him on the shoulder and said, 'See that
guy over there? He's going to write your biography one day,'
he wouldn't have believed it.''Years later, when he was called
to write the screenplay for ''Sinatra,'' he said, 'It gave me
kind of a shiver, almost like it was meant to be.''
Swansong
Sinatra was a terribly reluctant visitor to Trenton on Feb.
17, 1970. The N.J. State Commission on Investigation had
subpoenaed him to testify about his underworld connections.
He had sued to dismiss the subpoena, appealing all the way
to the U.S. Supreme Court. He lost. Still, he refused to to
appear until the commission threatened to throw him behind
bars for contempt. Finally, Sinatra submitted to questioning
in a secret midnight session orchestrated to avoid reporters.
For 75 minutes, he denied association with any organized
crime figures. ''For many years, every time some Italian
names are involved in any inquiry, I get a subpoena,'' Sinatra
said later. ''I appear. I am asked questions about scores
of persons unknown to me, based on rumors and events which have
never happened. Then I am subjected to the type of publicity
I do not desire and do not seek.''
The Trenton Armory shut its doors long ago. The Trenton Arena
burned down in 1975. Trionfetti's and Crecco 's are out of
business. Cedar Gardens is under new management.
Don Lodice, Tony Angeli, Dominic Castaldo, Ernie Kovacs,
Ray Agabiti, ''Pappy'' Ippolito are all gone. So are Tommy
Dorsey, Rocky Graziano, Ava Gardner, Pat Henry, Jilly Rizzo,
Sammy Davis and Dean Martin.
Frank Sinatra has joined them now, forever, but his passing
cannot erase the Trenton memories.