(In honor of the first day of spring)
Grandma and Grandpa D'Ambra (she was a Mattera) both grew up on the island of Ischia across the bay from Naples, as children of tenant farmers. Farming then was not an easy life for men or women, and where sometimes the climate complied to produce bumper harvests, the Earth sometimes did not. In 1883, Mount Vesuvius erupted, not only causing devastating lava flows on the Italian mainland, but triggering earthquakes fanned out from the epicenter. Grandpa's mother, who was holding his infant sister when the tremors began, was struck by a falling rock while protecting the baby. The child still died, and my great-grandmother remained an invalid for about a year before passing away.
My great-grandfather had no time for raising his family as well as making a living, but knew a woman with a couple of children whose husband had also died as a result of the earthquake. She had a reputation for being a good mother and an excellent housekeeper, so they married so that my grandfather and his sister would have someone to care for them.
Well, in theory... To hear Mom tell it, the story directly from her father, he inherited the stepmother from Hell. It was all about her children. At dinner they got the choicest food and my grandfather and his sister the least appetizing portions. There was rarely meat for supper, but if there was, her children got the larger portion, if not all. If my great-grandpa noticed, she would tell him some lie about his children having misbehaved and that they being punished. He worked from sunup until long after sundown and it was no use his children contradicting their stepmother; it just wasn't done to talk back to adults. Her children didn't do chores, but his children did. Grandpa's sister was stuck with the housework. If her children ripped their clothing, she mended them, but did not extend the courtesy to his. And his children—oh, how naughty! But hers were angels.
Like other Italian boys of that era, Grandpa started work in the fields at an early age. Before that he had functioned as an errand boy, bringing drinks back and forth to the field, fetching tools, an extra set of hands or feet to shift some crops, weeding the vegetable garden, etc. But at nine he left the house each day to do a full day of man's work on the farm. His stepmother refused to make breakfast for him, so he spent each morning hungry.
But a perceptive little girl on a neighboring farm never let him down. He passed her door each morning and she would invite him in. She was also nine and by that time a capable little housekeeper: she could cook, mend, take care of siblings, and clean house. Each morning she would cook him breakfast, even if it was just a simple egg with some bread and dripping on the side, and perhaps some goat's milk to drink. While he ate, she would take her needle and thimble and repair any rents in his shirt or his shorts. She knitted him stockings when his were too holey to darn.
When they grew older he knew he loved her not just for her breakfast and for her sewing, but for her heart, and he wanted it with him forever. And that's how the sweet little girl who couldn't let this ragged, hungry boy down became my grandmother.
The memories began in the attic, but they continue to accumulate. I've taken them out to air.
Reprint: "Days of Wine and Bradford Dillman"
From 2004 (and I later bought both of DVDs for Banacek as well as the Snoop Sisters set):
I had a "blast from the past" yesterday. While wandering the television dial I noticed the Hallmark Channel was just starting an episode of Banacek.
Thomas Banacek was one of the "gimmick" detectives of the 1970s. We started with the "different" ones: Ironside was in a wheelchair, Longstreet was blind, Cannon was overweight, Barnaby Jones was old, Columbo was sloppy. Then we got into the ethnic run, of which Banacek, who was Polish, was one of the first. (Later we had Nakia, who was Native American; Sarge, who fit both bills because he was Irish and an ex-cop turned priest; Tenafly, who was African-American, etc.)
Actually Banacek wasn't even a detective; he was an insurance investigator, a "finder" who tried to discover highly-insured items before the company paid off the claim. Dapperly played by George Peppard, he lived on Beacon Hill (the Boston setting was one of the draws) in a nice house, had a gorgeous classic car driven by a chauffeur, and was friends with Felix Mulholland, a rare book dealer. Banacek liked lovely ladies, money, fine wines, money, nice furnishings, money...well, you get the picture. Despite his mercenary proclivities, Banacek was a gentleman. Were a lady to sleep with him, he would be the ultimate lover, serve wine next to a bed with silk sheets, and "not tell" afterwards.
His other penchant was quoting obscure "Polish proverbs," including my favorite "Never play leapfrog with a unicorn."
Watching the episode brought back all those lovely memories of the halcyon days of the 1970s TV mystery series: the classic NBC Mystery Movie, which included McMillan and Wife, Columbo, Hec Ramsey, and McCloud (which started out on the earlier Four-in-One dramatic series) on Sundays and later Madigan, Tenafly, Faraday and Company, and The Snoop Sisters on the Wednesday/Tuesday edition, as well as the peacock network's classy Ellery Queen (which they didn't have class enough to renew), and also the different Quinn Martin series ("A Quinn Martin Production!" as the opening narrator always proclaimed): Barnaby Jones, Cannon, Nakia, The Streets of San Francisco, The F.B.I. and perhaps his most famous, The Fugitive. It of course featured a complement of guest stars who, had they only appeared on the NBC mystery series, one might refer to as the "Universal Studios Repertory Company."
The guests for this episode ("To Find a King") included many of the most classic members of the "rep company": Kevin McCarthy, Brenda Vaccaro, Pernell Roberts, Roger C. Carmel, and Logan Ramsey. There wasn't a mystery series these folks didn't turn up on, along with the following: Lawrence Pressman, William Windom, Craig Stevens, David Wayne, Howard Duff, Ida Lupino, Dean Stockwell, Anne Francis, Geraldine Brooks, Pat Harrington, Kip Niven, Robert Loggia, Ross Martin, Roddy McDowall, Stefanie Powers, Herb Edelman, Bert Convy, Peter Mark Richman, Beverly Garland--along with a whole horde of others. Ah, just the names make my mouth water for a decent mystery that didn't need T&A to cover up the holes in the plot!
The one guest star this episode didn't feature was that ultimate of 1970s mystery series guest stars, Bradford Dillman. Check out this guy's "Notable TV Guest Appearances" on the IMDb. And I'm sure there are some that are missing! Bradford Dillman was on everything. The only problem with him in a mystery guest star role was that if all you were interested in was "whodunnit" and not how the series detective got to that conclusion, you could switch channels the moment you saw his name. Bradford Dillman was the bad guy. Bradford Dillman was always the bad guy, no ifs, ands or buts. Roddy McDowall and Ross Martin and Peter Mark Richman all played lots of bad guys, but often enough the script would fool you and they'd be innocent. Dillman never was.
To complete the nostalgia, "To Find a King" was directed by one of my favorites of the 1970s "rep company," Lou Antonio. (His brother, Jim Antonio, was also a member of the rep.) He's now better known as a director, but his career in the 1970s included numerous guest star appearances on various shows including The Rookies and he starred in two television series, Makin' It and Dog and Cat (with Kim Basinger) and co-starred in The Snoop Sisters in what is my favorite Antonio role, the elderly sisters' ex-con chauffeur and bodyguard, Barney.
Watching Banacek just makes me long for all those Mystery Movie shows to come back somehow, especially Faraday and Company and Snoop Sisters. If Universal would like to release them to DVD, I'll be first in line to buy them, believe me!
I had a "blast from the past" yesterday. While wandering the television dial I noticed the Hallmark Channel was just starting an episode of Banacek.
Thomas Banacek was one of the "gimmick" detectives of the 1970s. We started with the "different" ones: Ironside was in a wheelchair, Longstreet was blind, Cannon was overweight, Barnaby Jones was old, Columbo was sloppy. Then we got into the ethnic run, of which Banacek, who was Polish, was one of the first. (Later we had Nakia, who was Native American; Sarge, who fit both bills because he was Irish and an ex-cop turned priest; Tenafly, who was African-American, etc.)
Actually Banacek wasn't even a detective; he was an insurance investigator, a "finder" who tried to discover highly-insured items before the company paid off the claim. Dapperly played by George Peppard, he lived on Beacon Hill (the Boston setting was one of the draws) in a nice house, had a gorgeous classic car driven by a chauffeur, and was friends with Felix Mulholland, a rare book dealer. Banacek liked lovely ladies, money, fine wines, money, nice furnishings, money...well, you get the picture. Despite his mercenary proclivities, Banacek was a gentleman. Were a lady to sleep with him, he would be the ultimate lover, serve wine next to a bed with silk sheets, and "not tell" afterwards.
His other penchant was quoting obscure "Polish proverbs," including my favorite "Never play leapfrog with a unicorn."
Watching the episode brought back all those lovely memories of the halcyon days of the 1970s TV mystery series: the classic NBC Mystery Movie, which included McMillan and Wife, Columbo, Hec Ramsey, and McCloud (which started out on the earlier Four-in-One dramatic series) on Sundays and later Madigan, Tenafly, Faraday and Company, and The Snoop Sisters on the Wednesday/Tuesday edition, as well as the peacock network's classy Ellery Queen (which they didn't have class enough to renew), and also the different Quinn Martin series ("A Quinn Martin Production!" as the opening narrator always proclaimed): Barnaby Jones, Cannon, Nakia, The Streets of San Francisco, The F.B.I. and perhaps his most famous, The Fugitive. It of course featured a complement of guest stars who, had they only appeared on the NBC mystery series, one might refer to as the "Universal Studios Repertory Company."
The guests for this episode ("To Find a King") included many of the most classic members of the "rep company": Kevin McCarthy, Brenda Vaccaro, Pernell Roberts, Roger C. Carmel, and Logan Ramsey. There wasn't a mystery series these folks didn't turn up on, along with the following: Lawrence Pressman, William Windom, Craig Stevens, David Wayne, Howard Duff, Ida Lupino, Dean Stockwell, Anne Francis, Geraldine Brooks, Pat Harrington, Kip Niven, Robert Loggia, Ross Martin, Roddy McDowall, Stefanie Powers, Herb Edelman, Bert Convy, Peter Mark Richman, Beverly Garland--along with a whole horde of others. Ah, just the names make my mouth water for a decent mystery that didn't need T&A to cover up the holes in the plot!
The one guest star this episode didn't feature was that ultimate of 1970s mystery series guest stars, Bradford Dillman. Check out this guy's "Notable TV Guest Appearances" on the IMDb. And I'm sure there are some that are missing! Bradford Dillman was on everything. The only problem with him in a mystery guest star role was that if all you were interested in was "whodunnit" and not how the series detective got to that conclusion, you could switch channels the moment you saw his name. Bradford Dillman was the bad guy. Bradford Dillman was always the bad guy, no ifs, ands or buts. Roddy McDowall and Ross Martin and Peter Mark Richman all played lots of bad guys, but often enough the script would fool you and they'd be innocent. Dillman never was.
To complete the nostalgia, "To Find a King" was directed by one of my favorites of the 1970s "rep company," Lou Antonio. (His brother, Jim Antonio, was also a member of the rep.) He's now better known as a director, but his career in the 1970s included numerous guest star appearances on various shows including The Rookies and he starred in two television series, Makin' It and Dog and Cat (with Kim Basinger) and co-starred in The Snoop Sisters in what is my favorite Antonio role, the elderly sisters' ex-con chauffeur and bodyguard, Barney.
Watching Banacek just makes me long for all those Mystery Movie shows to come back somehow, especially Faraday and Company and Snoop Sisters. If Universal would like to release them to DVD, I'll be first in line to buy them, believe me!
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