Italian-American theatre sprang to life in New York City shortly after waves of Italian immigrants poured into this country in the 1870's. The mass migration brought both the performers and the audiences necessary for theatrical entertainment. Hungry for recognition, support, and social exchange, the men and women from Italy formed amateur theatrical clubs as one way of satisfying emotional needs. By 1900, the community had produced the major forces that created the Italian-American theatre of the ensuing decades. In The Italian-American Immigrant Theatre of New York City, author Emelise Aleandri regenerates the excitement of the stage through striking photographs, programs, and other memorabilia generously loaned by families of the theatre community. She follows the fortunes of the earliest nineteenth-century companies and introduces those that arose in the twentieth-century. Within these pages are scenes of comedy, tragedy, vaudeville, and radio, featuring stars such as Mimi Cecchini, Guglielmo Ricciardi, Concetta Arcamone, Antonio Maiori, Rita Berti, Farfariello, and Olga Barbato.

Continuing Series on Italian-American Immigrants and NYC Theatre

Italian-American theatre sprang to life in New York City shortly after waves of Italian immigrants poured into this country in the 1870's. The mass migration brought both the performers and the audiences necessary for theatrical entertainment. Hungry for recognition, support, and social exchange, the men and women from Italy formed amateur theatrical clubs as one way of satisfying emotional needs. By 1900, the community had produced the major forces that created the Italian-American theatre of the ensuing decades. In The Italian-American Immigrant Theatre of New York City, author Emelise Aleandri regenerates the excitement of the stage through striking photographs, programs, and other memorabilia generously loaned by families of the theatre community. She follows the fortunes of the earliest nineteenth-century companies and introduces those that arose in the twentieth-century. Within these pages are scenes of comedy, tragedy, vaudeville, and radio, featuring stars such as Mimi Cecchini, Guglielmo Ricciardi, Concetta Arcamone, Antonio Maiori, Rita Berti, Farfariello, and Olga Barbato.

With 24 plates by the WPA Federal art project of the city of New York. Sponsored by the Guilds' committee for Federal writer's publications, inc.

Often separated from other immigrants because of their language, Italian immigrants to New York City in the 1880s formed communities apart from their new neighbors. They tended to think of themselves collectively as a small Italian colony, La Colonia, that made up part of the demographics of the city. In each of the five boroughs, Italians set up many colonie. Several of them dotted Manhattan in East Harlem, the West Village, what is now SoHo, and the downtown area of the Lower East Side, straddling Canal Street, which still identifies Manhattan's Little Italy, the best-known Italian neighborhood in America. Little Italy is made up of stunning photographs culled from numerous private and public collections. It begins with the first phase of immigrants to Lower Manhattan in the early 1800s, including political and religious refugees such as Lorenzo Da Ponte and Giuseppe Garibaldi. In the 1870s, more and more Italian immigrants settled in Little Italy. As the neighborhood grew up around the former Anthony and Orange Streets, New York's first "Little Italy" emerged. The tumultuous history of the Five Points area, the "Bloody Ole Sixth Ward," and many faces and memories from the Italian newspapers L'Eco d'Italia and Il Progresso Italo-Americano are also included in this long-awaited pictorial history.

An overview of generations of Italians in the Big Apple, weaving together numerous stories from different epochs and different backgrounds. “If you want to learn something about Italian creativity, come to New York. Here, you will find the pride of flying the Italian colors at the Fifth Avenue Columbus Day Parade, the American patriotism of those who perished at Ground Zero, the courage of firefighters and marines on the frontline of the war against terrorism, the babel of dialects at the Arthur Avenue market, portrayals of social change in the writings of Gay Talese, stories of successful business ventures on the TV shows of Maria Bartiromo and Charles Gasparino, political passion in the battles of Mario Cuomo and Rudy Giuliani, creative imagination in the works of Gaetano Pesce, Renzo Piano and Matteo Pericoli, and provocation in the attire of Lady Gaga . . . The Midtown top managers, who arrived in the past twenty years, operate in the XXI century, while on Fresh Pond Road in Ridgewood the panelle are still prepared according to the Sicilian recipes transmitted from one generation to the next.” —From the Introduction