Frank Palumbo (May 23, 1911 – February 12, 1983) was an American power broker,

political boss In politics, a boss is a person who controls a faction or local branch of a political party. They do not necessarily hold public office themselves; most historical bosses did not, at least during the times of their greatest influence. Numerous off ...

, entrepreneur and

racketeer Racketeering is a type of organized crime in which the perpetrators set up a coercive, fraudulent, extortionary, or otherwise illegal coordinated scheme or operation (a "racket") to repeatedly or consistently collect a profit. Originally and ...

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...

. He is best known as the owner of

Palumbo's Palumbo's was a popular 20th century restaurant with nightclub entertainment located near the Italian Market section of South Philadelphia, Palumbo's included a banquet hall and Nostalgia's Restaurant. The format basically was an adaption of ...

, an entertainment complex in

Philadelphia Zoo The Philadelphia Zoo, located in the Centennial District of Philadelphia on the west bank of the Schuylkill River, is the first true zoo in the United States. It was chartered by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania on March 21, 1859, but its openin ...

, helping build youth programs and funding parades. He has been called "a supporter of politicians, ordinary folk and animals." Palumbo expanded a boarding house his grandfather, Antonio Palumbo, had started in 1884 into an entertainment complex. Palumbo held significant unofficial political power throughout the city. In the 1940s and 1950s, Philadelphia was an important pop music center, with many bands and singers being made or broken in the city at Palumbo's clubs. Palumbo became well known for philanthropy throughout South Philadelphia. Disturbed by an article critical of the area, singer

Mario Lanza Mario Lanza (, ; born Alfredo Arnold Cocozza ; January 31, 1921 – October 7, 1959) was an American tenor and actor. He was a Hollywood film star popular in the late 1940s and the 1950s. Lanza began studying to be a professional singer at ...

penned a response which identified Palumbo as an unsung hero of the city. Lanza lauded Palumbo for taking thousands of orphans to the circus, arranging parades for visiting celebrities and buying animals for the zoo.

Personal life

He was born on May 23, 1911.Frank Palumbo in the U.S., Department of Veterans Affairs BIRLS Death File, 1850–2010; and Pennsylvania, Veteran Compensation Application Files, WWII, 1950–1966; and U.S., Social Security Death Index, 1935–2014 Palumbo was quiet and shy, often hiding in his office during major functions and banquets, only briefly emerging to meet with the guests. Palumbo's wife Vanda "Kippee" Bozzacco (1919–2003) was a former actress and, at Palumbo's side, became "one of Philadelphia's first ladies".

Night clubs

Palumbo owned and operated numerous Philadelphia night clubs: Nostalgia's Restaurant and the legendary Click Club and Ciro's, along with

, the Thirteen Club, the Hideaway, the S.A. Club and the 20th Century clubs all at 13th and Locust Streets, forming the heart of Philadelphia's nightclub district. By connecting all of the clubs through a series of doors, Palumbo operated all of them with a single hard to obtain

liquor license A liquor license (or liquor licence in most forms of Commonwealth English) is a governmentally issued permit to sell, manufacture, store, or otherwise use alcoholic beverages. Canada In Canada, liquor licences are issued by the legal authority ...

, possible only through his political connections at the state Liquor Control Board.Blavat, Jerry. You Only Rock Once: My Life in Music. Running Press, 2013. The Click Club featured the world's longest bar and a rotating stage large enough for two bands, so as to provide uninterrupted music. To promote the club's opening on

Labor Day Labor Day is a federal holiday in the United States celebrated on the first Monday in September to honor and recognize the American labor movement and the works and contributions of laborers to the development and achievements of the United St ...

, 1946, the "Frank Palumbo Award" was created for the most valuable Philadelphia baseball player, as voted by Philadelphia sports writers.

Schoolboy Rowe Lynwood Thomas "Schoolboy" Rowe (January 11, 1910 – January 8, 1961) was an American right-handed pitcher in Major League Baseball, primarily for the Detroit Tigers (1932–42) and Philadelphia Phillies (1943, 1946–49). He was a three-time A ...

was selected for the award and

Louis Prima Louis Leo Prima (December 7, 1910 – August 24, 1978) was an American singer, songwriter, bandleader, and trumpeter. While rooted in New Orleans jazz, swing music, and jump blues, Prima touched on various genres throughout his career: he forme ...

was engaged to play. Prima was also planned to perform national anthem at the Phillies game earlier that day to promote the opening. Due to union rules, he was not allowed to play at the game, instead singing and awarding the trophy to Rowe. A banner plane advertised Prima's appearance that evening to great effect. 38,000 people showed up for the opening, 3,000 more than the stadium seated.

Political influence

Palumbo's restaurant and clubs served as an unofficial "political nerve center in Philadelphia."''Larry Kane's Philadelphia'' by

Larry Kane Larry Kane (born October 21, 1942) is an American journalist, news anchor and author. Kane spent 36 years as a news anchor in Philadelphia, and is the only person to have anchored at all three Philadelphia owned and operated television stations ...

, 2000. Temple University Press, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. ."MEMOIR: Me and Frank"
''

Philadelphia Weekly ''Philadelphia Weekly'' (''PW'') is a website based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It was founded as a newspaper in 1971 as ''The Welcomat'', a sister publication to the ''South Philadelphia Press''. In 1995, the paper became ''Philadelphia Weekl ...

'', Sept. 2005 Though he never held elected office, Palumbo had unofficial power with South Philadelphia's Republican ward leaders and allegedly served as the mob's "political fixer". In the run up to U.S. entry into World War II and with growing numbers of

Italian Jews Italian Jews ( it, Ebrei Italiani, he, יהודים איטלקים ''Yehudim Italkim'') or Roman Jews ( it, Ebrei Romani, he, יהודים רומים ''Yehudim Romim'') can be used in a broad sense to mean all Jews living in or with roots in I ...

in South Philadelphia's immigrant population, Palumbo organized protests by Italian American associations against growing racial intolerance in Italy.Luconi, Stefano. From Paesani to White Ethnics: The Italian Experience in Philadelphia. SUNY Press, 2001.

Mob tie allegations

Palumbo was the subject of regular insinuation and speculation. An ''Inquirer Magazine'' article in 1975 suggested that his intense need for privacy and philanthropic zeal may have been used to cover an unexplained secret life of some kind. Unsubstantiated rumors of

Mafia "Mafia" is an informal term that is used to describe criminal organizations that bear a strong similarity to the original “Mafia”, the Sicilian Mafia and Italian Mafia. The central activity of such an organization would be the arbitration of d ...

connections were common.Frank Sinatra, A Thrown Fight, & The Rise of Pop Warner Football
by David G. Tomlin.

Kefauver Committee The United States Senate Special Committee to Investigate Crime in Interstate Commerce was a special committee of the United States Senate which existed from 1950 to 1951 and which investigated organized crime which crossed state borders in the U ...

hearings in 1950 connected Palumbo with mob

numbers game The numbers game, also known as the numbers racket, the Italian lottery, Mafia lottery or the daily number, is a form of illegal gambling or illegal lottery played mostly in poor and working class neighborhoods in the United States, wherein a be ...

s, with his nightclub identified as the headquarters for roughly fifty of the city's numbers banks.

Frank Sinatra and the fixed fight

Frank Sinatra Francis Albert Sinatra (; December 12, 1915 – May 14, 1998) was an American singer and actor. Nicknamed the "Honorific nicknames in popular music, Chairman of the Board" and later called "Ol' Blue Eyes", Sinatra was one of the most popular ...

was a long-time friend of Palumbo, frequently performing at his clubs. Palumbo was best man when Sinatra married

Ava Gardner Ava Lavinia Gardner (December 24, 1922 – January 25, 1990) was an American actress. She first signed a contract with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in 1941 and appeared mainly in small roles until she drew critics' attention in 1946 with her perform ...

. In 1947, Sinatra turned to him for help with his image when press reports tied Sinatra to the Mafia. Together, they promoted a youth football league to provide an activity for urban children and generate positive press for them both. Sinatra had been photographed in Cuba with top American mobsters at a mob wake, was widely accused of womanizing, and reportedly had assaulted a reporter. On 14 November 1947, Billy Fox threw a boxing match against Jake LaMotta at the request of the mob. LaMotta's manager,

Al Silvani Al Silvani (April 26, 1910 – January 10, 1996) was an American boxing trainer and actor. As one of the most sought-after trainers in the business, Silvani trained over twenty world champions, including Jake LaMotta, Henry Armstrong, Carmen Ba ...

, was Sinatra's former bodyguard and friend. Fox was co-managed by Palumbo and Frank "Blinky" Palermo, a mobster who ran Philadelphia's policy racket.Jeff Merron, ESPN.com. Page 2 �
"Reel Life: 'Raging Bull'"
Accessed 7 January 2008. As Sinatra and Palumbo were both threatened by the resulting investigation, they worked together to generate positive press coverage. Palumbo had been a long time supporter of the

Pop Warner Glenn Scobey Warner (April 5, 1871 – September 7, 1954), most commonly known as Pop Warner, was an American college football coach at various institutions who is responsible for several key aspects of the modern game. Included among his inn ...

Junior Football Conference. Through Palumbo's dealings a "Santa Claus Bowl" was arranged. Philadelphia's "Venango Midgets" were renamed "Frank Palumbo's Clickets". They took on the newly formed, and thus "undefeated", "Frank Sinatra's Cyclones" in a game heavily promoted by the ''

Philadelphia Daily News ''Philadelphia Daily News'' is a tabloid newspaper that serves Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The newspaper is owned by The Philadelphia Inquirer, LLC, which also owns Philadelphia's other major newspaper ''The Philadelphia Inquirer''. The ''Dail ...

''. The ''News'' cited a fictional nationwide bidding war for coverage with other newspapers, a planned (though likely impossible) appearance by Sinatra, alleged bids to host a planned 1948 bowl and the supposed support of

Milton Berle Milton Berle (born Mendel Berlinger; ; July 12, 1908 – March 27, 2002) was an American actor and comedian. His career as an entertainer spanned over 80 years, first in silent films and on stage as a child actor, then in radio, movies and tel ...

Al Jolson Al Jolson (born Eizer Yoelson; June 9, 1886 – October 23, 1950) was a Lithuanian-American Jews, Jewish singer, comedian, actor, and vaudevillian. He was one of the United States' most famous and highest-paid stars of the 1920s, and was self-bi ...

Bob Hope Leslie Townes "Bob" Hope (May 29, 1903 – July 27, 2003) was a British-American comedian, vaudevillian, actor, singer and dancer. With a career that spanned nearly 80 years, Hope appeared in more than 70 short and feature films, with 5 ...

Mickey Rooney Mickey Rooney (born Joseph Yule Jr.; other pseudonym Mickey Maguire; September 23, 1920 – April 6, 2014) was an American actor. In a career spanning nine decades, he appeared in more than 300 films and was among the last surviving stars of the ...

and

Jimmy Durante James Francis Durante ( , ; February 10, 1893 – January 29, 1980) was an American comedian, actor, singer, vaudevillian, and pianist. His distinctive gravelly speech, Lower East Side accent, comic language-butchery, jazz-influenced song ...

. After the game, Palumbo drew the names of two players for trips to the

Sugar Bowl The Sugar Bowl is an annual American college football bowl game played in New Orleans, Louisiana. Played annually since January 1, 1935, it is tied with the Orange Bowl and Sun Bowl as the second-oldest bowl games in the country, surpassed onl ...

, generating three more days of coverage as the ''News'' ran articles penned by one of the winners.

Angelo Bruno

A 1950–1 U.S. Senate investigation into organized crime found that Palumbo's CR Club was the meeting place for some 50 of the Philadelphia mob's

backers. Palermo escaped with a small fine for "impertinent ... sarcastic answers". Palumbo briefly evaded this subpoena before his lawyer Jake Kossmann got him cleared without charges. After the investigation, the Senate's file connecting Palumbo with Palermo disappeared. In addition to being Palumbo's lawyer, Kossman also worked for mob associate Frank "Blinky" Palermo, crime boss

Frank Costello Frank Costello (; born Francesco Castiglia; ; January 26, 1891 – February 18, 1973) was an Italian-American crime boss of the Luciano crime family. In 1957, Costello survived an assassination attempt ordered by Vito Genovese and carried out by ...

, mob-involved union leader Jimmy Hoffa and Philadelphia mob boss

Angelo Bruno Angelo Bruno (born Angelo Annaloro; ; (May 21, 1910 – March 21, 1980) was a Sicilian Americans, Sicilian-American mobster, notable for being boss of the Philadelphia crime family for two decades until his assassination. Bruno was known as "the ...

. Bruno assassination on 12 March 1980 outside his home in

South Philadelphia South Philadelphia, nicknamed South Philly, is the section of Philadelphia bounded by South Street to the north, the Delaware River to the east and south and the Schuylkill River to the west.wiretap Telephone tapping (also wire tapping or wiretapping in American English) is the monitoring of telephone and Internet-based conversations by a third party, often by covert means. The wire tap received its name because, historically, the monitorin ...

determined that Bruno's mob used the "secure" phone in Palumbo's for most of their dealings. A 1970s treasury agent who worked

undercover To go "undercover" (that is, to go on an undercover operation) is to avoid detection by the object of one's observation, and especially to disguise one's own identity (or use an assumed identity) for the purposes of gaining the trust of an indi ...

in the mob called Palumbo its "political fixer".

Famous starts helped

American Bandstand

A young Tony Mammarella landed his first job in broadcasting (at

WFIL WFIL (560 AM) is a radio station in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States, with a Christian radio format consisting of teaching and talk programs. Owned by Salem Media Group, studios and transmitter facilities are shared with co-owned WNTP ...

-AM) through Palumbo's connections. It was there that Mammarella met the young

Dick Clark Richard Wagstaff Clark (November 30, 1929April 18, 2012) was an American radio and television personality, television producer and film actor, as well as a cultural icon who remains best known for hosting ''American Bandstand'' from 1956 to 198 ...

, with whom he would soon produce

American Bandstand ''American Bandstand'', abbreviated ''AB'', is an American music-performance and dance television program that aired in various versions from 1952 to 1989, and was hosted from 1956 until its final season by Dick Clark, who also served as the pro ...

Joey Bishop

Palumbo gave a first break to

Joey Bishop Joseph Abraham Gottlieb (February 3, 1918 – October 17, 2007), known professionally as Joey Bishop, was an American entertainer who appeared on television as early as 1948 and eventually starred in his own weekly comedy series playing a talk/ ...

, later to team up with Sinatra as part of the

Rat Pack The Rat Pack was an informal group of entertainers, the second iteration of which ultimately made films and appeared together in Las Vegas casino venues. They originated in the late 1940s and early 1950s as a group of A-list show business frie ...

Tom Foglietta

Philadelphia City Councilman and later U.S.

ambassador An ambassador is an official envoy, especially a high-ranking diplomat who represents a state and is usually accredited to another sovereign state or to an international organization as the resident representative of their own government or sov ...

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...

Tom Foglietta Thomas Michael Foglietta (December 3, 1928 – November 13, 2004) was an American politician and diplomat. He represented Pennsylvania in the House of Representatives from 1981 to 1997, and later served as United States Ambassador to Italy from D ...

was godfather to Palumbo's daughter said,

His friends go down to the restaurant, and if they want to talk, or they need a favor, Frank's there. They might ask his advice on how to go about getting elected. Frank can help them by letting the committeemen and ward leaders know that he thinks a certain candidate is a good one.

Later years

Well beyond the Click Club's heyday, the restaurant remained popular. Sinatra visited the "black tie saloon" frequently and mayor

Frank Rizzo Francis Lazarro Rizzo (October 23, 1920 – July 16, 1991) was an American police officer and politician. He served as Philadelphia police commissioner from 1968 to 1971 and mayor of Philadelphia from 1972 to 1980. He was a member of the Democr ...

spent most evenings there during his rise to power, years in office and beyond. He died on February 12, 1983 in

Merion Station, Pennsylvania Merion Station, also known as Merion, is an unincorporated community in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania. It borders Philadelphia to its west and is one of the communities that make up the Philadelphia Main Line. Merion Station is part of Lower Me ...

Honors

Two different parks named "Palumbo Park", at 10th and Fitzwater and at 7th and Catherine Streets in South Philadelphia's Bella Vista neighborhood, are named in Palumbo's honor. The

Academy at Palumbo The Academy at Palumbo, formerly known as Bartlett School and Frank C. Palumbo Junior High School, is a historic school building located in the Bella Vista neighborhood of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It is part of the School District of Philadel ...

, 1122 Catharine Street, is also named for him.Durso, Fred Jr. 28 December 2006, ''

South Philly Review ''Philadelphia Weekly'' (''PW'') is a website based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It was founded as a newspaper in 1971 as ''The Welcomat'', a sister publication to the ''South Philadelphia Press''. In 1995, the paper became ''Philadelphia Weekl ...

'',
The '06 Mix
". Accessed 30 May 2008.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Palumbo, Frank 1983 deaths Italian-American history Italian-American culture in Philadelphia American people of Italian descent Numbers game Philadelphia crime family Culture of Philadelphia American restaurateurs American political bosses from Pennsylvania 1911 births 20th-century American businesspeople 20th-century American philanthropists