THE GROUNDBREAKERS – ITALIAN-AMERICAN VOCALISTS BEFORE ROCK AND ROLL OVERVIEW ESSENTIAL QUESTION How did the careers of Italian American vocalists in the first half of the 20th century reflect the experiences of Italian American immigrants and attitudes toward them in the wider American culture? OVERVIEW More than 3 million Italians immigrated to the United States in the early years of the 20th century, establishing the largest immigrant community of the period. Like many other immigrant groups, these new Americans – generally poor, sometimes illiterate – faced numerous challenges in assimilating into the larger society, from limited job opportunities to outright prejudice. Beginning in the 1930s, and to a greater degree in the 1940s and 1950s, a group of Italian-American male vocalists achieved great success as recording artists and performers. In this lesson, students will examine the careers of these artists and what they reveal about society’s attitudes toward the Italian- American community. “In Frank Sinatra’s voice,” argues Mark Rotella in his 2010 book, Amore: The Story of Italian American Song, “you can almost hear the suppression of decades of immigrant frustration and anger. This was the time when Italian Americans entered the mainstream of empowerment, and when they broke into popular culture.” Students will investigate what these singers, from Sinatra to Tony Bennett and Dean Martin, brought to popular song, and why their particular style of singing made such an impression on the American public. BOOK 2: TEENAGE REBELLION THE GROUNDBREAKERS – ITALIAN-AMERICAN VOCALISTS BEFORE ROCK AND ROLL OBJECTIVES Upon completion of this lesson, students will: 1. KNOW (KNOWLEDGE): 2. BE ABLE TO (SKILLS): • The general history of Italian immigration to the • Examine how the careers of particular artists United States in the late 19th and early 20th refl ect attitudes in the society from which they centuries emerged • The contributions of important Italian-American • Evaluate the extent to which the Italian roots male vocalists to American music in the fi rst half of these singers infl uenced their style of of the 20th century, including Frank Sinatra, Perry performance Como, Tony Bennett, and Dean Martin • Common Core: Students will closely examine • How the careers of these artists refl ected attitudes multiple sources of information, including toward Italian Americans in the wider culture texts, graphs, videos, and photographs, to make inferences and answer questions (CCSS Reading 1; CCSS Reading 7; CCSS Speaking and Listening 2) • Common Core: Students will draw evidence from these sources and discuss how the success of the early Italian-American vocalists refl ected the immigration experience of the time period (CCSS Writing 2; CCSS Writing 9) ACTIVITIES MOTIVATIONAL ACTIVITY: 1. Display this painting on the board and discuss: • Whom do you see in the picture? How would you describe them? For example, do they appear to be wealthy? What do they appear to be doing? • Where might they be going? • What is the mood of the painting? Do they look happy? • When do you think the painting was painted? BOOK 2: TEENAGE REBELLION THE GROUNDBREAKERS – ITALIAN-AMERICAN VOCALISTS BEFORE ROCK AND ROLL MOTIVATIONAL ACTIVITY: (CONTINUED) • Inform students that the painting is called Leaving Italy for a Better Life and was painted in the 1890s. How does knowing the title and origin of the picture change their interpretation of it? 2. Distribute Handout 1: Immigration from Italy, and discuss: • What trend is shown in the graph? What period saw the greatest wave of Italian-American immigration? • Approximately how many immigrants came to the United States from Italy between 1900 and 1909? • Why do you think so many immigrants came from Italy during this time period? (Answers will vary; make sure students understand that immigration was largely a function of poverty in Italy and the perception of the United States as a land of opportunity.) 3. Display the photograph of the “Little Italy” neighborhood in New York City around 1900, and discuss: • Why might many Italian immigrants have lived in large cities? What might they have been able to fi nd there that they were less likely to fi nd elsewhere? • Do the immigrants in the picture appear to be wealthy? What evidence does the picture offer as to what kinds of things they did for a living? • Why might immigrant groups have commonly settled together in communities such as “Little Italy”? 4. Display the cartoon from 1888, and discuss: • How does the cartoon depict Italian immigrants? • What does this cartoon suggest about the feelings of many Americans toward Italian immigrants in the late 1800s? • Based on what you have seen in the cartoon and in the other images, what challenges might there have been for Italian immigrants in gaining acceptance into American society during this period? BOOK 2: TEENAGE REBELLION THE GROUNDBREAKERS – ITALIAN-AMERICAN VOCALISTS BEFORE ROCK AND ROLL PROCEDURE: print markers. Students should respond to the questions posted at each station. 1. Explain to students that in this lesson In addition, they should be encouraged they will go on an audio-visual gallery to read what others have written and walk around the classroom to observe respond directly to them. images and view videos of Italian- American entertainers from the fi rst 5. After students have had suffi cient time half of the 20th century. After visiting to view all the stations and listen to the all the stations, students will be asked recordings, reconvene the class, and to hypothesize about how the lives and discuss: work of these entertainers refl ected the changing experiences of the immigrant • In what ways are the recordings similar? As a community. The entertainers are: group, do these vocalists have a distinctive sound? If so, what are its characteristics? Enrico Caruso (Videos: “O Solo Mio” and “Over There”) • Why do you think so many popular male vocalists were of Italian descent? Was it just a coincidence? Russ Columbo (Video: “You Call It Madness”) Or did they perhaps have an artistic sensibility that resonated with the public? Frank Sinatra (Video: “Five Minutes More”) Perry Como (Video: “Prisoner of Love”) • How might Enrico Caruso’s enormous success be different from that of the singers of Italian Tony Bennett (Video: “Because of You”) descent who came after him? Do you think his example might have encouraged Italian Americans Dean Martin (Video: “That’s Amore”) to view singing as a career path that was open to them? How might Caruso’s success have made it 2. The instructor will need a large poster easier for American society to embrace singers of board or sheet of chart paper for each Italian heritage? station in the gallery walk. Each of the handouts in this lesson should be printed • Why do you think some of these artists Americanized their names when they entered out and mounted in the center of a show business? Can you surmise why Caruso separate piece of poster board or chart didn’t? Compare Tony Bennett’s experience, the paper. Each poster board or chart paper son of a grocer, to Caruso’s, an Opera star. One should be displayed in a separate space changed his name, one didn’t. (It should be in the classroom, facilitating student noted that Opera is an art associated with Italy, and that in Opera, unlike Pop, an Italian name movement around the room during might register as a mark of authenticity.) Do you completion of the lesson. think artists today would be more or less likely to change their names in this way? 3. If equipment permits, set up a computer listening station below each poster, • How did being the children and grandchildren of allowing students to watch the appropriate immigrants affect these artists’ lives? videos as they move from station to • Based on where these singers were born and station. If this is not possible, play the raised, what can you surmise about Italian- videos for the class as a whole. American life in the United States in the fi rst half of the 20th century? Was it centered on one 4. As students move from station to station, particular city or region? they should write their reactions to the • How did television help some of these artists images, text, and recordings in the open succeed? space on the poster board with fi ne- BOOK 2: TEENAGE REBELLION THE GROUNDBREAKERS – ITALIAN-AMERICAN VOCALISTS BEFORE ROCK AND ROLL • Overall, does the success of these artists suggest that popular attitudes toward Italian Americans might have changed? By the early 1950s, were attitudes the same as they had been in the late 1800s? What specifi c evidence can you fi nd to support your answer? • Why might it be easier for members of immigrant or minority groups to succeed in entertainment (or sports) before breaking into other areas? Why, for example, might it have been easier for American society to accept Italian Americans as singers than as political leaders? (The instructor may wish to point out that there are currently two Italian-American Supreme Court justices, Antonin Scalia and Samuel Alito, noting that their appointments would have been highly unlikely in the 1940s and 1950s.) Can you identify other groups for which this has been true? Why is entertainment a vehicle through which immigrant and minority groups can gain acceptance in the larger culture? SUMMARY ACTIVITY: 1. Distribute Handout 2: Excerpt from Mark Rotella, Amore: The Story of Italian American Song (2010), or display the excerpt on the board. Ask for volunteers to read the quote aloud, alternating by paragraph. 2. Discuss: • According to Rotella, how was Italian-American life in the United States changing in the 1940s and 50s? • Rotella states, “In Frank Sinatra’s voice you can almost hear the suppression of decades of immigrant frustration and anger?” What do you think he means by this? See Frank Sinatra handout for more information on the artist.