And Western Pennsylvania (Born in Windber)
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SlUOl ntKt BY CURT MINER THE OF P*s a compulsive collector of pop culture trivia, I track Madonna says that her—visits as a child to her father's famous people whose lives—have intersected with Pittsburgh family in West Aliquippa— an "Italian ghetto-like neigh- and Western Pennsylvania not just the Gene Kellys, Andy borhood," she told Time were sometimes as much work as Warhols, and Michael Keatons, but the others, too, like Pat pleasure. In her Rolling Stone essay last year on the Buchanan (mother from Washington County), Alan Freed "meaning of summer," she recalled toiling around her grand- (born in Windber) and Charles Bronson (raised in Erhren- parents' house and in her father's vegetable garden. feld, near Johnstown). The story of how Aliquippa figured into Madonna's gen- Recently, my cravings led me inside a gossipy ealogy, based on Andersen and a few scant historical unauthorized 1989 biography by Christopher Anderson, sources, goes something likethis: Sometime around 1919, where Idiscovered the mother of them all: Madonna (Louise paternal grandparents Gaetano and Michelina Ciccone left Veronica Ciccone). Seems the pop diva spent a lot of her the village of Pacentro in the Abruzzi of central Italy for the childhood in Aliquippa. Looking deeper, I found a 1985 United States. By 1925, according to a city directory, the interview with her in Time. Her father, she said, grew up Ciccones had taken up residence in Aliquippa at 420 "right outside of Pittsburgh" and she visited her grand- Allegheny Avenue, a stone's throw from St. Joseph's Roman parents there "all the time." Catholic Church, and a short walk to the sprawling Jones As most of her fans already know, Madonna was born and Laughlin steel works. The city directory lists Gaetano as and raised in suburban Detroit. What they probably don't a "wire worker." know is that the Beaver County steel town was a kind of As we all know, her family's story was repeated second home. Her mother's death at an early age solidified hundreds of thousands of times, in dozens of towns across Madonna's paternal bond and virtually assured that the region between 1880 and 1920. In 1930, over 4,200 extended family and all that comes with it—the reunions, Italian immigrants and their children were living in the weddings, the holiday visits — would revolve around Aliquippa, most clustered together in what became known Aliquippa and the Ciccone clan. as West Aliquippa. More than likely, the Ciccones' decision 4 WESTERN PENNSYLVANIA HISTORY ISPRING 1999 ILLUSTRATIONSBY WALL-TO-WALL STUDIOS to settle there rather than, say, Brooklyn, was determined by Rome reporter tracked down a distant aunt, who scoffed that word of mouth and Old World regional ties: the vast majority "the girl is a singer, just a singer. In my time, we didn't of Aliquippa's Italian community hailed from the Abruzzi, behave like that." many from the same villages. By 1925, there were in fact If nothing else, Madonna's Aliquippa side of the three Ciccone households on Allegheny Avenue, including, family — and the faith that became her primary I'd bet, the Ciccone who had sent word to Madonna's inheritance — gave the budding singer/dancer/artiste grandfather of work in the mills. something to rebel against. In Andersen's account, Gaetano and Michelina raised a family that Grandma Ciccone emerges as a vaguely repressive included six sons. According to Andersen, traditionalist who, intent to ensure the youngest possessed an ambition Madonna's virginity, brandished that drove him beyond the Little rosaries and the occasional Italy of Aliquippa and a job at crucifix. But being Italian in the J & L. While undoubtedly Aliquippa had another dimen- conversant in his parents' sion. Did her grandfather, tongue, Madonna's father, who died in 1973, live like most children of long enough to tell his first-generation immi- Detroit granddaughter grants, preferred Eng- stories about the lish and the more thoroughly modern American-sounding impulse that drove version of his given him from Pacentro name. "Tony" (Silvio) to Aliquippa, or worked his way about the trials and through college and, tribulations of being with degree in hand, a foreigner in a town extricated himself from of "Johnny Bulls?" Aliquippa by landing a This was 1920s Amer- job in Detroit's expanding ica, remember. Had he post-war auto industry. been among those forced Soon afterward, he to bribe the mill foreman married a woman of French >v for a hot and dirty job on the Canadian ancestry named floor of the blast furnace? Madonna Forten, who gave birth I was curious to know just in 1958 to their first daughter, on how much of this working-class whom the couple bestowed the mother's immigrant history Madonna absorbed on unequivocally Catholic first name. The rest, as those visits back to Aliquippa. Unfortunately, as they say, is herstory. I began working my way through nearly a half-column of To someone growing up in Detroit's suburbs, Aliquippa Ciccones in the Aliquippa phone book, it became apparent must have been a distant place, but it surely shaped that family lore would not be forthcoming. Those relations Madonna's sense of being "ethnic." Despite rarely using her who listened long enough to hear me out uniformly refused last name, the Material Girl does not shy away from her comment. The owner of Loretta's Beauty Salon confirmed heritage. On a 1987 world tour that took her near Pacentro, that she was indeed the megastar's first cousin, but she publicly proclaimed (reportedly in her grandparents' provided nothing more (including a last name). "You're native tongue): "I'm proud to be Italian." Most Italians not going to get anyone around here to talk to you," welcomed the association, though not all; an enterprising Loretta advised. 5 IOSPHERE The wall of silence was discouraging but under- Had Silvio's decision to attend college sparked a conflict standable in an age when obsessed fans and paparazzi pick in the Ciccone household among siblings who simul- through garbage for slivers of celebrity. taneously wished for their kid brother's success while Faced with a dearth of facts, I was left to imagine resenting his shot at upward mobility? (Like an extraor- Madonna's incidental contact with the coarsely ethnic world dinary number of steelworkers' sons, Madonna's father of West Aliquippa. The summers spent at her grandparents' majored in engineering.) house are a case in point. For Madonna, the chores were an Madonna, publicly, only recalls his ambition and desire exercise in pure tedium —at best, evidence of the family's to leave Aliquippa. "It's not that he was ashamed, really," obstinate blue-collar work ethic (which many observers she told Time, "but he believe informs her wanted to be better... I own lusty appetite for think he wanted us to have rehearsing). But for a better life than he did her grandparents, when he was growing up." tending to a backyard Biographer Andersen in- garden likely provided sists Silvio did not something more, in- abandon his parents' cluding among other faith, however. Every day things an emotional before school, Madonna barrier against canned was marched off with the or flash-frozen veggies rest of the family to or other things modern. Mass. To the young liber- There's also a good tine, such rigid devotion chance that on one of to what she called an her visits, she watched "extremely sexist" re- her grandfather make ligion seemed oppres- homemade wine or sive; to her father, it parade through West may have been a way to Aliquippa one August compensate for the on the traditional Ital- identity he had left be- ian feast-day. (The San hind in West Aliquippa. Rocco Festival had been Finally, I wondered carried over from the how the Aliquippa Old Country by immi- paesani reacted to Ma- grants from Patrica, in donna's growing fame, Abruzzi; today, it's as particularly the fla- much a homecoming grant renunciation of sexual modesty that celebration for expatriated sons and daughters of Italian went along with her 1980s "Boy Toy" persona. Aliquippa as it is a religious feast day.) When the first wave of Madonna fever gripped the And what about her own father's decision to pursue a nation in 1985, uncles Guy and Peter Ciccone seemed college degree? Many immigrant parents expressed mixed oblivious to the blasphemous spectacle of stiletto heels, feelings about education, for it was a potentially dangerous fishnet stockings, and rosary beads she was set to showcase source —of cosmopolitan ideas that threatened tradition and at the Civic Arena. (Her writhing stage antics proved mild family values known to be particularly strong among compared to the condemnations from the Catholic Church Italian immigrants. At the same time, few steelworkers that followed the release of her "Like a Prayer" video in wished for their sons the same fate that had befallen them. 1989.) Speaking to a reporter for the Beaver County Times, 6 WESTERN PENNSYLVANIA HISTORY | SPRING 1999 ! i 4 the uncles had only good things to say about their pretty young niece and the V flair for dancing she exhibited at »< family weddings and get-togethers. Unable to produce the home video stills for you here, we are left to imagine how the teenaged Madonna -I might have slithered to the chicken the tarantella the local M dance or at fire hall. 4 When Madonna's fame and infamy reached its apex in the late 1980s, the town of Pacentro con- i sidered erecting a statue to her, -r hoping as much to attract tourists as 4 to bestow honorary citizenship on its "most famous descendent." Al- though Aliquippa's claim is just as w strong, it—has no comparable >, movement no historical markers dedicated to the mill that her father / studiously avoided, or the family home she visited as a child, or the hall where she danced for her relations.