Il Cenacolo Teams
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IL CENACOLO ITALIAN CULTURAL CLUB Founded in 1928 Regular Thursday Meetings, Noon to 2:00 P.M. San Francisco Italian Athletic Club 1630 Stockton Street (3rd floor), San Francisco, CA 94133 www.ilcenacolosf.org “Il Cenacolo is an organization that preserves, enhances and encourages all aspects of Italian arts, language and culture and recognizes the unique contribution of Italian heritage that is intertwined in the history and life of the San Francisco Bay Area.” FEBRUarY 2018 THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 1, 2018 Joe Carbone An Italian Library in North Beach: What a Novel Idea! THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 8, 2018 Mark Rezente Mark, a member of SFIAC, will talk about how the Grocery Outlet can get such amazing wines at such great prices. THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 15, 2018 Josh Jensen, Founder of Calera When many California winemakers felt that a good Pinot Noir could not be grown in California, Josh dreamed of proving them wrong. All he needed was limestone. Josh will share his insights of 42 years in the wine business. THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 22, 2018 Msgr. Harry G. Schlitt Odyssey of a Rock and Roll Priest. This month’s programs arranged by John Benson. FROM THE DESK OF THE PRESIDENT FEBRUARY 2018 Dear Cenacolisti, I hope that the post-holiday season is treating you well. As usual, this bulletin contains announcements that I hope you will find useful and informative. PEOPLE— Just a couple of reminders— —As before, I encourage you to join one of our committees. These committees are key to our operations and you can make a difference by joining one. Please take the time now to contact one of the team chairmen (they are listed after this message) and get involved! —We have now almost completed the process of contacting club members to ask about their willingness to serve on the Board of Directors or one of our committees starting July 1, 2018. To those of you who said “yes” to serving—many thanks! For those of you who have not yet responded, please do so as soon as you can. The Board’s nominating committee (David T. Giannini, Ken Sproul and Chuck Stagliano) will be meeting shortly to review all candidates and to make a recommendation to the Board of Directors sufficiently in time for our elections in June. Our Members in Print— Ken Sproul, one of our directors and currently the Secretary of the Board, had a featured article in Panorama, the Newsletter of the San Francisco Museum and Historical Society (SFMHS). Ken is also on the Board of the SFMHS. His article—“The Point of No Return is Behind Us!”—discusses the changes that have occurred since we San Francisco natives enjoyed the warmth, beauty and character of our city in the 1940s and 1950s. It’s a good read and can be accessed through SFMHS. EVENTS & PROGRAMS— Thanks to David Cobb for organizing the January programs. It was nice to note that all of the speakers at the four January luncheons were Cenacolisti. The programs were well received by all. The month was kicked off with a presentation by Dave and his son, Ross, on their CONTINUED NEXT PAGE FROM THE DESK OF THE PRESIDENT CONTINUED Pinot Noir winery—including tasting some of their great wines. Adding to the enjoyment of the month were presentations by Mike Greensill on the development of early jazz, by Alex Ku- gushev on the enormous La Sagrada cathedral in Barcelona tunder constructions since 1882, and by Keyvan Tabari on the Middle East. These were excellent and varied programs that provided enjoyment as well as camaraderie with fellow members. Well done! Please join us as often as you can! This bulletin highlights our February programs. Please support your Club by attending as many of the Thursday luncheons as possible. Your attendance is much appreciated. Just a reminder that you are invited to attend and observe a Board meeting. If you would like to come, please email me ([email protected]) and let me know your preferred date. We usually meet at 9:30am on the second Thursday of each month—immediately before the weekly luncheon meeting. Next meeting: February 8, 2018. FINALLY— I feel a resurgence of interest in our Club and I thank you for contributing. All of your board members—and several other Club members—are working diligently to continue the culture and heritage of Il Cenacolo. Together, we can and will achieve our goals of sustaining Il Cenacolo as a first-class organization. With best regards, Franz Cristiani President “May the sun shine on your window pane, always.” —Rocco Gulli IL CENACOLO TEAMS FINANCE/INVESTMENTS CHAIRMAN: Marv Pheffer ([email protected]) TEAM MEMBERS: John Benson, Ron Derenzi and David Giannini FUNDRAISING CHAIRMAN: Stuart Hume ([email protected]) TEAM MEMBERS: Michael Muscardini and John Shook HOLIDAY GALA CHAIRMAN: Ron Derenzi ([email protected]) TEAM MEMBERS: Eugene Lanzone and West Whittaker ITALIAN FILM FESTIVAL CHAIRMAN: Ken Sproul ([email protected]) TEAM MEMBER: Lido Cantarutti LUNCHEONS/SFIAC LIAISON CHAIRMAN: Eugene Lanzone ([email protected]) TEAM MEMBERS: Ken Sproul and Lou Sarto OPERA OUTING CHAIRMAN: Chuck Stagliano ([email protected]) TEAM MEMBERS: Ron Derenzi, Don Lewis and Richard Ruff PUBLIC RELATIONS, COMMUNITY OUTREACH AND MEMBERSHIP CHAIRMAN: Alex Kugushev ([email protected]) TEAM MEMBERS: David Cobb, Bill Dito and Mauro Zanetti STRATEGIC PLANNING/MARKETING CHAIRMAN: Richard DeBono ([email protected]) TEAM MEMBERS: Jim Boitano, Pietro Bonanno and Mike Prior WEBSITE REDESIGN CHAIRMAN: Doug Von Qualen ([email protected]) TEAM MEMBER: Chuck Stagliano RIDE SHARE FROM: CONTACT: SF—Pacific Heights and the Marina . Richard DeBono 415-730-2584 cell SF—Marina . David T. Giannini 415-921-4407 home 415-713-9219 cell SF—Jordan Park, Inner Richmond . Chuck Stagliano 415 531-6900 cell Marin County . David Cobb 707-888-2311 cell SFIAC PARKING (all within 1-4 blocks away) • Valet parking at Original Joe’s restaurant at the corner of Stockton and Union. You do not have to dine there to use the valet. The current charge is $20. • APM Parking at 721 Filbert. $10 with SFIAC validation. • North Beach Garage at 735 Vallejo (between Stockton and Powell). $4 per hour. • Vallejo Street Garage at 766 Vallejo. $4 per hour. • Green Street Parking at 626 Green (between Columbus and Powell). $10. • Powell Street Garage at 1636 Powell (between Union and Green). $12-$25. (Click on links for directions to SFIAC) CORRENTI DELLA STORIA FRANK CAPRA (1897-1991) This month’s essay is about an Italian-American director famous for movies of the 1930s and 1940s (although he directed films from the 1920s to 1960s). Every Christmas- time for the past several decades, one of his movies (It’s a Wonderful Life) has been shown on some television network, and has become a favorite seasonal classic whose TV viewership far outstrips its original viewership in theaters when it was released in 1946. The director we are discussing is Frank Capra who was born in Italy and raised in Los Angeles from the age of five. He was one of the great creative geniuses of Hollywood’s “Golden Age.” His films usually carry a message about the basic goodness of hu- man nature, showing the value of unselfishness and hard work as average men overcome great injustices. His wholesome, feel-good themes have led his movies to be described as naïve and unrealistic by some critics, but others hail them as major artistic expressions of American values. His own personal life mirrored the course he often depicted in his films, as he rose from poverty, struggled against the odds as an unknown talent in Hollywood, and finally ascended to the pinnacle of success. He was a true personification of the “American Dream” success story. FRANK CAPRA was born Francesco Rosario Capra on May 18, 1897 in Bisacquino, a village near Palermo, Sicily. He was the youngest of seven children of Salvatore Capra, a fruit grower, and the former Rosaria “Serah” Nicolosi. In 1903, when he was five, he immigrated to the United States with his family, who traveled in one of the steerage compartments of the steam- ship “Germania,” which was the cheapest way to book passage. For Capra, the journey, which took 13 days, remained in his mind for the rest of his life as one of his worst experiences: You’re all together—you have no privacy. You have a cot. Very few people have trunks or anything that takes up space. They have just what they can carry in their hands or in a bag. Nobody takes their clothes off. There’s no ventilation, and it stinks like hell. They’re all miserable. It’s the most degrad- ing place you could ever be. (McBride, p. 29). He lived with his family in Los Angeles’ East Side (now Chinatown) where his older brother Benjamin was already living (an “Italian Ghetto” as he often described the neighborhood of his early years). Here, he attended Casteler Elementary school and later Los Angeles’ CONTINUED NEXT PAGE CORRENTI DELLA STORIA CONTINUED Manual Arts High School. He earned money through a number of menial jobs, including selling newspapers, working as a janitor, and playing the banjo in a two-man musical combo at local brothels for a dollar a night. His real passion, though, was pursued during school hours as a participant in the theater program, doing back-stage work, especially lighting. His family would have preferred that Frank drop out of school and go to work, but he was determined to get an education as part of his plan to fulfill the American Dream. He graduated from high school in 1915 and later that same year entered the Throop College of Technology (later called the California Institute of Technology) to study chemical engineering.