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The second collection features interviews with 15 people who, in one way or another, helped shape North Beach as the center of Italian culture and tradition in San Francisco. These interviews were recorded in 1996 by author, historian, and long-time THD member Judith Robinson, and the series was sponsored by UC Berkeley’s Bancroft Library.

Individual Histories

Baldassari
Lillian
Lillian moved to San Francisco in 1934 from Texas, where her family ran a grocery store. She lived on Edith Street and helped her husband manage his business as a railroad parts salesman. She was active with local organizations, including Telegraph Hill Dwellers.
Benedetti
Dante
Born and raised in North Beach, Dante was a legendary restauranteur and athlete who went on to coach baseball and touch the lives of many San Francisco kids. Like his father before him, Dante owned the New Pisa restaurant, a longtime North Beach fixture.
Ciuffreda
Matteo
Born in Apulia, Matteo worked as a watchmaker and jeweler at the Matteucci Jewelers on Columbus Avenue for more than 50 years. He took pride in maintaining the iconic, 25-foot-high clock that stood outside the Matteucci store.
Farruggia
Frances
A daughter of Sicilian immigrants, Frances lived her entire life in North Beach. Her mother helped found San Francisco’s Madonna dell’Addolorata di S. Elia organization, and her family hosted elaborate St. Joseph’s Day feasts at their home every March.
Luchetti
Cora
Cora was born in 1900 and grew up in the Western Addition neighborhood, where her father ran a fruit store. Her father was killed by falling masonry during the 1906 earthquake, a tragedy Cora recalled vividly for the rest of her life. Her brother, Babe Pinelli, became a Major League Baseball player and umpire.
Patri
Stella
A survivor of the 1906 earthquake and fire, Stella worked as a designer at Gump’s, and later as a welder at Marinship during World War Two, before starting a career in bookbinding. She became a renowned bookbinder who mentored younger bookbinders and restored books damaged by the 1966 flood in Florence.
Perini
Jimo
Jimo was an acclaimed photographer who captured iconic images in San Francisco and Italy. A longtime North Beach resident, Jimo claimed to have been orphaned as a young boy and to have served with the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) during World War Two, making 346 combat jumps.
Pisciotta
Alfredo
Born in Calabria, Alfredo emigrated to San Francisco in 1933. He and his wife Anna settled in North Beach, where they raised four children. Alfredo worked at Hunters Point Naval Shipyard during World War Two, and later ran a well-known upholstery shop on Stockton Street.
San Filippo
Peter
Born in North Beach in 1931, Peter was a well-known neighborhood personality throughout his life. As a boy, he gained local celebrity status for his musical talents, playing the clappers on local radio shows, and he was a well-regarded baseball player and boxer as a young man.
Valentini
John
John was born in the Russian Hill neighborhood of San Francisco in 1940. In his youth, he was active with the Salesian Boys' Club, and later he managed a soccer team with the San Francisco Italian Athletic Club. He owned the famous A. Cavalli & Co. bookstore and print shop on Stockton Street, a cornerstone of the city's Italian heritage going back to the 1880s.

Many of these narrators were elderly when Judith Robinson interviewed them, and all had either lived or worked in or near North Beach for much of their lives. Some were born in Italy and emigrated to San Francisco seeking economic opportunity or the chance to marry a fellow Italian already living in the city. The stories they tell bring to life the sights, sounds and smells of Italian North Beach life in the early and middle decades of the past century – from neighborhood kids picnicking among the goats on a still-undeveloped Telegraph Hill and families in their Sunday best strolling through the Fort Mason tunnel to circuses that set up in Washington Square Park and the aroma of fermenting homemade wine that filled the air each fall after the grape harvest. The picture was not always rosy: several narrators mention, for example, the racist taunts that were commonly hurled when Chinese-Americans ventured into North Beach.

 

Of the 15 histories that comprise this collection, 10 are now fully transcribed and available online. The remaining histories are being added to this website as the transcriptions are completed.  

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