ITALIAN AMERICAN MARCHING CLUB
SPRING/SUMMER 2009 NEWSLETTER
39th ANNUAL ST. JOSEPH'S PARADE A GREAT SUCCESS!!!
St. Joseph held off the rain long enough for our 39th Annual St. Joseph's Parade to be a great success! The little bit of rain that did fall did not effect the turnout in the French Quarter. In fact, this year's parade crowd was more enthusiastic than normal! The parade crowd, both locals and tourists, witnessed over 700 great looking guys sharply dressed in tuxedos strut their stuff through the Quarter. The parade crowd eagerly joined our marchers in celebrating our St. Joseph's Parade. St. Joseph has promised to give us another great celebration day next year!
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PAY YOUR ANNUAL MEMBERSHIP DUES NOW AND SAVE
Please note that your 2009-2010 ANNUAL MEMBERSHIP DUES ARE NOW DUE! As you all are well aware, we make sure that our dues remain affordable to all who wish to
share in our celebration of St. Joseph. Our membership dues schedule is as follows:
$75.00 if paid on or before December 31, 2009; $85.00 if paid from January 1, 2010 through the day before Parade Day; and $100.00 if paid on Parade Day.
Remember, all those 15 years of age
and older must have their Membership Dues paid in full in order to participate in our St. Joseph's Parade. We have enclosed a self-addressed envelope to make it easy for you to send in your dues today. Please remit your check or money order made payable to "Italian American Marching Club" today. Now is the time to take advantage of the benefits of our organization. If you know
former members, invite them back. If you know potential new members, invite them to join. We have also enclosed an Application for Membership for your convenience. Please feel free to make copies of this
application for returning and/or new members.
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FRANKIE AVALON – OUR FOREVER YOUNG GRAND MARSHAL
Frankie Avalon served as the Grand Marshal of our 39th
Annual St. Joseph's Parade. Frankie can look back on a career that spans three generations of music, television, and motion pictures. Frankie has had 6 hit songs, including Venus. In 1995, he was inducted into The Rock & Roll
Hall Of Fame. Frankie's motion picture career has spanned some thirty films, including the starring role in the highly successful Beach Party film series, Grease, The Dark, The Alamo,
Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, and The Take. Frankie is currently one of the busiest nightclub performers around the world, especially in Las Vegas. He was a phenomenal Grand Marshal!
Joining Frankie this past year was one of our favorite Honorary Parade Marshals – Jimmy Darren. Over the past several years, Jimmy has served as our Grand Marshal and as an Honorary Parade Marshal. He grew up only a few houses
down from Frankie in Philadelphia. Jimmy was responsible for urging Frankie to move to California to start his Hollywood career, and he was instrumental in arranging for Frankie to serve as our Grand Marshal. Jimmy is a great guy
and a tremendous ambassador for our organization. We are very proud to have him as one of our favorite paisanos. Joining Frankie and Jimmy this past year was Vincent "Vinny" Pastore, our 2007 Grand Marshal and a
2008 Honorary Parade Marshal. Besides playing the character, Big Pussy Bompensero, on The Sopranos, Vinny has appeared in several movies including Revolver, Gotti, This Thing of Ours, Mickey Blue Eyes,
Goodfellas, Mafia, The Jerky Boys, Made, Two Family House, and Hurricane. Vinny has also made television appearances on Witness to the Mob, Law & Order, Americas Most Wanted
, and Vegas. Vinny and his friend, Katherine Mesa, were a big part of our Pasta Party, Honoree Dinner, and Post-Parade Gala. David Greco, the owner and operator of Mike's Deli, The Original Arthur Ave. Italian
Deli, in the Bronx in the heart of Little Italy in New York City, again proved to be a great friend of our organization. David made sure that everyone around him had a great time – all of the time. He prepared over
400 pounds of pasta con le sarde for our Pasta Party. Do yourself a big favor and visit the Mike's Deli website at This year, David again brought Bobby Lonero some help. Francesco Castiglione has joined us from New York for the past several
years. Francesco was born and raised in Calabria, Italy. Francesco studied at The Conservatory in Italy. He is a classical pianist and a seasoned accordion player. Francesco and his friend, Janine Tedesco,
entertained us with their beautiful singing during the Pasty Party and the Honoree Dinner. They then sang into the early morning hours at our Post-Parade Gala. Last, but definitely not least, we
also wish to thank our Honorary Parade Marshal, Lou Cordileone, for joining us again this past year. As usual, Lou brought his crew of "interesting" individuals to participate in our celebration. We look forward to Frankie,
Jimmy, Vinny, Katherine, David, Francesco, Janine, and Lou returning to participate in our parade for many years to come.
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PRE-PARADE PARTY
Under the direction of Board Member Marc Gilberti, our Pre-Parade Party was a great warm-up to our parade. This year's party featured excellent food and drinks courtesy of Elmwood Fitness Center, Rouses Supermarkets, Mike's Deli, Crescent City Brewhouse, Domino's Pizza, New Orleans' Original Daiquiris, Crescent Crown Distributors, Coke Products, Franky & Johnny's Restaurant, Zeke's Restaurant and our other fine sponsors.
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POST-PARADE GALA
Board Member Joe Cannizzaro did another fantastic job organizing and overseeing our Gala this year at the Hilton Hotel. As usual, the Hilton Hotel did a spectacular job. Our Caesar, Dr. William St. John LaCorte, completed his reign over our 2009 parade. Our beautiful Queen, Victoria Ann Gilberti, and our Maids were formally presented to a packed house. We thank Angelo Brocato Italian Desserts and Perrone and Sons for providing us with yet more delicious food to keep us going into the early morning hours.
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HELP US REACH OUR PAISANOS
We are constantly updating our membership's contact information. We greatly need your assistance
in notifying club members of our organization's upcoming events and in providing us with the current contact information for members who have relocated. There are several ways that you can advise us of the current contact information for
our members. First, you can complete the enclosed Application for Membership and return it to us. Second, you can also contact us through our websites –
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GET THE WORD OUT ABOUT YOUR BUSINESS
As you will note, our Business Card Directory is growing. You too can advertise your business in all of our 2009-2010 parade season newsletters for only $100.00 total. We plan to mail six to seven newsletters this season to over 700 members. We will also post our Business Card Directory on our official websites for the entire parade season. This is a tremendous opportunity for you to show your pride in your heritage and to get the word out about your business! For more information concerning our Business Card Directory, please contact George Cortello at 891-8573 or 831-2458.
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2009 FALL PICNIC
Our annual IAMC Fall Picnic is fast approaching. It's yet another great opportunity to relax and enjoy a day with your paisanos! The picnic is free
to all members in good standing (2009-2010 dues paid and 2009-2010 membership card received). If you are not in good standing for 2009-2010, what are you waiting for? We are in the process of finalizing the date and location of our
Fall Picnic. All members are encouraged to bring their wives, girlfriends, children, grandchildren, etc. This is a family event! We will have music, our annual Bocce Ball Tournament, and our famous
Meatball Eating Contest. For football fans, we will have a television set up to watch the Saints. There will also be a Space Walk and games for the children. If that's not enough, there will be free
food, soft drinks, bottled water, beer, daiquiris, and ice cream. Of course, you can bring your favorite picnic food for your group. We will have more information regarding the Fall Picnic in our next newsletter.
There's really no reason not to make this year's picnic.
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IAMC WEBSITES
Please visit our websites at www.italianamericanmarchingclub.org, www.italianamericanmarchingclub.com, or www.italianclub.org. You can add these websites to your Favorites to make sure you have access to our organization's history, benefits of membership, photographs, recent newsletters, and contact information. There is even an application which can be printed so your friends can easily join our organization.
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Italian American Marching Club
All Rights Reserved
Order from "Mike's Deli - The Original Arthur Ave. Italian Deli"