Mary Fiumara, 88; mother from Prince Spaghetti commercial . Her call,
two words, turned Mary Fiumara into an icon of the North End. "Anthony!
Anthony! she shouted from a window on Powers Court in a classic 1969 TV
ad spot, prompting the youth to race home for a hearty dinner of Prince
Pasta. Mrs. Fiumara , who had lived in that Italian enclave for
three-quarters of a century, died Tuesday. She was 88. Anthony
Martignetti, who at the age of 12 was the youth in the "Wednesday is
Prince Spaghetti day" commercial, recalled Mrs. Fiumara as "a legend"
of the neighborhood, even before she captured the hearts of TV viewers.
"She was like my second mother. She was always looking out for me, and
anytime I saw her on the streets she said, 'Hi, Anthony, how are you
doing? ,'" he said. The ad captured a slice of a sepia-tinged era for
the North End, which, like many Boston neighborhoods, has attracted
many single, young residents in the last decade. "The '60s and '70s
were the last gasp of the North End families," Anthony V. Riccio, the
author of "Recollections of the North End," told The Boston Globe in
2009, on the 40th anniversary of the advertisement. "There was some
truth to that commercial at that time; it was the typical Italian
family situation. But things change. Now that commercial has gone from
being a stereotype to something that's quaint, something that you can
look back on that no longer exists. Mrs. Fiumara said she was cast
"because they were looking for a woman with dark hair. "I used to do
the same thing with my two boys. I'd hang out the window and call them
home for dinner," she said in 2009. "But you don't see that anymore.
Martignetti, who is still welcomed by such calls from others when he
walks the streets of the North End , said Mrs. Fiumara was crucial to
the success of the commercial. "Everybody I speak to, they say they
remember the lady out the window. There wouldn't be an Anthony without
that voice," he said. Mrs. Fiumara leaves two sons, John, of West
Roxbury and Richard of Saugus; a brother, Pasquale Fronduto, of Quincy;
and three grandchildren. A funeral Mass will be said at 10 a.m.
Saturday at Sacred Heart Church in Boston. Watch: The Prince pasta ad
Steve Annear can be reached at steve.annear@xxxxxxxxx . Follow him on
Twitter @steveannear . .
