I thought that was a cute commercial.
-----Original Message-----
From: ourplace-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:ourplace-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx]
On Behalf Of Marty Rimpau
Sent: Friday, February 05, 2016 6:16 AM
To: our place list <ourplace@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: [ourplace] mary fiumara, 88; mother from prince spaghetti
commercial
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, yo ung 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 .
.
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