SEGMENT: GINO AND HIS COUSIN TONY DELIA IN SILENT MOVIES 1926-1936
My Father Gino was born in 1900 in Bari, Italy. Gino and his cousin Tony moved from Italy to France and then later in years to Hollywood in 1926. Tony was an excellent artist with paintings. Tony painted most of the back ground scenes for movies in those years.
In 1936 my Father was working on a movie named "Captain January" with a dedication to Will Rogers who was not in the movie but was connected. My Father and his Cousin brought in a little girl to play a part in the movie. Her name was Shirley Temple, she was 8 years old. The Director was David Butler. Tony painted a beautiful portrait of Will Rogers. Gino arranged the Photo that included David Butler Director, Tony the Artist and Shirley Temple. The portrait was dedicated to my Father Gino for the times they had in France.
Gino was in several silent motion pictures. He was in both The Shiek and Son Of Shiek with Rudolph Valantino. Everyone liked Gino except Rudolph. Gino was getting more fan mail than Rudoph. For some reason Gino was not given anymore movie parts so he left and moved to San Francisco. He had some relatives and friends there including the City Attorney, Cabello. Gino was offered to create a Hollywood type motion picture company in San Francisco by owner of the Bank Of America at that time, Amadeo Pietro Giannini. He put up the money and Gino opened a Motion Picture Studio in downtown San Francisco and named it 'REX STUDIOS'.
The beginning started up nice but when talkies came into pictures the business started to fail. Giannini refused to put up any more funds into the businiess and they closed it down.
Gino then left for New York where his relatives lived. One relative was a doctor and had many friends. In those days she was very involved in politics and was behind nominating and helping Mayor Henry La Guardia get into office. All the Italians were behind him. The Mayor loved to read the funny papers in the morning on a New York radio station.
Gino opened up a dance studios in the area and also Produced Motion Pictures for Italians living in New York to send to their familes back in Italy.
The Orignal Castanets used in the dancing photo
PORTRAIT
REGARDING THE MOVIE CAPTAIN JANUARY WAS PAINTED BY TONY
DELIA DEDICATED TO GINO DEVITO FOR THE TIMES THEY HAD IN FRANCE
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