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PLEASE NOTE - Before reading this 'Chapter 2' click on the fourth video below for accompanying music while reading this wonderful Memorial story and in respect for my two friends Joe and Gino......Nick
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CHAPTER 2
MEMORY LANE -- GINO CAMPAGNOLA - RIP
PRESIDENT PARAMOUNT - CANADA
From: Nick To: Vito
Sent: Fri, Apr 15, 2011 5:38 am
Vito.........you met Joe Campagnola when you helped me move to Staten Island in 1964 and we were all in the moving truck together.........Roseann and I were old neighbors in Staten Island back in the sixties and were putting together some of the celebrities we met thru the years and it sort of grew a life of its own.......If any one else in this group would like to add some of their "celebrity encounters" I for one would certainly like and enjoy hearing of them.............I thought all concerned would be interested in this article about Joe's brother Gino...................Nick
From: Roseann To: Nick
Sent: Tue, Apr 12, 2011 2:35 am
Nick, I am more and more impressed by the amount of celebrities that you have known. I am almost sure that John had mentioned Joe Campagnola. In fact I might have met him. Nick you seem to have always been in the right place at the right time to meet all these people. Ro
From: Nick To: Roseann
Sent: Monday, April 11, 2011 9:07 AM
Roseann ~ I probably should have sent this to you before all the others ~
When I started work at Met in 1955 I would meet a good friend whose name was Joe Campagnola ~ I first started working in the correspondence unit back around 1958 ~ One of the other workers was 'breaking chops' and Joe would come to the rescue ~ Thats when we became great friends that would last a life time [he passed away about 10 years ago] ~
When we moved to Staten Island he and several other friends would help me move in a rented truck, from Queens, NY to Staten Island where we would meet two other life time friends [you and John] ~
During my friendship with Joe I can remember him telling me about his brother Gino [1959 ] who worked on the mail desk at Paramount.......I can recall Joe telling me that he had tickets for the "Ben Hur" film thru his brother Gino and he and I were going to take the afternoon off to go see it in a local Manhattan theatre but for some reason or other we never got to go ~
Later on in years I can recall going with Joe after work to the Gulf + Western Paramount building opposite Central Park in Manhattan ~ I can recall being in Gino's office and looking out the window at Central Park and my stomach would feel queezee because of the height we were at ~ Later on in life I would help Joe and his wife find a home in Staten Island the same as you and John did for Liz and I ~
One of the many pleasurable parts of Gino's job was to go and sit in the "Audience of Celebrities" at the Academy Awards each year in California ~
During the course of our living in Staten Island the three of us [Gino, Joe and myself - 'The Last of The Mohicans'] would become interested in trap shooting [clay pigeon shooting with shot guns] and would go periodically to the only outdoor range in New York City that was located in Staten Island (around 1973) ~
I would sometimes meet my next door neighbor Joe Deliberti at the trap shoot who was a Police Officer with the NYPD in NYC ~ Joe was a marksman with many various weapons and he would also sometimes make his own bullets too ~ Joe met both of my friends at the Shot Gun Range ~
As I was not using my Shot Gun much any more I myself would turn it in to the 122 Pct when my license expired and when my job at that time would become a part of the Police Department under Mayor Rudy Giuliano's ruling around the late '90s ~
Gino would later become President of the Canadian Paramount Office, I believe in 1987 ~ The last time I would see Gino was at Joes wake about 10 years ago but was too broken up to go speak with him ~ I googled Gino's name several months ago to find that Gino passed away in November 2009 ~ At that time I had informed John of his passing ~
If you click the link below you will find Gino's many accomplishments at Paramount ~
Nick 4/11/2011
http://www.filmjournal.com/filmjournal/content_display/esearch/e3ia59bfc00cf09b10bd36caf5290d2025b
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azmusclecar on Feb 19, 2015 said:
Well Nick, this one really hit a home run for me. I watch Casablanca probably several times a month. I'm a big Humphrey Bogart fan.......my favorite is The Big Sleep. Then when I listened to the theme song from Dances with Wolves, and all the absolutely gorgeous images that accompanied the music, I imagined myself as one of the first pioneers going west to find a new life, a new home, a new adventure. Great job once again Nick. Oh and that Buick Riviera was icing in the cake.
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