Since 2002, the Library of Congress selects sound recordings that “are culturally, historically, or aesthetically important, and/or inform or reflect life in the United States.” For the second year I have nominated the two-sided 1927 Italian immigrant disc “Protesta per Sacco e Vanzetti” by Compagnia Columbia on Side A and “Sacco e Vanzetti” by /Raoul Romito on Side B (Columbia,

14288-F). My nomination follows below. Feel free to use it you are so inclined to nominate this recording. Here is the form to nominate a recording.

 

 

 

 

The 1921 guilty verdicts and death sentences of Italian immigrant anarchists Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti set off international condemnation with demonstrations staged in Buenos Aires, London, Mexico City, Paris, and elsewhere. That the Italian immigrant community was intensely affected by this political cause célèbre is evident in the numerous recordings addressing the topic. In 1927, the year the court appeals failed and the execution date was set, four records were made in the United States by Italian immigrant performers, stars of the immigrant stage and recording scene:

 

Giuseppe Milano, “A Morte e Sacco e Vanzetti” / F. De Renzis, "I martiri d'un ideale" [spoken word] (Ideal Record, 5002-A)

Alfredo Bascetta, “Lacreme ‘e cundannate” (Okeh, W81060)

Alfredo Bascetta, “Lettera a Sacco (P’o figlio suoio)” (Okeh, 9332)

Compagnia Columbia, “Protesta per Sacco e Vanzetti”/Raoul Romito, “Sacco e Vanzetti” (Columbia, 14288-F)

 

These Italian-language, immigrant recordings are key sound documents of the Italian immigrant opposition to the arrest, trial, sentencing, and executions of Sacco and Vanzetti.

 

The two-sided disc from Columbia (14288-F) with the Compagnia Columbia’s “Protesta per Sacco e Vanzetti” on Side A and Raoul Romito’s “Sacco e Vanzetti” on Side B is a significant recording in U.S. history. “Protesta per Sacco e Vanzetti” is a spoken-word recording with an ensemble enacting a rally in support of Sacco and Vanzetti. The recording features the accented Italian voices (e.g., Neapolitan, Sicilian) of performers representing people from different regions of Italy united in protest. 

 

 

The composer of this piece is Frank Amodio, who was an influential lyricist, composer, and publisher of Italian (primarily Neapolitan)-language recordings. Topical songs were one of his trademarks; he composed songs about Umberto Nobile’s expedition to the North Pole and the death of Rudolph Valentino, among others, as well as comic routines written for such greats of the Italian immigrant scene as Giuseppe De Laurentiis.

 

This is a translation of the recording:

 

A: Hey, what’s this crowd doing here?

B: How can you not know? It’s an assembly for Sacco and Vanzetti.

A: Oh, those poor guys who have been condemned to death?

B: Yeah. But now we’re trying to save them.

A: But those two, people told me; I know they’re guilty of murder!

B: And you believe it! They say they didn’t even steal anything.

A: Not even the robbery?

C: Come on; enough! Stop saying dumb stuff. Those two poor guys haven’t done anything wrong.

A: Oh, well. What do I know, for heaven’s sake? They told me what they’re accused of and I am just repeating it.

D: Well, then why are they condemned to die?

C: Oh, my friend. Who knows how many innocent men have been condemned like them?!

A: Poor fellows!

B: But, I mean, is there nothing one can do to save them?

C: It’s for them that there are all these demonstrations and protests.

A: Listen, it’s really a sin to send fathers with families to death for no reason!

B: Oh, sure!

A: Oh, we must hope for the grace of the Madonna.

C: Forget the Madonna! We must be the ones to fight and save them. Even more because they are Italians like us.

B: Oh, come on. It has nothing to do with who is Italian or American; when someone is innocent we should help them always.

A: You’re right!

B: Hey, shut up! Shut up! They’re starting to talk.

A: Quiet!

E: Friends, you already know what has brought us together here, and I am happy to see in this solemn moment a crowd made up not just of Italians but of people of all nationalities: Italians, Americans, Jews, English, Japonese. At this fatal hour we have come together to form a single race: the human race! With no differences based on age, on class, or on party.

VOICE: Bravo!

E: And we are here to support a holy cause, to save to of our brothers who because of a judicial error are condemned to die in the electric chair. We must protest energetically against this unjust condemnation. Yes, unjust! Because we all know that at the moment of the tragedy the two poor condemned men were far from the scene of the crime. I remember now the last question that the judge asked the two men: “Don’t you have anything to say after having been sentenced to the electric chair?” And the answer was, “Yes, we must say that we are innocent!” And they are innocent! And now, gentlemen, raise your voices in protest. If Sacco and Vanzetti go to their deaths, what will the law be committing?

Crowd: An injustice!

E: And what are the condemned men?

Crowd: They are innocent?

E: What are Sacco and Vanzetti waiting for?

Crowd: For a pardon!

 

Antonio Sciotti lists the members of the Compagnia Columbia as being Frank Amodio, Paolo Dones, Aristide Sigismondi, Giuseppe De Laurentiis, M. Rapanaro, Laura Colombo and probably also Gilda Mignonette.

The tenor Raoul Romito (1882-1952) sings “Sacco e Vanzetti” on Side B. Romito was born in Livorno (Tuscany) and was said to be working as a fisherman in Naples where Henry Russell, managing director of the Boston Opera Company, discovered him. He emigrated to the United States in 1912 and made his debut as Turiddu in the 1912 Boston statging of 'Cavalleria Rusticana.' Two years later he became an American citizen. Beginning in 1917 he had an extensive recording career with the major U.S. labels. In addition to recording "Sacco e Vanzetti" Romito also paid tribute in 1919 to anarchist Sante Geronimo Caserio who assassinated the President of Fance in 1894. While these two recordings may suggest that Romito had left-leaning sympathies, it should be noted that he also recorded "Inno a Mussolini" and "Inno a fascisti" in 1922 or 1923 for Columbia.  

While little is known about lyrist Renzo Vampo and composer F. Pensiero it is curious that they also composed Giuseppe Milano's recording "A morte 'e Sacco e Vanzetti" for Ideal Record.

 

This is a translation of the recording:

 

 

 

 

 

 

This two-sided U.S. recording offers sonic insights into how Italian immigrants thought, felt, and dealt with the political persecution and pending deaths of two immigrant anarchists and the ways that commercial recordings contributed to the creation and maintenance of an acoustic community.