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Guido Salmaggi Photo Gallery |
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By Lee Cataluna
Advertiser Columnist
This morning, Guido Salmaggi will sing "The Star-Spangled Banner" for the last time, and he's not very happy about it.
Salmaggi has sung the national anthem at countless baseball games, military ceremonies and community events. For as long as anyone can remember, his voice has open the annual Fourth of July Walter J. Macfarlane Memorial Regatta, hosted by the Outrigger Canoe Club. At 86, he thinks he might be pushing it.
"Now look," he says, "I've been singing it since 1937. I first sang "The Star-Spangled Banner" for the Brooklyn Dodgers, which are now the Los Angeles Dodgers, at the famous Ebbets Field, which is no longer there. My wife thinks I'm a nut for singing at my age. I tell her they keep calling me, so if they're still calling, I must not be that bad. But to make her happy, I'll stop."
Gregory Yamamoto • The Honolulu Advertiser
As a kid growing up on Long Island, Salmaggi dreamed that his voice and his looks would take him far. They did, just not to the places he imagined. He wanted to be an opera singer and a movie star. World War II got in the way.
Guido Salmaggi says he will sing "The Star-Spangled Banner" for the last time today. The 86-year-old tenor has been performing his opera-style rendition since 1937.
His parents were born in Italy. His mother was a teacher, his father an impresario who had his own opera company. Salmaggi dropped out of high school and studied opera, making his professional debut in New York at age 21 playing the lead tenor role of Alfredo in "La Traviata."
Then came the draft, which brought his blossoming opera career to a screeching halt. Salmaggi and all six of his brothers were drafted. Salmaggi went into the Army in June of 1941. "They told me I'd be in for a year," he says. Instead, it was 4 1/2 years.
But when he lost opera, he found Hawai'i.
Salmaggi was assigned to the Army Special Service entertainment section for the Pacific stationed on the grounds of the University of Hawai'i. He did USO shows and toured with Bob Hope when he came to town.
"I sang for Nimitz, MacArthur, and Richardson. I used to sing operatic style and they liked that."
After his years in the Army, Salmaggi tried to revive his opera career. He said his voice had to be retrained after having to "scream out in fields" at makeshift morale concerts all across the Pacific where there were no sound systems.
In the fall of 1947, after his tour of duty, Salmaggi performed in "La Traviata" at the Brooklyn Academy of Music Opera House. Adm. Chester W. Nimitz came to see Salmaggi perform. "He flew all the way from Oakland, California, to hear his favorite tenor sing," Salmaggi says.
Salmaggi likes to drop the names of all the famous people he has performed for, but when he sings "The Star-Spangled Banner," it's not those big shots he's thinking about.
"What goes through my mind is when I used to entertain the soldier boys. I used to sing in the hospital wards for these boys who were all banged up. During the holidays, I used to sing 'White Christmas,' and all the boys would cry. Finally, a nurse asked me to sing something else because it made them too sad."
Throughout the years, Salmaggi has kept a home in Hawai'i, though he has also lived in New York and Florida. His life in the Islands has had many colorful chapters: He once had his own radio show on KGMB; he was honorary vice consul of Italy for Hawai'i for 40 years; he sang at the old Honolulu Stadium to open baseball games; he campaigned for Frank Fasi and later served as Mayor Fasi's director of city auditoriums, though the two later had a falling-out; and for 12 years, he played The Boss, a mafioso character at the Hyatt Waikiki's restaurant-disco called Spats.
And he sang the "The Star-Spangled Banner" whenever he was asked.
Photo courtesy of Guido Salmaggi
Guido Salmaggi will be giving his last performance at 8:15 this morning on Waikiki Beach in front of the Moana Surfrider hotel for the Macfarlane Regatta. For the first time in his life, Salmaggi says he is nervous.
Tenor Guido Salmaggi, left, hung out with baseball legend Joe DiMaggio at an Army club house at the University of Hawai'i during World War II. Salmaggi performed in morale concerts across the Pacific.
"I pray to God that my voice comes out the way I want. Before I go to the beach, I'm going to the church. It's right across the street."
Mostly, he wants it to be a strong performance. He got a standing ovation singing at a New York Yankees baseball game a few months ago, so that's what he's aiming for.
"I'd like to go out in a good style. I know a lot of opera singers who keep singing opera past their time and they're terrible. You sit in that audience and you wonder if they're going to make it."
His wife, Maria, is more worried than he is, though. "She's frightened that I might make a fool of myself, and you can't blame her for that. She's frightened that I might be hurt."
Salmaggi is more focused on the pain of not singing anymore.
"Well, I'm going to miss the people making a fuss over me. I'll admit that. It's not easy to get old. I hate to get old."
To soften the blow, he's throwing in a couple of exceptions to his retirement. Like George W. Bush.
"Here's the thing: I've sang for 10 presidents starting from Roosevelt up until the first Bush. Somehow I missed Clinton, but I'm not too sorry about that. I sang for Bush the father and the Bush brother, but if I get a call from this president, I'll sing again."
To that list, he adds the UH baseball team ("Oh, I'd come out of retirement for the Rainbows") and the Macfarlane Regatta next year. "They might ask me again. They don't believe I'm really quitting."
"And if the war happened again and they would take a guy like me, I'd do it again if I could be of service. I'd be happy to do it."
Lee Cataluna's column runs Tuesdays, Fridays and Sundays. Reach her at 535-8172 or lcataluna@honoluluadvertiser.com.
