Cinderella and Prince Charming - The beginning

At the end of World War II, the American culture changed. What had always been a culture of lean living and survival quickly began to transform into a culture of abundance. The housing industry began to boom and the country saw more disposable income than had ever been available before. A middle class began to emerge. For younger men and women, Hollywood created new ideas of romance and excitement and New York City was the ultimate place to live if someone wanted a life of adventure and excitement.

The New York Night Club scene was the place to be if you wanted to have the best time and experience the sophisticated supper clubs and Jazz clubs. Women went to the clubs to be noticed or discovered and maybe find Mr. Perfect, where men went to the nightclubs to have a good time. The glamorous allure of this type of living was nothing new to either my father or mother. They both took advantage of America’s new ideologies.

While I do not know the specific place they met, I do know it was in a Manhattan Hotel club. My mother was in her early twenties and my father was about a year younger than she was. He was still in the military and she was still modeling and dating to stay alive. Why they met or how they met remains a mystery, but the fact is, they did meet. My father was smitten with my mother. She was a tall, thin, and buxom bleached blonde woman of French and German decent. Her hazel green eyes were deep and her skin was beautiful. She was dressed to the hilt and every man in the room wanted to have her on his arm. My mother was taken by the handsome young Italian military man and he won the honor of being her date for the evening. The passion was unmistakable, and for the two it was the beginning of a heated romance.

For my mother, this was an adventure. For my father this was a taboo indulgence, as he knew his family would never accept my mother as a member of the family. When he did introduce her to his parents, it was obvious that Elsa would never accept her, while Albert liked her. They eventually married and the uphill struggle would begin
as the wife of the son of a Mafia Don.