Tag: Frank Rizzo

Notes from Sal Paolantonio’s landmark 1993 biography of Frank Rizzo

In recent years, it became commonplace to compare legendary and controversial former Philadelphia Mayor Frank Rizzo with Donald Trump. Perhaps that was why I finally read Frank Rizzo: The Last Big Man in Big City America, the influential biography published in 1993 by Sal Paolantonio. It is a familiar part of the foundation of the Philadelphia canon so it’s long been on my list.

Below I share my notes from the book.

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Journalists are victors of the moment

Perhaps more than any other profession, journalists live in moments, that hour’s story, that day’s deadline.

Zack Stalberg was made a legend for his Frank Rizzo moment. As a 2001 Philadelphia Weekly profile suggested:

Within two years the night rewrite kid is a City Hall reporter covering Frank Rizzo at a time when Rizzo was, as Stalberg recalls, “unstoppable … He was going to be governor and his image was untarnished and then–boom!” Boom, of course, was Stalberg himself, who persuaded the mayor to take a lie detector test to resolve a political dispute. Rizzo, as the whole city knows, failed the test in grand fashion, and Stalberg, as the whole city also knows, became someone who would make a name for himself. [Source]

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Frank Rizzo 1987 mayoral campaign TV advertisements

With the power of Youtube, it’s interesting to look back at what political advertisements of the past looked like.

It should be no surprise that a stack of TV ads made it online from the failed 1987 Republican campaign of former Democratic Mayor and South Philly folk legend Frank Rizzo. Let’s give them a look.

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Interview: Joe Egan, Republican mayoral candidate

Apparently I had an interview with former Republican mayoral candidate Joseph M. Egan, Jr., but I didn’t remember.

Joe Egan

I got a voice mail from Egan, who seemed agitated, and understandably so. I called him back and sent him an e-mail, but no answer, yet. For that, I apologize. I was interested in speaking to him.

In 1991, Egan lost handily to now Governor Ed Rendell, nearly 282,000 to 130,000.

To be honest, missing the interview was just the start of my confusion. See, I simply couldn’t get straight Joe Egan from John Egan, who lost W. Wilson Goode in the 1983 election, losing 396,000 to 264,000.

Now, Joe Egan has lots to differentiate himself, he uses his middle initial and tacks on the “junior” moniker. What’s more, unlike the other Egan, Joe came to be the 1991 Republican candidate by the most unusual circumstances.

Continue reading Interview: Joe Egan, Republican mayoral candidate