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alleyblack2-blog · 5 years

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Relics of a polarizing legacy within reach at Frank Rizzo's estate sale

Hundreds expected at sale

Romani expects a massive crowd. When he sells off the estates of famous athletes or Main Line millionaires, about a 100 people usually show up, sometimes as many as 500. Romani expects at least 1,000 for the Rizzo sale.

“We've heard stories of people coming here the night before, “ Romani said. “Somebody on Facebook said they are going to eat Thanksgiving dinner, and they are going to drive and sit out on the steps and wait for it to open.”

“We're going to let in as many people as possible,” said Romani. “We do have some [off-duty] Philadelphia police officers we've hired to be on site, to help us control the crowd.”

That’s befitting, given the controversy Rizzo engendered both during and after his mayorship for the number of city police officers personally detailed to his security. A KYW investigation into the sizable personal security force Rizzo kept after leaving office led to one of the most memorable confrontations in Philly history. Rizzo called TV reporter Stan Bohrman a “lush” and a “crumb bum,” while challenging him to a fight in front of the Rizzo home.

There will also be a meatball truck on site for the long lines that arrive Friday morning. Romani said they’ll allow about 100 people in the house at a time, and almost everything will be priced and sold on a first-come, first-serve basis. He expects diehard Rizzo fans and Philadelphia history buffs will make up the bulk of the buyers.

“We're not going to sell to collectors, not going to sell to dealers, not going to sell to auction houses or people looking to make a profit on this stuff,” said Romani. “People are going to buy this stuff, it’s going to be put in their home, and it’s going to be cherished.”

Rizzo’s son, former city Councilman Frank L. Rizzo Jr., recently gave WHYY reporters a tour of the home and some of the items for sale. “There's a lot of people interested in the things that were in this house,” said Rizzo. “Things that you honestly think you'd dispose of — 'Don't throw that away, we have somebody that wants that' — [like] an old license plate.”

That license plate was the one Rizzo had when he was mayor — Pennsylvania license number 8. The number indicated there were seven positions above Philadelphia’s mayor in the elected official pecking order at PennDOT.

The ticket that might have been

Rizzo guided reporters into his father’s wood-paneled study, filled to the brim with memorabilia. There were multiple busts and paintings of the mayor — one apparently done by Margaret Cianfrani, sister of Henry “Buddy” Cianfrani. Campaign tchotchkes were abundant. Rizzo pointed to one large button with just the names “Rizzo Nixon” on it.

“Nixon wanted him to run with him, as vice president, and he turned him down, because he just loved Philadelphia. Philadelphia was his passion,” said Rizzo. “People came here to negotiate with [Rizzo Sr.], they thought a law and order guy would be good for [Nixon].”

Rizzo said his father told him this story, which hasn’t been reported anywhere else. “They sent down a case of those [Rizzo/Nixon buttons] and said, ‘Look, we want you to do this,’” said Rizzo. “How serious were they? Did the vetting process happen? I don’t know. All I know is, it would have been a good ticket… but I’m glad it didn’t happen, after how things turned out.”

If true, it meant Nixon wanted to replace Spiro Agnew on the ticket in 1972 or the following year when he was forced to resign the vice presidency after pleading no contest to tax evasion charges. Like Rizzo, Agnew had a “tough on crime” reputation as Maryland’s governor after violently suppressing riots that rocked Baltimore in the wake of Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination.

But Rizzo and Nixon historians alike think it’s an apocryphal account. While Nixon obviously liked Rizzo — there’s a signed photo of Tricky Dick up for grabs, too — the GOP would have never let Nixon replace Agnew with a Democratic mayor. Nixon more famously considered John Connally, a his Treasury secretary who led the Democrats for Nixon group in 1972 and soon after switched parties -- but the president thought some in his own party, as well as liberal Democrats, would balk.

“If [Richard Nixon] knew the party wouldn’t accept the ex-Democrat Connally, he’d know that times 10 about Rizzo,” said Justin Sherin, a playwright who has written extensively on Nixon. Rick Perlstein, author of “Nixonland,” also found the claim dubious, as did Timothy Lombardo, who recently wrote “Blue-Collar Conservatism: Frank Rizzo’s Philadelphia and Populist Politics.”

If the story were true, of course, it would have meant that Frank L. Rizzo didn’t just turn down the vice presidency, he passed up the White House.

The nightstick

Outside his father’s study, Rizzo pointed to another item up for sale and offered another suspicious claim: “That’s the famous nightstick in the cummerbund.”

This would be the most famous nightstick in Philadelphia, the one depicted in a photo of then Police Commissioner Rizzo arriving on the scene of a civil disturbance in Grays Ferry, dressed in formal wear, having just come from a black tie event at the Bellevue Stratford. A billy club juts out from under his tuxedo jacket.

“He had a pretty good relationship with the folks there [in Grays Ferry], and he thought his presence could be helpful,” said Rizzo. “He got there, no gun, [in a] tuxedo — nothing — so he said to [police Sgt.] John Devine: 'John, at least give me something, a nightstick.’"

Soon after, Rizzo would run for mayor against blue-blooded Republican Thacher Longstreth.

“They thought the photo was going to be negative, so [Longstreth’s] campaign made posters and put them all over the city,” said Rizzo. “Whenever my dad showed up in the neighborhood, all the folks would go rip them off and ask him to autograph them.”

It’s an incredible story. The only problem is the nightstick for sale doesn’t look like the one in the photo. There’s a little silver nub on the handle of this one that’s black in the picture.

Source: http://planphilly.com/articles/2018/11/23/relics-of-a-polarizing-legacy-on-display-at-frank-rizzo-s-estate-sale

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