Vic Damone was born Vito Farinola on June 12, 1928, in the Bath Beach section of Brooklyn. He attended P.S. 163 and Lafayette High School. He sang in the choir of St. Finbar’s church in Bensonhurst as a teenager. When Damone was 16, his father, Rocco Farinola, an electrician, was seriously injured at work. To help support the family, Damone left school and took a job as an usher at the Times Square Paramount Theatre, while taking vocal lessons. Five years later he was a headliner on the stage of the Paramount, but in the interim did part time radio work, club dates and a radio show on a small-wattage N.Y. station. His radio work and a boost by Milton Berle helped him land an engagement at the La Martinique Club.
Berle, recognizing Damone’s great talent, assisted again by getting Damone to record his first single “I Have But One Heart” which became a top-10 hit in 1947. (His first and only No. 1 hit was “You’re Breaking My Heart” in 1949). This led to a sustaining spot on the Mutual radio network. That in turn led to his own radio show, CBS’ “Saturday Night Serenade” in 1947-48.
On television, the 1949-50 season on the Dumont network found him in the part of a singer at the “Silver Swan Cafe” on the Morey Amsterdam Show. Art Carney played the waiter. Damone was popular on summer replacement television shows. In 1962 and again in 1963 his show “The Lively Ones” was a replacement for “Hazel.” Many of the segments of that show were taped on location at unusual sites throughout the country. Again “The Vic Damone Show” was a summer replacement in 1956 and ’57 and 10 years later in ’67. TV specials included one on November 28, 1966: “The Dangerous Christmas of Red Riding Hood” with Liza Minelli as Lillian Hood. Another TV special in 1967 was “Holiday in Las Vegas.”
Damone proved a sensation at Hollywood’s Mocambo Club. His movie debut was in Rich, Young and Pretty (Jane Powell was his romantic interest), followed by The Strip (both in ’51). Damone did a hitch in military service in 1951-53. After soldiering, his career resumed with performances in the top clubs and many TV shows, including his own series. Other films include Athena & Deep in My Heart (both ’54); Hit the Deck & Kismet (both ’55) and Hell to Eternity (’60). For the film Never Too Late (’65) he sang the title song.
Frank Sinatra (an idol of Damone’s) was quoted as having said that Vic “has one of the best set of pipes in the business.” Sinatra had made a prediction at the start of Damone’s career when he introduced him at a stage performance as “a kid that’s got stardust on his shoulders.” Years later Damone did a Carnegie Hall tribute to his idol, singing many of the songs Sinatra had made so popular. Sinatra had offered a portfolio of his hits to perform as a living legacy, complete with the Nelson Riddle orchestral arrangements he had used. Damone’s style of singing has a strong smooth delivery in a straightforward Sinatra style. Aside from soundtrack albums by MGM, he has recorded exclusively for Mercury Records.
Vic Damone, a 1945 drop-out, did not graduate with the Class of ’47 at Lafayette High. He was already so busy with his career that he never had time to finish his high school education. Damone said “When I first started, by not having an education, I wasn’t able to protect myself with contracts. But going through life I learned when to get a lawyer, when not to get a lawyer, when to trust people, when not to trust people.” He said that he read newspapers and magazines between gigs — “so that I wouldn’t feel like a dummy.” He further said: “Even with all the success I have had, between the hit songs, and the movies, singing for kings and queens in palaces, singing at the White House, you always feel inadequate [without a diploma].”
Although he lacked a high school diploma he says modestly, “you can call me doctor.” Oklahoma City University honored him with a doctor-of-music degree in 1988. In 1997 Damone contacted what would have been his high school almamater, Lafayette High, and requested a similar honorary degree.
Principal Rosemarie Ferrara consulted with the city Board of Education and they gave special consideration quoting Damone’s contribution to American culture as fulfilling the missing requirements.
And so it was that at age 68 on February 3, 1997, that he led his 64 fellow graduates from the Class of January 1997 into the auditorium to be presented with his diploma, a realization of a lifelong dream. He said “I’m very nervous. I feel like I’m auditioning.” The day following his graduation Damone opened a monthlong appearance at the Rainbow and Stars room atop Rockefeller Center.
It was the year of his 50th anniversary in show biz. On March 9, 1997, he gave a party in his present home town, Palm Beach, Florida to celebrate. His album “The Greatest Love Songs of the Century” was released, about which Damone said, “My new album is the best thing I’ve ever done.”
In 1997 Damone was inducted into the Songwriter’s Hall of Fame
in Manhattan. Damone was honored in 1988 when he was given his most deserved place of honor on Brooklyn’s Celebrity Path, at Brooklyn Botanic Garden.
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