Word: rocca
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1950-1959
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...Philadelphia's arena last fortnight, Wrestler Antonino ("Dropkick") Rocca, weighing in at 228 lbs., squared off against John ("Adonis") Valentine, weighing 234 lbs. More than two miles away, at the Academy of Music, famed Soprano Renata ('Diva Serena") Tebaldi stepped to the front of the stage and sang Ah, spietata from Handel's Amadigi. As the evening wore on, a suave, white-tied figure kept scurrying back and forth between the two programs: Aurelio ("Ray") Fabiani, promoter of both wrestling and music, was hard at work on both sides of show-business history...
Fabiani still occasionally plays his Stradivarius, moves with ease through his two worlds. On the night of the Tebaldi recital, after presenting the singer with masses of long-stemmed roses, he drove to a local precinct to bail out two fans of Dropkick Rocca who had been jailed for assaulting the referee...
Keen on the sporting life since his days as an amateur pug in Prague, barrel-chested Metropolitan Tenor Kurt Bourn asked a former neighbor, Wrestler Antonino Rocca, to demonstrate his headlock technique. As any friend would, Rocca grabbed Baum's head and squeezed. Result: one blocked nasal passage, aggravating an old injury, one canceled singing tour, one operation for Tenor Baum. Said he ruefully in the hospital: "One moment I had perfect pitch, the next a nose that felt like a ripe persimmon...
...According to the script, Argentina's Antonino Rocca was one of the "heroes," and California's Dr. Jerry Graham was one of the "villains" in the professional wrestling show at Madison Square Garden. But wrestlers are notorious hams, and few fans were surprised when Rocca attacked Graham after the bell. Only when the burly Argentine began banging his opponent's head against a ring post and real blood fell on the canvas, did the crowd realize that it was watching a real fight for a change. Few in the Garden wanted to waste the rare opportunity. Beer...
...show's producers, Louis G. Cowan Inc., brushed off the first criticism with the statement that Della Rocca was simply an amateur impresario who dabbles in low-cost opera in his home town of Baldwin, L.I. On the second point, though denying that the Delia Rocca-Prato appearance was planned, they conceded that The $64,000 Challenge will come on the air next month, replacing Sunday night's Appointment with Adventure. The gimmick: people who have written in saying they are just as good at opera as Della Rocca or at cooking as Marine Captain Richard S. McCutchen...