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The Glorious Origin of The Italian Club of Dallas
by Roberto Agostini, October 1997
In the early 1970’s Italians and Italophiles would congregate in the home of Irene Kidder. At first we were 10 to 15 people, but by the mid-1970s we had become a group of 60 to 70 people–feasting, dancing, and discussing Italian events and culture. Irene proposed the idea to form an Italian club. In 1977, in the Kidder’s living room, the Italian Club of Dallas was born.
The first board of directors was formed: president Roberto Agostini, chairman Tony Bifano, treasurer Connie Klemow, heads of several committees–Bianca Pellizzi, Mary Lou Turner, Enzo DeNardo, Maria and David Marshello, Lou Antahades, Evelyn Hudson, George Arellano, Vincent Manley, and Jimmy Marigliano. Soon after David Kidder prepared the necessary by-laws, and in July 1977, the Italian Club of Dallas was officially incorporated.
Roberto’s mother, Marcella Agostini, sewed the club’s first flag, which is now displayed at the Club; and she became the unofficial envelope stuffer and postage stamp sticker.
The Club became an immediate success. In October we had a fantastic dinner dance at the Sheraton with a ballroom maximum-capacity attendance of 430 guests. We even had to refuse people who desired to attend. For this occasion we had a show-band from Las Vegas and another band for dance music. Jimmy Marigliano spent the whole week with the hotel’s chefs to ensure that the food was authentic Italian. The event made headline news, and the Club achieved recognition by the news media.
Afterwards, members met periodically in different restaurants, with the preparation of the menu always supervised by Jimmy Marigliano. The wines were always selected and provided by the generosity of our friend, Tony LaBarba, who also hosted all of our delightful wine tasting events.
For two special exhibitions, The Pompeians and The Sassanians–the Last Dynasty of Persia, the Dallas Museum of Art was closed to the public and opened just for our members. We enjoyed a fine dinner, entertainment by internationally-renowned classical guitarist, Carlo Pezzimenti, and a private guided tour of the museum exhibit.
For Christmas, Dr. Francis Desio and two of his colleagues dressed as the Three Kings for our Christmas party. We had live bands for our Carnevale dance, and the members dressed in spectacular costumes. We can remember when Vincent and Nikki Manley, dressed in Tyrolean costume, won the first prize.
An annual Italian Club of Dallas Scholarship was instituted to promote Italian language and culture. This scholarship was open to any student of the Dallas public schools, and the recipient was sent to Italy for a month. To raise money for scholarships, Giancarlo Santarelli, Ugo Piccagli, and Gianni Costanzo organized the annual Tennis Tournament, with a dinner-dance party for the announcement of the award winner.
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