Jasper Giardina, 80, lover of old radios
Matthew Kruk
Posted: Tuesday, 12 January 2010 6:36PM
Jasper Giardina dies, lover of old radios
Kevin Killeen Reporting
kaki...@cbs.com
ST. LOUIS (KMOX Radio) -- He was the king of the antique radio world --
Jasper Giardina -- the owner and operator of Jasper's Antique Radio
Museum and Fruit Baskets on Cherokee street is dead at the age of 80.
The cause of death was cardiac arrest. His daughter said he had been
undergoing treatment for a brain tumor discovered last fall, when he
experienced shortness of breath Monday and died after being taken to a
local hospital.
A common site at local auctions, garage sales and the Gypsy Caravan,
Giardina was known for his mischievous grin and quest to find that one
more old radio. The shelves of his Museum at 2022 Cherokee were lined
from floor to ceiling with wooden cathedral top and tombstone radios.
During a 2006 interview on KMOX he explained his obsession began in
childhood. "When we were in school we would fight to get home to see
who could be the first one to turn on the radio," Giardina said
chuckling, "You did that before you ate. I mean, radio was it."
The oldest of five children, Giardina dropped out of school after the
eighth grade to work two jobs to help with the family. After serving
in the Korean War, he came back to St. Louis and ended up in the fruit
basket business. For years he had a shop at 8th and Market downtown.
In 1976 he bought the Cherokee property and set up his radio museum with
a freezer in the back for fruit to fill his basket orders that came in
by phone.
Fascinated by celebrities, Giardina would often show up outside the
studios of KMOX, whenever a visiting star was on the Charlie Brennan
show. Armed with a complimentary fruit basket, Giardina would wriggle
his way into the studio to present his gift and invite the star to his
radio museum . Other times, he said he would secretly tip limo drivers
to bring visiting stars by his museum as a St. Louis attraction.
The famous who came often bought antique radios, but not before Giardina
took their picture, which he later displayed on the walls. The famous
included Jay Leno, Bill Murray, Miss Americas, Jack Buck and Jim White.
Giardina's cluttered shop also included a line of old cash registers,
one which he insisted came from a speakeasy run by Al Capone, another
with a spinning dial that pointed to girl's names, which Giardina said
came from a brothel on south Broadway.
In the height of his collecting, he was seen pulling his radio purchases
in a Post-Dispatch wagon he brought onto the parking lot of the old
Arena for the Gypsy Caravan, as he weaved through the crowds. He was
also known to hop in the car at day break and make a run to Chicago to
attend the coin-operated machine antique show or up to Indianapolis for
the Antique Advertising show.
During the end of his life was often seen sitting outside his museum on
the sidewalk in an overstuffed chair, waiting for a customer to come
along. He would complain that the recession had hurt Cherokee street,
but that he was keeping busy with fruit baskets.
Resorting to mischief in moments of boredom, he once displayed a fast
food drive through menu board he had bought with a speaker on the
sidewalk outside his shop. When a man walking by pressed the button to
talk, Giardina pretended to be taking his order from inside his radio
museum , then told him to come back later and his "lunch would be
ready."
Diagnosed with a brain tumor in October, Giardina kept it a secret,
continuing to show up, answering the phones and taking orders for fruit
baskets during the busy Christmas season. His daughter says he kept at
it until the end.
Survivors include his only child, Alisa Stratton, son-in-law Joe
Stratton, two grandsons, Joseph and Nicholas Stratton, and three
surviving sisters.
Funeral plans are pending, but include a service at the Carmelite
Monastery on Clayton Road with burial at Jefferson Barracks.