Phil Brito, radio, big band crooner, 90
deb...@comcast.net
Monday, October 31, 2005
BY ROBERT GEBELOFF
Star-Ledger Staff
In the age of the crooners, Phil Brito's name was known far and wide.
Starting in the late 1930s, Mr. Brito was a radio regular, fronting a
variety of bands with his effortless baritone.
Sometimes the songs were in English, sometimes in Italian, and his most
famous numbers -- "Mama" and "Come Back to Sorrento" -- were
English-language versions of Italian classics.
Mr. Brito, whose real name was Philip Colombrito, died Friday. He was
90.
The son of Italian immigrants to Newark, Mr. Brito was born in West
Virginia, where his father had sojourned to find work in coal mines.
But his family was living in Orange when, at the age of 13, he sang at
a talent show sponsored by a local Moose Lodge.
By the age of 17, he was traveling with bands. In that era, large bands
that played pop and dance music were in huge demand, and Mr. Brito's
popularity grew steadily over the years.
While he worked with Jimmy Dorsey, one of the famous Dorsey brothers,
he also spent many years working for band leaders now only remembered
by aficionados: Houston Ray, Lloyd Huntley, Al Donohue and Jan Savitt.
With Donohue in the late 1930s, Mr. Brito had a regular engagement at
New York's prestigious Rainbow Room. He also appeared frequently at a
club called the Blue Mirror in Newark.
He was particularly popular among his fellow second- generation
Italian-Americans.
"He was in the mold of somebody like Vic Damone, this second-
generation of Italian singers who would interpret these old Neopolitan
songs, but also transition into more popular songs," said Michael
Immerso, a writer who has studied Italian-American history and
published the book "Newark's Little Italy: The Vanished First Ward."
"They were emotional singers who were interpreting songs with a
Neopolitan flair, and it really connected with audiences," Immerso
said.
In early 1949, Mr. Brito was named one of 10 "outstanding
Italian-American men in the United States" by Unico, the service
organization. Also on the list were baseball great Joe DiMaggio,
nuclear scientist Enrico Fermi and movie producer Frank Capra.
Later that year, when the Yankees held a ceremony honoring the DiMaggio
before a game with the Red Sox, Mr. Brito and Ethel Merman were on hand
to serenade him.
Mr. Brito appeared in the movie "Square Dance Katy" and two movie
shorts during this period, and continued to perform concerts and appear
on television throughout the 1950s. He also had his own network radio
show, which he broadcast live from the San Marino Hotel in Miami Beach.
By the mid-1960s, however, the golden era of crooners was over. Only a
handful -- such as Frank Sinatra -- retained their status as household
names.
Mr. Brito suffered from heart maladies during the late 1960s, but
regained his health a few years later and held a comeback concert at
Carnegie Hall in 1971.
Though his performance was well received, he knew that demands for his
brand of music were waning and, over the coming decades, most of his
performances came at charitable events and festivals.
In 1978, he was grand marshal of Newark's Columbus Day Parade, at the
time one of the biggest in the nation, and in 1984, he performed at a
gala to raise money for restoring the Statute of Liberty.
Still, Mr. Brito is best remembered by the second-generation
Italian-Americans who grew up hearing his take on melodies from the old
country.
"When I gave a talk about him at my club, all these people started
coming up to me saying, 'I remember hearing him sing on the radio,' and
it brought back a lot of memories for them," said Josephine Dukes, Mr.
Brito's cousin.
Mr. Brito also is survived by his wife, Edith; a daughter, Suzanne
Lordi; a son, Phillip Colombrito Jr.; a brother, Thomas; and a sister,
Ann.
Funeral services will be held 9:30 today at St. Catherine of Siena
Church in Cedar Grove, the town where Mr. Brito spent the last years of
his life.