Italian American Digest JT DIGEST Summer 2018 June First (1) | Page 9

SUMMER 2018
I talian A merican D igest
Valence Street Cemetery, St. Louis
Cemetery No. 2, and others.
By the 1920s, not only was the
Italian community essential to the
fabric of New Orleans culture, it was
entrenched in the landscapes of its
cemeteries.
Possibly the most interesting
example of such a remarkable cul-
tural assimilation is the
Lacosst tomb in Metai-
rie Cemetery – built of
Alabama marble by Ger-
man stonecutter Albert
Weiblen for French cli-
ent Eugene Lacosste, the
tomb itself is a copy of
the 1453 tomb of Carlo
Marsuppini in the Basilica of Santa
Croce, Florence. To this day, Italian
cultural and architectural influence
remains an essential part of New
Orleans cemetery landscapes.
- Emily Ford
PO-BOYS
The po-boy is a child of many
fathers, including a couple of French
restaurateurs, an Italian baker, and a
1920’s labor dispute.
In 1919, brothers Bernard and
Clovis Martin, both veteran streetcar
workers, decided to leave that line
of work and strike out on their own,
founding Martin Brothers Coffee
Stand & Restaurant.
It was originally located near the
French Market, but was moved a few
years later to the corner of St. Claude
Avenue and Touro Street, where it
remained until its closure in 1972.
When members of the streetcar
employees’ union went on strike in
1929, the Martin brothers, in an act
of solidarity, promised to provide
meals to the striking workers free of
charge.
The loaves of French bread from
which the brothers were making their
sandwiches tapered at
the ends, meaning that
sandwiches would vary
in size.
Not wanting any
striker to get less than
another, and wanting
to avoid wasting the
bread’s end pieces, the
brothers reached out to local baker
John Gendusa.
Gendusa had pioneered baking a
style of bread that had a consistent
shape, size, and thickness from end
to end.
Using Gendusa’s bread allowed
for three sandwiches of equal size
to be made from a single loaf. This
bread was used for the sandwiches
provided to the striking streetcar
workers. Gendusa was a master
baker, delivering fresh loaves to the
Martins every four hours.
And as for the name? Tradition
holds that Bernard Martin claimed,
“Whenever we saw one of the strik-
ing men coming, one of us would
say, ‘Here comes another poor boy,’”
and they would hand him a sand-
wich.
- Enrico Villamaino III
New Orleans’s famous sandwich originated in the 1920s.
PAGE 9
S P O T L I G H T :
F
Joseph C. Canizaro
or over 50 years, Joseph C.
Canizaro has been a fixture in
the New Orleans business, Catho-
lic, Italian and philanthropic
spheres.
Raised in Biloxi, Canizaro first
came to New Orleans in the early
1960s. He quickly established
himself as a
shrewd real
estate devel-
oper. Caniza-
ro’s legacy
includes the
500-room
Ritz-Carlton
Hotel and
Canal Place. Joseph C. Canizaro
formed the First
Canizaro
founded and Trust Corp. in 1980.
served as
president and CEO of Columbus
Properties, LP, a commercial real
estate development company that
has acquired, developed and/or
managed office buildings, mixed-
use projects, and land and resi-
dential projects throughout the
southeastern and southwestern
United States.
He is perhaps best known
as the driving factor behind a
number of high rises on Poydras
Street, including the Texaco Cen-
ter and LL&E Tower, which was
instrumental in creating a new
commerce corridor in the central
business district.
After some lean post 1980s
years in the real estate mar-
ket, Canizaro branched out and
formed the First Trust Corpora-
tion, a bank holding company
that acquired banks in and around
the greater New Orleans area. He
also founded Corporate Capital,
LLC, a venture capital company
that invests in a myriad of busi-
nesses across America.
Outside of his professional du-
ties, Canizaro, a man who counts
senators, governors and even
a president among his friends,
serves as trustee of the Urban
Land Institute and on the Adviso-
ry Committee on Real Estate De-
velopment of the Harvard Univer-
sity Graduate School of Design.
He is a member of the Business
Council of New Orleans, the
Tulane University President’s
Council, the Archdiocese of New
Orleans’ finance council, and the
American Italian Renaissance
Foundation.
- Enrico Villamaino III