Wednesday is Prince Spaghetti day.
That tag line to the iconic TV commercial that featured an Italian-American boy named Anthony Martignetti running through the streets of Boston’s North End after being called to dinner by his mother remains engrained in the consciousness of those old enough to remember the shouts of “Anthony,” which accompanied the ad that first aired back in 1969.
Appropriately, today we celebrate the major influence on Americans’ buying habits and ties to Lowell that ad engenders on the passing over the weekend of that forever smiling and slightly-out-of-breath 12-year-old at age 63.
According to published reports, he suffered from severe sleep apnea, though an official cause of death has not been determined.
The story goes that one random act of kindness paved the way for Anthony’s memorable dash through the streets and alleyways of that predominantly Italian section of Boston, where up to the time of his death, he was still revered as a genuine celebrity.
Anthony happened to meet some men asking for directions as they canvassed North End neighborhoods looking for the right location to mount an advertising campaign for the Prince Spaghetti Co.
And in the process, they recognized this affable youngster would be a perfect fit for their television commercial. The ad would become an instant — and enduring — hit, and elevated an unassuming youngster to star status in his hometown and beyond.
By this time, the Prince Macaroni Manufacturing Co. had become a major employer in Lowell, having moved there from Boston in 1939. It became a South Lowell fixture, having taken over the former Bleachery site off Moore Street.
It may not have been the North End, but the city and company, owned by the Pellegrino family, did their best to turn the surrounding area into “Spaghettiville,” as the bridge on nearby Gorham Street still promotes.
Lowell renamed Bleachery Street Prince Avenue, and adjacent to the pasta plant, the Prince Grotto restaurant offered both Italian cuisine and a sense of the Old Country.
Prince also offered Lowellians and others from the area steady employment for nearly 50 years,
Borden Foods purchased Prince from the Pellegrino family in 1987. Borden fulfilled a promise to keep Prince’s jobs intact for 10 years, but after that term, it closed the plant, putting hundreds of Prince employees out on the street.
But thanks to Anthony’s commercial, Prince helped change Americans’ eating habits and their concept of Italian food.
According to a 50-year retrospective produced by WBUR radio on that iconic commercial, in 1969, Italian-style pasta was not really part of the American cuisine mainstream. For many, Italian food simply consisted of cans of SpaghettiOs and Chef Boyardee.
But that 1969 Prince commercial let America witness genuine Italian family dinners.
Though that advertisement ran nationally for nearly 14 years, Anthony never built a career out of his newfound fame.
At the time of his death, he had been working as an associate court officer at Dedham District Court.
Though he never capitalized on his Prince-generated popularity, Anthony Martignetti conscientiously guarded the special meaning it still holds for those who call the North End home.
“I always understood that it was larger than me, that I had a responsibility to preserve what that commercial meant to people,” he told the Boston Globe in a 2019 interview. “I knew that if I got into trouble, little Anthony from the spaghetti commercial would be all over the paper.”
Anthony, thanks for making Wednesday Prince Spaghetti Day.
The Link LonkAugust 26, 2020 at 12:15PM
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Anthony’s dash put Prince pasta on the table - Lowell Sun
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