-------- MANY THANKS TO JOHN D FOR SO KINDLY SENDING ME THESE NEWSPAPER CLIPPINGS AND PHOTOS OF THE HOUSE IN WILDWOOD, NEW JERSEY, WHERE MARIO LANZA SPENT HIS SUMMERS AS A BOY. I'm posting them here on my Blog, because it's the only public website where I have an account, and can share them with anyone interested. John had posted that he also spent time visiting Mario's grandparents in Wildwood, N.J.. This photo and article is dated July 5, 1951 and shows both Mario's parents and grandparents receiving a season pass for the Hunt's theaters. I would say they certainly deserved that too!! CLICKING ON THE PHOTO WILL ENLARGE IT AS WELL AS THE TEXT WHICH WILL THEN BE EASY TO READ. OF COURSE, PHOTOS WERE VERY "GRAINY" IN THOSE DAYS!

........The date above this photo is 9/13/51 and shows Mario's parents and their friends at a Wildwood, New Jersey gathering. The newspaper article pertaining to it is also included.

.......Here is the famous house of Mario Lanza's grandparents, and obviously the first black & white photo is of the house in Wildwood, New Jersey as it appeared in the 1950's. The address was and probably still is 141 W. Rio Grande Avenue. Somehow I had pictured it as being quite small, but in fact, it's very large and beautiful! The landscaping in those days seems to be very pretty too. (AGAIN, CLICKING ON THE PHOTOS WILL BLOW THEM UP & SHOW MUCH MORE DETAIL.)


........Same house, decades later, how it appears today. I wish the 1950's version was in color, like the current picture, but we can still see the changes that appear to have been made to the exterior.. As I posted on LL, we all know many houses through the years undergo a transformation and sometimes are barely recognizable decades later. Today the awnings above the windows are missing and looks like the upstairs balcony is gone too. I don't know why the new owners would take all that away, because I personally think Mario's grandparents house looked GREAT the way it was before! Here it looks more plain, but still nice, and at least it's still standing!! The new owners also added 8 little windows on the upper level too, in a pattern I've never seen done before on a house, especially if this is a bedroom, so I found that a bit curious. Perhaps someone can figure out approx. what year the last two photos were taken, by the car parked there.