Page 51: HOW ROMANCE DEVELOPED
Helen Cotillo was born in Albany, New York on Washington Avenue and later moved to Pelham, the close-in New York suburb, when we met as teenagers. This setting of propinquity of family friendships brought togetherness. She was the daughter of Judge Salvatore A. Cotillo, another new Italo-American of a remarkable career as state legislative sponsor of social uplift and as Justice of the Supreme Court of the State of New York. He and Dad were close friends. That is how Helen and I got together prior to romance and marriage.
The courtship phase developed when the Justic and Mrs. Cotillo moved into Manhatta in a cooperative apartment at 1172 Park Avenue that was built by my uncle, Michael Paterno. Her schooling was at Lenox and Finch Schools. As a young lady, Helen busied herself in socialite activities, including the Lenox Hill Hospital. It is my belief that her true aspiration was medical care, but that never materialized.
Subsequently the Cotillos rented a house on grounds of the Westchester Country Club in Rye on the New York-Connecticut line. Dad was an original member of the Club and golfed there often. In fact, it was fate that his sudden death occurred on the golf course years afterward on Memorial Day, May 30, 1946, at the age of 67.
Page 52: (photo) Caption: Mrs. Salvatore A. Cotillo, Helen’s mother and matron of honor, Lyndon M. Brown’s daughter Ruthie Brown, bride and groom, James J. Farley, Jr., Helen’s sister Sally Cotillo, Boyd P. Brown, best man.
Page 53: Married in 1934
Helen Berthold Cotillo and Carlo Middaugh Paterno became engaged on her birthday of August 14, 1934. We married on my birthday on November 23, 1934. Her age was 23 and mine was 27.
[Helen & Carlo Paterno’s Engagement and Wedding blog post]
Judge Cotillo performed a civil marriage ceremony in his home because of his great desire to do so. The formal Catholic service was held at the Castle in the evening.
The famous operatic diva, Rosa Ponselle, sang at our wedding. Ring bearer was the son of Jame A. Farley who was Postmaster General in the presidential cabinet of Franklin D. Roosevelt. The Postmaster General and his wife, Bess, were close friends of the Cotillos.
Our honeymoon night was spent in the Tower of the Hotel Waldorf-Astoria at 49th and Park Avenue. It was Glenn Lybarger, my boyhood mentor-confidante, who chauffeured us into the city prior to the honeymoon cruise. Glenn was chauffeur first for Dad and then for Mother as driver of the Rolls-Royce.
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Next day from wedding night in the Waldorf Towers, Helen and I embarked on the Grace Line’s Santa Rosa for the long cruise from New York via the Panama Canal to the Pacific and up to Los Angeles. Here we took the ocean liner Luraline to Honolulu for a great time there. Our honeymoon was a half-year of newly married bliss.
Page 54: (photo of Rosa Ponselle) Caption: Rosa is still living in “Villa Pace” in Stevenson, MD near Baltimore in 1979.
Page 55: (photo of Helen Laura Ritzmann Cotillo Paterno) Caption: The beautiful bride.
Page 56: (photo of Carlo & Helen Paterno) Caption: The two of us waving goodbye to Honolulu on our honeymoon.
Page 57: (photo of sisters Patricia Ann and Mina Minton Paterno) Caption: Patti, Mimi and “Sicily” in their beautiful Sicilian cart at Meadow Lane Farm. “Sicily” was brought to this country by a W.W. II GI and I traded him for an old horse-drawn carriage. He turned out to be a great mascot for all the horses we raised at the Farm. The evergreen trees in the background ar among the 700 Dad and his men planted in a single day.
Page 58: (photo of house) Caption: Meadow Lane Farm, North Salem, N.Y. – the first home we built
Page 59: Dad Gave Us A Cadillac
The wedding gift from Dad was a 12 cylinder royal blue Cadillac convertible with aerodynamic windshield. This accompanied us to Los Angeles aboard the Santa Rosa. Upon returning from Hawaii we drove across the continent to Florida, naturally passing through Texas on the way. The car’s speed, with curved windshield, had the rain skipping right over our heads in the open-top convertible as we sped along.
The fuel tank held 35 gallons, an unusual capacity for a car back then in 1934. When we paused at a roadside gasoline station in Texas the attendant, after putting in 30 gallons, was so suspicious that he peeked beneath the chassis to see if there was a leakage from a car with such a big appetite for gasoline. This happened several times along the way.
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Our First Home
Our first home was built truly with our hearts at North Salem, New York in 1935. We called it Meadow Lane Farm in that pretty countryside of northern Westchester County. On that day of breaking ground our first daughter, Carla, was born on August 19. We’ve always preferred to call her “Toni.”
Patti came along three years later on October 28, 1938. Mimi, our youngest, was born on October 22, 1945.
Page 60: When Toni and Patti were teenagers and Mimi just a little girl, Helen and I deemed it a great vacation to see the famous Lake Tahoe scenic pleasure on the Nevada/California line in the Sierra Nevada mountains. This had to be by train on 20th Century Limited of the New York Central arriving in Chicago at 9 a.m. Departure to California was at 3 p.m.
This allowed much daytime for shopping and sightseeing in Chicago. The girls were taken to see the Shedd Aquarium in the lakefront park on Lake Michigan. Helen and her companion, Anny Stoll, stayed outside in the park with “Salty,” our daschund.
Emerging from the aquarium we encountered a large crowd of people as I explained to the girl: “Here is a case in point; never get mixed up with a large crowd of people such as this.” Some twenty minutes ensued of anxious searching for Helen, Anny and “Salty.” We couldn’t locate them so I was impelled to find out what attracted all those people.
Helen Was Soaking Wet
What I saw was this. Helen with “salty” soaking wet and water dripping from her clothing. While the girls and I were inside the aquarium Helen thought it nice to walk the dog along the shoreline. The dog was thirsty so Helen too him down a ramp. As she neared the drinking place she slipped and fell into Lake Michigan with pocketbook, dog and all.
Page 61: (Photo of Helen & Carlo Paterno’s daughters) Three of my favorite bathing beauties.
Page 62: She was pulled out of the water by marines hand-chained tugging from the slime-covered ramp during low tide. The onlooking crowd kept rowing larger. Our baggage was in transit from one railroad station to another, so there was nothing else to do in that dilemma but to stand in sunshine and hope for Helen’s clothing to dry out. Actually I had to quick-rent a room at the nearby Blackstone Hotel so Helen could dry out her clothes before boarding the California bound train.
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First TV Set
Following the 1939 World’s Fair in New York, I bought the first commercial RCA television set put on the market. It was for our home in Greenwich, Conn. A mirror was inside so that when the top was opened you looked into the mirror. In that auld lang syne of television the programming was primitively meager and confined to parades, wrestling matches and such.
This first set cost $600. After two years Radio Corporation of America decided to refund $200 to all owners of this prototype model. When I entered the Air Force in 1942 I sold the TV set for $400. This turned out to be a no-loss “investment.”
Page 63: As our children grew up the need diminished for a large home. Our original Meadow Lane Farm in North Salem was sold to our good friend, E. Austin Byrne, in 1961. Edward Durell Stone was engaged as architect for a new home at Grant’s Corner at North Salem where added acreage had been acquired.
This home was modern in design and had the Edward Durell Stone touch with attractive lattice work front and back. Each room had a glass skylight so the sun would enter the usually dark interior and make the center of the home a lighted living room.
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A large quantity of cobblestone was acquired from the City of New York for laying of a lovely piazza having six trimmed sycamore trees in front of the house. This was our “Piazza Paterno.”
(Photo of house) Caption: Our home in North Salem designed by Edward Durell Stone in 1962 which we lived in until we moved to Florida in 1970. This was the last private home he designed and he so enjoyed walking around our “Piazza Paterno” which was named by him. Mr. Stone had gained national fame for designing the U.S. Embassy in Delhi, India and the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C. among others.
NEXT: CHAPTER VII• FABULOUS IDA AND THE JUDGE
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