Page 22: MEMORABILIA OF BOYHOOD
How this recollection of infancy is retained I cannot fathom. Still in a crib, my infantile way was to toss the emptied milk bottle out on the iron radiator for the noise of shattering glass. My memory is that Dad would come to the crib, shake a scolding finger and say NOT to do that again – no more milk bottles were left in the store. If baby broke the next one that would be the last of baby’s milk bottles!
Upon finishing that last one, the thought in my infantile mind was…should I throw the bottle out or not? Baby impulse was to throw it, and I did. After the glass breaking, I kept repeating to myself, “Poor Carlo…no more bocken” (my baby word for bottle).
My infancy fraulein taught me to speak German actually before I spoke any English. This was to continue until the onset of World War I when wartime emotionalism made the German language unpopular.
As childhood learning of German was ending there was family hesitancy over Italian for several reasons. Dad preferred the more elite Tuscan dialect of central Florentine Italy, thanks to that beautiful Renaissance period in history. Italian dialect of the southern Neapolitan area of Italy was less “pure.”
World War I being underway, a young woman was hired to teach me Italian. I reacted negatively to her personality so much that when she came three times a week, I’d climb up in a tree…
Page 23: …and would not come down. Hence no Italian lessons. After two frustrating weeks she quit, and to my relief.
***
A social status symbol of the early century was an ocean voyage to Europe, and notably to the French Riviera in summertime. My parent did this. One such occasion I recall as a little pre-school boy of four years in an incident which I will never forget. My fraulein and I went along on this ocean voyage.
When she unpacked the baggage aboard ship there were no trousers for wearing along with Dad’s many jackets. Mother was notified. As Father was informed of this, his response was “Wait a minute, I have a list in my pocket.”
“Charles, you may have the list in your pocket,” replied Mother, “but your do not have the trousers.”
This no-pants dilemma stirred Dad to cable home to have his trousers shipped to Cannes. All the while he wore just one pair of trousers during three weeks of crossing.
***
Little Lord Fauntleroy
It was my boyhood embarrassment to be sent to Barnard School at 177th and Fort Washington Avenue (New York City) dressed in Little Lord Fauntleroy garb. My French corduroy uniform had cut steel buttons, lacy cuffs on sleeves and trousers. A large sash was tied to my left side. Little boys can be primitively savage in their razzing. As a…
Page 24: (photo of young Carlo) Caption: Little Lord Fauntleroy when I was 8.
Page 25: …result more than a few fist fights occurred until my fraulein arrived in the pony cart and took me home.
The family residence was on Northern Avenue, a dirt road in upper west side Manhattan so familiar today for the magnificent George Washington Bridge spanning the wide Hudson River. The street is now Cabrini Boulevard in honor of the canonized immigrant Roman Catholic nun.
***
My Pony Comes
Memorable is the day my pony came. Mother was a true horse lover who wanted to instill in her son an affection for animals and nature’s creatures. When I got on the pony’s back the little beast would rear up and slide me off its rump. This scared me. However, in harness the pony would trot the cart along all right except when distracted by a fluttering piece of paper that would stir her to run like the dickens until fraulein could bridle her down.
***
Among childhood remembrances are parties and family friends who enjoyed the swimming pool, tennis and sociability at the Castle. Among the celebrities were Pola Negri and Nita Naldi known for movies fame to everyone at that time. This was the era of the silent movies with such celebrities as Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks, Charlie Chaplin, Keystone Kops, Francis X. Buschman, William S. Hart, Gloria Swanson and Wallace Reid.
Page 26: Pola Negri and Nita Naldi were good family friends who came often to the parties.
Childhood at the Castle was happy and wholesome, thanks to a small farm-like environment with cows, chickens, fantail pigeons, homing pigeons and even rabbits. After the hay was cut and dried, it was my boyhood chore to pitchfork it into the barn for my pony.
When Dad had visitors at the Castle, which was often, he would invariably entice members of the fair sex for a ride in the elevator. This was one of his favorite tour trips.
The elevator descended to a level below the swimming pool. Dad referred to this spot as Bluebeard’s Den…it was dark, damp and spooky. When the elevator started down, he would explain all about this dangerous dungeon and the deep wells and…
Page 27: (Photo of Minnie Minton Middaugh Paterno) Caption: Mother’s pet cockatoo did not like males and used to chase Dad and me. Mother fed him coffee every night with her demi-tasse spoon.
Page 28: …crevices that he developed at the time he built the 75 foot high wall in 1924.
Dad would open the elevator door, invite the guests to come out and look – and at this point the lights always went out in the elevator. Of course there would be screams from the women. Actually, Dad never let the women get beyond the wooden platform just outside the elevator door. Then they would all rush to get back into the elevator when the lights went out, so Dad had a good laugh.
***
For nine years I was a pupil at Riverdale Country School north of Spuyten Duyvil Bridge on the high ground overlooking the widely picturesque river. A classmate there was Caesar Romero who sat next to me in several classes and who in manhood became famous in the early movies as a romantic male lead actor.
A few years later another pupil at the school was John Fitzgerald Kennedy (who later was to be President of the United States) when the Joseph P. Kennedy family resided in nearby Bronxville as an elite Westchester suburb of New York City. At that time Vincent Price of subsequent theatrical fame was on the staff as a drama teacher.
Music Through “Ether”
I put together my first crystal radio set in 1926. Well do I remember my first hearing of music by radio. It was at 3 a.m., and I awakened Mother and Dad who put on headsets so they could appreciate this astounding phenomenon of music transmitted through the “ether.”
Page 29: After Riverdale was Milford School (Rosenbaum’s), the boys’ prep school in Connecticut, as my preparation for Yale University. On the morning I was to go and enroll at Yale my father, who always called me “Bill,” summoned me upstairs to his bedroom.
“Now that you are grown from boy to man, I want to give you some very important advice,” he said to me.
Naturally, I was expecting a lecture but instead this was it:
“Bill, stay away from girls and you will keep out of trouble.”
***
“This Is The Place”
When I was a lad of 14 Dad talked of buying a place in the countryside of upper Westchester County. Our cottage at Bantam Lake in Connecticut which Dad had built no longer sufficed. While returning to New York one day in the Packard Touring Car, we passed by a road sign advertising a property for sale which was known as “North Castle Farm.”
Intuition or not – extrasensory perception or not – my boy’s mental reflex was: “THIS IS THE PLACE.”
The asking price was $115,000 for 246 acres. Dad offered $100,000 for the property and gave the owners 30 days to accept or reject the offer. When the offer was rejected, Dad reduced the offering price. There was a long period of negotiation and Dad finally bought the farm for $85,000. As time went on contiguous acreage was added until its spread was 1,260 acres.
Page 30: (photo of Carlo Middaugh Paterno, Minnie Minton Middaugh Paterno, and Dr. Charles Vincent Paterno) Caption: The three of us in the conservatory await arrival of guests for the Sunday afternoon tea dances.
Page 31: It was named “Windmill Farm” because of its many large windmills for pumping water for the artificial lakes which Dad created to enhance the beauty of the development.
***
Graduated in 1930
I became a member of Vernon Hall and Phi Gamma Delta Fraternity in my junior year at Yale. Sheffield School of Science at the University graduated me in 1930 – really against Dad’s wish. He felt he could teach me more as an apprentice in his office in those four years rather than “waste” four years of book learning at college. I did not concur and insisted on attending Yale.
There I played at 4-handicap on the Yale golf team. A good friend from Milford School days and at Yale was Albie Booth, who at that time was what sports writers today would hail as a “super-star” in football. He was an exciting player.
In that era the Ivy League was prestigious and important nationally in collegiate football. The prime accolade was to be named All-American on Walter Camp’s greatly publicized selection of best college players nationally. Walter Camp was, of course, a Yale man, too.
***
In the late 1920’s after the 75 foot wall was built along Riverside Drive, the Castle grounds were established and a large conservatory, billiard room, new swimming pool and 17 greenhouses (including one especially for orchids) were constructed.
Page 32: Dad was a lover of flowers. He would spend a great deal of time in the greenhouses nursing his plants and pollinating orchids from various parts of the world.
***
For diversion after dinner, Dad, Boyd Brown and I would shoot pool in the billiard room before retiring. Mother only played occasionally but we had some real exciting games of eight ball as none of us were experts and our skills were mediocre.
***
Sunday Tea Dances
On Sunday afternoons in winter, we had open house tea dances in the conservatory. Music was furnished by the latest Capehart Victrola which automatically changed records and would play continuously for several hours.
Most of the persons were invited by telephone and some Sundays we had as many as 25 or 30 couples.
The fireplace in the conservatory was rather ingenious and one of Dad’s innovations as there was no chimney for smoke and heat to escape. He devised a large fan so that the smoke actually went underneath the floor in the conservatory and up the main chimney of the Castle. He did this for aesthetic reasons. Dad did not want the chimney to block the view through the beautiful glass dome. This innovation surprised everyone when it was brought to their attention.
Page 33: These Sunday parties were very enjoyable. Many pretty young girls attended. One Sunday Pepo Russo, a friend of Rosa Ponselle, arrived with a stunning blonde who later became Mrs. Boyd P. Brown.
(Photo of male golfers.) Caption: Uncle Joe [Joseph Paterno 1881-1939] was the most avid golfer in the family and in the 1920’s he engaged Gene Sarazen to instruct his sons, Joe and Jack, how to play golf. In fact, Joe made it his career. Gene Sarazen presently lives on Marco Island and I see him occasionally. This picture was taken at the Westchester Country Club, Rye, N.Y. about 1927. From right to left: Uncle Joe, Judge Cotillo, Dad (the smallest of the foursome but a giant of a man), Judge Peter Schmuck and one spectator. I remember the time I had a par 72 on the west course by sinking a long put on the 18th hole. In 1934 Helen had her engagement party at the Club as this was considered the top country club in the area at that time.
Page 34: (photo of Paterno Castle) Dad fulfilled his childhood dream of building a beautiful castle overlooking the Hudson River. Note the Hudson River Dayline Cruise ship.
NEXT: CHAPTER IV • CHARLES, JOSEPH FORM PARTNERSHIP
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Above newspaper clipping photo caption: Quite a lot of little ones from the Barnard Elementary School lived in the old shoe for a happy hour.
“Then Carlo Paterno suggested that it would be a nice thing to have a part for his pony. That was truly generous of Carlo for, as he was a candle sprite, he could not hope to have much to do with the pony. His generosity had its own reward, however, for one of the prettiest scenes in the play was the one where Alice, played by Bessie Fulmar, aged seven, drove away in quest of Fairyland.”
