I Met My True Love in Wildwood
Love in the Key of ‘B’

The letter “B” has loomed large in the life of Vic Cappuccino. The love of his life is his wife, Bert – Bertha – who he met at the old Bang-Bang dance on the Wildwood Boardwalk. Sitting in the sun with Bert alongside the house they share with the family of one of their eleven children in Anglesea, Vic reflects that the way he made his way in the world was as a Boxer, a Bookmaker, and a Butcher. The “B’s” have been good to Vic Cappuccino, one of the humblest and sweetest of men, always ready with a smile, a laugh, or a joke.

Although Vic was from Kensington and Bert – then Bertha Roach – was from Fishtown, they had never met until one magical night at what was known as the Bang-Bang dance on Wildwood’s Boardwalk. “We were good dancers is what attracted us,” Bert recalls. “The first time he asked me to dance was to ‘Fools Rush In.’” They both laugh at the memory. “Then when we went home we’d see each other at the St. John’s dance at Front and York.”

“At an early age we fell in love. It was a whirlwind romance,” Vic continues. Bert picks up: “In October we started to go together.” “October third,” interjects Vic. “And we got engaged at Christmas and we got married in August,” Bert goes on. Vic was 18 and Bert was 17.

“We eloped to Elkton, Maryland,” Vic adds. “Then when we came home we had our marriage blessed in Holy Name Church,” Bert concludes.

They were married on August 14, 1944, while Vic was on leave from Navy boot camp. Bert remembers that they took the train from Philadelphia to spend their honeymoon in Wildwood. “We had $53,” she says, “and walked down Oak Street to the first rooming house we could find. We had to share the bath. We stayed for four days, and we had 15 cents when we left, so we got a paper bag of French fries on the Boardwalk.”

Vic Cappuccino started boxing when he was 15. “Back in those days we could lie about our age and I said I was 17,” he chuckles. “Everybody lied about their ages at that time. I won the Inquirer’s Diamond Belt championship as an amateur and then represented Philadelphia at the nationals at the Boston Arena.”

As an amateur, he had the amazing record of 110-4 as a lightweight, and was 34-6 as a pro, fighting under the name of Vic Capcino. (His given name is actually Vito Cappuccino.) “Our greatest fights were at the Cambria Boxing Club with Joey Fagan and we sold the place out,” Vic says. “Two Kensington kids. We fought twice and we each won a fight. I also had 14 fights in the Navy. I fought in Philadelphia, Norfolk, Boston, all over the country.”

A southpaw, Vic says that his best combination was a right lead followed by a double left hook. “It was as fast as Zippo Dell the Bellhop,” he adds, explaining that Zippo was a well-known Chestnut Street bartender back in the day.

After his boxing career, he was going to become a referee – like his brother Frank, an internationally renowned ref – “but I had some trouble with the police,” he notes. “He was a number writer,” Bert puts in.

“I became a number writer at Temple.” Vic goes on. “I was two years in Temple University teachers college night school and I got associated with some gambling and I became a bookie. I had 38 pinches.” Asked if he minds if that is used in this story, he says, “Of course, not. The statute of limitations is way past.”

The Cappuccino’s lived in Wissonoming for 42 years – “with the elite” Vic says with a laugh “and we brought our children up at St. Bart’s.”

Vic had learned the butcher’s trade when he was about 11 years old at a shop at Coral and Somerset Streets in Fishtown, and later in life was a butcher at Vic and Lou’s at “G” and Madison until he “had a little trouble with the bookmaking” and opened anther shop at the same site where “Bill Green, Frank Rizzo – they all used to stop in.”

In 1983, Vic Cappuccino bought the old Henley Boy’s Club from the late Mickey Grandinetti – another sweetheart of a man – and made it the Cambria Boxing Club, named after the old Cambria auditorium where he’d had so many fights. Vic points out that he actually got the original ring from the old Cambria and it is still being used in the club’s present incarnation as the Front Street Gym.

Vic and Bert Cappuccino liked to be out and about and they met stars like Johnny Ray and Frank Sinatra at Philadelphia hotspots like the original Latin Casino and Sciolla’s. “My exceptional buddy,” Vic notes, “was Jimmy Johnson, a singer who presently sings at all our Survivors of Cancer affairs.” Vic and Bert are members of the SOC Committee and very active in fundraising for that worthy organization.

No chronicle of the life and times of Vic Cappuccino would be complete without mentioning his demi-career as a Jimmy Durante impersonator. Al Mussachio, who runs the Wildwood Boxing Club and has known the Cappuccinos for years, remembers being at an affair with them.

“The emcee says, ‘We have a special guest tonight – Jimmy Durante!’” Mussachio recalls. “I look around and Vic is gone and the next thing I know he’s up on the stage with a big nose and a hat, doing a Jimmy Durante routine. I almost peed myself!”

Bert recalls that the beginning of the Durante thing was when “one of the kids had this big nose one time and Vic put it on and started singing and we kept saying, ‘You sound just like him!’ so we got a hat and then when we would go out, he would take the nose and the hat and he would get up and do his act. You know, some people still call him ‘Jimmy.’ When we see them, they’ll say, ‘Hiya, Jimmy!’”

“I seem to have lost all my skills,” Vic says of his Durante days. “Every once in a while I’ll do it and I intend to do it again once I get off this vertigo I’ve had. And I’m not punchy, either. This vertigo wasn’t because I got punched a lot because I was a pretty good boxer and I took care of myself pretty well in the ring. With the grace of God, I expect to do Durante again.”

Besides the vertigo, Vic Cappuccino says, “I’ve had my share of knocks. I’ve had a knee replacement and rotary cuff problems.” “He had a stroke in October and I had blood clots,” Bert adds. “They found a hole in my heart, too, and they put a device in to close it up,” Vic finishes.

Through sickness and health, Vic and Bert have had the steadfast love of their eleven children, twenty grandchildren, and nine great-grandchildren. One of their most prized possessions is a unique clock given to them by their kids. Each hour has the communion picture of one of the children, and when it gets to the hour there is a spoken message from that son or daughter, and when the hands reach twelve o’clock all eleven children join in singing “We Are Family.”

The Cappuccinos sold their house in Wissonoming in 2000 and moved down here. When asked how he’s enjoying retirement, Vic and says, “Actually, I was retired all my life. Thank God I was able to do my thing – boxing, butchering, and booking.”

It’s been a good life, well-lived, for Vic and Bert.

Cent’ anni.

Vic & Bert will celebrate their 64th wedding anniversary August 14th with their 11 children, Victor, Vincent, Marybeth, (twins) Vito & Valerie, Josie, Claudia, Vicki, (twins) Carol & Chris, and Toni

	Circa 1940s~Bang-Bang Danceland Courtesy of the Wildwood Historic Society