Now & Then

Pizza John's: A Symbol of the American Dream

Essex institution shows how three brothers can start with nothing and build a highly successful business.

Sometime back in the mid 1970’s, during one of my reading moods I became enthralled with the autobiography penned by Boston Red Sox legend Tony Conigliaro. Conigliaro's fantastic career, which ran from the mid 1960’s until the early 1970’s was sadly cut short when he never fully recovered from being accidentally hit in the head by a pitch. Conigliaro had become great friends and a constant companion of Frank Sinatra and his circle of buddies. He reserved one chapter in his book to tell of the Sinatra friendship. In one particular instance he mentioned being at Sinatra’s house one day along with a few members of Sinatra ’s “Rat Pack” when Frank got the urge for some pizza. Sinatra mentioned he knew a wonderful place that had the beast pizza…

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