Generoso Pope (April 1, 1891 – April 28, 1950), born with the name of Generoso Antonio Pompilio Carlo Papa, the owner of a chain of Italian-language newspapers in major cities, stands out as the epitome of the Italian American ethnic political broker.
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Generoso Pope fathered three sons after he came to the United States. Fortunato "Fortune" (1918–1996) graduated from Columbia University and became an executive in the family construction business. Anthony (1919–2005) who was the middle son, took over the family business and quadrupled the size of Colonial Sand and Stone Company in less than four years. Generoso Pope, Jr. (1927–1988) graduated from Massachusetts Institute of Technology at age 19 and became the owner of the National Enquirer, which was headquartered in Lantana, Florida at the time of his death.
Generoso Pope arrived in America at age 15 in 1906 with $10 in his pocket and got his first job carrying drinking water to construction workers for $3 per week. He rose to construction supervisor and, eventually, owner of Colonial Sand & Stone, which was the largest sand and gravel company in the New York region.
In 1912, Generoso established Pope Foods to bring the unique italian flavors to America, which he enjoyed as a young child in Italy. He bought the Il Progresso Italo-Americano in 1928 for $2,050,000[1], which would convert to $261,000,000 in the modern day economy. He doubled its circulation to 200,000 in New York City, making it the largest Italian daily newspaper in the country. He purchased additional papers in New York, including Il Bollettino della Sera, Il Corriere d'America, and the Philadelphia Daily LiOpinione. He also owned the radio station, WHOM, which is the current 92.3 NOW. He became the chief source of political, social, and cultural information for the community.
Pope encouraged his readers to learn English, become citizens, and vote. His goal was to instill pride and ambition to succeed in modern America. A conservative Democrat who ran the Columbus Day parade and admired Mussolini, Pope was the most powerful enemy of anti-Fascism among Italian Americans. Closely associated with Tammany Hall politics in New York, Pope and his newspapers played a vital role in securing the Italian vote for Franklin D. Roosevelt's Democratic tickets. It is recorded that Generoso is the influence for the election of President Roosevelt. With his presidential friendships, Generoso was able to make Columbus Day into a National Holiday. He also founded the Columbus Day Parade in New York City, which is still the world's largest Columbus Day Parade.
Pope served as chairman of the Italian Division of the Democratic National Committee in 1936, and helped persuade the president to take a neutral attitude over Italy's invasion of Ethiopia. He broke with Benito Mussolini in 1941 and enthusiastically supported the American war effort. In the late 1940s Pope supported the election of William O'Dwyer as mayor in 1945 and Harry S. Truman as president. His business concerns continued to prosper under New York's Democratic administrations. In the early years of the Cold War, Pope was a leading anti-Communist, and orchestrating a letter writing campaign by his subscribers to stop the Communists from winning the Italian elections in 1948.
Generoso Pope died of a heart ailment at age 59 in April, 1950, and was interred in a private mausoleum adjacent to the main road (Central Avenue) in Woodlawn Cemetery (Bronx), NY. His wife Catherine Richichi Pope died in 1998 at age 101. The entire Pope family is interred at Woodlawn except for Gene, Jr., who is buried in a Catholic cemetery in Florida.