In 1989 I finally straightened out my life and got back on track, that whole Key West thing was so exciting in the beginning but at the end it destroyed me, I got very lucky and hooked up with mentertainment magazine they hired me as a staff photographer photographing all the strip clubs in New Jersey and New York, there were two magazines that went to every club in New York and New Jersey we even had a third magazine that went out poorly every club in America we also had a couple thousand subscribers, we eventually opened up our own studio I already had my own studio so I was running both, photographing exotic dancers at night and then doing nude portfolios during the day Within a three-year period I published over 1200 dancers and did hundreds of portfolios, At that time 30 years ago I think I had the world record, I also supplied Howard Stern with a lot of the Snapple girls on his radio show, Many girls I did portfolios for I talked them into doing ads on the 900 number lines which we owned a couple of you know talk to a hot sexy dancer for $1.99 A minute that’s another hysterical story, if you got to listen in on those conversations you would laugh your ass off Did I mention the little bachelor party agency I put together pretty crazy after three years of living in the evil wicked night life again I was exhausted so I retired from that profession met some young girl had some kids went back to New York City selling cameras. That lasted about seven years and then I was ready for my next adventure the Sal estate

One of my favorite family portraits it’s my mom with her 11 brothers and sisters, a real jersey shore Italian family this photo here is from the mid 40s imagine feeding 12 kids three times a day well my grandmother Virginia and my grandpa Joe did just in the morning two dozen eggs two loaves of bread 2 gallons of milk probably 3 pounds of bacon while they were eating breakfast my grandmother was getting their lunch ready for school 12 lunches , I always talk about my other grandfather my dad‘s father Captain Tony being a wild crazy gangster which was true, this other grandpa I had grandpa Joe, had a little café rooming house in Elizabeth New Jersey he also had one of those back rooms where he had business meetings I remember in the 60s going down the Jersey shore and partying with all my aunts uncles and cousins they were the greatest times and now I have over 100 cousins I am in touch with most of them through Facebook which is great

One day in 1970 Muhammad Ali decided he wanted to see Key West, he went there with his entourage somebody told him about the great fishing in Key West while he was there, him and his two bodyguards went down to the marina to go fishing everybody was running up to him getting his autographs the charter boats were yelling come on my boat so my grandfather having the famous gift of gab yells out and says Mr. Muhammad Ali come on my boat because I am the greatest, Muhamed Ali Smiled and my grandfather took him fishing There was a bunch of great photos taken My grandfather lost all the original negatives and prints

Since I have over 1200 large format negatives of my great uncle Sals works every once in a while I like to grab a negative and hold it in front of my living room window with the curtains and take a picture of it with my iPhone Super cool effect

Back in the early 90s I was selling lots of my photos on ceramic tiles doing quite well with them in New York Jersey in Key West I had a big display them in the electron a gallery in Soho I would have a little gallery show once a week A lot of people came here to hang out drink wine and by my tiles one night William Defoe came in and bought a dozen large tiles of mine

I have about 25 original newspaper stories about my great uncle Sal this one here is from 1937 the advertisement image I have on top of it was when Sal was performing 17 1928

One of those crazy stories but true in 1925 SW. 14 years old he started reading minds and predicting the future he also learned how to play the piano by ear and work for the church he was sent to the Newark psychic Center people back then didn’t understand The church Saint Anthony’s tried to keep a lid on it because he was gay This photo right here is 10 years later 1935 Sal was 24 years old they found a very old crate in the back of the Saint Patricks church it’s probably been there for 50 years nobody knew about it so they called in Sal since he was a clairvoyant They wanted to know what he thought crazy true story Sal never wanted to talk about it to the church people or anybody else