Show MfllJOlcontinued cue cf my fiunily ofoot hiving my children lode up to me I was always afraid of n£unQy being botDelen of my children uving to me one day ‘Daddy you couldn’t keep a roof over out heads'” The AieUoe were now the parents of two more nos Danny 1c and Jaime (their only daughter Stacey came along in 1969) and they had no idea tow they would make ends meet Aiello refused to let his wife get a job "As an Italian male I could not allow it" he said laughing He had no choice however Onef Meanwhile Aiello's worst fears were realized "We went back on welfare" he recalled "It waa ao embarrassing to me that I began to do anything to pay the rent I ran some after-hou- rs Joints on die Lower East Side— bad places wbererdfjndmyselfbetweea two guns And when I didn't see any other way out I sometimes broke into stores and stole money” hadtoifinda stealing? Absdutdy'But I still think it was the right decision if it kept us from being out on the street" Bud Friedman the owner of the Im-pra well-knocomedy dub in Manhattan came to Aiello’s rescue in 1969 by employing him as a bouncer "It was ov a natural for me” said Aiello “I'd become a dangerous hitter I knew how to throw sound) and had a lot of behind it The one thing I was defending myself so iti that the only job I was able to get was this one” ' When Friedman took evenings off Airflflfillwt hnnirigintTr- doedons “1 didn’t know what I was doing” he admitted “But people kept telling me 1 had a nice way” He also discovered (hat heenjoyed being onstage Aiello began telling anyone woo would listen that he was an acton His success as at emcee wasn’t his only reason: "When I became union president at " to explained "I had no in unionism I was chosen on die basis of personality and of people looking at my eyes and believing I was honest They loved me I concluded that if1 went into acting and and-encsaw the mne things the union people had seen they’d like me too 1 wanted to identify myself as some-tilines g" SURGEON GENERAL'S WARNING: CigarettB Smoke Contains Carbon Monoxide Friednon encouraged Aiello to audition for stage plays Out of this came an offer to understudy a part in a national tour of 77 Great White Hope “I couldn't take it because it only paid $75 a week" said Aiello "But I went back on auditions with the added strength that I'dbeen chosen for a role” MGE14' |