I am responding to a rather misguided young lady, on an Italian American List Serv, who apparently had no idea the American Hero and Icon that DiMaggio was, and relies on tabloids and sensationalist books by irresponsible journalists for her sources.

Another example as to how we have failed our children in educating them to our Italian American Culture and History, and leave them unarmed and defenseless against journalists that because of biases, or profit motive attempt to destroy our heroes, and in the process
make our Culture less attractive to be "associated" with, encouraging "assimilation".
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DIMAGGIO....

...a shy boy who grew into a quiet but proud man...in search of excellence...
..his peers were awestruck.. a hero to his own teammates.... he felt a great responsibility to inspire and lead his every fan as best he could every day of his life.... always calm, polite, and stoic...a solid guy, very dependable...America's ideal hero, strong, rugged, quiet.... a constant striving for personal excellence...
the antithesis of braggadocio and ostentation.....a modest man, not questing for popularity
a reserved man, never really fitting in as "one of the guys"... young kids in awe of the great DiMaggio, and women dazzled by his proud demeanor and haunting appeal.... he gave a thousand percent every game, day in and day out, for a lot of years...he just has a hell of a lot of greatness in him...absolutely fearless...the man the baseball community looked to as the pinnacle of their collective greatness....

In a Cincinnati high school history class in 1941, a poll was taken to name the greatest American of all time. Abraham Lincoln finished third, George Washington second, and first...Joe DiMaggio.

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Joltin' Joe DiMaggio the hero that unified America. The Italian immigrant who followed America's golden paved road to greatness, playing America's game in America's most famous city, on America's most storied team, married to America's most beloved movie star.

The American public, searching for heroes in the decades of Depression and war, found in Joe DiMaggio an ideal image of itself.

What is it about DiMaggio that allowed him to transcend his sport and his time to secure his place in American mythology?????
Why did the American public at the time yearn for such a hero????
Has America lost the idealism that pervaded Joe DiMaggio's time????
What kind of heroes do we want today???

One can only attempt to answer these questions by trying to gain clear perspective of Joe DiMaggio's life. He was a shy boy who grew into a quiet but proud man. He went in search of excellence, and found it on the baseball field.

His teammates, coaches, and rivals all talk of him with a twinkle in their eyes and with an awestruck tone in their voices.

When Joe DiMaggio retired from Major League baseball, many felt they had lost their hero.

But, Joe DiMaggio never left the American public scene, marrying movie star Marilyn Monroe and once again placing himself in the national spotlight. Through it all, Joe DiMaggio understood the power he had over the American public, and he felt a great responsibility to inspire and lead his every fan as best he could every day of his life.

He is referred to in history as the "Greatest American Icon" and "The Last American Hero". He has been made to represent American idealism, and he stands for an American past looked upon wistfully by newer generations.

In the 1960s, Simon and Garfunkel posed the question, "Where have you gone Joe DiMaggio, our nation turns its lonely eyes to you?" Is America in need of another hero, or will Joe DiMaggio's legend survive the test of time and remain America's golden boy forever?

In 1932, the Seals were about as high as a San Francisco youth could ever hope to go in baseball. The major leagues were a far away dream, an unreal hope for most (Allen, 27).

Joe DiMaggio made his professional debut in the final week of the 1932 season as a shortstop. In his first at bat, he laced a triple. He had no contract, he received no money, but he impressed the ownership and management of the Seals enough to be invited to spring training in 1933.

In his rookie season with the Seals, he batted .340, lead the league with 169 RBIs, and belted 28 homeruns. At the age of 18, Joe DiMaggio became an instant celebrity. He tore up the Pacific Coast League pitching, astounding all who saw him play.

He impressed the New York Yankees enough to cause Yankee owner Colonel Jacob Ruppert to buy him. In 1935, DiMaggio finished his minor league career batting .398 with 154 RBIs and 34 homeruns. Said DiMaggio, "I was cocky, confident, call it what you want. I knew I could play, but I kept it inside myself, inside my shell." (Allen, 31)

In 1936, DiMaggio arrived at Yankee spring training. He was welcomed by the manager Joe McCarthy, and the team's current star, Lou Gehrig.

Yet, despite his impressive minor league statistics, DiMaggio knew he was only a rookie, and that he would have to earn the respect of his teammates by "letting his bat and glove do talking." He did just that, hitting line drives all over the place, causing World Telegram and Sun report Dan Daniel to take one look at the young DiMaggio and proclaim "Here is the replacement for Babe Ruth".

Frank Crosetti, DiMaggio's teammate from 1936-1948 claimed that DiMaggio never got the credit he deserved. "Joe didn't push himself on the writers. Everybody took him for granted. He just made everything look easy..." "He was a great ball player and a high class guy." (Allen, 34).

"Did he get a hit?" was the common question on every American's mind in the summer of 1941. Joe DiMaggio got at least one base hit for fifty -six games in a row, breaking the previous record of forty-four held by Wee Willie Keeler. As he got closer and closer to breaking the record, the American public watched his every at bat with unprecedented interest and anticipation. According to sportscaster and author, Maury Allen, "It had become the most important event in America."

Letters poured into Yankee Stadium. When he got a hit in his forty-fifth game straight, the public response was remarkable. Newspapers of the time recorded the popular reaction.

San Francisco, the fishermen on the wharf heard the news and celebrated with wine. In Chicago, a big, burly truck driver heard the announcement on his radio, leaned out of his window to tell a pretty girl passing by, and got a kiss blown to him for his news. In Denver, the announcement of DiMaggio's hit was made at a public roller-skating rink and the kids there banged on the boards with their skates. In Cincinnati, in a summer high school history class, a poll was taken to name the greatest American of all time. Abraham Lincoln finished third, George Washington second, and first...Joe DiMaggio. (Allen, pg. 102-103)"

It was an event that effected everyone, a tangible occurrence that unified a very diverse people. Everyone knew about the streak, everyone followed it. Sports fans, Italian-Americans, young kids in awe of the great DiMaggio, and women dazzled by his proud demeanor and haunting appeal followed the events of one man's life with profound intrigue and interest.

According to Yankee pitcher Lefty Gomez, "Joe was probably the least excited guy in America over the streak. He didn't talk much about it while it was going on. He just went out and got a hit day after day."

On July 17, 1941, there were 67,468 people in the stands at Cleveland's Municipal Stadium. It was the largest night-baseball crowd ever, who had come to see Joe DiMaggio extend his amazing streak. Joe went 0-for-3 with a walk that night, robbed twice of potential base-hits by Indian third baseman Ken Keltner's superior defensive plays. The Yankees won the game that night, 4-1, but the streak officially came to an end at fifty-six. "I can't say I am glad it's over," said DiMaggio shortly afterwards, "Of course, I wanted it to go on as long as it could."

But, according to his teammates, the fans, and the reporters, Joe DiMaggio reacted to the end of his streak in classic Joe DiMaggio manner. He was calm, polite, and stoic as always, crediting Keltner for his brilliant fielding, never displaying much emotion about his own tremendous accomplishment. So, what was all the hype about anyway? How did one man's fifty-six game hitting streak grip a nation of people so tightly and intrigue them so poignantly?

Below the surface of an obvious fascination with extraordinary success, it wasn't the consecutive hits that fascinated the American public, but the man who was getting them. It was his cool and collected demeanor, upheld throughout the entire fifty-six game ordeal, that Americans witnessed and desired to find more about. Because DiMaggio himself never replied and acted in a controversial manner, the American public could employ their own notions about DiMaggio to DiMaggio, and he would accordingly fit them. Joe DiMaggio and his fifty-six game hitting streak brought to life everyman's wildest dreams of success. The number, although a fantastic athletic accomplishment, was merely a marker for those who watched a great man at work.

In the summer of 1941, the American public lived, vicariously through Joe DiMaggio; happy for his triumphs, saddened by his failures, and forever eager to hear more about their hero. There are events that survive the passage of time, that stay alive in memory despite all subsequent experience. For millions of Americans, "the streak" had that special significance. Robert Creamer writes that "DiMaggio's streak "transcended the Yankees and New York; it transcended baseball..." "No athlete before it or since...has held the country's fascinated attention day after day, week after week, the way DiMaggio did in 1941."(Sklansky and Edgar)."

"DiMaggio's remarkable achievement-its uniqueness, in the unvarnished literal sense of that word-lies in whatever he did to extend his success well beyond the reasonable expectations of random models that have governed every other streak or slump in the history of baseball...DiMaggio activated that greatest and most unattainable dream of all humanity, the hope and chimera of all sages and shamans: he cheated death, at least for a while."(Sklansky and Edgar 26).

It began magically as a public romance and ended tragically as a public romance. Joe DiMaggio, the king of baseball, and Marilyn Monroe, the queen of the movies, were introduced to each other by a mutual friend and had their first date in a popular New York restaurant. Neither took to the other much, until Mickey Rooney ambled
by the couples' table and starting paying homage to great DiMaggio.

Marilyn Monroe, a young starlet on the way to fame herself, was instantly impressed and captivated by the power of Joe DiMaggio's mystique, several years after he had retired from baseball. Joe DiMaggio was the father she never knew, the strong, silent man who encouraged her. He only delighted in her successes, he was such a star himself, that he hardly needed to steal any of her limelight (Allen 175).

It was a cross-country romance, well-documented and followed by the American public, who were simply astounded by the celebrity relationship. But the public's relentless desire to know everything about the couple's personal life arguably caused the relationship to diminish. While on their honeymoon in Japan, Marilyn was asked to entertain the U.S. troops in Korea. She left her new husband in search of fame, yet Joe understood her passions, the demons within in her that drove her to be the best.

When she returned she exclaimed, "Joe, Joe, it was wonderful, the troops loved me. You have never heard such cheering."

HIS RESPONSE: "Yes, yes darling, I have."

Yet, he didn't resent her fame, or her success. What he could not do was separate the fact that the actress performing the rituals demanded of her by her profession, the woman that every man in America wanted, was also his wife. On October 5, 1954, just 274 days after they were married, Marilyn Monroe and Joe DiMaggio divorced.

Yet, Joe DiMaggio, the man who needed no one, was still in love with Marilyn Monroe, the woman who needed everyone. They remained close friends after the divorce. When Marilyn Monroe suddenly died in 1962, it was rumored that DiMaggio was just about to ask her to remarry him.

He immediately took care of all of the funeral arrangements, deciding that Marilyn would be buried with dignity, free of the hysterical commotion usually associated
with rites for Hollywood idols (Allen 197).

Lois Weber Smith, Marilyn Monroe's press agent, offered some insight to Joe and Marilyn's rocky yet loving relationship-"I don't think Joe was right with what he did with the funeral, but I know that she cared very deeply for him in the last years.

He was a solid guy, very dependable, very helpful to her. For a while, when they were married, Marilyn had the idea she could have both lives, the private and the public. She deceived herself in that. She couldn't keep them separate. The press wouldn't allow it.

They were both too big, too famous, too much a part of America to disappear when they weren't working.

I know he loved her. I'm convinced of that now. I know in her way she loved him too. He was kind and generous and strong.

It was almost as if Marilyn Monroe and Joe DiMaggio met at the wrong time in their lives."

The relationship between Joe DiMaggio and Marilyn Monroe was complex and complicated, but that is exactly why the American public was so intrigued by it.

America's ideal hero, strong, rugged, quiet, troubled, married to America's feminine ideal, beautiful, talented, and sexually appealing. It was a perfect match destined to fail, but somehow, Joe DiMaggio and Marilyn Monroe managed to love one another. Marilyn Monroe loved people, and she loved life.

Joe DiMaggio just couldn't accept her as the love object for every other man in the world. Joe DiMaggio had his pride, a trait the ancient Greeks referred to as "man's tragic flaw." His quest for perfection in every aspect of his life drew him to Marilyn's magnanimous persona. Yet his pride did not allow him to accept the results of his wife's charisma and charm.

It very well might be the match of the ages, a romance that will go down in history as the most magical ever. Joe DiMaggio and Marilyn Monroe provided Americans with a real life fairytale. Unlike most fairytales, it did not end "happily ever after." Yet, it ended in classic Joe DiMaggio fashion, the aching lover mourning for his beautiful bride. It's the stuff heroes are made of...

...Continued in Part II