Foreword: This is the second post bringing together three whiskey men of Italian heritage who distinguished themselves as civic and business leaders in America. An earlier post on Italians featured three individuals each of whom was an immigrant to these shores. In this second group two are immigrants. The third whiskey man, whose story opens this article, was native-born of Italian ancestry who found success in an unusual location.
Vic Trolio would have been about 20 years old when he launched his career as a businessman in Canton, Mississippi. He was born in 1870 in Tennessee, the son of Pietro and Mary Trolio, both of them Italian immigrants. As a child Vic's large Italian family had moved to Mississippi where Trolio's first occupation was as a grocer, a career choice for many Italians. A 1904 memoir cites him as the owner of the Canton Grocery Company. By that year the Trolios also operated a three-story hotel with fancy balustrades on the main square in Canton. A key feature of that establishment was the saloon on the ground floor. Trolio is shown here in a languid pose behind the ornate bar of this watering hole. A flyer for his barroom, emphasized “anxious to please.”
Trolio advertised the “best of whiskey,” on that flyer, with special emphasis on “Old Ky Taylor.” That was a brand from Wright & Taylor of Louisville. His saloon also featured signs for “Ashton Whiskey” from Simon Bros. of Louisville and “Murray Hill” from Jos. Magnus of Cincinnati. But most of all Vic sold “Trolio Bourbon.” At 75 cents a quart and $3.00 a gallon, Vic peddled it both in his saloon and from his grocery store. He packaged it in a series of ceramic jugs, one selection of which is shown here.
In 1907, Mississippi became the first Southern state to ban alcohol completely, anticipating National Prohibition by 13 years. Trolio was forced to shut down his saloon and end liquor sales from his grocery store. Another setback occurred when a fire during the winter of 1913 burned the third floor of the Trolio Hotel. It is shown below, third building from left, as it originally looked. The structure was so badly damaged that Trolio elected not to replace the floor. Today as a two-story hotel it stands restored and is on the National Registry of Historical Buildings.
During the early 1900s, Trolio turned as one of his business interests to pecan farming. In a letter to an agricultural publication in 1922, he described the poor pecan crop of the previous year and indicated plans to put out more trees during the current growing season. In 1938, Trolio died at the age of 68. In tribute to a man who had been a pioneering entrepreneur and community leader for almost a half century, the citizens of Canton named a street in his honor.
When he died in 1938, Los Angeles newspapers addressed Giovanni Piuma as “Cavaliere,” (Knight), befitting a man who had gone from impoverished immigrant youth to Italian royal consular agent for Southern California, confidant of Italian King Victor Emmanuel, and Italian knighthood. Piuma’s rise had been fostered by his businesses, selling wine and whiskey.
Piuma experienced considerable success as a grocer and vintner. His liquor, wine and grocery store expanded considerably in the days before National Prohibition. Shown below is an interior photo showing barrels and bottles of wine and liquor. Piuma in a dark suit stands among his sizable staff. He was featuring his own brands of whiskey, including the labels shown.
As he grew in wealth, Piuma also was establishing a reputation for leadership in his Italian community and in Los Angeles as a whole. He gained considerable prestige when he was appointed by the Italian government as consul for Los Angeles. In this role he was charged with looking after Italian residents of the city including arranging burials in the homeland and assisting Italian tourists, especially those in trouble. On two trips back to Italy the vintner/liquor dealer was ushered into the presence of King Victor Emmanuel, who eventually would bestow on Piuma the title “Cavaliere.”
Piuma’s interests ranged well beyond just his Italian compatriots. He was a founding member of the Los Angeles Liberal Alliance, founded in 1905 for the stated purpose of bringing together all the city’s nationalities in an organization dedicated to instilling fealty to the American flag. As one writer has put it: “It sought to promote citizenship through the preamble to the Constitution, specifically the famed words about the “inalienable rights” of “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.”
Although Piuma is said to be a little known figure today in Los Angeles, his leadership during a period of intense immigration from all over Europe, including Italy, was important in the city for forging a sense of American identity.
Arriving in the United States in 1892 with $1.25 in his pocket and little English,Eduardo Cerruti, despite frequent setbacks, continued throughout his life to plunge into new challenges that made him a living legend in San Francisco. With liquor sales as his mainstay, Cerruti, shown here, founded cigar companies, ran a popular nightclub, and as a final plunge, built a large indoor salt-fed swimming pool that that operated until the 1950s.
After a series of unsatisfactory jobs, including bartender, and wanting to own his own business, Cerruti opened a general merchandise store in 1903 he called Cerruti Mercantile Company. Counting up his previous jobs at twelve, the entrepreneur told the San Francisco Chronicle that this move was his lucky thirteenth. His company sold a range of merchandise, including liquor, wine and olive oil. A photo of the store shows barrels and cases ready for delivery.
To assist in this enterprise Eduardo recruited his siblings. August, his closest brother in age, apparently had come to America earlier and was working for him. As Cerruti Mercantile grew “large and successful,” Eduardo put out a call for other brothers to join him. Peter, Victor, and Mario answered and emigrated.
The Cerrutis were operating as “rectifiers,” that is, blending whiskeys obtained from distillers to achieve a desired color, taste and smoothness. The liquor would have been aged in barrels on the premises, shown above, then decanted into bottles, labelled and sold to saloons, restaurants and hotels. Shown here is an amber whiskey quart with the Cerruti monogram embossed in the glass. The company flagship brand was “Old Promotion,” a label Cerruti never bothered to trademark. He also opened a cafe and bar called Club Lido.
With the imposition of National Prohibition in 1920, Cerruti was denied the revenue from wine and liquor sales that had fueled his enterprises. He opened a saltwater natatorium he called “The Crystal Palace Baths,” later renamed the “Crystal Plunge.” Opened in 1924 located at 775 Lombard Street, the pool held 300,000 gallons of salt water that was pumped in from an ocean pier near San Francisco’s Fisherman's Wharf. The complex included a dance floor and served snacks and non-alcoholic beverages.
Cerruti died in 1951 at the age of 76. A fitting closing thought on this immigrant San Francisco entrepreneur was provided by the Chronicle: “Edward Cerruti is the living embodiment of what a foreign boy can make of himself in this country, even if, as he did, at the start the capital is only a dollar and a half.”
Note: More complete biographies of each of these whiskey men may be found elsewhere on this Internet site: Vic Trolio, June 1, 2012; Giovanni Piuma, January 24, 2021, and Eduardo Cerruti, August 17, 2020.
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