From Ring to Swing
Gigolo Johnny spends his days as food-factory worker Mark Gallo. He spends his nights doing lounge-style gigs at the Babaluci restaurants in Bucktown and Hoffman Estates or rolling up to homes and businesses in his black Chevy sedan, unloading an array of speakers and minidiscs with instrumental versions of classic tunes, and putting on a show.
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The crowd of 60 or so people laughed, and before they could answer he burst into his opening number, “It Had to Be You.” Given that he has a voice like Tony Bennett’s, he could have just sung. Instead he riffed throughout, as he bobbed and wove through the crowd, pretending to hit on women and making verbal digs at the guys. For the next hour Gigolo Johnny kept them laughing and applauding. The outsider had transformed himself into the center of attention.
Gallo could amuse his classmates, but he wasn’t popular. While the other boys played baseball, he played Sinatra records and watched professional wrestling on TV, attracted by its “sense of theater.”
Word of mouth is Gigolo Johnny’s main form of advertising now, and business is good–though Gallo sometimes dreams of moving to Vegas with his wife and two kids.
Art accompanying story in printed newspaper (not available in this archive): photos/Yvette Marie Dostatni.
