Frank Rizzo

by S.A. Paolantonio

Here is the 10th anniversary edition of the first full-scale biography of Frank Rizzo, one of the most beloved and feared public figures in urban American history. Sweeping and finely detailed, this is a work of scholarship that reads like a novel, packed with colorful new details and revealing new stories about a man whose life demonstrated how the force of personality can affect history.

Genres: Biography, History

420 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1993

Reviews

[Robert Chasen · Rating 2 out of 5]

I searched for a biography of Frank Rizzo after reading Mike Royko's wonderful Richard Daley biography "Boss". On "Boss": this is a slim political biography that reads like a novel, beautifully written, really painting a picture of the city of Chicago, the political system, cultural change, and Daley himself. I did not grow up near Chicago, but after reading Boss, I feel like I know something rich about 20th Century Chicago history and political culture. "Boss" reminded me of Robert Caro's "The Power Broker", which is ostensibly a biography of Robert Moses, but is really a story about the history of 20th Century power in New York City and New York State. I can't recommend these two books highly enough -- and that's why I wanted to read something similar about the bigger-than-life politician from my childhood and young adulthood in Philadelphia.

This book seems to be the best out there, but it's quite disappointing compared to the very high bar I'd set for it. The subject matter is genuinely fascinating, both Frank Rizzo the man and the public figure, both shaped by and shaping his era, spanning the 50s through the early 90s. For this reason the book, which benefits from access to many people in and out of the Rizzo camp, is still worth reading.

Unfortunately, however, the book is ultimately disappointing, because the writing is simply OK, but not wonderful. And even more importantly, the editing is abysmal, inexcusably so. The book was written shortly after Rizzo's death in the early 90s, and I bought the "10th Anniversary" reissue from the early 2000s, so it's inexcusable to find structural flaws (and even typos) in a book that may have initially been rushed to print, but which had a decade in which to be properly edited or revised as needed. Beyond the pure sloppiness of misspellings, there at least a handful of instances of awful sequence errors: stories would refer to a person or event that had not yet been described, with the reader needing to know who a character is or what event had occurred, in order to understand the current story or anecdote -- but then pages or even chapters later, the character or event in question would be introduced, ignoring the incomplete reference earlier in the book.

I can still recommend this book to my contemporaries: people like me, born in the 60s who will clearly remember Rizzo being mayor in the 70s, and a constant political figure in politics throughout the 80s. The book introduces and gives fascinating background on many stories and persons whose names were familiar to me, but which I really didn't fully understand or remember. If you sort of know that Billy Meehan was an important guy running the Philadelphia Republican party for decades; if you're heard of the famous 50s/60s reformers Clark and Dilworth; if you vaguely remember risking Democratic star Ron Castille (who was Philadelphia D.A., then had his political career flame out when he Rizzo smeared him in a mayoral primary); if you've heard of, or remember, the MOVE crises of the 70s and 80s, and Wilson Goode allowing a West Philadelphia neighborhood to be bombed and burn to the ground, and then being reelected over Rizzo -- then this book has a lot of information and stories that you will find really interesting.

[Jim Kelsh · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this book when it first came out almost 20 years ago. After the dramatic stories about the Rizzo statue coming down, I felt it worthwhile to revisit it.
Sal Palantonio; of ESPN fame, tells a well rounded story...not only about The Riz...Frank Rizzo...but he offers a well researched history of Philadelphia's politics in the 20th Century.
Anyone truly interested in how Philly got this way needs to check this volume out.
Rizzo was a unique populist who had a feel for "his" people"...who, by the way, were back and white.
He rocked the hidebound political parties and his story for the last 20 years of his life was Philadelphia's story.
Palantonio got inside and does his homework.
Well worth a relook....4 jimmys out of 5.

[Steve McFarland · Rating 5 out of 5]

A book that I picked up to learn more about a man who still looms over the City of Philadelphia, what I got was a primer into the city's politics since the early start of the 20th century. This was an incredible read, not just for documenting the rise of Frank Rizzo from high school dropout to Mayor of Philadelphia but for filling in all the other details about the city as well.

Unexpected but truly brilliant this will stay on my shelf for awhile and also presents the perfect material for a tv series.

[James · Rating 4 out of 5]

Paolantonio's first book is departure from his usual sports writing, taking a deep dive into the life and times of the infamous 1972-80 Philadelphia Mayor Frank Rizzo in this accessible biography. Paolantonio tried to illustrate "both sides" of why Rizzo was so polarizing, as a either loved or hated guy (depending largely on race and class in how he's remembered.) Rizzo, the patron saint of many South Philly Italians and other Catholic "white ethnics", became the biggest enemy of African-Americans as the direct target of his numerous raids and police brutality, and well-to-do Chestnut Hill liberals. Paolantonio traced his Italian immigrant ancestors to his cop father, and Rizzo's fighting as first-recourse which eventually led him into the Philadelphia Police Force, where he worked beats across the city for 24 years. He quickly gained a reputation for bloody billy clubs and getting himself into the action by leading raids on what he saw as the enemies of law-and-order. 

As the city transformed from a Republican dominated corruption riddled town to a reform-minded Democratic Party dominated town, the winds of change seem to not effect the police department, which Rizzo gains more and more control over by blunt force of personality. "Rizzo's Raiders" bloodily suppress black student protests and target black radicals across the town (while largely ignoring mob activity since he saw gambling and loan sharking as victimless.) Rizzo eventually becomes Chief of police and gains a following for his blunt talk, eventually riding that popularity wave into the Mayor's office. Though he switched to being a Democrat from his Republican roots in order to win the Mayorship, he openly courts Nixon's support because they share similar dog-whistle politics of white resentment and gets aid to Philadelphia as part of the partnership. Rizzo defeats opponent after opponent until he is finally bested in his effort to overturn the two term limit for Philadelphia Mayors. Along the way, he refused to cut services while holding off on a drastic across the board tax increase until after he won re-election. 

From there, Rizzo seems to grasp at maintaining power, micromanaging every part of city government. Paolantonio noted that Rizzo came to power in ways unlike most other Philly mayors, or even other big city mayors, not through the party machine but by simple force of personality (which conjures up easy comparisons with Mussolini and other fascist dictators.) He is not afraid to lie, conveniently forget, or turn the dog-whistle into a bullhorn ("Vote White") in order to maintain his control since he believed that he alone would fix Philadelphia's problems. No slight could go unanswered, and though he bristled at being called a racist, it seemed like the shoe fit in some of his policies, like opposing integrated housing. (Though interestingly, loyalty to the police force overruled race, since he would back up black cops against criticism.) In many ways, that conservative Democrat redated the "Reagan Democrat", and sets up some of the drift of many white ethnics to the Republican Party in the 1980s.

When he is out of power, it seemed like he mostly spends the last 11 years of his life trying to regain the Mayor's office and defending his legacy. What Rizzo failed to grasp, though, was many of his supporters left for the suburbs in the 70s-80s, meaning his Philadelphia had changed when he ran for mayor three more times (losing the Democratic Primary in 1983 to Goode, before returning to being a Republican in 1987, only to barely lose in the general to Goode again, and finally dying in the middle of the 1991 Mayoral election vs Rendell after Rizzo secured the Republican nomination, which Paolantonio thinks he could have won since he was gaining black clergy's support for his law and order message in the midst of crack cocaine epidemic and Rendell's betrayal of black candidates.) He deals with a cast of familiar characters throughout his long career: Arlen Spector (DA and Senator), Rendell (DA in the 80s), Wilson Goode (civil rights adversary and then Mayor), Michael Smerconish (longtime moderate radio host) as his lackey, as well as a who's who of longtime Philly players like the Spragues or Republican Party boss Billy Meehan (who is content to run the local party as his personal fiefdom, unconcerned with losing elections year in and year out.) Being a friend to Rizzo also made one a target to be turned on at any given moment if you crossed him.

Paolantonio tried to paint Rizzo as complicated, and doesn't fail to give light to Rizzo's many opponents as well as showcasing Rizzo supporters point of view. I'm not so certain its that complicated: he played up the white backlash politics and just kept seeing what he could get away with. He oversaw a bad slide in Philadelphia's population and jobs, which utterly destroyed some neighborhoods, which he failed to see was partly as a result of refusing to budge from his white resentment politics but also by allying himself with nationwide conservative forces. It's ironic he later says how much he dislikes the Reagans and Bushes because of how they attacked cities and slashed federal aid to cities, yet was fine hopping in bed with them when it suited him. In recent years, the Rizzo debate has been reignited, as older generation of whites continues to worship him (many of whom have long left the city), while the younger sees him as nothing more than a race baiter in the style of Trumpism. In the wake of the 2020 police brutality protests after the death of George Floyd, the city finally took down the statue of Rizzo outside the Municipal Building, a longtime target of graffiti, as well as a large mural in the Italian Market being replaced by the neighborhood. As far as I can tell, Paolantonio's book seems to be the most accessible book still, 30 years after it was originally published. Perhaps the time has come to revisit his life and times and reevaluate. 

[RYD · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm a relative newcomer to the Philadelphia-area, and I decided to read this biography of Mayor Frank Rizzo after recent controversy over whether his statue should be taken down.

It is interesting to read in Trump era, when a tough-talking, white backlash figure takes on a different hue than may have been the case in another era. This book is both admiring and critical and seems to give a good sense of Rizzo's legacy. Here is author Sal Paolantonio's summation of Rizzo's civil rights record:

"Rizzo's attitude toward curbing police abuse was a huge black mark on his reign. Especially in Philadelphia's minority communities, Mayor Rizzo was remembered as the leader of a department which showed very little regard for civil rights. The easiest way to instigate opposition to the police department was to advocate a simple remedy: Get rid of Rizzo. And the easiest way to create hostility toward Rizzo was to apply a simple label: Racist.

"Frank Rizzo hated that label. He thought he always tried to treat blacks equally in his personal life. He refused to acknowledge that the code words he used in his political life, words he used deliberately at [campaign aides Albert] Gaudiosi's and [Martin] Weinberg's direction, antagonized a burgeoning black political movement in the emerging new city.

"When Rizzo said at Our Lady of Mt. Carmel School, 'my parents and your parents got no special treatment,' he had rekindled a we vs. them political psychology. Soon, Ronald Reagan would get away with it on a national scale. In the cauldron of Philadelphia politics, Rizzo couldn't. Blacks understood they were the them. And the scrawled the label racist across his forehead to emphasize the distinction. That police of political graffiti had nothing to do with Frank Rizzo the person. But the racist tag stuck. He blamed reporters for that."

[Michael Stoudt · Rating 4 out of 5]

This biography is very good. This presents Frank Rizzo with all his warts and foibles. He truly cared about his city of Philadelphia. In that I grew up near Philadelphia in the time of his career as Police Commissioner and Mayor, I still learned new things about him. He truly was a big man in the big city of Philadelphia. I wanted to read this biography because of all that happened this past summer, and I found this biography well worth it. I recommend this book.

[Mike Benner · Rating 4 out of 5]

Live in Philadelphia and want a greater understanding of the messed up political environment you are a victim of? Read this book.

[Richard · Rating 3 out of 5]

I've read a lot of books about New York City, and while my heart is and will always be in New York, the rest of my body resides a lot closer to Philadelphia, and I thought it was probably time to read an occasional book about that city. So I sought out this book about Frank Rizzo.

There's something I find fascinating about urban politics. Even the biggest of cities is a small pond compared to the national arena. Mayors have to deal with nitty-gritty everyday issues, like sanitation, transportation, neighborhoods, and of course, police and fire departments and so much more. When you combine the wonkishness of city politics with the outsize personality of someone like Rizzo, it could be the makings of a really interesting book. But unfortunately, this one fell a little bit short.

It was certainly well researched, and it covered the campaigns and the political issues and all of the various factions as you'd expect. But somehow, it's not presented as well as it should have or could have been. For example, at one point, deep in the book, the author mentions that Rizzo's father was dead. This confused me, because when Ralph Rizzo was last mentioned, he was still alive. We're introduced to a reported named Kent Pollock on page 129. On page 136, we have a sentence that starts with, "If a prominent reporter such as Kent Pollock could be beaten..." Huh? When was Pollock beaten? Well, we find out about that on page 139. This kind of stuff just adds unnecessary confusion for the reader. You can refer in passing to the assassination of John F. Kennedy and assume that most readers will be familiar with the event, but that really doesn't apply to the beating of Kent Pollock.

This book was written in 1993, two years after Rizzo's death, and the author remarks that Rizzo is the last of his kind, a coarse populist who gets elected primarily on the basis of his personality. Here in 2018, I have to sigh at that. If only it were true. While Rizzo was a "strongman" who used brutal tactics and appealed to racists, he actually had some qualities that make him a bit more admirable than Donald Trump is, which is admittedly a very low bar. He was devoted to his dog (as everyone who has a dog should be) and he was loyal to the people who were loyal to him, in contrast with Trump, who throws people under the bus left and right. He also not only talked the talk, but he walked the walk. He was a big man who didn't shy away from physical danger. Also, at times, you can detect that he had some touches of humility.

The author makes an interesting observation in a few places. S. A. Paolantonio mentions rioting that occurred in Newark and Detroit in the 1960s (to use two examples) that caused the cities to go into deep decline. Philadelphia had a couple of near riots, but Rizzo, as police commissioner, gave his cops the go-ahead to brutally suppress the budding riots. Did Rizzo's tactics save the city from going the way of Detroit? I doubt it; I think there were other factors that came to play in Detroit, but it's an interesting question to ponder.

I enjoyed reading this book. I liked finding out more background about some of the familiar names in Philadelphia and Pennsylvania politics that predate my arrival in this area. It makes me want to read more about Philadelphia. I've already picked out a book about Mayor Goode and the MOVE debacle. Somebody needs to write a biography of Arlen Spector -- the only one I could find was written by Spector himself, and I'd prefer more impartial author. The same can also be said for Ed Rendell.

[Marti · Rating 3 out of 5]

I probably would not recommend this to someone who never lived in Philadelphia, but when I was there from 1995 to 2007, I heard a lot about Frank Rizzo. Most of what I heard was positive in the sense that he sounded like quite a character along the lines of Mayor Hague, the Democratic boss of Jersey City.

However, Rizzo is not so easy to pin down because he was not strictly a "boss." The Philadelphia "machine" was run by Republicans until the New Deal. Rizzo was not a career politician and gained a national reputation the 1950s and 1960s as a "law and order" cop. Later, as a Democratic mayor he had a friendly personal relationship with Nixon. In the eighties, he followed his base to the Republican party (middle class whites who fled the urban core to places like the Northeast, many of them city workers who had to reside within the city). Though labeled "Reagan Democrats," Rizzo personally detested Reagan [Reagan slashed all the Federal aid Nixon had been giving to cities to almost zero]. Thus, unlike Mayor Daly, he was not a product of one party machine.

Not surprisingly, his reputation in the black community was less than stellar due to his reputation as a tough cop. However, it seems he gained some measure of redemption for his past mistakes during his final run for mayor. He told people that he wanted to change the perception that he was a "racist," (a label used by his opponents). In 1991, he probably would have won re-election -- as a Republican with a significant number of black votes (up from near zero). However, he died before the general election which went to Ed Rendell.

It helped that Wilson Goode (who was black), was blamed for the MOVE disaster, which was talked about for the next twenty years, and even celebrated in song: "Philadelphia. We only dropped a bomb on our own city once.... only ONE TIME!"

However, I can attest that a significant number of Philadelphians thought of him as something akin to a Pope. While there are some parallels to a man like Trump (the cult of personality and extreme loyalty people felt), this book makes it clear Rizzo had a heart and was loyal to most of his friends (unless he felt he was double crossed).

[Vincent Lombardo · Rating 5 out of 5]

I first read this book many years ago and loved it. I decided to reread it after watching the Independent Lens series “Philly DA” because I wanted to revisit the history that help create the current situation that Larry Krasner is trying to change.

I enjoyed this book even more the second time! Paolantonio is a great writer, and the book often reads like a novel. He did a prodigious amount of research and really captures Rizzo the Man, Rizzo the Cop, and Rizzo the Mayor. But he also presents a great history of Philadelphia and its people from 1900 to 1991.

There are a lot of editing errors in this book, but it is a terrific book! I rank this book up there with two other great books about urban political machines and political bosses: “Boss” by Mike Royko, and “Plunkitt of Tammany Hall”.

[Frank · Rating 5 out of 5]

Not living in the area at the time, this book really gives the reader a perspective on this giant political figure and history of Philly politics. Well written, excellent read.

[John · Rating 3 out of 5]

difficult to make a bio about such a person and have it not be interesting. This was but, it was not organized very well. it would jump from one decade to the next then back to the earlier. If I had not known about many of the people before reading this, I might have gotten lost at times. The author must have done in incredible amount of research or a bunch of guessing.. an easy read and I thought fair to the memory of Rizzo.