Selected Article From a Recent Issue of POINTers

A selected article from a recent issue of POINTers

The following article appeared
in the Winter, 2003, issue of POINTers ,
(Volume 17, Number 4, Issue #64)

An Italian Immigrant Family's Success Story

Tana Marchese Salvaggio (#4835)
(Daughter of Tom Marchese)

From immigrant boys to national recognition, the Marchese Brothers left their mark on the auto racing industry. This is their story.

In the 1940s, the mile oval at Wisconsin State Fair Park in Milwaukee was perhaps the finest track set-up in the nation for auto racing.

The man behind the scenes at this extremely successful track was Tom Marchese, a dynamic, promotional engineer, who, with his four brothers, left their mark in auto racing history.

This success story involves the entire Marchese family of five boys and one girl and is a story of cooperation, hard work and determination.

It all began in Sant' Agata, Sicily, with the births of Giuseppe (Joe) Marchese in 1892, Antonio (Tony) Marchese in 1894, Gaetano (Tom) Marchese in 1899 and Marianna (Anne) Marchese in 1902.

Their father, Luigi Marchese, came alone to the United States in 1903, seeking a new life for his family. He came to Milwaukee after having received letters from a former neighbor, telling him about the city.

Luigi worked as a railroad section hand in Milwaukee for almost two years. Then, with his savings, and money borrowed from friends, he sent for his wife and children.

Gaetana, the children and an uncle, Francesco Pidala, crossed the Atlantic in an old ship which was condemned after that trip.

They arrived at Ellis Island in November, 1904. The kids nearly froze during the two-day clearance period, and Tom remembered that his mother ripped up an old woolen shawl so that each of the children could have a little warmth.

The family settled in an alley tenement in the tough, lower eastside section of Milwaukee (Third Ward), where Carl Marchese was born in 1905 and Salvatore (Tudy) Marchese in 1907.

Things being hard, Joe and Tony never attended school and went right to work supporting the family; Joe at a pot-making factory and Tony working on a garbage wagon.

Tom attended the Third District School in Milwaukee and went through the sixth grade before he took his first job, at the age of eleven. He was an assistant on a fruit and vegetable wagon.

In 1914, Tom went to work during the day for the National Enameling and Stamping Co., where he made $3.60 a week. He sold newspapers each evening after work and was a bootblack during his spare time on Saturdays and Sundays.

While working at National Enameling, Tom often thought to himself, “Will I be working here all my life?”

This led him to a shoe factory, where he punched soles all day. After six months, he was again dissatisfied.

He moved on to a shipping clerk's job at the Ambrosia Chocolate Co.

However, deep-rooted in his sharp thinking mind was one persistent goal - the lure of the emerging automotive industry.

In 1917 he was offered a job as a mechanic's helper at the Holmes Motor Co.

His boss at the candy factory, in urging him to stay with an established industry, had predicted the nation's gasoline supply would be exhausted in two years, but Tom's decision had been made.

He knew little about the mechanic's trade, except what brother Tony had attempted to teach him, but he worked day and night to learn his new job. Later, his brothers Carl and Tudy also came to work for Holmes.

Tom worked in the shop all day and took care of the Service Department at night, seldom getting to bed before 2 a.m.

It was during this period that the Marchese Brothers made what may have been the first midget race car; a small car with a wooden body powered with a Henderson cycle engine, which would outrun anything on the streets.

Many nights they dodged cops around the Third Ward area of Milwaukee while racing the little job on Huron (now Clybourn) Street.

All the boys carried home every penny they earned to help the family make ends meet.

Friends induced Tom and Tony to leave Milwaukee in 1918 to do mechanical work on farm equipment in Arena, Wisconsin, where they could "get rich in a hurry."

During the 130 mile trip, traveling in an overloaded pickup truck with leather tires, they experienced frequent blowouts. It was a sign of things to come.

Their new business went well that summer, but it took them only one winter of nearly starving to return home to Milwaukee and back to Holmes, where Tom, Tudy and Carl were now in charge of the overhaul department.

In 1921, Tom moved to the Standard Oil Garage, where he was in complete charge of maintenance on a fleet of 90 Model T Roadsters.

Tom recalled there were plenty of skinned knuckles trying to hand crank those old cars in the dead of winter, but he became known as the "top crank-hand" in the garage.

He was moving up in the automotive world.

Meanwhile, Tudy and Carl had built a Model T hot rod, with a bucket seat and a Rajo head, to be used as a pleasure car.

About this same time, Carl started his auto racing career at Cedarburg, Wisconsin, and went on to compete regularly at tracks throughout Wisconsin and Illinois. He was under age, but his father signed the necessary waivers for him to race.

Tudy also felt the urge for competition and began driving.

Joe and Tony entered the trucking business in 1922. Needing a garage, the five brothers went in together and took over a location on South First Street. Finally, they were all together.

Tom, Joe, and Tony purchased a 122-cubic inch speedway Miller in 1927 and racing entered the picture in a big way.

Carl campaigned the car on dirt tracks while Tom served as pit man and mechanic. Often they worked 24 hours straight on the car to ready it for the next event, but racing was in their blood.

Tudy took over this car and a lighter, 122-cubic inch Miller was purchased for Carl and converted into a 91 cubic inch job to meet specifications for the Indianapolis 500 mile race in 1929.

Carl, inexperienced at the Speedway, went down for the practice runs.

Four days before the race and immediately after a rain storm, Carl went out on the all brick oval to practice. None of the experienced hands offered advice or information and Carl lost control of the car, crashing into the wall at high speed. The car was badly damaged, but Carl escaped with only bruises. He hurriedly called Milwaukee for badly needed parts and Tom arrived a few hours later. With the car repaired, Carl qualified at better than 109 mph, despite bad handling in the turns. The Marchese car was in the race, along with nearly fifty other cars.

Carl Marchese fooled many of the old-timers that Memorial Day. When the checkered flag dropped, the green kid from Milwaukee had finished fourth, and the Italian colony of Milwaukee anxiously awaited the return of their hero. The celebration in the Third Ward for Carl was overwhelming.

Tom began his promotional career at State Fair Park in 1929, having his hand in the operation of many racing events at the track.

In 1938, the fair park management asked Tom to handle the weekly midget auto races on the one-quarter mile dirt track, but it wasn't until 1946 that he was awarded an exclusive on all racing there.

Under Tom's promotion, American Automobile Association (AAA) stock car racing was introduced to the mile oval, and in 1948, he brought in Championship big car events.

Since 1947, Milwaukee had become the scene of more national championship races annually than any other track in the nation. Tom's goal was to have exciting races and huge purses for the drivers, while still keeping ticket prices affordable. Many times over the years, this was done at his own expense.

Tom was named national Promoter of the Year, by Speed Age Magazine in both 1950 and 1951. He was the only two-time winner of the Speed Age Achievement Award. He was also awarded the Eddie Edenburn Trophy by the AAA Contest Board as the "man who did the most for auto racing" in 1951.

One of Tom's most meaningful awards was the USO Award, given "in recognition of distinguished service to the men and women of America's armed forces."

On race days, he provided free, special seating for veterans from the local veterans' hospital.

But Tom didn't stop there; he also paid for their transportation to and from the race. He said it was the least he could do to repay them for what they had done for us.

When, in 1955, the American Automobile Association decided to get out of auto racing, Tom contacted some of the other leading figures in auto racing, and the United States Auto Club (USAC) was born.

Tom served as the promoters' representative on the USAC Board of Directors for two, two-year terms.

Joe and Tony left the racing to their brothers as they attended to their successful trucking businesses.

Though never attending college, Carl and Tudy were accepted into the Society of Automotive Engineers, an unusual distinction since membership usually goes only to men with engineering degrees.

Their innovations in car construction included the use of tubular frames, independent rear wheel suspension, and unique body streamlining, in which the radiator was on the side of the car.

In 1978, Carl was inducted into the Milwaukee Sports Hall of Fame - a fitting end to a racing family's legacy.

After so many years, Tom and Carl returned to visit Sant' Agata.

As they stood in the center of town looking at the fountain where Tom had fetched water those many years ago, the local townspeople were wondering if these strangers were going to buy the fountain and take it back with them to the United States.

Tom assured them they were not. He was only reflecting on how far he had come and the many blessings God had given him.

All the Marchese brothers have passed on, but they leave a legacy in auto racing that can never be erased.

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Last Updated:
6 January 2006

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