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Celebrating 2022 Greenwich Sentinel Awardee, Bob Capazzo

By Anne W. Semmes

For 35 years photographer Bob Capazzo has been recording Greenwich history with his camera as assigned by his employer, Greenwich Magazine. In the doing, whether its U.S. Presidents, movie stars, high-powered CEOs, or tree lovers, Capazzo confesses he is enjoying himself. “I love people,” he says, “and I love doing portraits of people, and finding out what they’re all about.”

Across his life, Capazzo has found himself at the right place at the right moment, like the day he was picking up photos at that former photo store on Elm Street and ran into former Selectman Lin Lavery. “He told me how much he loved his work,” recalls Lavery, “but he wanted to grow his business.” Did he know of Donna and Jack Moffly and their fledging Greenwich Magazine offices being next door? “They’re a perfect fit for you,” she suggested.

“Bob came into our first little office over the shoe stores on the Avenue looking for a job,” says Donna Moffly. “I told him we couldn’t afford a staff photographer. A talented guy and expectant father, he said he couldn’t afford not to work. So, we made a deal – one of the best I ever made. We helped launch each other.” She adds, “Over the years Bob’s had a lot of names for me, including Attila, but now it’s Mother, and to me he’s Son #2. He served as an usher at Jack’s memorial service.”

But that successful collaboration didn’t preclude other pursuits like his love for music. Hence, his being featured in a newspaper last weekend with his Merlin band playing the guitar at the Greenwich Town Party. Prior to that he was spotted at the Greenwich Tree Conservancy annual Tree Party celebration threading his way through the thick crowd with camera, eyeing his next people portrait.

Bob Capazzo’s portrait of Greenwich’s Ron Howard with wife Cheryl and behind them daughter Bryce Dallas Howard. Contributed photo.

So, caught up in those thick crowds isn’t he wary of catching Covid? “I got it a month ago,” he shares, “I only had a stuffy nose. I felt fine.” Since that Tree Party he’s done six events. “I’ve crossed paths with 1000s of people in the last week – the American Red Cross Party had 500 people.” But not so over the last two pandemic-ridden years. “As a photographer and musician, I was dead in the water,” he tells. “It’s been brutal.”

 

What is extraordinary about Bob Capazzo, is how in his nearly 61 years (as of June 22) he has consistently risen above what life has handed out to him, blessed as he is with a nonstop sense of humor.

He traces his love of music – and surely that sense of humor – to his mom. “My mom would cook dinner every night for my father who came home diligently at five o’clock. And while she was cooking dinner – my mom’s biggest purchase was a stereo hi fi – she would tell me what record to put on. It was everything from the Beatles, Jerry Lee Lewis, to Johnny Cash, Loretta Lynn. And I was a little kid and Loretta Lynn sings a song called Divorce. And the lyric is “My D-I-V-O-R-C-E is final today.” And I used to run around the house singing D-I-V-O-R-C-E with no clue what the word meant.”

Bob Capazzo’s mother, Carmella Tolla Capazzo.

He recalls that Sunday night his mom announced in his back yard to his playmates, “The Beatles are on the Ed Sullivan show in 10 minutes!” “Everybody just got up and ran…we gotta see the Beatles. She was in a woman’s bowling team – the Beatles. They had Beatle wigs. This is how quirky and funny my mother was.” But, alas, he has only one photo of his mother. “After she died, they just got discarded.”

 

His mother suddenly dies of a heart attack when he’s in high school, and not long after his father sells their house and takes off for Florida “chasing another woman,” leaving Capazzo and sister homeless, until a grandmother comes to the rescue.

Out of that episode Capazzo creates a song called “Cadillac Man.” “It’s basically about my life growing up in downtown Stamford. My grandfather Joseph, my mother’s father, had an iconic white Cadillac…So if you had a Cadillac, you were doing okay. But my grandfather would come to every single baseball game that I played. I was a pitcher, so I wouldn’t start the pitch until that Cadillac showed up.” The umpire was on to him seeing him stalled on the pitcher’s mound. “You’re waiting for the white Cadillac, aren’t you?” “And as soon as he said that we looked down the hill and here comes the white Cadillac.”

Bob Capazzo’s Greenwich Review cover photo of Yale roommates, Russell Reynolds on left and soon to be U. S. President George H.W. Bush, with Barbara Bush and Debbie Reynolds. Contributed photo.

But it’s Capazzo’s father’s father, Romeo Capazzo that he feels cloned from. “He was just such a funny guy. He was so interested in people and what they were doing…he was a cabbie in Stamford.” He’s called to pick up Howard Cosell who insists he be the only passenger. “My grandfather would lose a lot of fares because he would have to just take him singly.” With his radio on Cosell orders him to turn it off. “My grandfather pulled the car over to the side of the road and turned around and said to him, ‘Like hell, I’ve got money on this race!’ So, the next day Howard Cosell tells the cab master, ‘I only drive with Romeo.’”

On Halloween, Romeo (his twin sister was Juliet) would hide behind the bushes in his rented gorilla suit. ‘When the kids came down the path he would jump out. I was just watching through the windows hysterically laughing. I couldn’t even breathe. I was just a little kid.”

In 2001 Bob Capazzo kicked off his project, “The Photographer’s Guitar” to capture Greenwich’s “most interesting people” like the now late Malcolm Pray with his guitar as common prop. Photo by Bob Capazzo.

Capazzo attributes his path as photographer to a high school teacher. He took a photography class in 10th grade just to fill his schedule and was encouraged by the teacher to continue the class the next year, suggesting three possible schools to attend, to pursue a career in photography. No, protested Capazzo. “I’m going to pitch for the Yankees.” “How tall are you?” “Five, six.” “Have you grown in the last year?” “No.” “You really think you’re going to make the major leagues?”

Capazzo chose New York’s School of Visual Arts. But, after the first year he says, “I ran out of money because I had to pay my own way. Financial Aid said that we can’t give you any money because you have a living parent that is employed. I didn’t even know where he was.”

He takes a year off to raise that money to continue his schooling and in walks Georgine, the girl he will marry. “I had heard about my wife for many years from my cousin at family gatherings who said you should meet this girl. She’s creative. She’s really cool.” And there was Capazzo: “I was driving a motorcycle because it’s all I could afford. I was living with my two cousins in a converted walk-in closet.”

Bob Capazzo with his wife and daughter.

But he returns to the School for Visual Arts for a second year and meets up with another formative teacher. “He basically told me to leave because I was too talented to continue. ‘You don’t need school, and you know what you’re doing. Just go get a job and learn on the job.’”

It appears that Capazzo talent runs in the family. Daughter Ashton, now married and working in marketing at the Coca Cola company, began to shine in kindergarten. Her teacher calls in her parents and tells. “She’s too advanced for kindergarten. She’s reading at fourth grade level.” “She’s just got a brilliant mind,” says her dad.

And now there’s grandson Jacob Thomas. “He’s two years old now. He’s named after Jake Arrieta who pitched for the Chicago Cubs, as my son-in-law is from Chicago.” He adds, “I was pushing for Romeo but that didn’t happen.”

Merlin Band members, L to R: Jason Zivic, David Bachenheimer, Martina Cordero, Bob Capazzo, Kerry Wolfe. Name Merlin came from Bachenheimer’s cat, Merlin. Contributed photo.
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