Marina Park roadway to be renamed next month

By Jim Kelly - The Chronicle-Journal

August 20, 2003

Street signs will be going up for another former Thunder Bay
resident who made a name for himself in the entertainment industry.

Bobby Curtola, who went from pumping gas at his father's service
station in the former city of Port Arthur to the life of a teenage
idol, will have a short roadway in Marina Park named after him.

City council this week approved naming the roadway Bobby Curtola
Drive. The official ceremony will take place Sept. 26 with Curtola
in attendance.

This comes after last September's dedication of the roadway leading
to the front door of the Thunder Bay Community Auditorium named
after Paul Shaffer, band leader on Late Show with David Letterman.

A group of local supporters and fans wanted to rename part of Gibson
Avenue in front of the former Lakeview High School (now St. Ignatius
High School).

However, city staff said it would be easier to bestow the honour
using one of the unnamed laneways within Marina Park.

Curtola, now 60, got his start in the late 1950s playing at sock
hops at the former Lakeview High School ( now St. Ignatius High
School) with his basement band the Bobby and the Bobcats.

Guided in initially by his managers Basil and Dyer Hurdon, Curtola
shot to international prominence with such hits as Fortune Teller,
Hand in Hand With You, Aladdin, Three Rows Over, Hitchhiker and
Don't You Sweetheart Me.

Incidentally, Fortune Teller sold 2.5 million records
internationally. In total, Curtola had 25 gold records.

He toured with Dick Clark and his Cavalcade of Stars, opened for Bob
Hope and achieved near-legendary status in an industry that was
dominated by U.S. pop stars.

His recording career took him to all parts of Canada, Europe, Japan
and the United States and eventually Las Vegas, where he had a seven-
figure contract as a headliner at the Sands Hotel for 12 years
beginning in the early 1970s.

Bobby Curtola Drive is that portion of Marina Park Drive south of
the Marina Park Overpass and north of the Camelot Street entrance.


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