“Anthony Martignetti lives in Boston, in the Italian North End, the home of the Prince Spaghetti Company. Anthony knows a lot about Prince, because it’s something that grows you. Most days, Anthony takes his time going home, but today is Wednesday, and in the North End of Boston, Wednesday is Prince Spaghetti day.”
– from the 30-second commercial spot
* * *
In 1969, Prince Pasta debuted a TV commercial set in Boston’s Little Italy. I remember watching it ad nauseam on Channel 56 from the early seventies until I stopped watching afternoon TV regularly in the early 1980s. When I was a kid, Boston’s Italian North End might as well have been as far away as Italy itself. However, anyone who was anyone on the South Shore in the 1970s knew exactly what you meant if you used that term or shouted “Anthony!” very loudly. This commercial was so effective that it ingrained Wednesday as spaghetti day for a generation. Pasta on Wednesday was always referred to as “Prince Spaghetti Day” in the Peterson household, a decidedly not-Italian home. Anthony Martignetti died yesterday at the age of 63. Here, one more time is twelve-year-old Anthony dodging carts across Haymarket, racing home across the North End to join his family for dinner.
