1. Enrico Banducci bought the hungry i from its founder, Eric "Big Daddy" Nord, in 1950.
11 Facts About Enrico Banducci
1. 2.
Harry Enrico Banducci was born in 1922 in Bakersfield, California to Italian Americans Fred and Meda Enrico Banducci.
3.
Enrico Banducci came to San Francisco at age 13 to study under the concertmaster of the San Francisco Symphony.
4.
Enrico Banducci supported himself as a violinist early in life but always maintained that he began playing a little too late to become a truly world-class great player.
5.
Enrico Banducci dabbled in singing operatic music with his deep voice and changed his first name to "Enrico" after his idol Enrico Caruso.
6.
Enrico Banducci was married five times, the first to Raimonde Verney, daughter of a symphony violinist.
7.
Enrico Banducci began wearing a beret after a health inspector insisted he cover his hair while running a food operation, and continued the practice to hide his eventual baldness.
8.
Enrico Banducci spent time in jail, and was involved in a number of brawls, with his friends nicknaming him "Rocky" as a result long before the Stallone movie.
9.
In 1981, Mort Sahl, Jonathan Winters, Professor Irwin Corey, Jackie Vernon, Ronnie Schell and a host of others gathered to film a tribute to Enrico Banducci that was nationally televised and entitled The hungry i Reunion.
10.
Enrico Banducci died in his sleep in South San Francisco, California at the age of 85.
11.
Enrico Banducci is portrayed by Jon Polito in a large supporting role in the 2014 film Big Eyes directed by Tim Burton and starring Amy Adams and Christoph Waltz, featuring Enrico Banducci in a fist-fighting scene, among other sequences.