19 Facts About Ernani Bernardi

Ernani Bernardi was a big band musician and politician.

Ernani Bernardi was born on October 29,1911 above a grocery store his family owned in Standard, Illinois, the son of musician Alfonso Ernani Bernardi and Nerina Biagini.

Ernani Bernardi's parents were immigrants who came to America by way of Ellis Island, from a small town in the province of Modena in the Emilia Romagna.

Ernani Bernardi's mother died in childbirth, and he was raised by his father, two grandmothers, an aunt and an uncle.

Ernani Bernardi attended the University of Detroit, where he planned to study journalism and become a sportscaster.

Ernani Bernardi died of heart failure at the age of 94 on January 4,2006.

Ernani Bernardi's father, Alfonso, was a music teacher who taught his son how to play the saxophone.

Ernani Bernardi moved to California in 1940 to perform with Kay Kyser's Kollege of Musical Knowledge.

When Corman was elected to Congress, Ernani Bernardi ran again in 1961 and was elected.

Ernani Bernardi listed his campaign-reform success as among his most satisfying achievements, as well as an ordinance requiring all residential developments of five or more units to set aside at least 15 percent of the units for low and moderate-income families.

Ernani Bernardi led successful campaigns for city charter amendments that limited police and firefighter pensions and that did away with a requirement that the city pay comparable wages to those of private industry.

Ernani Bernardi was seen as a "loner" on the 15-member City Council, lacking the spirit of compromise, thus limiting his political effect, yet longtime council president John S Gibson, Jr.

Ernani Bernardi was joined by Council Members Gloria Molina and Nate Holden, who said not enough minority artists were represented.

In 1988 Ernani Bernardi provided $70,000 from his $641,978-a-year office budget for police task forces to combat burglaries and drug trafficking in his district, and, even though he supported a lobbying group called FAIR, "devoted to using the harshest possible measures to reduce illegal immigration," he helped establish a hiring hall to get immigrant workers off the street.

Ernani Bernardi said he didn't mind recognizing the civil rights leader, but did not want to give city workers another day off.

Ernani Bernardi urged that instead the boundaries should be set by a special commission of retired Municipal Court judges.

Ernani Bernardi ran a low-budget, no-frills campaign, and in the end received just 1 percent of the citywide vote.

In 1994 Ernani Bernardi sued the city of Los Angeles and its redevelopment agency, alleging that the agency violated the state's open meetings law when it was considering plans for Downtown Los Angeles.

Ernani Bernardi helped finance the costs of his lawsuit by selling a videocassette of several big bands performing his favorite tunes.