s the new year begins, everything is
coming up roses for Joe Delgatto, owner of Pantorium Cleaners in Sierra
Madre, California. That has often been the case for over 30 years, ever
since Joe first became affiliated with Pasadena’s Tournament of
Roses parade that annually hits the streets on the first of the year.
It all began at his family’s cleaning plant.
“Every year, on the second of January, we would get a ton of
white suits in,” he recalled. “All of those customers were
members of the Tournament of Roses. I’d wait on them at the front
counter and say, ‘I didn’t know you were in the
Tournament.’ I kept asking about it, expressing an
interest.”
Joe discovered that in order to join, he had to be
recommended by a member. Fortunately, the general manager of the
Tournament just so happened to be a customer. Thus, it didn’t
take long before Joe attended his first meeting.
Naturally, he started at the bottom, but Joe
didn’t mind. “It’s like being a PFC (Private First
Class) in the Army,” he explained. “You work your way
up.”
He spent the first two years volunteering to block
off areas so cars could not turn onto the streets that were part of the
parade route. From there, the “hobby” continued to march
forward.
Joe has worked on several committees for the
Tournament of Roses throughout the years — a yearlong duty
— helping with everything from hosting guests to membership
recruitment to band and float selection. A lot has changed since he
started in 1971.
“There were only about 400 volunteers
then,” he said. “It has grown to 900 now. There’s a
lot more to do. When I started, there were only about 25 committees;
now, there are over 35.”
All of the hard work of every volunteer reaches
fruition on New Year’s Day, when 50 floats and two dozen bands
trek a 5 1Ž2 mile course over a period of about 150 minutes.
Joe feels a sense of satisfaction knowing that he
did his small part in bringing happiness to a lot of people.
“The parade is viewed on the street by
approximately one million people who are in Pasadena watching it in
person,” he noted. “They say anywhere between five and
eight million people watch it on TV here. Worldwide, about 300 million
watch it.”
When Joe was born in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, in
1939, the thought of spending the start of each year in sunny
California was a foreign concept to him. He grew up as a huge
University of Wisconsin fan in the bitter temperatures of the
midwestern U.S. He was confident he’d be a Badger himself
someday.
His family had already long settled its roots in
Wisconsin, dating back to 1919 when his grandparents, a tailor and a
seamstress, moved from Chicago. The couple emmigrated from Italy in
1898, a time when drycleaning was still in its early stages in America.
Joe’s grandfather attended a Chicago
World’s Fair at the end of the 19th century and found himself
drawn to a drycleaning exhibit.
“He got interested in it, well, because he
worked at making clothes,” Joe said. “Being an inquisitive
person, he investigated it and thought that it would make a good
sideline to tailoring. He had another job at the railroad in Chicago
and he often took train rides out of the city. One summer, he ended up
in Lake Geneva and he just fell in love with it. They saved up money
and moved to Wisconsin and opened up Pantorium.”
The unusual name often sparks interest.
“People ask, ‘What does Pantorium mean?’ It depends
on how I want to answer them,” Joe laughed. “Really,
it’s another thing from the Chicago World Fair. “Orium
— like in auditorium. All the ‘oriums’ were in and my
grandfather thought ‘pants... orium.’ I tell people
it’s Latin for drycleaners.”
Joe’s mother, Mary, was an only child who
began working for Pantorium as a bookkeeper during the late 1920s. She
met Joe’s father as the result of another fateful train ride.
Like Joe’s grandfather, he worked for the railroad in Chicago and
often traveled through Lake Geneva.
After the couple married in 1934, Joe’s
grandfather was concerned for their financial future.
“The Depression was still affecting the
larger cities so my grandfather said to my father, ‘Why
don’t you come and learn about the drycleaning
business?’”
So, Joseph Delgatto enrolled at the National
Institute of Drycleaning in 1936 and came back ready to continue the
family business.
Joe, however, had different plans. Growing up, he
never wanted to learn about cleaning. His chief interest was in
watching the University of Wisconsin Badgers play football every year.
In fact, the Delgatto family would often travel 70 miles every Saturday
for home games, and, on occasion, drive farther to road games.
When the Badgers earned a spot to play in the Rose
Bowl game in 1953, the elder Delgatto decided that the family would
make the trip… no matter what. Fate struck again, this time on a
plane rather than a train.
“I can remember all of us driving to the
airport in a snowstorm,” Joe said. “It was a blizzard. The
walkway to get on the plane was outside up the stairs. My mother said,
‘We cannot leave in this.’ But, sure enough, we took off
and in about six or seven hours landed in Los Angeles. We walked down
the stairs and it was like 80 degrees. We all had our coats on. My dad
said, ‘Why are we living in the snow when there is weather like
this?’”
Suffice to say, the family moved itself —
along with Pantorium — to Sierra Madre in 1954. Out of state
tuition costs prevented Joe from attending college as a Badger, but he
graduated with an accounting degree from Los Angeles State College. His
first bookkeeping job was at Pantorium.
Then, like his father had done before him, Joe
attended a comprehensive cleaning course in Silver Spring. He came back
with a few ideas. In fact, he entered the plant into the American
Drycleaner design award contest and won in 1969.
Nowadays, the company employs nine people. Though
it isn’t the biggest cleaners in the area, Joe still feels a lot
of pride in being able to help a lot of people, whether it is removing
stains or giving back to the community.
In addition to working with the Tournament of
Roses, he also helps out with the town’s 4th of July parade and
is a member of the University Club of Pasadena, the Optimist’s
Club and the Pasadena Quarterbacks, which honors local football teams
at every level.
Pantorium’s success can be attributed to a
few simple traditions that Joe’s father and grandfather passed
down to him.
“Give a good honest service. Charge for what
you do. Be good to your employees,” he explained.
Joe strongly believes in maintaining close
relationships with the people who work alongside you.
“I had one seamstress for 20 years,”
he said. “I’ve had a lot of people work for me for 10 to 15
years. A lot of kids in town — their first job was working the
counter for us.”
Of all the employees he’s hired over the
years, there was one whose story stood out in Joe’s mind. A man
in his mid-twenties came in for a pants pressing job one time in the
early 70s. When asked about his pressing experience, the man admitted
that he picked up his skills in Tehachapi prison.
“I needed somebody bad so I asked him if he
could start right away,” Joe recalled. “He was very eager
to learn. After that first week I gave him a check and he told me
months later that was the first check he had ever received in his whole
life.”
Not many people would have wanted to take a chance
on someone who had been incarcerated since his late teens for armed
robbery, but Joe felt all the man needed was a break.
“To make a long story short, he worked for
me for about 15 years,” Joe said. “When he got married, I
was his best man.”
When it came to finding his own wife, Joe
didn’t need to board a train or a plane. He married his high
school sweetheart, Vera, over 44 years ago. The couple have three
children: Maryann, a schoolteacher; Tony, a sales manager for a pipe
manufacturing company in L.A.; and Michael, who has worked alongside
him at Pantorium for about 15 years and is a director for the
California Cleaners Association.
Despite a busy life, Joe plans to continue to
volunteer for the Tournament of Roses, much to the chagrin of his
customers. “A lot of them find out I’m in the Tournament of
Roses and say, ‘What does a drycleaner know about running a
parade?’ It’s basically just dealing with people,” he
explained.
After three decades with the Tournament, Joe has
met his share of people, including a few fellow Badgers. In addition to
becoming friends with an old hero of his — the athletic director
of the University of Wisconsin — he has also been fortunate to
receive two tickets to the Rose Bowl every year, including 1994, 1999
and 2000 when Wisconsin played.
Working with the parade has other fringe benefits,
as well.
“My wife and two granddaughters rode on a
float last year,” he noted. “They were on the city of
Ontario float with Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys. Since they were
riding on a float, I felt left out so I got a hold of one of those
little motor scooters and rode along them for the 2 1Ž2 hours. I
learned one thing. They shouldn’t let a 65-year-old man on one of
those.”
Despite the aches and pains, Joe doesn’t
harbor any regrets.
“They played Beach Boys’ music the
whole way,” he said. “My wife said it was an experience
she’ll never forget.”
