abstract
| - Matthew Ianniello was born in 1920 in Little Italy, Manhattan. He grew up in the Italian neighborhoods of New York. Ianiello allegedly got his nickname “Matty The Horse” in a youth baseball game. Ianiello was a gifted player with a hard swing. During one game, things got out of control. The opposing pitcher threw a hard pitch into the face of the batter. A fight erupted in which Ianiello knocked down the pitcher, who was older and taller than him. After this episode, someone remarked : “That boy is as strong as a horse.” In 1940, Ianniello started working for his uncle as a waiter in a restaurant in the Brooklyn dockyards. In 1942 or 1943, Ianniello enlisted in the U.S. Army and served in World War II. In 1945 Ianiello returned home as a decorated war veteran, having received a purple heart and a bronze star. He went back to work at his uncle's restaurant and by 1949 became partners with his uncle in a second restaurant, Matty's Towncrest Restaurant. In 1960, Ianniello became partners with Edward L. DeCurtis, a longtime associate, in running private after-hours drinking clubs for gay men. Ianniello would eventually own a strings of clubs and nightclubs for both gay and straight men.
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