September 15, 2025 • 19 mins
On this episode of Our American Stories, in December 1968, 19-year-old Frank Olivo showed up at a Philadelphia Eagles game in a Santa suit, hoping to bring some holiday cheer to the crowd. What happened next became one of the strangest and funniest moments in football history. Instead of applause, Olivo was booed, jeered, and pelted with snowballs by frustrated Eagles fans. The story has lived on for decades, becoming part of both Philadelphia sports lore and Christmas legend. Richard Monastra, Frank’s cousin and closest friend, shares what really happened that day and how one young fan in a Santa costume became an unlikely icon in NFL history.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:19):
This is our American stories of Philadelphia has a reputation
across professional sports for having the toughest and roughest fans.
Nobody knows that better than Frank Olivo. In nineteen sixty eight,
the nineteen year old Oliva was dressed as Santa Claus
at an Eagles football game, where he was booed and
(00:39):
pelted with snowballs. It's such a famous moment that ESPN
even made a spoof thirty for thirty about it. Here
to tell the story is Frank's first cousin and best friend,
Richard Monastra. Here's Rich starting with a little background on
both him and Snowball Santa Frank.
Speaker 2 (01:00):
We were born in the post war era, two of
us baby boomers.
Speaker 3 (01:05):
I was born in forty six.
Speaker 2 (01:06):
Frank was born in nineteen forty eight in South Philadelphia.
Born to typical Battalian immigrant families. Our parents hailed from Naples, Italy.
For the most part, we were born and raised in
South Philadelphia. Went to Catholic elementary schools Catholic High School.
(01:27):
I graduated nineteen sixty four. Frank graduated nineteen sixty six
from the same high school, Bishop Newman. I went on
to college Frank decided that he wanted to be of
barbor so he went to barbering school. His father was
a veteran of World War Two. He had landed at
Omaha Beach in the D Day. He was wounded, wound
(01:49):
up with a plate in his head. His mother, Rose,
worked their whole life in the tailor shops, which was
pretty typical for South Philadelphia women. Frank went to by
a barber school in Center City, Philadelphia, in the area
now they call Chinatown, got his by barber's license. Frank
(02:11):
really really liked that. He liked being a barber. He
was very social. For the time he was a kid,
He was very very social. He got he got along with, with,
you know, with everybody. He had a talent. Early on,
we started to start to seat in him of being
a bit of a showman too. He would do impersonations
(02:34):
of actors, movie stars, whatever. Family really loved that. Kids
in the neighborhood really loved when he would imitate our
our our teachers.
Speaker 3 (02:43):
Especially when we're in high school and he and he
sort of liked all that attention.
Speaker 2 (02:51):
He was sort of deprived of that attention as a
as a kid. You know, his family, his own personal family,
mother and father. I guess you might call him today,
we might say is a dysfunctional family. You know, Rose
and Bruno were always working. Frankie was on the street
a lot at the time. Fortunately, he would come over
to our house and you know, my mother kind of
(03:13):
took him in and he was.
Speaker 3 (03:15):
Like our like our brother.
Speaker 2 (03:18):
That part of South Philadelphia sometimes, you know, has a
bad rep. A little bit of the so called mob
guys hung out there. There's a place called.
Speaker 3 (03:32):
Poo Cheese and Nicks Roast Beef Shop.
Speaker 2 (03:38):
I think both of those places were kind of fronts
for the organized the mob guys. But somehow frank got
friendly with those people as well. Every once in a
while they would ask us to carry the little brown
bags to go from point A to point B. Little
did we know we were carrying number plays or horse beats.
(04:01):
And frank spoke up about it one time, he said,
what's what's what's in these bags you're asking us to carry.
So one of the guys at this place called Pooci
showed him and Frankie started to laugh, and so and
the other the you know, the quasi mob guy started
to laugh too, and he said, I like you kids.
You guys are really cool. You got a real hootspa here,
so to speak. And he gave us a free roast
(04:24):
beef sandwich and the half a buck apiece. But as
time time went on, you know, I went on to college,
and we were always fans of the filled up his
sports scene. We used to go up the old Shy
Park to watch the Phillies play. The cops there who
(04:47):
guarded the stadium, we're very friendly. They let you hang
outside the stadium, and once the first inning was over,
they opened up the gates and we all got in
for free. Well, all the kids hanging outside the stadium
got in for free. We up in the bleachers and
watched the ball game. Once we were a bit older,
I guess in our teams, our uncles they had eight
(05:09):
season tickets, four in one row and four seats right
behind the first four. And as we grew up, they
would take us to the Eagles games as a sort
of a rite of passage, and that ultimately led up
to the infamous snowball event. In December of nineteen sixty eight,
(05:30):
the Eagles were scheduled to play the Minnesota Vikings, which
were a fairly new team at that time. I think
they had come into the league about nineteen sixty one
or sixty two. They weren't very good, but the Eagles
were worse. The Eagles were having a very very bad year.
There were something like two in ten or two and eleven.
The schedule was much shorter than they played. I think
(05:52):
the NFL played a twelve or fourteen game schedule.
Speaker 3 (05:55):
Then.
Speaker 2 (05:56):
Anyway, this game, all the sports writers had picked up
on it. They were calling at the OJ Bowl and
in reference to OJ Simpson, if the Eagles lost this game,
they would get the number one draft choice in the
NFL draft, And of course everybody was touling O. J.
(06:17):
Simpson at that moment, he was probably the best player
in the country playing for University of Southern California. The
Eagles were in a down, really a down period. Their coach,
Joker Hirick, former coach at Notre Dame, had signed a
fifteen year contract. Can you imagine back in those days,
(06:40):
And I think Jokiharrick was a great example of the
Peter principle. You know, you rise one level above your confidence.
He was great as a college coach, but he was
lousy as a pro coach. People would boo him routinely
every game, win or loose.
Speaker 3 (06:56):
On this day, there was an.
Speaker 2 (06:58):
Airplane circling over Franklin Field trailing a banner saying Joe
must go. And every time the plane went over, fans
would you know, would would would would shear? The fans
were in a sour mood that day. Trust me, it
had snowed the day before Saturday, nothing much, but the
game started late because they had to clear the field.
The game starts, the game goes on, and the Eagles
(07:20):
are winning, and the fans are booing. So you can
imagine because everybody wanted them to lose so that they
could draft Simpson. Anyway, Historically, the Eagles at the last
home game used to have Santa Claus, you know, come
out on a sleigh and he would you know, throw
(07:42):
these miniature footballs ended the stands, and one of which
was a was a gold colored one and if you
caught the gold one, you got a season ticket for
the next year's games. Well, that year, December of sixty eight,
for whatever reason, they decided not to throw out the footballs.
Speaker 3 (08:04):
So people were booing that.
Speaker 2 (08:08):
Somewhere in a second quarter, this man from the Eagles,
he's looking throughout the stands and he spots Frankie with
a Santa Claus suit. Now, the obvious question is why
is Frankie wearing a Santa Claus suit through the Eagles game. Well,
our grandmother each Christmas would host a Christmas party for
(08:30):
all the grandchildren and she would give them our gifts.
There he was getting up in years and rather than
going visit each one of our households, even though we
were fairly close, it was a bit of a chore
for her.
Speaker 3 (08:41):
So it was a big party.
Speaker 2 (08:44):
All the relatives, all the cousins and uncles, had to
be sixty seventy people in the house. Well, one of
my uncles usually played Santa Claus, Charlie Simkiss, had been
doing it, but Charlie had lost a lot.
Speaker 3 (08:57):
Of weight and fill out the suit.
Speaker 2 (09:02):
So he drafted Frankie Olivo to do the Senate So
he gave him the Santa suit, and Frankie decided on
a whim to wear the Santa suit at the Eagles
game because we were going to go right from the
Eagles game back to my grandmother's house for the Christmas party.
Speaker 1 (09:19):
And you're listening to Richmond Astra and he's the first
cousin of Frank Olivo and Frank Well, you're going to
hear more about this remarkable episode in Philadelphia sports history
and American sports history for that matter, when we come
back more of the story. This is our American stories.
(10:16):
You've been listening to Richmond Astra tell the story of
Frank Olivo the snowball Santa. Let's continue with the story.
Speaker 2 (10:25):
So we're in the stands, Frankie's got the Santa suit on.
The place is in a sour mood. The Eagles are winning.
Planes are flying over saying Joe must go. I mean
it was really nasty. Anyway, this guy from the Eagles
staff spots Frankie, goes up into the stands and asks
him if he'd be interested in subbing for the man
(10:46):
they had hired to play Santa Claus. Apparently the guy
they had hired the Eagles had hired was stranded up
in North Jersey somewhere and couldn't get down there to
Philadelphia because of the snow. Okay, pr guy for the
Eagles told them what to do, where to be, and
so forth, and they took.
Speaker 3 (11:05):
Him into the one of the you know.
Speaker 2 (11:08):
The bowels of the stadium. There halftime came. The PA
announcer gets on the PA and says, Santa Claus is
coming to town. Would everybody welcome Santa Claus? What a
big Philadelphia welcome. Well, uh, that's when the fun began.
(11:28):
Frankie enters the field. He's walking around carrying a big
Sanda bag and he's got some of the Eagles cheerleaders
are dressed up his elves and they're walking around the
you know, the base of the stadium, and all the
booing started. People started booing Santa Claus. And then the
snowballs came. People are picking up and they're making snowballs
(11:50):
and throwing them at Santa Claus. And the elves, well,
a couple of the elves ran for covers, and here's
Frankie became the target of all of this. Not only
did they start throwing snowballs, but they start throwing anything
they can get their hands on. People are throwing beer cans,
beer bottles, sandwiches, anything they get their hands on.
Speaker 3 (12:11):
They were heaving at Santa Claus.
Speaker 2 (12:13):
They're taking out their vengeance about the Eagles poor season
and winning this game thereby losing the OJ Bull. They
were taking their frustrations out on poor Santa Claus. So
Frankie and what was left of the Elves crew made
a circle around the field and then they went back in.
(12:36):
Frankie worked his way back to our seats. Of course,
when we all got back to the Christmas party, we
all were telling, you know, the others who were at
the party what had happened. You know, frank had got
hit with snowballs and beer cans and stale sandwiches and
hogis and got nose waddle and people were half laughing
(12:57):
and you know.
Speaker 3 (12:58):
Half shocked by it all.
Speaker 2 (13:02):
It wasn't until that night somebody had had the television
on in one of the other rooms at my grandmother's house,
and they noticed that Frankie's on TV. So we all
ran over to the TV set, you know, and you
see him coming out of the tunnel of the stadium.
(13:22):
They're playing some music on the PA system and people
started throwing snowballs and you hear them booing and all that. So,
of course, Philippa fans have had this reputation for eons
about being rowdy fans and you know all that stuff.
We're the only city that had a a judge on
site and a sort of a jail in this in
(13:46):
the bottels of the stadium for people who got too rowdy. So,
I mean it was really crazy. Philadelphi is a great
sports sound, don't get me wrong, but people can get
really crazy sometimes. So the story made national news and
at least one aspect of international news, The London Times
(14:08):
picked up on it. He told us he did not
expect you know that that booing, he said, booing bothered
him more than anything. He said, you know, he couldn't
understand people throwing snow and all that, but he said.
Speaker 3 (14:21):
The booing, He said, who the hell boo Santa Claus.
Speaker 2 (14:25):
And of course that's the line that got tagged at Philadelphia.
From that point on, this is the city that boots
Santa Claus. And everyone's in a blue moon. You hear
some sportscaster on some station, local or national throw that
line out there. You know, when something happens negatively in
the city of Philadelphia, they'll say, well, you got to
(14:46):
remember this, said, the city did boot Santa Claus.
Speaker 3 (14:48):
You know.
Speaker 2 (14:50):
Of course, when he went back to work at the barbershop.
He was working in the in a barbershop in the
Suburban station, which is the main train station in the
center city Fillediladelphia, and people would come in there. They
would spot him there. Of course that his picture was
cut out of the newspapers. It was the people hanging
up in their windows of the barbershop. He got a
(15:13):
lot of customers from local celebrities, business people, television stars.
He had one of his customers with the Archbishop of Philadelphia.
Speaker 3 (15:23):
At the time was a man by name of John Kroll.
Speaker 2 (15:26):
He's now deceased, but he was asking Frankie for his autograph.
Imagine this, the Cardinal of Philadelphia asking Frankie for his autograph.
So he had all the all the local you know,
politicians would stop in there. Mayor Tate, James James Tate
was the mayor of Philadelphia, had his picture taken down
(15:48):
in Frank's boy at barbershop, so he became a local celebrity.
Frank never got any pay from the Eagles. They gave
him a pair of cufflings. If you can believe that.
Frank was not much of a cuff shirt kind of guy.
You know.
Speaker 3 (16:04):
In fact, one.
Speaker 2 (16:05):
Of my uncles, Tony, he was a bit of a
loudmouth to say, at least wrote to the Eagles and
he called a bunch of cheap at s obs. So anyway,
Frank got his own shop, didn't farewell. It was a
bad time by this time, it's the early eighties, had
(16:27):
to close.
Speaker 3 (16:27):
The shop down. He went.
Speaker 2 (16:30):
He went to work at one of the casinos that
had just opened up in Atlantic City.
Speaker 3 (16:38):
As a dealer.
Speaker 2 (16:39):
He got his license as a dealer, and he ultimately
worked his way up to become a pit boss. He
got the rob elbows with some of the acts that
were appearing there. One of his favorite buddies was done
Don Records. Frankie had He was on a first name
basis with with with Don, with Don Rickles, you know,
(17:02):
they exchanged cards at Christmas time. I think when Frankie's
daughter got married, or maybe was his son. I forget
which Don Rickles sun of a gift. Throughout his life, however,
Frank was plagued by heart issues. Even as a kid.
We would have you know, sometimes he'd have to stop
playing ball for a bit or whatever we were doing.
(17:24):
That became too much of an exertion for him. Frank
died on the thirtieth of April twenty fifteen. He was
let's see, he was about sixty five or sixty six
at the time I did the formal theology at Frank's funeral,
(17:46):
And while I was preparing to do that, I was
getting phone calls. When I tell you, literally from all
over the country. The story didn't die. It just wouldn't
leave him. Even to this day. The fact that you
contacted me evidence is the fact that people are still
talking about it. The day of his funeral, the priest
(18:08):
asked me what music they should have for Frankie, and
half jokingly, I said, play here comes Santa Claus. The
priest looked at me rather puzzle I said, I'm just kidding, Padre,
But I thought that would have would have been appropriate
(18:29):
because I think he would have loved that. So the
legend lives on. He's the gift that keeps on giving.
Speaker 4 (18:37):
Here comes Santa Claus. Here comes Santa Claus. Right down
Santa Claus Lane.
Speaker 1 (18:42):
And you've been listening to Frankie Olivo's first cousin, Rich
Monastra tell the story of the snowball Santa. But all
of the story, the neighborhood, the context, the neighborhood stores,
and the psychological profile of a Philadelphia Eagle fan at
least a whole bunch. And I was a New York
Giants fan growing up in Northern New Jersey. And I
(19:04):
will never forget my first away game at Philadelphia, and
I had the temerity to wear a New York Giants
hat that lasted about a second. The story of Frankie Olivo,
the story of the Snowball Santa here on our American stories.
Speaker 4 (19:22):
And he doesn't care for Richarpoor. He loves you just
the same, Santa Clausmo
This is our American stories of Philadelphia has a reputation
across professional sports for having the toughest and roughest fans.
Nobody knows that better than Frank Olivo. In nineteen sixty eight,
the nineteen year old Oliva was dressed as Santa Claus
at an Eagles football game, where he was booed and
(00:39):
pelted with snowballs. It's such a famous moment that ESPN
even made a spoof thirty for thirty about it. Here
to tell the story is Frank's first cousin and best friend,
Richard Monastra. Here's Rich starting with a little background on
both him and Snowball Santa Frank.
Speaker 2 (01:00):
We were born in the post war era, two of
us baby boomers.
Speaker 3 (01:05):
I was born in forty six.
Speaker 2 (01:06):
Frank was born in nineteen forty eight in South Philadelphia.
Born to typical Battalian immigrant families. Our parents hailed from Naples, Italy.
For the most part, we were born and raised in
South Philadelphia. Went to Catholic elementary schools Catholic High School.
(01:27):
I graduated nineteen sixty four. Frank graduated nineteen sixty six
from the same high school, Bishop Newman. I went on
to college Frank decided that he wanted to be of
barbor so he went to barbering school. His father was
a veteran of World War Two. He had landed at
Omaha Beach in the D Day. He was wounded, wound
(01:49):
up with a plate in his head. His mother, Rose,
worked their whole life in the tailor shops, which was
pretty typical for South Philadelphia women. Frank went to by
a barber school in Center City, Philadelphia, in the area
now they call Chinatown, got his by barber's license. Frank
(02:11):
really really liked that. He liked being a barber. He
was very social. For the time he was a kid,
He was very very social. He got he got along with, with,
you know, with everybody. He had a talent. Early on,
we started to start to seat in him of being
a bit of a showman too. He would do impersonations
(02:34):
of actors, movie stars, whatever. Family really loved that. Kids
in the neighborhood really loved when he would imitate our
our our teachers.
Speaker 3 (02:43):
Especially when we're in high school and he and he
sort of liked all that attention.
Speaker 2 (02:51):
He was sort of deprived of that attention as a
as a kid. You know, his family, his own personal family,
mother and father. I guess you might call him today,
we might say is a dysfunctional family. You know, Rose
and Bruno were always working. Frankie was on the street
a lot at the time. Fortunately, he would come over
to our house and you know, my mother kind of
(03:13):
took him in and he was.
Speaker 3 (03:15):
Like our like our brother.
Speaker 2 (03:18):
That part of South Philadelphia sometimes, you know, has a
bad rep. A little bit of the so called mob
guys hung out there. There's a place called.
Speaker 3 (03:32):
Poo Cheese and Nicks Roast Beef Shop.
Speaker 2 (03:38):
I think both of those places were kind of fronts
for the organized the mob guys. But somehow frank got
friendly with those people as well. Every once in a
while they would ask us to carry the little brown
bags to go from point A to point B. Little
did we know we were carrying number plays or horse beats.
(04:01):
And frank spoke up about it one time, he said,
what's what's what's in these bags you're asking us to carry.
So one of the guys at this place called Pooci
showed him and Frankie started to laugh, and so and
the other the you know, the quasi mob guy started
to laugh too, and he said, I like you kids.
You guys are really cool. You got a real hootspa here,
so to speak. And he gave us a free roast
(04:24):
beef sandwich and the half a buck apiece. But as
time time went on, you know, I went on to college,
and we were always fans of the filled up his
sports scene. We used to go up the old Shy
Park to watch the Phillies play. The cops there who
(04:47):
guarded the stadium, we're very friendly. They let you hang
outside the stadium, and once the first inning was over,
they opened up the gates and we all got in
for free. Well, all the kids hanging outside the stadium
got in for free. We up in the bleachers and
watched the ball game. Once we were a bit older,
I guess in our teams, our uncles they had eight
(05:09):
season tickets, four in one row and four seats right
behind the first four. And as we grew up, they
would take us to the Eagles games as a sort
of a rite of passage, and that ultimately led up
to the infamous snowball event. In December of nineteen sixty eight,
(05:30):
the Eagles were scheduled to play the Minnesota Vikings, which
were a fairly new team at that time. I think
they had come into the league about nineteen sixty one
or sixty two. They weren't very good, but the Eagles
were worse. The Eagles were having a very very bad year.
There were something like two in ten or two and eleven.
The schedule was much shorter than they played. I think
(05:52):
the NFL played a twelve or fourteen game schedule.
Speaker 3 (05:55):
Then.
Speaker 2 (05:56):
Anyway, this game, all the sports writers had picked up
on it. They were calling at the OJ Bowl and
in reference to OJ Simpson, if the Eagles lost this game,
they would get the number one draft choice in the
NFL draft, And of course everybody was touling O. J.
(06:17):
Simpson at that moment, he was probably the best player
in the country playing for University of Southern California. The
Eagles were in a down, really a down period. Their coach,
Joker Hirick, former coach at Notre Dame, had signed a
fifteen year contract. Can you imagine back in those days,
(06:40):
And I think Jokiharrick was a great example of the
Peter principle. You know, you rise one level above your confidence.
He was great as a college coach, but he was
lousy as a pro coach. People would boo him routinely
every game, win or loose.
Speaker 3 (06:56):
On this day, there was an.
Speaker 2 (06:58):
Airplane circling over Franklin Field trailing a banner saying Joe
must go. And every time the plane went over, fans
would you know, would would would would shear? The fans
were in a sour mood that day. Trust me, it
had snowed the day before Saturday, nothing much, but the
game started late because they had to clear the field.
The game starts, the game goes on, and the Eagles
(07:20):
are winning, and the fans are booing. So you can
imagine because everybody wanted them to lose so that they
could draft Simpson. Anyway, Historically, the Eagles at the last
home game used to have Santa Claus, you know, come
out on a sleigh and he would you know, throw
(07:42):
these miniature footballs ended the stands, and one of which
was a was a gold colored one and if you
caught the gold one, you got a season ticket for
the next year's games. Well, that year, December of sixty eight,
for whatever reason, they decided not to throw out the footballs.
Speaker 3 (08:04):
So people were booing that.
Speaker 2 (08:08):
Somewhere in a second quarter, this man from the Eagles,
he's looking throughout the stands and he spots Frankie with
a Santa Claus suit. Now, the obvious question is why
is Frankie wearing a Santa Claus suit through the Eagles game. Well,
our grandmother each Christmas would host a Christmas party for
(08:30):
all the grandchildren and she would give them our gifts.
There he was getting up in years and rather than
going visit each one of our households, even though we
were fairly close, it was a bit of a chore
for her.
Speaker 3 (08:41):
So it was a big party.
Speaker 2 (08:44):
All the relatives, all the cousins and uncles, had to
be sixty seventy people in the house. Well, one of
my uncles usually played Santa Claus, Charlie Simkiss, had been
doing it, but Charlie had lost a lot.
Speaker 3 (08:57):
Of weight and fill out the suit.
Speaker 2 (09:02):
So he drafted Frankie Olivo to do the Senate So
he gave him the Santa suit, and Frankie decided on
a whim to wear the Santa suit at the Eagles
game because we were going to go right from the
Eagles game back to my grandmother's house for the Christmas party.
Speaker 1 (09:19):
And you're listening to Richmond Astra and he's the first
cousin of Frank Olivo and Frank Well, you're going to
hear more about this remarkable episode in Philadelphia sports history
and American sports history for that matter, when we come
back more of the story. This is our American stories.
(10:16):
You've been listening to Richmond Astra tell the story of
Frank Olivo the snowball Santa. Let's continue with the story.
Speaker 2 (10:25):
So we're in the stands, Frankie's got the Santa suit on.
The place is in a sour mood. The Eagles are winning.
Planes are flying over saying Joe must go. I mean
it was really nasty. Anyway, this guy from the Eagles
staff spots Frankie, goes up into the stands and asks
him if he'd be interested in subbing for the man
(10:46):
they had hired to play Santa Claus. Apparently the guy
they had hired the Eagles had hired was stranded up
in North Jersey somewhere and couldn't get down there to
Philadelphia because of the snow. Okay, pr guy for the
Eagles told them what to do, where to be, and
so forth, and they took.
Speaker 3 (11:05):
Him into the one of the you know.
Speaker 2 (11:08):
The bowels of the stadium. There halftime came. The PA
announcer gets on the PA and says, Santa Claus is
coming to town. Would everybody welcome Santa Claus? What a
big Philadelphia welcome. Well, uh, that's when the fun began.
(11:28):
Frankie enters the field. He's walking around carrying a big
Sanda bag and he's got some of the Eagles cheerleaders
are dressed up his elves and they're walking around the
you know, the base of the stadium, and all the
booing started. People started booing Santa Claus. And then the
snowballs came. People are picking up and they're making snowballs
(11:50):
and throwing them at Santa Claus. And the elves, well,
a couple of the elves ran for covers, and here's
Frankie became the target of all of this. Not only
did they start throwing snowballs, but they start throwing anything
they can get their hands on. People are throwing beer cans,
beer bottles, sandwiches, anything they get their hands on.
Speaker 3 (12:11):
They were heaving at Santa Claus.
Speaker 2 (12:13):
They're taking out their vengeance about the Eagles poor season
and winning this game thereby losing the OJ Bull. They
were taking their frustrations out on poor Santa Claus. So
Frankie and what was left of the Elves crew made
a circle around the field and then they went back in.
(12:36):
Frankie worked his way back to our seats. Of course,
when we all got back to the Christmas party, we
all were telling, you know, the others who were at
the party what had happened. You know, frank had got
hit with snowballs and beer cans and stale sandwiches and
hogis and got nose waddle and people were half laughing
(12:57):
and you know.
Speaker 3 (12:58):
Half shocked by it all.
Speaker 2 (13:02):
It wasn't until that night somebody had had the television
on in one of the other rooms at my grandmother's house,
and they noticed that Frankie's on TV. So we all
ran over to the TV set, you know, and you
see him coming out of the tunnel of the stadium.
(13:22):
They're playing some music on the PA system and people
started throwing snowballs and you hear them booing and all that. So,
of course, Philippa fans have had this reputation for eons
about being rowdy fans and you know all that stuff.
We're the only city that had a a judge on
site and a sort of a jail in this in
(13:46):
the bottels of the stadium for people who got too rowdy. So,
I mean it was really crazy. Philadelphi is a great
sports sound, don't get me wrong, but people can get
really crazy sometimes. So the story made national news and
at least one aspect of international news, The London Times
(14:08):
picked up on it. He told us he did not
expect you know that that booing, he said, booing bothered
him more than anything. He said, you know, he couldn't
understand people throwing snow and all that, but he said.
Speaker 3 (14:21):
The booing, He said, who the hell boo Santa Claus.
Speaker 2 (14:25):
And of course that's the line that got tagged at Philadelphia.
From that point on, this is the city that boots
Santa Claus. And everyone's in a blue moon. You hear
some sportscaster on some station, local or national throw that
line out there. You know, when something happens negatively in
the city of Philadelphia, they'll say, well, you got to
(14:46):
remember this, said, the city did boot Santa Claus.
Speaker 3 (14:48):
You know.
Speaker 2 (14:50):
Of course, when he went back to work at the barbershop.
He was working in the in a barbershop in the
Suburban station, which is the main train station in the
center city Fillediladelphia, and people would come in there. They
would spot him there. Of course that his picture was
cut out of the newspapers. It was the people hanging
up in their windows of the barbershop. He got a
(15:13):
lot of customers from local celebrities, business people, television stars.
He had one of his customers with the Archbishop of Philadelphia.
Speaker 3 (15:23):
At the time was a man by name of John Kroll.
Speaker 2 (15:26):
He's now deceased, but he was asking Frankie for his autograph.
Imagine this, the Cardinal of Philadelphia asking Frankie for his autograph.
So he had all the all the local you know,
politicians would stop in there. Mayor Tate, James James Tate
was the mayor of Philadelphia, had his picture taken down
(15:48):
in Frank's boy at barbershop, so he became a local celebrity.
Frank never got any pay from the Eagles. They gave
him a pair of cufflings. If you can believe that.
Frank was not much of a cuff shirt kind of guy.
You know.
Speaker 3 (16:04):
In fact, one.
Speaker 2 (16:05):
Of my uncles, Tony, he was a bit of a
loudmouth to say, at least wrote to the Eagles and
he called a bunch of cheap at s obs. So anyway,
Frank got his own shop, didn't farewell. It was a
bad time by this time, it's the early eighties, had
(16:27):
to close.
Speaker 3 (16:27):
The shop down. He went.
Speaker 2 (16:30):
He went to work at one of the casinos that
had just opened up in Atlantic City.
Speaker 3 (16:38):
As a dealer.
Speaker 2 (16:39):
He got his license as a dealer, and he ultimately
worked his way up to become a pit boss. He
got the rob elbows with some of the acts that
were appearing there. One of his favorite buddies was done
Don Records. Frankie had He was on a first name
basis with with with Don, with Don Rickles, you know,
(17:02):
they exchanged cards at Christmas time. I think when Frankie's
daughter got married, or maybe was his son. I forget
which Don Rickles sun of a gift. Throughout his life, however,
Frank was plagued by heart issues. Even as a kid.
We would have you know, sometimes he'd have to stop
playing ball for a bit or whatever we were doing.
(17:24):
That became too much of an exertion for him. Frank
died on the thirtieth of April twenty fifteen. He was
let's see, he was about sixty five or sixty six
at the time I did the formal theology at Frank's funeral,
(17:46):
And while I was preparing to do that, I was
getting phone calls. When I tell you, literally from all
over the country. The story didn't die. It just wouldn't
leave him. Even to this day. The fact that you
contacted me evidence is the fact that people are still
talking about it. The day of his funeral, the priest
(18:08):
asked me what music they should have for Frankie, and
half jokingly, I said, play here comes Santa Claus. The
priest looked at me rather puzzle I said, I'm just kidding, Padre,
But I thought that would have would have been appropriate
(18:29):
because I think he would have loved that. So the
legend lives on. He's the gift that keeps on giving.
Speaker 4 (18:37):
Here comes Santa Claus. Here comes Santa Claus. Right down
Santa Claus Lane.
Speaker 1 (18:42):
And you've been listening to Frankie Olivo's first cousin, Rich
Monastra tell the story of the snowball Santa. But all
of the story, the neighborhood, the context, the neighborhood stores,
and the psychological profile of a Philadelphia Eagle fan at
least a whole bunch. And I was a New York
Giants fan growing up in Northern New Jersey. And I
(19:04):
will never forget my first away game at Philadelphia, and
I had the temerity to wear a New York Giants
hat that lasted about a second. The story of Frankie Olivo,
the story of the Snowball Santa here on our American stories.
Speaker 4 (19:22):
And he doesn't care for Richarpoor. He loves you just
the same, Santa Clausmo
Host
Lee Habeeb
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