Jilly Rizzo - Biography

Biography

Jilly as a young man worked with his father delivering Italian ice to cafes. A long-time friend of Frank Sinatra, Rizzo was mentioned in several of Sinatra's recordings and made cameo appearances in several of Sinatra's films. Mr. Rizzo long ran Jilly's Saloon, a lounge on West Forty-ninth street, then moved to 256 West 52nd Street in Manhattan. Inside was a piano bar where Judy Garland was known to sing while having a drink, In the early 80's the lounge closed and in 1985 Russian Samovar Restaurant was opened in its place. It was co-founded by a noble trio of Mikhail Baryshnikov, the Nobel Prize laureate Joseph Brodsky and art historian Roman Kaplan. Russian Samovar has kept the same bar wood from 1960's in honor of Jilly and Frank. Sometimes people come in to solely touch the wood and listen to the music. Hospitable owners like to show a hidden painting that was left from the old times. Jilly's bar was a favorite gathering spot of celebrities in the 1960s, especially when Mr. Sinatra was in New York, and it can be seen in the 1962 film The Manchurian Candidate. Jilly was also a frequent guest on Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In, where he would recite one liners in his monotone New York accent. During the 1970s, his night-club was torn down and replaced with Dean Martin's restaurant, Dino's. In 1959, Rizzo married Honey King, who later co-owned Jilly's South with him in Miami. Honey was noted for having her hair dyed blue. When Jilly had a back ailment, Sinatra insisted that he do his recuperating at Frank's home. They have a daughter, Abby, and a granddaughter, Kacey. Jilly also had a couple of children with another woman.