Davidyd wrote:
La ricordo con affetto in una foto dolcissima, scattatale dal suo giovane e passionale amante romano, che generò una delle battute più belle della storia del forum separatista. Firma ovviamente Angyair.
Ciao, Georgia.
"All I can say is that I've never stopped loving and being proud of St.Louis. And I'm so thrilled to be back and to be able to bring something to what I will always consider my hometown". Le sue parole nel '95 quando portò i Rams a St.Louis dando inizio a una nuova, vincente epoca.
Forse dobbiamo tutto a lei... la città di St.Louis deve tutto a lei.
La sua vita. An extraordinary life.
Georgia Frontiere was a chorus girl, a club singer, a philanthropist and a creative eccentric who wrote poetry and liked astrology.
She dined with movie stars and sang at Joseph P. Kennedy's mansion. At various times, she owned homes in London, Los Angeles, New York, Arizona and her native St. Louis.
She married seven times. For 28 years she owned a franchise in the ultimate "old-boys league" — the National Football League — and during that time the Rams earned 13 playoff berths and appeared in three Super Bowls.
As her son, Dale "Chip" Rosenbloom, said: "She's led an extraordinary life."
Mrs. Frontiere, who died Friday after a long battle with breast cancer, took over the Los Angeles Rams in 1979 after her sixth husband, Carroll Rosenbloom, drowned in a swimming accident. Against league wishes, she moved the franchise to her hometown in 1995.
After four consecutive losing seasons in St. Louis, the Rams pulled off one of the more improbable championship runs in NFL history. Coming off a 4-12 season in 1998, the Rams went from worst to first in 1999.
With a dominating, electrifying offense headlined by quarterback Kurt Warner, running back Marshall Faulk and wide receivers Isaac Bruce and Torry Holt, the team known as "the Greatest Show on Turf" defeated Tennessee 23-16 in Super Bowl XXXIV.
As she accepted the Lombardi Trophy from NFL Commissioner Paul Tagliabue, Mrs. Frontiere fired the shot heard 'round St. Louis.
"It proves that we did the right thing in going to St. Louis," she said on the trophy stand.
It was Tagliabue, after all, who had tried to block the move of the Rams from Southern California.
The day after the Super Bowl, 100,000 Rams fans stayed into the dark for a victory parade and rally at Kiener Plaza. As the motorcade rolled by on the parade route, tears rolled down Mrs. Frontiere's cheeks as fans shouted, "We love you, Georgia!" And, "Thank you, Georgia!"
"You are so wonderful," Mrs. Frontiere told the crowd. "I love you. I'm so happy I could bring my team to my people."
Mrs. Frontiere was born Georgia Irwin on Nov. 21, 1927, at St. Mary's Hospital in Richmond Heights. She grew up in St. Louis' Central West End and attended Hamilton School, where she was known for her blond curls and strong soprano voice. Some of her favorite childhood memories were of trips to the Muny Opera, picnics in Forest Park and skating at the old Winter Garden Rink.
"I also played sandlot or gravel lot football, until the boys got too big," Mrs. Frontiere once said. "To this day, when I see a wide receiver catch the ball, I remember and relate back to my childhood experiences."
Her parents were divorced in 1943, about which time Mrs. Frontiere, her mother and her brother, Ken, moved to Fresno, Calif. By then, Mrs. Frontiere already had been married once, at age 15, to a Marine. The family quickly had the marriage annulled.
In California, she was married only a few weeks to her second husband, Francis J. Geiger, before he was killed in a car-bus crash in 1946. Mrs. Frontiere was also in the car at the time but was not seriously injured.
In California, she was a chorus girl for the Sacramento Music Circus. She moved to Miami with her fourth husband, Wallace Hayes, in the mid-1950s. She worked as a "weathergirl" for a Miami television station and later became a singer at Miami-area clubs.
In south Florida — at the Palm Beach mansion of Kennedy, father of U.S. President John F. Kennedy — she met Rosenbloom. In those days, Mrs. Frontiere could be seen singing at piano bars in New York hotels. She would accompany Rosenbloom to Kennedy's home in Hyannisport, Mass., to sing there as well.
Once Rosenbloom made his unprecedented "swap" of franchises, in essence trading his Baltimore Colts for the Los Angeles Rams in 1972, Mrs. Frontiere quickly embraced the Hollywood scene. The top actors and entertainers of the day, such as Jimmy Stewart, Cary Grant, Ricardo Montalban and Jack Benny, were among her dinner guests.
Known for her tardiness, Mrs. Frontiere was accustomed to being the center of attention. An astrology buff, she once attributed back-to-back losses by the Rams during the 1999 Super Bowl season to the fact that "Mercury was in retrograde." Or so the story went.
A few months after Rosenbloom drowned, Mrs. Frontiere made sports headlines by firing her stepson, Steve Rosenbloom, who had been widely expected to take over the club. As the first woman to own and run an NFL team, Mrs. Frontiere was subject to immediate criticism.
"It took a tremendous amount of courage, really, from the moment she inherited the team," Rams President John Shaw said.
As early as the 1979 season, her first year owning the club, there were signs at home games reading, "Georgia, Please Sell." But she didn't.
As a woman in a man's world, she was viewed as a gold-digger, called a chorus girl and was blamed for the move of the team from Los Angeles to Anaheim — a move that was conceived and planned by her husband.
"Back then, the smoke-filled rooms didn't have women in them when they were doing stuff," said Jay Zygmunt, Rams president of football operations-general manager.
Or as Mrs. Frontiere once said: "The owners knew me as a wife but couldn't accept me as one of them."
In 1980, she married Dominic Frontiere, a friend and personal lyricist, who had written and arranged music for more than 85 movies and television shows, including "The Flying Nun," "That Girl" and "The Fugitive." Dominic Frontiere pled guilty in 1986 to lying to a government official, a conviction that stemmed from federal tax evasion charges for scalping tickets to the 1979 season's Super Bowl. The Frontieres were divorced in 1988.
In 1986, Mrs. Frontiere held a reunion for her elementary school classmates in St. Louis before a Rams-Cardinals game. Since the franchise moved here, those classmates have been invited guests to all home games, even games that Mrs. Frontiere did not attend.
Growing up, Mrs. Frontiere said she dreamed of becoming an opera star in Europe, and thus making her hometown proud. She recalled those childhood dreams on Jan. 17, 1995, when announcing plans to move the Rams to St. Louis.
"Well, now I've done something to make St. Louis proud," Mrs. Frontiere said at the time. "I've brought the city a football team. I've given them something that's hard to get. I've worked hard for it. It's like bringing a medal back home."
The move came at a price, and it enriched Frontiere and the Rams. St. Louis spent millions to lure the team with a financial package that included a new domed stadium and a lucrative lease that was the envy of the NFL.
League owners initially rejected the move in March 1995. With the help of Shaw and others, Mrs. Frontiere's resolve showed that she had evolved from her flamboyant "Hollywood girl" days.
"This is not a question of money. It's pride," Mrs. Frontiere said after the league's initial rejection of the move. "I feel like I can field a winning team. And I love the game. Carroll knew that I loved the game, and he wanted me to remain in it.
"It was the closest thing to his heart, next to me. He told me to never sell the team. I wish others would accept that. Too many people have tried to pressure me to sell the team."
Only the threat of a lawsuit, coupled with increased financial payments by the Rams to the league, caused team owners to reverse field and approve the move just a month later in April 1995.
Mrs. Frontiere quickly became active in St. Louis charitable activities after the move. The Rams Foundation has donated more than $6 million in grants, merchandise and tickets to St. Louis-area charities since its inception in 1997.
Long a champion of music and the arts, Mrs. Frontiere served on the boards of the St. Louis Symphony and St. Louis Zoo. For many years, Mrs. Frontiere provided a $5,000 scholarship to area students who created a winning illustration in the team's annual art competition, with the winning drawing gracing the cover of that year's media guide.
During the days of the Greatest Show on Turf, Mrs. Frontiere was a regular at Rams home games, frequently going down to the sidelines late in the game.
But the sideline visits and her time spent in St. Louis decreased with advancing years and declining health. She spent most of her time in Sedona, Ariz., with her companion of many years, Earle Weatherwax, who never became husband No. 8. "We've both done that," Weatherwax once said when asked if marriage was in their future.
Naaa :gazza:
Era qualcosa su "Se non hai di meglio, ti accucchi con mammà" in versione salentina, mi fece spisciare
Davide e' il miglior WR mai apparso su un campo da flag football separatista (cit. Multiple)
:ciucco: + :pandu: + :rastapimp: + :censored: = (cit. Pata)
Si parla già di possibile vendita della franchigia.
I figli di Georgia non vogliono accollarsi l'onere di seguire la gestione dei Rams e pare abbiano già fissato sui 500 milioni di dollari, la base per la trattativa di vendita.
Angyair wrote:
Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh. Quandu autru nu tieni cu mammata te curchi!" ?
Davide e' il miglior WR mai apparso su un campo da flag football separatista (cit. Multiple)
:ciucco: + :pandu: + :rastapimp: + :censored: = (cit. Pata)
Teo wrote:
Si parla già di possibile vendita della franchigia.
I figli di Georgia non vogliono accollarsi l'onere di seguire la gestione dei Rams e pare abbiano già fissato sui 500 milioni di dollari, la base per la trattativa di vendita.
per forbes il valore della franchigia si aggira sui 908 milioni di dollari.
Last edited by Alvise on 21/01/2008, 19:24, edited 1 time in total.
chinasky wrote:
Bene. In California sono già pronti acquirenti di valore? :gazza:
non lo so, ma mi è giunta voce che l'unico sport professionistico che manca nella zona di los angeles sia il football americano. c'è persino, ma qui non ci credo molto, qualcuno che dice che dal 1946 al 1994 i rams ci abbiano giocato anche a Los Angeles.
BTW, si stanno facendo molti (troppi) discorsi sul futuro della franchigia, che rimarrà ben ancorata alla città si St.Louis. Lascio, a chi fosse interessato, un articolo del sempre ottimo Bernie Miklasz del Dispacht sulla fiducia da riporre nel figlio di Georgia, Chip Rosenbloom, che probabilmente venderà, ma inserirà nel contratto di vendita una clausola per fare in modo che i Rams siano ancora la squadra di St.Louis. L'ideale è che vendesse a Kroenke, ma non credo che la lega glielo permetterà considerato che detiene quote di maggioranza degli Avalanche di hockey e dei Nuggets di basket.
I don't know Chip Rosenbloom well. We've had a few conversations, and shared a meal or two along the way, since the Rams and his mother, Georgia Frontiere, became part of the St. Louis sports community in 1995.
But the initial impressions are positive. He's a good man, and a gentleman. Rosenbloom, 43, has a successful film career going, as a producer, screenwriter and director. But this is no showy, Hollywood guy. Chip has a relatively low-key personality. He's serious by nature. He's a family man, and happily spends time with his wife and kids. Same with his sister, Lucia Rodriguez. I've met her several times and found her to be warm, friendly and devoted to her husband and children.
I also know this: Chip and Lucia appreciate the way their mother was received and treated in St. Louis. They're grateful for the support and affection she received over the last 13 seasons here. In the final years for the Rams in Los Angeles, when things turned ugly, Chip and Lucia were upset by the personal attacks made against their mother.
I am confident that Chip will take care of the Rams, and St. Louis.
Here's the first look:
— Rosenbloom will probably sell, but he's in no rush. In a few years he'll probably sell because his life and Lucia's are based in L.A. And he believes the owner of the Rams ought to be more intimately involved with the franchise, should have a presence in the St. Louis community. By selling, Chip and Lucia would make a lot of money, yes. But they also want the Rams to have local, visible and accessible ownership.
— Rosenbloom, however, is also devoted to the memory and legacy of his parents. His father, Carroll Rosenbloom, loved owning the Baltimore Colts, and then the Rams. Chip is conflicted; he has told associates that he'd feel guilt by selling the Rams out of the family. But he also believes St. Louis deserves the full concentration of the owner, and he may not be able to do that.
— Rosenbloom has told associates of his feeling that the Rams must change the inner dynamics in St. Louis. I haven't spoken to Chip about these matters, but I am told that he's interested in a new direction for the franchise. Team President John Shaw may leave the organization at some point in 2008, and if it happens, the exit would be viewed as an opportunity by Rosenbloom to restructure management. I am told that he believes the Rams need a more high-profile and proactive leader of the franchise, much like the Cardinals have in team President Mark Lamping, and the Blues have in John Davidson. Yes, Chip is also concerned about the on-field direction of the team. But please understand: He isn't going to bull-rush his way into this. He will need time to get a better read on the state of the franchise.
— And if and when the Rams are sold, what then? Chip really likes and respects minority partner Stan Kroenke. And Kroenke cares deeply about the Rams. But because of the current NFL ownership rules, Kroekne can't own controlling interest in the Rams and maintain majority ownership of pro franchises in Denver. And that's another reason Chip won't rush into anything; he is said to want to give Kroenke time to decide what to do, and perhaps work something out with the NFL.
We're about to enter another new chapter of NFL football in St. Louis, and I believe the Rams are in honorable hands. And as we begin anew, let's offer Chip Rosenbloom and Lucia Rodriguez our condolences, our best wishes and our welcome.
KingKaiv wrote:
L'ideale è che vendesse a Kroenke, ma non credo che la lega glielo permetterà considerato che detiene quote di maggioranza degli Avalanche di hockey e dei Nuggets di basket.
Davide e' il miglior WR mai apparso su un campo da flag football separatista (cit. Multiple)
(cit. Pata)
