Bobby perceived that the family was very poor, a perception reinforced since they lived in a poor Italian ghetto in the Bronx. Since Bobby was confined to bed for long periods, his “mother,” Polly, home schooled him and told him about being a showgirl and the entertainment business. Since he had a bad heart, he couldn’t play sports like the other kids at school or in the neighborhood. As he spent long absences from school when he was ill, he spent time amusing himself developing an interest in music. The young boy began to compose rhyme, sing and play child instruments by the age of six. The way this was explained to Bobby was that Charlie was his new brother-in-law. But his older “sister” Giovannina, got quickly involved with a guy named Charlie Mafia who moved in with Polly, Bobby and “Nina.” Nina and Charlie got married a few years later. Each one damaging his heart muscle more severely than the previous illness.īobby was told that his father was Sam Cassotto, who took a fall for the Mafia and died in prison before Bobby was born. You have to be careful, and you have to protect him.” Between the ages of eight and thirteen, Bobby had four illnesses with rheumatic fever. I remember being told all my life, “Bobby’s sickly. I remember Bobby crying and screaming and my father having to pick him up and carry him to the bathroom, he was in so much pain. We couldn’t walk on the floor because just walking across the floor would put him in agony. Bobby’s real sister, Vivienne, said years later, “my earliest memory of Bobby as a child was about his rheumatic fever. According to his biographies, Walden Robert Cassotto suffered from rheumatic fever as a child. In his childhood, Robert learned to play piano, drums and guitar. It was not until 1968, when he was 32 years of age, that he discovered that his older sister, Giovannina Cassotto, was actually his mother. His “mother” was a showgirl in her earlier days and so not the “grandmother type.” So the ruse was successful. And he understood that his “mother” had given birth at a later stage in life. So she gave birth and was introduced to her son as his older “sister.” In order for the deceit to be pulled off, young Robert was raised by his grandmother, Polly, who he understood was his mother. In the 1930’s, being a pregnant teenager was very improper. His mother, born in November 1917, was pregnant with him when she was only sixteen, giving birth to him when she was seventeen. Walden Robert Cassotto was born in the Bronx in May, 1936.
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