1 Shot, Unnnatural Histories

*Michael Lombardo (1925 – 2015), the second youngest of seven children to Italian immigrants, was a child of the Great Depression who grew up in Carroll Gardens of Italian ancestry. Michael moonlighted as a cocktail piano player with aspirations of being a carpenter and toy maker. Drafted at seventeen into WWII under the 179th Infantry, 45th Division, Michael was captured in the Battle of Anzio by German Troops and remained a POW at the VII-B Memmingen Work camp west of the town of Hammerstein, Germany (now Czarne, Poland).

While encamped, he was mistaken as a brother/band mate of Guy Lombardo, band leader of the Royal Canadians. He was soon assigned to play accordion for the RRG (Reich Broadcasting Corporation) to help publicize how fairly Nazis treated their prisoners. After his liberation in April of 1945, he returned home to a drastically different New York. Unparalleled prosperity, with over 40,000 factories, New York had become the manufacturing center of the world. Ironically wooden toy manufacturing was not one of those opportunities as the import of Japanese tin toys had dominated the Market.

Michael ultimately pursued carpentry with a shop located at 411 Smith St (now Smith Street Tattoo Parlor). The Lombardo Brothers were known throughout the neighborhood for their woodwork and cabinetry, with many of their installations still existing today, including the restoration of Packer Collegiate Institute Cathedral.

Michael lived to be 91, dedicating his final years to his childhood dream of creating wooden figures. Typically constructed of Balsa wood and hand-carved using the techniques learned over his years as a cabinet maker, figures often depict era cartoon characters from Mickey Mouse, Popeye, and Bugs Bunny to more modern children's folklore like Shrek.