By Frederick N. Rasmussen , fred.rasmussen@baltsun.com|October 15, 2008
Paul John Mangione, whose spirited piano playing with the Paul Mann Band enlivened not only numerous social events but helped Baltimoreans welcome the New Year for decades, died of complications from dementia Oct. 7 at the Veterans Affairs Rehabilitation & Extended Care Center in Northeast Baltimore. He was 91.
Mr. Mangione was born in Baltimore and raised on Allegheny Avenue in Towson. As a youngster, he worked as a stonemason for his father's construction company while teaching himself to play the piano.
"He had a perfect ear," said a daughter, Cynthia M. Teramani of Rodgers Forge.
Mr. Mangione, who was a 1935 graduate of Towson High School, formed the Paul Menton Orchestra, an 18-piece band, in 1938.
Enjoying early success, Mr. Mangione's orchestra performed in major downtown hotels as well as Keith's Roof and the Stanley Theater. Other gigs included country clubs, colleges and high school gymnasiums.
"It was one of the few local bands that received encouraging write-ups from Orchestra World Magazine," Mrs. Teramani said. The press resulted in the band's first out-of-town booking at the William Penn Hotel in Pittsburgh, followed by a stand at the Morrison Hotel in Chicago.
"World War II was quickly approaching just as the band began to take off, and it was the draft board that eventually broke it up," Mrs. Teramani said.
Mr. Mangione entered the Army in 1944 and was sent to Europe, where he was a member of the 44th Infantry Division Band, joining musicians who had played in pre-war days with bands led by Tommy Dorsey, Alvino Rey and Blue Baron,
"Home base for the division was Fort Lewis, Washington, which was part of the Northwest Defense Command. Two great dance orchestras were formed from the division band, and I was placed in charge of one of them," Mr. Mangione wrote in an unpublished biographical sketch.
In the fall of 1944, the division shipped out; after landing in Normandy, band members were absorbed into communications or worked as guards, or in reconnaissance or graves registration units.
"He told us stories about seeing soldiers killed in battle and liberating prisoners from the concentration camps and how horrific it was to see the way they had been mistreated," Mrs. Teramani said. "He said it gave him meaning to why he was there and helped him cope with the loss of friends he saw die."
Discharged with the rank of private in 1945, Mr. Mangione returned to Baltimore and rejoined Mangione Construction Co., his father's business.
