[SPEAKER_04]: Jiam is got the stories from the coast to countryside.
[SPEAKER_04]: Jeannie's got the questions sharp as the nitrous sway.
[SPEAKER_04]: Everyone's day and night we take you all the way.
[SPEAKER_04]: From the back streets to tin so town to the notorious globe.
[SPEAKER_04]: Old Hollywood meets my futile And you're about to know It's the Hollywood Godfather Where the big band plays and the stories don't stop With Gianni and Gini everywhere They're taking you to the top Keep it smooth and keep it classy Feel that swing, non-stop
[SPEAKER_02]: Welcome, everybody.
[SPEAKER_02]: It's time for another Hollywood Godfather podcast.
[SPEAKER_02]: And tonight's a very special show for me because one of my closest friends who's a great critique for us and an avid fan is gonna be on, but let me introduce the lady first.
[SPEAKER_02]: Jeannie Rayman and my close friend, Robert Baldachi is being generous tonight and going to get into his legacy, which is amazing of what's gone on in this country for him.
[SPEAKER_02]: So with that, Robert Baldachi, my friend.
[SPEAKER_01]: My friend Gianni and Jeannie, thank you very much for the opportunity to be on your show tonight.
[SPEAKER_01]: I really appreciate it.
[SPEAKER_01]: Gianni, you're going to agree with my friends.
[SPEAKER_02]: So when I read what you and Teddy just accomplished, and now Teddy has another generation, I just don't want a great way just to what your family has done and we need some history on that because you already and so know what we are.
[SPEAKER_01]: I would love to Gianni.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, Teddy and I, my son, my youngest son,
[SPEAKER_01]: And I have formed a company called the Baldachi group.
[SPEAKER_01]: We're affiliated with Keller Williams and Portland.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's an original name.
[SPEAKER_01]: Well, unless you got a better one.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I think it's fabulous.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, no, so it is what it is.
[SPEAKER_01]: Anyway, we're, we formed a company.
[SPEAKER_01]: We're going to be doing commercial real estate primarily,
[SPEAKER_01]: hospitality, businesses, and I'm so proud of my son.
[SPEAKER_01]: He's constantly working, constantly on the phone.
[SPEAKER_01]: You know how a lot of people just don't, are afraid to pick up the phone and make a call call?
[SPEAKER_01]: This kid is unbelievable, and he's got a great way about him.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I just thrilled Gianni and Gianni to be working in this capacity with my son.
[SPEAKER_01]: I've been involved
[SPEAKER_01]: in Maine here and business, all kinds of different businesses for, I hate to say it, but maybe 50 years.
[SPEAKER_01]: I know I don't look at Jeannie, but he is great.
[SPEAKER_00]: I told Jeannie, she said, do you remember him?
[SPEAKER_00]: And I said, I remember all of our hands.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm guessing yes.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's great.
[SPEAKER_01]: Thank you.
[SPEAKER_01]: And we all remember you.
[SPEAKER_02]: So, but I'm kidding.
[SPEAKER_02]: I'm kidding.
[SPEAKER_02]: that's right.
[SPEAKER_02]: And he used that to get so many connections.
[SPEAKER_02]: And I think that was the stepping stone for where you are now with him.
[SPEAKER_01]: In a lot of ways, absolutely.
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, he's met everybody there.
[SPEAKER_01]: Last week, two weeks ago, we met Michael Jordan.
[SPEAKER_01]: Michael Jordan gave me $100 tip just said, you know, it's just, it's great.
[SPEAKER_01]: Teddy, Teddy grew up.
[SPEAKER_01]: uh... in our family where he he met uh... so many people i mean bill clinton baraco bomber uh... you know celebrities johnny rousseau so i'll be up on well yes you are yes you are in that bottom list but uh... you know that's the other thing your family has been so politically involved you know you mentioned earlier today that
[SPEAKER_02]: Your brother's not running for the Senate.
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, this younger brother Joe is running for the House, the US House.
[SPEAKER_01]: My yes, and he's he's got a primary coming up in June, we're keeping our fingers crossed.
[SPEAKER_01]: I think he's going to do well.
[SPEAKER_01]: My other young, I'm the oldest of eight G oldest of eight kids and grew up in Bangor, Maine.
[SPEAKER_01]: My dad and my grandparents started a restaurant called originally was called the Baltimore because when my grandfather immigrated from Italy, they landed in Baltimore, Maryland.
[SPEAKER_01]: He ended up getting a job in the North Woods as a cork and then he wanted to open up his own business.
[SPEAKER_01]: So he opened up this little bar in Bangor.
[SPEAKER_01]: called the Baltimore.
[SPEAKER_01]: And we all grew up in that business.
[SPEAKER_01]: My dear after my grandparents, my grandfather passed away, my father and my uncle Vasco, along with my grandmother, worked the business and we all did.
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, Gianni, it was like the, it was one of the first Italian-American restaurants in Maine.
[SPEAKER_01]: And 1933 it was established and we would we would get I mean the Kennedy's have been there we've had sports teams that would come up from Boston.
[SPEAKER_01]: the Celtics, the back then it was the Boston Patriots, the Red Sox, Ted Williams used to come in the restaurant all the time because he would love to come up to Maine to fish.
[SPEAKER_01]: So we got to know Ted Williams quite well.
[SPEAKER_01]: All kinds of people, it was a great, great restaurant.
[SPEAKER_01]: And we ran that until my parents had passed away very young and I had two brothers, Jerry and Paul who were running the restaurant and my brother Jerry just passed away last year.
[SPEAKER_01]: And so we have to close the restaurant.
[SPEAKER_01]: My brother John at the time was the governor of the state of May.
[SPEAKER_01]: John has heard oldest in the family and you you've talked to John before, Jeannie.
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, Jeannie, you talked to John.
[SPEAKER_01]: He was he was the first a four term congressman from Maine representing the largest.
[SPEAKER_01]: congressional district north east of the Mississippi, huge district in Maine, and we only have two congressmen in Maine, and John was the one in the more conservative district, the northern Maine, eastern Maine district.
[SPEAKER_01]: And he was there very, very, he worked hard, he had a great reputation, and we used to go around the state doing these spaghetti dinners.
[SPEAKER_01]: That was his trademark.
[SPEAKER_01]: So we
[SPEAKER_01]: whatever money we charge like four or five dollars for people to do this but we had huge crowds and we always gave the money to local charities and it's sort of been a trademark that John started and now my brother Joe is doing the same thing so but you know with that's it's all about family and we're very proud of our heritage my dad you know just his parent, his mother
[SPEAKER_01]: and father immigrated from Luca Italy, which is outside in Tuscany, outside between peasants and Florence.
[SPEAKER_01]: And he came in the early 1900s.
[SPEAKER_01]: Adolfo was his name.
[SPEAKER_01]: He came first and he joined the U.S. military and served World War I as an merchant.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yep.
[SPEAKER_01]: And they got out because Mussolini was starting to take power
[SPEAKER_01]: was slowly marching toward fascism.
[SPEAKER_01]: And Adolfo wants this, I want to go to America.
[SPEAKER_01]: So he did, they settled in Providence, Rhode Island.
[SPEAKER_01]: And Providence has probably one of the largest,
[SPEAKER_01]: Italian-American populations of any, any, I was probably outside of New York on a per capita basis.
[SPEAKER_01]: I spent so much time on federal Hill, and that's in my father and my father and his brother grew up on federal Hill.
[SPEAKER_02]: And we, the old thing that was, Giani's always in the old, can't see to be in America.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's right.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's exactly right.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's a great restaurant.
[SPEAKER_01]: And Raymond Potriacca had his,
[SPEAKER_01]: little, little, little statue.
[SPEAKER_02]: Why do you say, go, I used to bring envelopes could sell up to Raymond Petriaco, who was running New England crime family.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yes.
[SPEAKER_01]: Oh, yes.
[SPEAKER_01]: And dad used to say, you know, Raymond Petriaco,
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, they, you could say whatever you want about him, but he was a nice guy.
[SPEAKER_01]: He loved the kids gave them ice cream, free ice cream, whatever they wanted.
[SPEAKER_02]: Ice cream truck will pull up each, he should get the kids editing they want.
[SPEAKER_01]: And this is the head of the New England Mafia Genie.
[SPEAKER_00]: So, you know, the first, the, when I first started getting into podcasts years ago,
[SPEAKER_00]: The first podcast I listened to was about all of this, Raymond Petraica, and that was a very first one I've listened to.
[SPEAKER_00]: I want to go back and listen to all the ones I listened to before I knew Gianni.
[SPEAKER_05]: Yes, yes.
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, I would listen to those and then once I met Gianni and Pat, I would write in questions asking about these podcasts I have heard, and that's how just me and I got introduced was asking questions about other things that I had heard in all these other podcasts, but that was the very first one was about him.
[SPEAKER_01]: No, that's very cool.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_01]: I never had the opportunity to meet him, uh, Gianni, but, uh, oh, yeah.
[SPEAKER_01]: Oh, you were too young.
[SPEAKER_01]: I was too young.
[SPEAKER_01]: I was too young, but dad certainly knew.
[SPEAKER_02]: I was up there in my teens.
[SPEAKER_01]: No, I mean, I haven't.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_01]: Wow.
[SPEAKER_01]: But a few days ago, uh, it's just, it's a, it's a great Italian, uh, American neighborhood, one of them on my job.
[SPEAKER_01]: And still it.
[SPEAKER_01]: And it's still in it still is.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's correct.
[SPEAKER_01]: I got married up
[SPEAKER_01]: What's your, my, my, my grandmother was married at the Lady of Mount Carmel right now, I was at the same Mary's same Mary's okay, and I got married my, my grandfather at the, which hotel, a bill more.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, the big one.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, that's the, I had a hundred years of good behavior, my wife.
[SPEAKER_01]: My, just a little story about my grandfather Adolfo.
[SPEAKER_01]: He worked as a baker at the Build More, but he was right in the middle of the Potriaca whole, you know, all of that in the neighborhood.
[SPEAKER_01]: And one day, my grandmother, we called her Nana, but her name was Rita, came home and found my grandfather on the Kitchen Floor in a Polo Island.
[SPEAKER_01]: And she used, we asked her, Nana, what happened to, you know, our grandfather and how did he die?
[SPEAKER_01]: Well, he had a cerebral hemorrhage.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I don't think that that was the case.
[SPEAKER_01]: I think nobody has a cerebral hemorrhage in a lying and a pool of blood.
[SPEAKER_00]: There you go.
[SPEAKER_01]: So I think he might have gotten cross with some bad people.
[SPEAKER_01]: So at that point, my grandmother took my father, Roberto, and his brother Vasco back to Italy.
[SPEAKER_01]: She got the hell out of Shogai, she knew she knew something, she knew something.
[SPEAKER_01]: And so she needed a few years, they lived in Luka, came back,
[SPEAKER_01]: And she, he, she was, she went back to Providence and with two, two young boys, and they had some of her friends was saying, there's a guy up in Bangalore, Maine, who just opened up a bar.
[SPEAKER_01]: Good man, he's looking for a, for a good wife, and he could give good support to you and your family.
[SPEAKER_01]: His name is Jimmy Caparelli.
[SPEAKER_01]: So he was the one that really started the restaurant.
[SPEAKER_01]: And so Nana went up with the boys.
[SPEAKER_01]: She said, Bangor main is the last place I want to be.
[SPEAKER_01]: Very few Italians, but she needed some help.
[SPEAKER_01]: And so long story short, she marries Mr. Caparelli.
[SPEAKER_01]: And she's the one.
[SPEAKER_01]: Once she got into the restaurant, she says enough of this beer tap business.
[SPEAKER_01]: We're going to make some great pasta.
[SPEAKER_01]: We're going to make some great spaghetti, lasagna, ravioli.
[SPEAKER_01]: And she was a phenomenal cook, almost as good as you, almost as I'm sure she's better.
[SPEAKER_02]: Look at the interesting thing, people don't realize the profiting Italian food is the best.
[SPEAKER_02]: Mm-hmm.
[SPEAKER_02]: It's forgetting, cause nothing.
[SPEAKER_02]: That's right, great thing.
[SPEAKER_02]: It's all being creative and you can make a big profit.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, and they did, so the restaurant under my grandmother's leadership was
[SPEAKER_01]: so successful.
[SPEAKER_01]: We used to have lines right out the door.
[SPEAKER_01]: I had the waiters, all men waiters, and they had the black vest and the red bow ties.
[SPEAKER_01]: It was very casual.
[SPEAKER_01]: You'd be sitting there with 10 Williams and God knows who would happen to commute.
[SPEAKER_01]: It was a great place to grow up.
[SPEAKER_02]: Did you spend any time in Providence, Rhode Island?
[SPEAKER_01]: Oh, show, absolutely.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, my grandfather's very, he's very, he's very, oh, sure.
[SPEAKER_02]: I know, oh, well, that's my cousin.
[SPEAKER_02]: Are you serious?
[SPEAKER_02]: No.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_01]: You're my grandmother.
[SPEAKER_02]: My grandmother was a Dorobio.
[SPEAKER_02]: Really?
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, and he was a judge up there.
[SPEAKER_02]: Nobody can believe that.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_01]: Joe Palino, who became, he succeeded, but he's the auntie as a mayor.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I have a buddy too.
[SPEAKER_01]: And Palino became a very good friend of mine.
[SPEAKER_01]: He Clinton appointed him to be ambassador to Malta, but he owns a lot of real estate.
[SPEAKER_01]: He's a great guy.
[SPEAKER_02]: And he opened up a lot of doors for us in Providence, but I love Providence, loved it, loved it, loved it, loved it, loved it, loved it, loved it, loved it, loved it, loved it, loved it, loved it, loved it, loved it, loved it, loved it, loved it, loved it, loved it, loved it, loved it, loved it, loved it, loved it, loved it, loved it, loved it, loved it, loved it, loved it, loved it, loved it, loved it, loved it, loved it, loved it, loved it, loved it, loved it, loved it, loved it, loved it, loved it, loved it, loved it, loved it, loved it, loved it, loved it, loved it, loved it, loved it, loved it, loved it, loved it, loved it, loved it, loved it, loved it, loved it, loved it, loved it, loved it, loved it, loved it, loved it, loved it, loved it
[SPEAKER_02]: Coal Raymond he puts anybody in there.
[SPEAKER_02]: Honestly, oh, no, if they had to go age, you know, there's a way to get into Brown.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, John, John Kennedy Jr. went to Brown.
[SPEAKER_01]: I know.
[SPEAKER_01]: Anyway, we talked about the Kennedy family and my our connection politics.
[SPEAKER_01]: But now on my mother's side, Jenny, she's she's Lebanese.
[SPEAKER_01]: And so my mother was at the restaurant on a date and my father waited on her and somehow slipped his slipped a phone number two her.
[SPEAKER_05]: I love it.
[SPEAKER_01]: She has like a bell.
[SPEAKER_01]: Something you and I would do, Gianni, right?
[SPEAKER_01]: My mother was a beautiful, beautiful woman and she had a lot of
[SPEAKER_01]: and my dad connected and I love that.
[SPEAKER_01]: So fast forward, eight kids later.
[SPEAKER_01]: And but I, you know, I put them all the time.
[SPEAKER_01]: My father, how did the politics get involved and because my dad, my family is political.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, my father was one of the early Democrats in Maine.
[SPEAKER_01]: Most remain used to be a very strong Republican state.
[SPEAKER_01]: But there was a guy who was a former mayor of Waterville and he ultimately became governor and his name was Ed Muskie.
[SPEAKER_01]: Ed Muskie was a towering figure and he ran for president.
[SPEAKER_01]: He was Jimmy Carter's, let's see, vice president, no secretary of state.
[SPEAKER_01]: Oh wow.
[SPEAKER_01]: and highly regarded great respect so dad worked with him early on to build up what was the Democratic Party back then.
[SPEAKER_01]: And then 1959, dad went to an event in Augusta, Maine, where a young senator from Massachusetts was appearing.
[SPEAKER_01]: And his name was John F. Kennedy.
[SPEAKER_01]: I have a program
[SPEAKER_01]: that from that event that Jack signed for my father two or three times, I don't have it here with me, but it's a great keep saying.
[SPEAKER_01]: And so he connected with Kennedy back then, and then Kennedy had said, look, I'm thinking of running for president, 1960.
[SPEAKER_01]: In 1960, my dad brought
[SPEAKER_01]: And that's when I had a chance to meet him.
[SPEAKER_01]: I was eight years old.
[SPEAKER_01]: I was born in 1952, Jeannie.
[SPEAKER_01]: 1952, that's a long time ago.
[SPEAKER_01]: Harry Truman was president.
[SPEAKER_01]: I can't believe it myself, but anyway, I met him, Gianni, you've known Kennedy, you've worked with him, and with him many times, but I met Joe, fathered and then the kids later on, yeah.
[SPEAKER_01]: When he stepped out on the stage, Gianni, I mean, it was like, that was a, it was a hand, he was very handsome guy, and just, I mean, he had the crowd in the palm of his hands.
[SPEAKER_02]: I had, you know, they invited Joe Kennedy invited Frank Costello to go, he wouldn't want to go.
[SPEAKER_02]: So I'm glad I went.
[SPEAKER_02]: I said, I want to go.
[SPEAKER_02]: She's gone.
[SPEAKER_02]: Go.
[SPEAKER_02]: So I went and rose from the podium.
[SPEAKER_02]: Oh, at the, at the inaugural.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, but not only that, I bought a brownie camera.
[SPEAKER_02]: Don't ask me why bought it.
[SPEAKER_02]: I have the pictures.
[SPEAKER_02]: Oh, you don't have the pictures.
[SPEAKER_02]: What Eisenhower on?
[SPEAKER_02]: There was five presidents.
[SPEAKER_01]: Oh, yeah, the Harry Trump on the podium.
[SPEAKER_02]: Oh, yeah.
[SPEAKER_02]: I know it.
[SPEAKER_02]: And then they had Sinatra because what most people don't know how they got in was because of all the mob and the union struck the United States, you would never have a Catholic president.
[SPEAKER_02]: Never.
[SPEAKER_02]: No.
[SPEAKER_02]: With that happened, again, I went to all the parties and I knew Sinatra because he came to the corporate every night.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, sure.
[SPEAKER_02]: So we introduced them to everybody, everybody was shocked.
[SPEAKER_02]: We say, who's this kid?
[SPEAKER_02]: I was like 17 when he got, when he didn't experience what an experience.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's amazing.
[SPEAKER_01]: Oh, so crazy.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I know it.
[SPEAKER_02]: So from that, they all called me to kid.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, nobody knew my name.
[SPEAKER_02]: Nobody knew my name.
[SPEAKER_02]: Nobody knew my name until I made the godfather.
[SPEAKER_02]: Are you serious?
[SPEAKER_02]: Nobody knew my name because that's the way Frank wanted it.
[SPEAKER_02]: He should,
[SPEAKER_02]: You can't get in died as why he's you can't get in died it.
[SPEAKER_02]: You can't get a ticket.
[SPEAKER_02]: You can't do nothing.
[SPEAKER_02]: You're the kid how they're going for lucky.
[SPEAKER_01]: You were lucky to have somebody like Frank Estella.
[SPEAKER_02]: Look behind me.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's right.
[SPEAKER_01]: I know, I know, Jeannie, if you ever have a chance, you've got to you got to go to New York and have dinner with Gianni and Julia.
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, somehow we circle around to food every time we talk every podcast it seems like, and I'm just thinking, oh, I want some some Italians, some of that warm bread and the sauces that Gianni loves to make and everyone have my, I gotta get there and have that food.
[SPEAKER_00]: And this means everybody that's gone there to eat and people will say, I want to come see your house and I'll always say, so do I.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's an experience.
[SPEAKER_01]: I wish you could talk about it.
[SPEAKER_02]: I looked at on with the Baldachi legacy.
[SPEAKER_01]: So we thank you, Gianni.
[SPEAKER_01]: We had politics in our blood as well as food and being in the restaurant business.
[SPEAKER_01]: And my dad was one of these guys that was all about, if you're going to get involved in public service, make a difference for the people.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's not about a title or, you know, he went when my brother John first started out,
[SPEAKER_01]: he was on the city council and then he became a state senator and when he'd come home and and John was one of these guys that love being in the restaurant no matter what even if he was got when he was governor of the state of Maine he would come to the restaurant on weekends and watch dishes
[SPEAKER_01]: check in people.
[SPEAKER_01]: Oh, wow.
[SPEAKER_01]: Governor of the state of Maine, just it's, you know, with us, it was always about giving back.
[SPEAKER_01]: And my dad always used to say, John, what, I don't care what you did yesterday.
[SPEAKER_01]: What did you do to tell people today?
[SPEAKER_01]: What did you do?
[SPEAKER_01]: And that was always that sort of been a mantra.
[SPEAKER_01]: not only for him, but for all of us.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I didn't get involved in politics.
[SPEAKER_01]: I was more behind the scenes, but I've always tried to give back, and I knew you do too, Gianni, and in so many different ways.
[SPEAKER_02]: So, well, you know, like you, I was given so much by people.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, I'm not.
[SPEAKER_02]: I always believe like you do you got to give back.
[SPEAKER_02]: You can't give back.
[SPEAKER_01]: You can't.
[SPEAKER_01]: So we did, you know, so so John was the first one to dip his toe into into politics.
[SPEAKER_01]: He got on the Bangor City Council and then he ran for the State Senate serve several terms.
[SPEAKER_01]: And then decided to run for Congress.
[SPEAKER_01]: And so he did, it was a very crowded field, but he worked as tail-off from one end, from Press Gile, Caribou to Augusta, to Lewiston,
[SPEAKER_01]: It's a huge district, Johnny, and he worked so hard, and he was told, look, if you're going to get into this, you're going to give 110%.
[SPEAKER_01]: So we put his house on the mortgage, his house took everything he had in the bank accounts, put it in.
[SPEAKER_01]: Wow.
[SPEAKER_07]: Wow.
[SPEAKER_01]: To the campaign.
[SPEAKER_01]: And that's what anybody that's ever asked me advice for getting involved in politics.
[SPEAKER_01]: You have to be 100% in personally and financially because if you're out there asking people for money, how much money are you putting in?
[SPEAKER_01]: What are you doing to advance your own candidacy?
[SPEAKER_01]: So John took that to heart and he was extremely successful.
[SPEAKER_01]: Uh, it's, uh, Trump carried it both times he ran two or three times he ran for a president.
[SPEAKER_01]: Uh, it's, uh, it's conservative, but it's working families, people who, uh, you know, a struggling paycheck to paycheck.
[SPEAKER_01]: And that's what John tapped into.
[SPEAKER_01]: He was all about helping people, helping them with their social security, Medicaid, Medicaid, veterans.
[SPEAKER_01]: He, Jeannie, I know you're involved with the veterans.
[SPEAKER_01]: My brother was a huge, huge advocate for veterans.
[SPEAKER_01]: for veterans in so many different ways, and from there he became governor of the state of Maine.
[SPEAKER_01]: It was unfortunate that my father passed away just before John became congressman.
[SPEAKER_01]: My mother was still alive, but dad passed away at the age of 64, pancreatic cancer.
[SPEAKER_05]: It was horrible.
[SPEAKER_01]: Oh my goodness.
[SPEAKER_01]: So yeah.
[SPEAKER_01]: Banger Daily News and the papers had big stories on dad and what kind of highlights he was so highly regarded, people loved him.
[SPEAKER_01]: And
[SPEAKER_01]: And then my mother passed away just before John became a governor of the state of Maine.
[SPEAKER_01]: So it's tough, it's tough, think about it.
[SPEAKER_01]: But they're in heaven looking down and I know they have a smile on their face.
[SPEAKER_01]: So they're actually watching us do this show.
[SPEAKER_01]: They're watching us do this show.
[SPEAKER_01]: I one story about our Italian heritage, Gianni, that might be of interest to
[SPEAKER_01]: If you as an listeners is when John was running for Congress, he had one guy that was running against him, started to run ads implicating basically with a gangster type voice and the soundtrack to the Godfather theme.
[SPEAKER_01]: basically implying that my brother was connected in the underworld and it it upset us terribly and a very good friend of mine, Emilio Fontana, he's from Beverly Hills.
[SPEAKER_01]: He was the president of the Italian American Chamber of Commerce.
[SPEAKER_01]: and I called a media and I said a media, I don't know if there's anything you can do about this, but this is outrageous.
[SPEAKER_01]: This is a racial attack because my brother is Italian.
[SPEAKER_01]: They're trying to tie him to this crap about the underworld.
[SPEAKER_01]: And it was a horrible ad, Gianni.
[SPEAKER_01]: I couldn't, I can't imagine you'd never get away with it today.
[SPEAKER_01]: So he, he made false.
[SPEAKER_01]: We had a bunch of major figures in the
[SPEAKER_01]: file objection to the FEC federal election Commission.
[SPEAKER_01]: So they took it right down, but I'll never forget that.
[SPEAKER_02]: I usually, you know, being in politics, you have to have a thick skin because people have been struggling to remember years ago when Andrew Coleman,
[SPEAKER_02]: was going to run.
[SPEAKER_02]: And the fact that most people don't know this, his father love was a mad mob guy.
[SPEAKER_01]: Right.
[SPEAKER_01]: I knew that.
[SPEAKER_02]: Oh, you know, well, we have very few people do.
[SPEAKER_02]: Oh, that's right.
[SPEAKER_02]: And that's why he stepped out.
[SPEAKER_02]: He would have been president.
[SPEAKER_02]: He was so powerful.
[SPEAKER_02]: But he, I mean, his charisma on stage, speech, I went with him a lot of places.
[SPEAKER_02]: But he just didn't want to go through it.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, you saw heritage against us.
[SPEAKER_01]: Now if they do, they do, they do.
[SPEAKER_01]: And they certainly did in this instance, but didn't play well because mains a small state.
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't care whether you're running in a district or you're running statewide.
[SPEAKER_01]: We have a million, 300,000 people.
[SPEAKER_01]: How many in Utah, Genie?
[SPEAKER_00]: No, no, I don't know.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, but it mains not a very popular state.
[SPEAKER_01]: So in our family,
[SPEAKER_01]: pretty well known, you know, after all these years with being in the restaurant, politics, it's, you know, what goes around comes around and, you know, we try to focus on our family and support our family, and that's what we're going through this again with my brother Joe.
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, it's one, once you put your neck out on the line and running for office, it's, it's terrible with people will come up with it's open game and now when now with social media, Gianni, now with social social, it's, you know, people can say whatever the hell they want hiding in their basement, take it off.
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay, so sometimes the size of, uh, of main, I mean, well, you know, speaking of, uh, that the people that want to get on and post stuff, post, uh, kinds of garbage, yeah, social media, and then they do it anonymously.
[SPEAKER_00]: I, you know, I've been watching a threat of some stuff that was going on in the horse racing world and people.
[SPEAKER_00]: are horrendous.
[SPEAKER_00]: The stuff they're coming out with and the accusations and all the stuff they're saying and then they, you know, do it anonymously and I think it's ridiculous.
[SPEAKER_00]: If you believe in what you're saying, put your name behind it, you know?
[SPEAKER_02]: Because I'm lying, it's going to get worse now with this A-
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, now these are fictional fictitious people, they don't even exist, they're taking their take, they could take your image and have you and listen, you know, have you say all kinds of horrible things people, I mean some of the stuff I've seen you, you I don't know, is this real or is it AI?
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't know what is real.
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, I was thinking that, you know, you look at crimes that are, I want, I listen to too much crime stuff, but, uh, but what are these things where they say, well, there's cameras everywhere, and, and so I told my kids that since they were little, there's a camera everywhere.
[SPEAKER_00]: Do not be horses asked, so you're someone's going to have a film.
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, and now I don't like it myself.
[SPEAKER_02]: That's what you do.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's right.
[SPEAKER_00]: Why do you like it for your protection, but then if you think of people
[SPEAKER_00]: and your likeness and doing things, that's terrifying.
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, and I thought about that the other day.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I thought, well, I don't know how easy it is to prove that it's AI or Memorex, you know?
[SPEAKER_00]: So it's AI.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's very.
[SPEAKER_02]: It's really good.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, the funniest thing, every time I hear about that,
[SPEAKER_02]: It's, I think of how smart Custella was by naming me the kid.
[SPEAKER_02]: There was no way you could find him.
[SPEAKER_02]: That's right.
[SPEAKER_02]: That's why he did it.
[SPEAKER_02]: That's what these people are doing.
[SPEAKER_02]: They are hiding behind a fictitious image and name.
[SPEAKER_01]: So I'm going to say what they want.
[SPEAKER_01]: Very, very disconcerting.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's a huge issue.
[SPEAKER_01]: I can see a lot of pluses.
[SPEAKER_01]: uh... with your i but uh... some of the some of the negatives are very disturbing you know particularly in the hands of you know when you get kids involved and there was an article in the paper today about uh... how english teachers now
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, normally that you'd be a teacher would say, you know, I want you to write a report, go home, get your homework, come back the next day and we'll grade it now they're all using AI so now they're forced to take to the writing in class under the supervision of the teacher so they know what the hell they're writing.
[SPEAKER_01]: and that it's for them and not fake, but it's crazy.
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, with the VA, they allow us to, they brought it in this part of our computer now, but you know, you've got to be real careful.
[SPEAKER_00]: And you know, proofread what you put if you're doing things, but it's so easy to use.
[SPEAKER_00]: In fact, someone sent something out today, and I said to the Gala, I was sitting by, I said, you know, that was a really sweet message,
[SPEAKER_00]: Did this person write this or did they just throw some stuff into AI and and you know, here you go, there's my statement, you know,
[SPEAKER_00]: But I mean, I, there's so many good things to it.
[SPEAKER_00]: And then there's so much scary stuff to it.
[SPEAKER_01]: There is.
[SPEAKER_00]: We have a sound great.
[SPEAKER_01]: We had a, I've got a local TV show that I do with a good friend of mine.
[SPEAKER_01]: And Gianni's been on it.
[SPEAKER_01]: I think three times.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
[SPEAKER_00]: Many times.
[SPEAKER_00]: We met.
[SPEAKER_01]: And that's, I think so.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, that's correct.
[SPEAKER_00]: That was the name Robert.
[SPEAKER_00]: And it's.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's a one, run-let in Baldachi report.
[SPEAKER_01]: Okay, so we have you too.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's on you.
[SPEAKER_01]: We've had Joe Kennedy, we've had Gianni, obviously.
[SPEAKER_01]: I've had Senators, politicians, sports figures.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's, we have a lot of fun with it.
[SPEAKER_01]: We have a lot of fun.
[SPEAKER_01]: So anyway, we're,
[SPEAKER_01]: that's one of my side my side gigs among among many yeah but that's why though you're so flexible and it's not you know it's not it's not it's not it's not all about making money although that's important but you know you kind of you know like you I I marvel I marvel at your your host Jayney he he's just an inspiration he really he incredible stuff that he gets
[SPEAKER_02]: And I'm doing my mind job.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm doing it very selfishly.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's smart, but you are.
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, your every day, you've got a new challenge, a new opportunity.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm so happy for you, really.
[SPEAKER_02]: And that's why even like when when I read about Teddy and what he's doing and what you did do now, that's why I wanted to exploit it and say not giving granted off friendship.
[SPEAKER_00]: Thank you.
[SPEAKER_02]: But it's it's it's it's nice to see family unity keeping a tradition going
[SPEAKER_02]: And now you got another generation with his daughter.
[SPEAKER_02]: It's the end.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's right.
[SPEAKER_01]: Sophia, Sophia, Angelina Baldachi.
[SPEAKER_01]: Hello.
[SPEAKER_01]: She's adorable.
[SPEAKER_02]: She's a Jewish name.
[SPEAKER_02]: It's not a Jewish name.
[SPEAKER_02]: So, Sophia, Angelina, modern.
[SPEAKER_02]: I know.
[SPEAKER_02]: That's great.
[SPEAKER_00]: So Robert, how old is your boy?
[SPEAKER_00]: I saw a picture of him.
[SPEAKER_01]: Twenty-two.
[SPEAKER_00]: Twenty-two.
[SPEAKER_01]: He's six, too.
[SPEAKER_01]: And then I have an older son, Bobby, who's just in, and he's got three kids, three, so I've got four grandkids.
[SPEAKER_05]: Uh-huh.
[SPEAKER_01]: Bobby lives here.
[SPEAKER_01]: He's done extremely well, and so proud of him as well, and I've got two step daughters, Caroline, who is traveling the world.
[SPEAKER_01]: And she's an Albanian now.
[SPEAKER_01]: And yeah, you went to see her actually, huh?
[SPEAKER_01]: You went to see her in, and when she was an Argentina, we saw her, Beth and I spent time with her, and then Alexander, Ally, is in New York, New Jersey, and she's flying helicopters.
[SPEAKER_01]: Oh wow, is he just crazy she just she's just is passionate about it loves it loves it So I'm blessed especially helicopters in New York City my god I know it if you need if you ever want a free free ride around Manhattan on a helicopter let me know
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, you'll never get that cool.
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, I've written in one of those and we were sitting there and all of a sudden, you know, you're sitting there and it's like the ground drops out.
[SPEAKER_00]: We meet you and I was like, oh, wow, it's exhilarating.
[SPEAKER_01]: It is.
[SPEAKER_01]: She loved it.
[SPEAKER_01]: We thought for sure, Jamie, she was going to be an actress beautiful.
[SPEAKER_01]: She's beautiful.
[SPEAKER_01]: She's so talented.
[SPEAKER_01]: She had the lead in all this plays and musicals.
[SPEAKER_01]: You went to New York to be trained how to sing and L.A., she was out there for a while.
[SPEAKER_01]: We thought, okay, Broadway.
[SPEAKER_05]: Okay.
[SPEAKER_01]: Wow, she just got into a helicopter one day and she said, this is what I want to do.
[SPEAKER_01]: So you're never going to work for a major company out here?
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, she's doing, she's going to be training other pilots, but her fiance, her boyfriend, does work for blaze, I think it is.
[SPEAKER_01]: They do a lot of
[SPEAKER_01]: work fairing, you know, taking transporting billionaires and celebrities from airports into Manhattan and back.
[SPEAKER_01]: Oh, yeah, I know that coming.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_02]: Right out of the right on the east right on the east river.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's exactly right.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's where they are.
[SPEAKER_01]: So I've used them actually.
[SPEAKER_01]: Have you?
[SPEAKER_02]: So you have been an helicopter.
[SPEAKER_02]: Oh, I've been in Helicopters, but not with kids that I don't know, dry yet.
[SPEAKER_00]: So, what was he interested doing the, um, get your new business or what made you to decide to do that together?
[SPEAKER_01]: He got his license done in Florida when he was working in Florida and really enjoyed it.
[SPEAKER_01]: Then he said, Dad, you know, we're pretty well known up in Maine.
[SPEAKER_01]: I think I'm going to start to call and make some calls with some prospects up in Maine and see what I can do.
[SPEAKER_01]: And so loan behold, he started doing that.
[SPEAKER_01]: And he sold a 19 unit multifamily complex for like four million.
[SPEAKER_01]: He sold a hotel and all the way to beach for four million.
[SPEAKER_01]: He's doing it, but I'm sorry, you can't do this kid.
[SPEAKER_02]: He's so aggressive.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, I mean, in a nice way, in a nice way, Janey, he's not.
[SPEAKER_02]: Oh, yeah, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no
[SPEAKER_02]: He took advantage of being a dormant at the breakers.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yes.
[SPEAKER_02]: Which is like the most prestigious place it could be in Florida State the Breakers.
[SPEAKER_02]: I remember talking to him.
[SPEAKER_02]: He met everybody.
[SPEAKER_02]: Everybody's got a personality.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, he's your from the many you meet him.
[SPEAKER_01]: He just he just loves people.
[SPEAKER_01]: He's so smart.
[SPEAKER_01]: He went to he went to the University of Maine and he said that I I don't know.
[SPEAKER_01]: I want to get out and I want to work.
[SPEAKER_01]: I want to develop career.
[SPEAKER_01]: Okay.
[SPEAKER_01]: All right.
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, as the oldest of eight, seven of us graduated from the University of Maine.
[SPEAKER_01]: Great school.
[SPEAKER_01]: We get back a lot.
[SPEAKER_01]: I've been on the board of visitors and very I was an adjunct professor for a few years up there.
[SPEAKER_01]: So I said, all right, Teddy, but this is, you know, this is going to be tough.
[SPEAKER_01]: He says, well, I think I'm going to go to Florida and learn the hotel business.
[SPEAKER_01]: So that's what brought him down to Florida.
[SPEAKER_01]: And he was working for a company that I, that they're, they're a great family, the Walsh family, out of from Bangor, but they own probably more hotels.
[SPEAKER_01]: in the United States than anybody.
[SPEAKER_01]: They own Marriott's and Hilton's.
[SPEAKER_01]: They got their own brand now called Opel.
[SPEAKER_01]: So Teddy started working.
[SPEAKER_01]: They gave him a little one room place to stay in Delray Beach.
[SPEAKER_01]: I remember.
[SPEAKER_01]: But you couldn't even cook anything.
[SPEAKER_01]: And but he could walk to the hotel at Delray Beach, the Opel.
[SPEAKER_01]: And first thing he was making learning how to make beds and clean toilets and hit that worked hard.
[SPEAKER_01]: And he kept saying, Dad, I don't know if I, this is, this is tough.
[SPEAKER_01]: I just stick it out.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's a process, Ted.
[SPEAKER_01]: You got it, you know, look, when I started, I was watching dishes and sweeping floors in a restaurant.
[SPEAKER_01]: So, you know, don't, just, and he did.
[SPEAKER_01]: He stuck with it.
[SPEAKER_01]: an elevated himself to the front desk and he says, I think I want to do, I want to do some real estate.
[SPEAKER_01]: He's met a lot of people in the real estate business, Donald Trump came by one day and at the breakers.
[SPEAKER_01]: He met him at the breakers and just a lot of people he was exposed to and he said, I think I can do this.
[SPEAKER_02]: And he's got the personality, he's got the looks, he's got it all.
[SPEAKER_01]: So on my Lebanese side, my mother's side, as I started to say, and I know a lot probably a high percentage of your listeners are Italians, is that true?
[SPEAKER_00]: I would imagine.
[SPEAKER_01]: I imagine, but on the Lebanese side, I've got my mother is 100% Lebanese, my dad is 100% Italian, so I'm 50-50, and I don't know if you've tried any of the Lebanese cuisine.
[SPEAKER_01]: Oh my God, it's the best, isn't it?
[SPEAKER_01]: So I love, it's the Italian and Lebanese, you can, it's the best food in the world, best food in the world.
[SPEAKER_02]: Well, the Lebanese I'd tell you right now, this season is a lot lighter than ours.
[SPEAKER_02]: I like it better actually, a lot of things.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, absolutely, absolutely.
[SPEAKER_01]: So my, we call it Situ would be doing a lot of the cooking.
[SPEAKER_01]: And back then, our families on Sunday, my grandmother would come over,
[SPEAKER_01]: two grand my grandmother from my Lebanese grandmother.
[SPEAKER_01]: They get along great and all of us would be around a table and it was it was all in all day affair all day affair just eating
[SPEAKER_01]: keep everybody together.
[SPEAKER_01]: The families together.
[SPEAKER_02]: Everybody you start with their own stuff.
[SPEAKER_01]: They, they, they are.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_02]: And they, and they're missing out.
[SPEAKER_01]: on what I agree, Gianni, I mean, it's family, I mean, Gianni, you know, you've got a great family and I see your postings on Facebook and a proud you are of your kids.
[SPEAKER_01]: And that's what it's all about, you know, really.
[SPEAKER_00]: And that's, that is true.
[SPEAKER_00]: And listen to you and your family and Gianni too.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I, I'm just picturing these big family Sunday dinners and stuff.
[SPEAKER_00]: And we always got together.
[SPEAKER_00]: My mom's house was just a little different than your guys' because I grew up with, she'll love this, a little magnet on the fridge that said, if God wanted us, if God wanted me to cook, he wouldn't have invented restaurants.
[SPEAKER_07]: That's good.
[SPEAKER_00]: No, there were no beginners here at home.
[SPEAKER_00]: But we were always hanging out and going, you know, all my kids would love it if I didn't call all four of them every day.
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, I bug them all the time.
[SPEAKER_00]: But that is.
[SPEAKER_00]: I always joke around.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm like, no, I grew up with that magnet.
[SPEAKER_00]: I know him was saying, come on, we're going to teach you where to learn sauces today.
[SPEAKER_00]: But I have a wonderful mother and five girls and some of them are good cooks.
[SPEAKER_00]: I am not.
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, I could fucking, I just don't ever do it, you know.
[SPEAKER_01]: I love to cook.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I know Gianni does too.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I, there was a treat to have dinner at your place, Gianni.
[SPEAKER_01]: And our good mutual good friend, Matt
[SPEAKER_01]: definitely wants to schedule time.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_02]: I want to have him on the show.
[SPEAKER_02]: In fact, we would go through the mail bag and some people, we want to know what when he's coming back on the show.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_01]: He's great.
[SPEAKER_02]: He's good.
[SPEAKER_02]: But one of the things I'm going to thank you is time.
[SPEAKER_02]: I'm so proud of you and Teddy and all that you do.
[SPEAKER_02]: And I just hope you don't think I'm exploiting our French.
[SPEAKER_01]: No, you're not.
[SPEAKER_01]: No, it was an honor, Gianni, to be on your show.
[SPEAKER_01]: And particularly to talk about my family and to engage with both you and Gianni very much.
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, I was thrilled when Gianni said, hey, can you do a podcast tomorrow and said, we're going to have Robert on.
[SPEAKER_00]: And he said, you remember him?
[SPEAKER_00]: I said absolutely, so I'm so, so happy for you in the end.
[SPEAKER_00]: Thank you.
[SPEAKER_00]: Look at your boy, a definition of thing better.
[SPEAKER_01]: I know.
[SPEAKER_00]: I know.
[SPEAKER_01]: So if everybody needs any help with any real estate in the New England market, give us a call.
[SPEAKER_01]: What's the name of the firm?
[SPEAKER_01]: Come on.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's the it's Kella Williams, Portland, the Baldachi group, and the rock, you can call me or Teddy, either one.
[SPEAKER_02]: Make sure you send Gini because you have an email.
[SPEAKER_02]: Well, I know we want a potion on the show.
[SPEAKER_00]: All right.
[SPEAKER_02]: Thank you.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, I'm jealous.
[SPEAKER_00]: I can't imagine anything more fun than get to work with one of my kids every day.
[SPEAKER_00]: And it's like, I mean, it sounds like you have very successful group of kids that are doing great things that's so cool.
[SPEAKER_01]: Very blessed.
[SPEAKER_01]: Thank you.
[SPEAKER_00]: Thanks for sharing that with us.
[SPEAKER_00]: Just so cool.
[SPEAKER_02]: Love you.
[SPEAKER_02]: I'm blessed.
[SPEAKER_02]: All right, please.
[SPEAKER_00]: Thank you.
[SPEAKER_00]: Bye-bye.
[SPEAKER_02]: Bye-bye.
[SPEAKER_02]: Good night to all our friends out there.
[SPEAKER_02]: We'll see you next week.
[SPEAKER_03]: Thanks to you, honey.
[SPEAKER_03]: That's it.
[SPEAKER_03]: Jean, he's got the questions, sharp as a nitrous wave.
[SPEAKER_03]: Everyone's day night, we take you all the way.
[SPEAKER_03]: From the back streets of Tinseltown to the Tritoria's Globe, All Hollywood meets mafia tales, and you're about to know.
[SPEAKER_03]: It's the Hollywood Godfather, where the big band plays and the stories don't stop.