Gerald Philip Bruno (1925 - 2012)

Born 14 Mar 1925 in Cleveland, Cuyahoga, Ohio, United States

Died 27 Apr 2012 at age 87 in Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California, United States

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Biography

Jerry was born in 1925. He passed away in 2012.

Sources

• https://search.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/sse.dll?indiv=1&dbid=60525&h=123319268&tid=&pid=&queryId=6e383548331fdba115888723327e4d13&usePUB=true&_phsrc=lGA51&_phstart=successSource

FAG

Jerry Bruno Birth Year: 1926 Race: White, citizen (White) Nativity State or Country: Ohio State of Residence: Ohio County or City: Geauga

Enlistment Date: 11 Nov 1944 Enlistment State: Ohio Enlistment City: Cleveland Branch: No branch assignment Branch Code: No branch assignment Grade: Private Grade Code: Private Term of Enlistment: Enlistment for the duration of the War or other emergency, plus six months, subject to the discretion of the President or otherwise according to law Component: Selectees (Enlisted Men) Source: Civil Life

Education: 1 year of high school Civil Occupation: Unskilled occupations in production of ferrous and nonferrous metals, n.e.c. Marital Status: Single, without dependents Height: 00 Weight: 000

"The Van Nuys News" 9-22-1959: a son to Mr. and Mrs. Jerry Bruno, 19160 Hart st, Reseda, CA.

"Man Made Memories Along with Pizzas" by Dennis McCarthy, 7-23-1999 "Daily News" Los Angeles, CA.

If you lived at the west end of the San Fernando Valley San Fernando Valley

Valley, southern California, U.S. Northwest of central Los Angeles, the valley is bounded by the San Gabriel, Santa Susana, and Santa Monica mountains and the Simi Hills. back in 1955, and wanted a pizza to go, the closest place to get one was Panorama City.

Which explains why Marie Ritchie chose to wait a half-hour outside Jerry Bruno's front door almost 45 years ago while the new pizza man in town got ready to open up for his first day of business.

Canoga Park, way out here in the sticks where the Valley ended, was finally on the map. It was getting its own pizza joint.

``I still have the buck Marie paid for that first pizza I made here, a large cheese, Jerry says this week, spreading the mozzarella, cheese and pizza sauce on one of the last of the tens of thousands of pizza's he's made these past 45 years looking out the front window of Bruno's Pizza onto Sherman Way at DeSoto Avenue.

It's finally time to hang them up, the 74-year-old pizza man says. Time to spend more hours with his grandchildren than his pizzas. Jerry and his son, Phil, have sold Bruno's, and are breaking in the new owners.

The pizzas may still be good, but it won't be the same, say their longtime customers. Can't be, not without a Bruno behind the counter flipping the dough up in the air, and occasionally missing on purpose just to see the kids laugh.

It's the end of an era at a time when there seems to be a pizza parlor on just about every block in the Valley, but very few old-timers like Jerry left anymore who can flip that pizza pie dough up in the air, spin it around like a saucer, and catch it behind their back.

You didn't just get a pizza with these guys. You got a show.

If you were a pizza lover, it was big news back in 1955 when Jerry Bruno decided to leave Mazzarino's Italian Restaurant at Coldwater and Ventura boulevards with dirt streets at the far end of the Valley called Canoga Park.

What, was he crazy, his customers at Mazzarino's wanted to know? Yeah, crazy like a fox. Jerry saw the migration of families west, and had read about this new aerospace plant called Rocketdyne opening up that would employ thousands of workers.

Hey, Jerry figured, some of those people had to like pizza.

``Marie was so excited bringing home that first pizza when he opened, Tom Ritchie remembers, laughing. ``We finally had our own pizza place and didn't have to drive across the Valley to get one.

``Bruno's was the first out here, and stayed the best, Tom said. ``It's been like family. We watched each others kids grow up, and the Valley grow up around us.

Lee and Bonnie Miller used to drive all the way from their home in Santa Monica to Canoga Park for a Bruno's pizza.

``My wife was a pizza lover, and she fell in love with Jerry's pizzas when he was making them over at Mazzarinos, so we followed him to Canoga Park, Miller said.

``We'd sit out in our car eating the pizza because Bruno's was strictly to go back then, he laughed. ``That's how much we loved his pizzas. We ate them in the front seat.

It's stories like these, and all the friendships Jerry and his wife, Josephine, cemented with customers over the decades that makes it hard for him to finally say goodbye to the business, he says.

Like any longtime, family-owned business, this store isn't just filled with tables and chairs, pots and pans, ovens and stoves. It's filled with your life and memories.

His kids grew up doing their homework on those tables, under the watchful eye of their mother making the meatballs and sausage

``Josephine would open with me everyday, then go pick the kids up from school and bring them back here, Jerry says. ``Around 8 p.m., she'd take them home, and if we were really busy come back and help me until we closed at 1 a.m.

``I can still see her standing at that stove stove, mixing the sauce with a spoon, watching the boys. If they started fooling around, she'd throw the spoon at them, he laughed.

These past few weeks have been the toughest on his dad, says Phil, who's been running the day-to-day operation for the past seven years.

Watching his dad tell loyal, longtime customers that the place was changing hands. That there wouldn't be a Bruno making the pizzas anymore.

It's when they become sad, and a few of them start crying, Jerry says, that you realize the impact you've had on people's lives over the years.

How you celebrated births in the family with them and cried at deaths. How you knew all their kids' names, and now their kids' kids.

How you don't even have to ask what they want to eat when they come in because they haven't changed their order in 40 years.

How it was more than pizza you gave these families - your customers - on this same street corner for the last 45 years.

It was a show. A grand show. And it's going to be missed.

CAPTION(S):

photo

Photo: Jerry Bruno, owner of Bruno's Pizza in Canoga Park and pizza pioneer, will be tossing his last and retiring after 45 years of being a restaurateur res·tau·ra·teur also res·tau·ran·teur n.

2010: Bruno's Italian Restaurant, comment. Address: 20849 Sherman Way Canoga Park, CA 91306 Telephone: (818)348-4747

"I grew up watching Jerry toss pizzas while I was standing on the old wooden step in front of the window. I watched so much I can still copy exactly what he used to do. It's now 45 years later and I live in Seattle, and to this day I have never had a better pizza than the ones Jerry made. I tell everyone how he would put the cheese on first and THEN spoon the sauce in a spiral over the cheese, sprinkle some herbs over the top. Someone told me that was called a reverse pizza, I don't know about that, but what I do know is that I am still searching for a pizza that is as good, after all these years. It is a wonderful childhood memory that I have of growing up in Canoga Park. Friday nights pickiing up a pizza and a loaf of mama's bread. OMG. Jerry Jr. took the place over and was still as good as ever. One thing I will always remember is how when anyone came in, they new Jerry and he would call them by name, and probably knew everyone for years and years. It was great and he had old black and white pictures on the wall of him with famous people like Dean Martin (I think). I've never been to NY, but I think Bruno's pizza must have stepped right out of NY and dropped onto Sherman Way. Everyone I knew went to Bruno's - I don't know if it is still there or not, I hope so and if I ever get to SFV again, you bet it will be on the top of my list. Love to the Bruno family for the best memories, pizza and mama's bread. Lou Ann Blackmore"