quiet, even diffident, man who worked long hours in order to provide for his six motherless children, could not or would not satisfy Madonna’s longing for his undivided attention was for many years a source of acrimony between them, an acrimony generated almost entirely by her. ‘More than anything I want my father’s approval whether I want to admit it or not,’ she has said, at the same time acknowledging that her father was ‘very affectionate’ towards her. Yet her need for love and recognition appears to have been so deeply ingrained that it is debatable whether, if she had lived, even her mother could have quenched Madonna’s seemingly insatiable thirst for affection, her fierce desire to be needed and noticed.
It would seem that she was born with this emotional hunger as an integral part of her personality, like her innate curiosity, which was then molded by her upbringing. ‘She is,’ as one of her close girlfriends pointed out, ‘an alpha-A female. She has to be the center of attention no matter what.’
Like that other Hollywood celebrity, Barbra Streisand, whose chutzpah and determination enabled her to overcome the formidable obstacles in her path to fame, Madonna seems to be a star who was born, not made. In short, divas are different. Nor do the parallels between the two stars end there. Like Madonna, Streisand lost a parent when young and spent her early childhood years clinging to her mother for support and love. Then her world was turned upside-down when her mother met and married another man. Barbra tried to win her stepfather’s approval, but he actively disliked her. In Madonna’s case it was the slim, blonde, upright figure of Joan Gustafson who usurped the eight-year-old’s place in her father’s affections. Joan joined the Ciccone family in 1966 as the latest in a series of housekeepers employed by Tony Ciccone. Six months later they were married.
Ever since his wife’s death three years earlier, Tony Ciccone had tried valiantly to juggle a demanding full-time job and life as a single parent of six children. Naturally other members of his family pitched in, the Ciccone children spending holidays with their grandparents in West Aliquippa or Bay City, or at the home of Tony’s brother-in-law and friend, Dale Fortin, and his family. As his elder brother Guy Ciccone remembers, ‘Silvio would bring the whole family to visit in the summers for vacation, or to weddings and family gatherings.’ Madonna would help her grandfather, Gaetano, in his vegetable garden, or show off her latest dance routine to the delight of the adults. ‘Madonna was such a pretty little girl and she always loved dancing,’ recalls her aunt, Betty Ciccone, adding, ‘Silvio was a pretty good dancer too.’
Yet even as the Fortin family was coming to terms with Madonna Senior’s premature death, tragedy struck once more. In 1966, Dale Fortin died of leukemia, leaving his wife Katherine to bring up seven children – three boys and four girls – on her own. ‘I just had to cope,’ she admits. ‘A strong will and an iron hand was what it took. It wasn’t easy, but in a way it was worse for Tony.’
Certainly Tony Ciccone followed the same course when disaster overtook him and his young family. A firm disciplinarian with a rigid sense of right and wrong, he did the best he could to bring his children up responsibly, but also within the tenets of his own moral code. His austere upbringing translated into ensuring that his children worked and played hard. Television was rationed, as were candies, while household chores were apportioned on a daily basis. In this necessarily regimented world, it did not escape his notice that what his children needed was not the instability and uncertainty of life with hired help – that succession of housekeepers – but someone who would be a fixed point in their lives. For although no one could replace Madonna Senior, he believed that another woman around the house would
It would seem that she was born with this emotional hunger as an integral part of her personality, like her innate curiosity, which was then molded by her upbringing. ‘She is,’ as one of her close girlfriends pointed out, ‘an alpha-A female. She has to be the center of attention no matter what.’
Like that other Hollywood celebrity, Barbra Streisand, whose chutzpah and determination enabled her to overcome the formidable obstacles in her path to fame, Madonna seems to be a star who was born, not made. In short, divas are different. Nor do the parallels between the two stars end there. Like Madonna, Streisand lost a parent when young and spent her early childhood years clinging to her mother for support and love. Then her world was turned upside-down when her mother met and married another man. Barbra tried to win her stepfather’s approval, but he actively disliked her. In Madonna’s case it was the slim, blonde, upright figure of Joan Gustafson who usurped the eight-year-old’s place in her father’s affections. Joan joined the Ciccone family in 1966 as the latest in a series of housekeepers employed by Tony Ciccone. Six months later they were married.
Ever since his wife’s death three years earlier, Tony Ciccone had tried valiantly to juggle a demanding full-time job and life as a single parent of six children. Naturally other members of his family pitched in, the Ciccone children spending holidays with their grandparents in West Aliquippa or Bay City, or at the home of Tony’s brother-in-law and friend, Dale Fortin, and his family. As his elder brother Guy Ciccone remembers, ‘Silvio would bring the whole family to visit in the summers for vacation, or to weddings and family gatherings.’ Madonna would help her grandfather, Gaetano, in his vegetable garden, or show off her latest dance routine to the delight of the adults. ‘Madonna was such a pretty little girl and she always loved dancing,’ recalls her aunt, Betty Ciccone, adding, ‘Silvio was a pretty good dancer too.’
Yet even as the Fortin family was coming to terms with Madonna Senior’s premature death, tragedy struck once more. In 1966, Dale Fortin died of leukemia, leaving his wife Katherine to bring up seven children – three boys and four girls – on her own. ‘I just had to cope,’ she admits. ‘A strong will and an iron hand was what it took. It wasn’t easy, but in a way it was worse for Tony.’
Certainly Tony Ciccone followed the same course when disaster overtook him and his young family. A firm disciplinarian with a rigid sense of right and wrong, he did the best he could to bring his children up responsibly, but also within the tenets of his own moral code. His austere upbringing translated into ensuring that his children worked and played hard. Television was rationed, as were candies, while household chores were apportioned on a daily basis. In this necessarily regimented world, it did not escape his notice that what his children needed was not the instability and uncertainty of life with hired help – that succession of housekeepers – but someone who would be a fixed point in their lives. For although no one could replace Madonna Senior, he believed that another woman around the house would
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