Columbo, Russ
(14 January 1908–02 September 1934)
- James A. Drake
Extract
Columbo, Russ (14 January 1908–02 September 1934), popular singer, motion-picture star, and radio and recording artist, was born Ruggiero de Rudolpho Columbo in San Francisco, California, the son of Nicholas Columbo, a musician who had immigrated to the United States from his native Naples near the turn of the century, and Mariana or Maria (maiden name unknown). Educated initially in the elementary schools of San Francisco, young Ruggiero Columbo attended high school in Los Angeles, where his parents had relocated in 1921. While at Los Angeles’s Belmont High, where he played violin in the school band, he anglicized his first name and became known as Russ Columbo....
