The return of Buddy
A fixture of July Fourth parade since 1975, Cianci back after prison release
PROVIDENCE - In Bristol, R.I., residents are as high as the American flag recently raised over the town common for the Fourth of July. The parade is coming.
A fresh red, white, and blue stripe has been painted down the middle of Hope and High streets. Miss and Little Miss Fourth of July have been chosen. A Johnny Depp lookalike is coming in from Los Angeles to ride a "Pirates of the Caribbean" float. The Shriners with their minicars, the Mummers from Philly, the Red Sox World Series trophy, a patriotic stilt-walker from New Jersey, the mariachi band from Connecticut - they're all lined up.
But perhaps the act that will draw special attention, for better or for worse, is Buddy.
Buddy Cianci, the larger-than-life former mayor of Providence, is gearing up for his first parade appearance since he went to federal prison in 2002. Since 1975, Cianci had been a fixture at the parades. Invited or not, he invariably showed up, on occasion by boat or helicopter. He especially loved waving to the crowd from atop a horse.
This year, Cianci will go with a contingent from WPRO-AM (630), the Providence radio station where he hosts a talk show.
"When I get there, I'll decide how I'll march," he said.
He is leaning toward riding the horse, though one year he did slip getting into the stirrup and fell on his behind. He'll wear a baseball cap to protect his head from the sun. Gone is his trademark toupee.
"I threw it away when I went to prison," he said, adding with a chuckle: "You can't take pets with you."
Bristol boasts the oldest continuously operating July Fourth parade in the country, 223 years now, and it is a huge deal in this little state. The festivities span three weeks and culminate in a parade that draws people from all over the country. As for that red, white, and blue road stripe, it took an act of Congress to deviate from the standard yellow.
Where there's a crowd - and Bristol expects more than 100,000 - there's Buddy, as most people call him. An icon in Rhode Island politics, Cianci lives for the limelight. He was mayor for 22 years, though his tenure was interrupted in 1983 when he pleaded no contest to an assault charge. He left office again in 2002 after conviction on a racketeering conspiracy charge. There are those who believe that if he had run for another term from prison, he would have been reelected.
"He's like a rock star; it's that simple," said Steve Brown, associate publisher of the Providence Phoenix. "Everyone loves a charismatic rogue."
As for the conviction, Brown said many believe Cianci got a raw deal. "'Then you become even more of a rock star," Brown said. "And obviously he didn't turn on anybody, so he's not a rat."
Indeed, on a recent day when Cianci steps inside Joe Marzilli's Old Canteen on Atwells Avenue for lunch, he's greeted with cries of "Hey, Buddy!" and "Mayor!" People make their way over to his table to chat, including an elderly man who sold watches that said "Welcome Home, Buddy!" when he got out of prison.
On air one recent day, Cianci spoke about the upcoming parade. Since he missed the last five years while serving his sentence at Fort Dix, N.J., he was eager to make up for lost time. "I like to consider myself patriotic," said Cianci, who was drafted into the Army in 1966 and served as a military policeman. "That parade is wonderful, all the pageantry. You don't compete with Bristol on the Fourth of July parade . . . It would be like taking a knife to a gun fight. You're not going to beat them."
So he decided to join them, even when he's not wanted. Still, he denies stories that he crashed the chief marshal's reception in 1975 shortly after he was elected mayor the first time.
"The whole town is invited to it," he said. "It's not exactly like getting invited to the White House for dinner."
But in 1980, when he ran against incumbent Governor Joseph Garrahy, he definitely wasn't welcomed. "They disinvited me," he says.
Nevertheless, he arrived via helicopter at a school near the start of the route and met up with the Matadors, a drum and bugle corps from Providence. He was then informed by the parade committee that in order to march with the corps, he had to play an instrument.
"I said, 'I do. I play the whistle.' I blew that whistle once. What were they going to do?" Cianci said with glee that a newspaper ran a headline that said "Cianci Steals Show." Since then, he said, "they've welcomed me with open arms."
Well, not everyone. That assault plea in 1983? It involved Raymond DeLeo, who was allegedly seeing Cianci's estranged wife. DeLeo, a Bristol builder, lives on the parade route.
Friends and relatives in front of his house have been known to razz Cianci as he passes by. In 2002, shortly after his conviction, they sang "For He's a RICO Felon" to the tune of "For He's a Jolly Good Fellow." RICO stands for Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, the statute under which Cianci was prosecuted.
Cianci shrugged. "I don't pay any attention. There may be a few catcalls, but that's about it. It's for about 15 feet, and the parade route is 2 miles long. Most of the time, 99.8 percent of the time, I get a very favorable reception."
But a recent letter to the editor of the Bristol Phoenix expressed outrage that the former mayor is coming: "It is enormously embarrassing, and defies logic and ethics in every conceivable way. Bristol's parade is proudly America's oldest and most visible celebration of this country's patriotism. . . . Unless we want our Fourth of July parade to become another parade of horribles, we better think twice about who takes part in our celebration, and the message we wish to convey to the world."
The writer, Roberta Cicilline-DiMezza, is the sister of David Cicilline, who succeeded Cianci as Providence's mayor. As such, he's often the butt of Cianci's taunts on talk radio.
All this fuss about Cianci bothers this year's parade chairwoman, Judy Squires, who has been on the committee for 32 years and has worked tirelessly for months.
"The parade is not Buddy Cianci," she said. "He's there as a radio talk show personality, and the parade is a lot more than that." 