The Story of Tony D'Orazi

Listen to the interview with the author here

Author: David F. D'Orazi (USA)  

About the author:  David F. D'Orazi hails from the Los Angeles suburb of Eagle Rock, which is where he became part of his father' Tony's story in 1949. As a third child of this influential artist-turned radio and television star, who ultimately became an award winning salesman, David proclaims that his father played a huge role in shaping him into the successful saleman that he eventually became.

From his first job delivering newspapers at the age of nine, which his father would often assist him with, to his decades as a record setting salesman, David now attributes his success to his father. In fact , when he was young, he remembers people telling him that Tony, David's dad, was such an incredible salesman, he could sell ice to an Eskimo.

Before his mother passed in 2011, she gave David his father's personal journals and scrapbooks which he promised to compile into a book someday in order to immortialize Tony's story.

An avid reader, especially of motivational and sales related books, David combined his memories, along with the contents of his father's notebooks and scrapbooks since the ealy 1920's,to create this biography which he hopes will impact the lives of those who read it, as much as it did his own.

An alumnus of UC Irvine where he earned a biology degree, as well as a master of business from California State University, Los Angeles, David still resides in the Los Angeles Area. It is there that he continues to avidly sell, read and perform magic at the Magic Castle in Hollywood, and now write. His next biography will be about his sister, Kathy D'Orazi (aka Kathy O'dare) who was an actress, and costar with Ronnie Howard on the orignial Pilot show of the world famous TV show "Happy Days".

About the book:  The successes and struggles of influential twentieth century artist Tony D’Orazi are detailed in this first-ever biography, The In-Between Artist: The Story of Tony D’Orazi, from his early years as a child prodigy in Missoula, Montana, to his ascension into an award-winning artist by way of New York City and Chicago and his days working for Disney to ultimately becoming the radio and television personality known as Uncle Tony O’Dare, “the first cartoonist of the air.” Tony’s personal struggles would repeatedly attempt to derail his artistic ambitions, but the art would always find a way to persevere.

Along his ascent, he would also meet his true love, whom he formed a vaudeville act with, which found them entertaining crowds across America. From there, he became a husband and father of four, who constantly struggled to find balance between his roles as a visual artist and family man, all while battling with severe bouts of mental illness.

This is a portrait of an artist and entertainer which also includes later chapters of his life, in which he went on to become a successful salesman and character actor, all while still pursuing his need to create. In the end, despite all these roles he played and the countless hurdles he faced, Tony remained an artist in between. Ultimately, his story proves that no matter what obstacles he faced, his art always found a way.