Early lifeAnthony Benedetto was born in Astoria, Queens in New York City. His father was a grocer who had emigrated from Pod?rgoni, a rural eastern district of the southern Italian city of Reggio Calabria, and his mother was a seamstress.
He grew up listening to Al Jolson, Eddie Cantor, Judy Garland and Bing Crosby as well as jazz artists such as Louis Armstrong, Jack Teagarden and Joe Venuti. An uncle was a tap dancer in vaudeville, giving him an early window into show business[citation needed].
By age 10 the young Benedetto was already singing and performed at the opening of the Triborough Bridge. He attended New York's High School of Industrial Art where he studied music and painting (an interest he would always return to as an adult), but dropped out at age 16 to help support his family; his father had died when Tony was 10. He then set his sights on a professional singing career, performing as a singing waiter in several Queens Italian restaurants.
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