AMERICAN GLADIATOR: The Life And Times Of ... - The Book Locker

AMERICAN GLADIATOR
At the time of his death in Louisville at age 54, Gatto was reported by the Louisville Courier-Journal to be the
wealthiest saloonkeeper in the city. Much of this success had come from “an oyster with each drink”, a marketing
tool which had made Gatto nationally famous.
Another part of Gatto’s success was the fact that he ran a clean operation. Simply put, the saloons of this
devout Catholic were just that: a place for good food and drink, and no more.
A respected businessman, upstanding citizen and solid family man, Gatto was also well-known in the
community for his generosity to charities. Certainly, Gatto had not come easy to his prosperity, which at the time
of his passing was reported by the Louisville Courier-Journal to be in the neighborhood of a quarter of a million
dollars. Immigrating to this country with his family, the Gatto clan initially settled in Boston, then moved to New
Orleans, before finally staking roots in Louisville.
To help the family make ends meet, Gatto was forced to leave school at an early age. It was reported by the
Louisville Courier-Journal in its obituary of Monday, April 18, 1910 that Gatto had begun life with a bundle of
newspapers under one arm and a bootblack’s kit over his shoulder. He was the classic Horatio Alger rags-to-riches
story in every way.
A man whose saloons were considered to be a model in that business and hailed as an innovator in modern
saloon methods, Gatto was well-known in both local and national baseball circles.
According to reports, his friends in baseball numbered in the dozens, and included some of the most
prominent figures of the day. A “hands-on baseball man”, Gatto also owned parts of several of Louisville’s majorleague
teams, one of them the 1890 co-World Championship squad. And, during one season in the 1880s, he acted
as the unofficial Business Manager of the Louisville major-league team, traveling with the club, paying bills, and
buying and releasing players.
Also, for years there was a crackerjack amateur nine in Louisville named after Gatto. And at the turn of the
century, when the city was desperately trying to save its major-league franchise, he was also a leader. When it
could not be recovered, Gatto again was a leader in bringing top-ring minor-league baseball to Louisville.
Gatto’s name runs even deeper than that in the city’s baseball history.
For years, his saloon on Liberty Street (formerly Green Street) was—according to some accounts—the site of
the secret 1875 Louisville/National League meetings. However, that fact was not historically documented until the
summer of 2005 with the discovery of critical information in Al Kolb’s obituary (see succeeding profile).
As a result, between Gatto’s and Kolb’s obituaries, it is now known exactly what part Gatto’s saloon played
in the 1875 Louisville/National League founding story. And with it, everything falls into place and ties up a
number of longstanding loose ends.
First of all, the meetings unquestionably took place at Gatto’s saloon. Whatever question remains about that
historical fact in Gatto’s obituary is answered in Kolb’s obituary.
Secondly, the address of one of Louisville’s most famous watering holes—for years only generally known—
has been fixed as 323 West Liberty Street (information unearthed in Al Kolb’s obituary).
Thirdly, the long-historically accepted site—the Louisville Hotel—simply housed the members of this secret
commission, whose members went on to establish this country’s oldest consecutively operated league, the
National League.
And, finally, convenient as it might be, the Galt House—a venerable landmark still in existence today and
then located five blocks east of the Louisville Hotel, was not the site of the meetings nor did it house any member
of the committee.
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