With his animated appearance and distinctive dialect, Franco Cozzo inadvertently became a Melbourne cultural icon while flogging furniture on commercial television.
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Cozzo → become → television
Best known for his 'Megalo!' catchphrase and pronouncing the inner-west suburb of Footscray as 'Foot-iz-kraay', the ebullient businessman was one of the first emphatically Italian-Australian voices on the small screen at a time when many first-generation European migrants flattened their accents.
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migrants → know → accents
Cozzo opened his first furniture showroom in North Melbourne in 1959, after years wearing out his shoe leather as a door-to-door electrical appliance salesman.
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Cozzo → open → salesman
Less than a decade later, he expanded his enterprise to establish his best-known outlet — a three-storey edifice in Footscray, which closed in 2018 and is now a craft brewery.
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which → expand → 2018
The Franco Cozzo name is also emblazoned on a Sydney Road shopfront in Brunswick, which reopened over the weekend, three years on from the death of its founder, aged 88.
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which → emblazon → founder
Filmmaker Madeleine Martiniello documented the furniture retailer's career in the 2021 feature Palazzo di Cozzo and said his profile transcended business to become a cultural institution.
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profile → document → business
The film shows Cozzo's cameo appearances on The Don Lane Show, a Franco parody on 1990s ABC youth program Recovery and even more recent sampling in electronic dance music.
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film → show → music
"I think Franco Cozzo presented to Melbourne an example what a migrant can achieve when they come to this country,"Martiniello said.
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they → think → country,"Martiniello
"I don't just mean that in an entrepreneurial sense, but I mean it in a cultural sense as well.
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I → mean → sense
"I like to think of Franco as someone who built a wonderful life for himself but also managed to become part of the cultural fabric of the city.
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who → like → city
The fact that people are still interested in his shop and the next generation taking over shows that he really meant something on a hyper-local scale to Melburnians."
Several of Cozzo's children have revived his eponymous Brunswick store after a five-year hiatus, with a grand reopening over the weekend.
The Sicilian bonhomie was as conspicuous as the complimentary cannoli and a Italian tricolour archway welcoming customers old and new.
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bonhomie → take → customers
Daughter Alessia Cozzo said the retail revival was inspired by her father's lamentations in his latter years that the next generation would not follow in his footsteps.
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generation → say → footsteps
"It was at the dinner table, chatting about the shops and … [Dad] said: 'I don't think you guys are going to continue'," she said.
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she → chat → shops
"And we were all said: 'No Papa, we're going to bring back the shop and the sales through generations and generations.'
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we → say → generations
That's how we made the promise to him.
"
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we → make → him
Papa passing away didn't make it easy but we want to carry on his legacy."
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we → pass → legacy
At the weekend reopening, Alessia said her late father's larger-than-life persona was a hard act to follow.
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persona → say → life
She said despite the showroom hiatus, demand for the distinctive Sicilian baroque-style furniture remained strong in the 2020s.
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demand → say → 2020s
He'd be so happy and so proud of his four daughters and that he had grown such strong Italian women," she said.
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she → grow → women
"It's been a long process [to reopen the Brunswick store].
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It → reopen → store
There's a room at the front that's dedicated to Dad.
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that → be → Dad
It's got all of his beautiful furniture there and we have a whole wall as a tribute."
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we → get → tribute
Madeleine Martiniello noted that Australian commercial television of the 1980s was highly Anglocentric, with the 1980 debut of SBS TV providing the main multicultural platform on the small screen.
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debut → note → screen
"Franco is a very special character in Melbourne's cultural identity,"the filmmaker said.
"
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filmmaker → say → Melbourne
He presented this successful migrant figure but there was also something about his character that was loveable and enticing.
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that → present → character
"When I was making the documentary, people would always ask me: 'Is anyone even buying that furniture?'
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anyone → make → furniture
It was something I wanted to answer.
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I → want → ?
"There's quite an eclectic mix of people that are interested in the Cozzo baroque style: from the classic older Italian migrants to people who have this post-modern appreciation of it.
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who → be → it
I think people may be asking the same question of the reopening of the shop: 'Is anyone going to buying this furniture; is this business going to be viable?'
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business → think → furniture
"I'm really happy to see his daughters do feel there is a future.
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daughters → see → ?
I'm interested to see how the cultural meaning of the furniture and the store as landmark evolves."
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meaning → see → landmark
The Aporia