Sal Ponti(1935-1988)

Sal Ponti got his start in Philadelphia as a songwriter. He wrote Fabian's first recorded song "I'm in Love". He later moved to Hollywood and made several acting appearances under the name Anthony Hall, the most notable was MGM's "Atlantis: The Lost Continent." MGM let many of their actors out of their contracts during their financial problems in the early 1960's and Sal took various parts in TV shows like Alfred Hitchcock Presents, I Dream of Jeannie and others. Eventually leaving Hollywood, he started a Las Vegas-style entertainment troupe and toured the US. In his mid-forties, he wrote a musical based on the life of the adventurous Renaissance monk and painter, Fra Fillippo Lippi, another musical based on Mary Magdalene and several other plays and comedy revues. Unfortunately, lung cancer was discovered and treated, but it eventually took his life at the age of 53 before he could realize his dreams of producing one of his musicals on Broadway.