Tony Lecondino

Abstract

Tony grew up in Revere in an Italian-American family composed of his father, a mechanic, his mother, a homemaker, and a younger sister, whom he adored. He attended Catholic school as a child but, as an independent thinker, questioned many of its teachings. He attended Revere High School but was bored with the curriculum so he joined a technical high school program at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. When Lecondino’s parents divorced, he skipped his senior year and joined the US Navy at the height of the Vietnam War. Although he was near combat in Cambodia, he never directly experienced it. The Navy opened up new worlds of travel and sexual experimentation. Still, he lived a “double life” as a closeted man on the ship and a gay one on land. He was honorably discharged due to an injury and would later throw himself into the nightlife of Boston and the North Shore. He got into the music scene, was a DJ, and served as an undercover detective for Jay Collins at Fran’s Place. He would eventually become Fran’s bartender and DJ. Tony helped usher the bar through a new era of openness, dance, music, and integration and even converted a group of hostile Hell’s Angels to allies. He concludes the interview with a story about saving Fran's Place during the 1981 fire that burned down much of the neighborhood.