I have not been very active on CR lately because I'm trying to focus my writing time on completing my book about Mario Confente. It is factual, but told in the form of a novel. Key portions of the story involve Medici and the parts of the story Brian "does not know about'. Because of the turn the list has taken on this subject I've decided to share about this period. The text is not directly from the book, but lays out the underlying facts and story. I welcome any input, especially facts and anecdotes involving Mario or others connected to his story. Please send these to me off-list as I'm not keeping up with the list lately.
I have rarely shared this story as I feel it must be told in some detail. Also I find it difficult to tell without casting some people in a negative light, something I avoid, but I think one must have some grasp of the characters and motivations to understand what really happened.
I worked with Mario Confente from his last year at Masi, 1975-76, helped him start Bicycles by Confente and continued working closely with him until his death March 12 of 1979.
The Masi Bicycle Company was still in its original US premises, a spacious, modern facility with a view of the glorious beaches of Carlsbad California. The owner was successful "Novo Riche" transplanted Texan named Roland Sahm. Sahm had over-estimated the profit potential of building Masis in the US. The peak of the 1970's "ten speed" boom had passed, the "gas crisis" had not convinced Americans to trade-in their gas pedals for bike pedals. And worst of all, Falierio Masi had oversold the production capacity of his operation by "neglecting" to mention his extensive use of subcontractors like Confente. As a result, Sahm had retreated from his ambitious plan which included a seaside Velodrome on the premises. The manager was a prim mustachioed accountant whose name I cannot recall, whose sole concern was for Sahm's finances. Neither Sahm nor his accountant knew the first thing about bicycles. It was rumored that the aim of the company at that time, was to lose a certain amount of money, in order to offset the considerable profits of Sahm's other ventures. Sahm's monthly visits usually ended with inexplicable and dubious decisions which were frequently reversed the following month after the damage was done. It was apparent to all of us working there that there was a problem with Masi Carlsbad at top management. Falierio Masi had returned to Italy to enjoy the profits of his deal with Sahm. The other Italians who had come with him to set up the operation had also returned home except for Mario Confente. In Mario's capable hands fine production frames were being turned out by a crew of 12 including one painter. The bulk of labor was in hand filing the cast iron lugs and bottom brackets and edging and shaping the lugs prior to jigging and brazing.
Mario Confente's passion for his craft and amazing skill and speed inspired others. The result was production bikes that rivaled those made in Italy. His quiet demeanor and weak English language skills lead him to teach by example. This sometimes led to debates about "why do it that way" but after more experience we usually understood the wisdom of his techniques. Some people were put off by Mario's personality. His self confidence could appear egomaniacal. He had that young male Italian bravado. Many who got to know him, however, came to love his integrity and dedication to his craft. Two of Mario's heroes were John Wayne and Rocky Balboa. He admired their determination and hard working honesty. He also believed in America as the home of the free and thought it offered him opportunity to control his own destiny that had been denied him in Italy.
One day Gian, carrying packaging boxes, bumped into Mario who was assembling freshly filed lugs and mitered tubes. The resulting cut in Mario's hand looked dangerously deep. I took him to the doctor and we had a long talk. Mario told me that he never wanted to run such a large shop, that he wanted to return to a smaller shop where he could control his own destiny. Masi had tricked him into leaving his small shop in Verona, and he missed it. But he did not miss Italy. He loved California and his new blonde girlfriend Lisa. He thought there was a great opportunity for pro bicycles in the US, but he did not know how to get started here. I told him I'd help. I'd had my own small business before joining Masi. Since neither of us had any capital to start our own shop, we discussed the feasibility of starting very small but, the minimum tooling costs, rent and materials were beyond our means. I had some money saved, but Mario had been sending all his earnings home to help support his disabled father and sisters. Unless we could save more, I told him, he'd need a business plan to show to bankers. Perhaps we could get an SBA loan or some other form of backing. I wrote a comprehensive business plan and we agreed to a partnership. From the outset we could see that the profit potential of such a business was slim, but money was beside the point, we were determined to build the best bicycles anywhere. Meanwhile, although the politics and intrigue at Masi were getting thick, we were content to work there while we built our exit plan. As it turned out, we had very little time for that.
When Bill Recht first visited the Masi facility, he was one of the top 20 richest men in the US. His principle residence over looked Central park in NYC where he rode the finest bicycles money could buy. He was born to his father's empire, whose roots were in prohibition era nightclubs and boxing. Bill had studied law and diversified his father's assets. By this time he was a ruthless, powerful, lonely man of about 55.
I first met Bill Recht when he stepped into the enclosed Masi spray booth. Realizing that this was the one place he could talk with a Masi employee without being observed or overheard, he told me he intended to buy the company. He wanted to know the "inside story" on the company from the employee's point of view. He proposed to meet me for dinner and discussion. I was hopeful at the possibility of Masi USA being set right by a new owner who rode and had a passion for bikes. I had several more contacts with Recht during the negotiations for the company. At one of them, he told me, and I quote, "After months of wrangling over the sale, I flew out here to finish the deal and when my pen hit the paper, Sahm pulled the bill of sale away and said " the Masi Bicycle Company is not for sale". I asked what he meant, expecting him to squeeze me for another 50 grand, instead he said it's not for sale... TO YOU." Years later, I learned that the contract with Falierio was a non transferable 99 year lease and as such, Roland Sahm, could not have sold the company if he wanted to. Perhaps Sahm thought he might be able to renegotiate the deal with Falierio and was fishing for an offer. Whatever the intent, the brash, arrogant and foul mouthed Recht had pursued the negotiation hard, only to come away with a personal rejection. It was clear that Recht had a vendetta. He told me specifically that he intended to hire everyone away from Masi and build a bike company that would bury Masi. He'd buy what was left of Masi USA after he destroyed it. There was a problem however, Recht confided; unlike other employees, Mario Confente seemed uninterested in his plan. Mario had made it clear that he would not join a new company like Masi if he had to work with some of the people Recht was planning to hire. Chief among these people was Gian Simonetti. who Mario felt was dishonest and talented only with his tongue. This was no surprise, as Gian had been hired primarily for his translation skills. At the time was at MASI Carlsbad, it's last year, Gian only did bike assembly and packaging. He had failed miserably at wheel building. I remember Gian bragging after hours when we were alone in the shop about how he could braze as well as any one. I then watched him horribly botch a simple braze-on. Because Gian could be so charming and because he was closest to the entrance to the shop, Gian usually met visitors and toured them around the shop. He succeeded in alienating everyone who worked there by acting the part of the Master of the shop. Recht really liked Gian, however, and wanted to know if we could do without Mario. Gian, he said, claimed he could take over Mario's position. I laughed! I suggested that Gian's best application might be in sales, perhaps Mario would consider the position if Gian was banished from the shop where his boasts and distortions hurt the moral of the hard working crew.
One day soon thereafter, Masi's accountant, announced that a decision had been made to close the Carlsbad plant. Most of the crew were let go. Because work-in-progress was to be finished, I stayed on to paint the remaining frames and Gian to assemble and package them. This is when Albert Eisentraut came in to measure frames for subcontracting.
Recht called me at home. He was concerned that the crew would disperse. He knew he needed the right people to overpower the Masi name he could not buy. He had not been able to get Mario to agree to join his new company. He said he'd offered Mario "more money than anybody makes building bikes". He was astonished that Mario was unmoved. I asked if he expected to make money in bikes. He scoffed, "as a business", he said "bicycles are hopeless." He boasted that he owned a dozen business that brought in millions every year. His interest in bicycles was strictly a hobby. In this he seemed sincere. Having grown up New Jersey, we discussed favorite rides and shops. At least he was a genuine cyclist. So, I suggested that he consider a smaller venture and back Mario in his own operation. I sent him our business plan. We needed $20,000. "Pocket change" he called it.
In February, 1976, Bill Recht agreed to provide the seed money for "Custom Bicycles by Confente" and provided a rent free space on the premises in of a Recht-owned company, Plexicraft, in LA. There would be no interest owed on any money drawn from the account. If there was a negative balance in the account after two years the agreement would be reviewed. If there was a positive balance, we were free to take the company where we chose. (Out of Boyle Heights, for sure!) Mario, myself and one other person besides Bill Recht were present at this meeting. My reaction was, it was too good to be true, I wanted it in writing. Mario thought that would offend Recht and overruled me. He wanted to do it on a handshake. Mario and I had not written a partnership agreement either, we trusted each other, and so it seemed natural to extend that trust.
The first step, was for Mario to travel to Italy and purchase tools and supplies. Since Recht's people had contacts in LA, they would order the paint baking oven we required. I approved the selection. They also purchased a rotted out spray booth from Wizard cycles that I patched together. When Mario returned to LA the painting equipment had still not arrived. I stayed in San Diego and took a job painting radar equipment for the Navy. An SBS-40 radar array is a web of triangulated light gauge, one inch diameter aluminum tubing and expanded metal about the size of a school bus. It took 8 hours to apply a single coat. I honed my painting skills radar by day, and painted Confentes at night. Every returning Apollo mission was first detected by these devices. The man who installed them to the very top of the highest mast on Nuclear Carriers boasted that the microwave energy emmited from the device was so powerful that unfortunate birds that flew near an active unit were vaporized. Most of the early Confentes were painted suspended from the emitter of a 14 million dollar SBS-40 radar array.
Bill Recht was more involved in the Confente business than we expected. It seemed natural to accept his help with things like brochure production because he had excellent connections. If he was involved as a hobby, it seemed we had to let him "play" by doing the things for us that he felt like doing. Mario, was awed by the man, and trusted him far more than I would have. Still, I knew he had vast business experience and it was impossible to ignore his "advice". I was expecting to join Mario in LA, full time, any day, but Recht insisted that there was little for me to do until the paint bake oven arrived and to keep painting as I was doing. He did not want me draining the account in wages waiting for the various permits and equipment still required to spray paint in a printing warehouse. In fact, Mario did need help and I made dozens of trips to the shop to work with him, unpaid. Recht kept delaying the date he wanted me to officially start. He seemed to be stalling me, and did not return my calls. I began to suspect that Recht was not going to be fair with us.
In early December 1976, I was diagnosed with a dangerous tumor under my left ear. Immediate, delicate surgery was required. At a minimum, the tumor and the entire parotid gland needed to be removed. Motor nerves to the face run through the center of this gland. The best prognosis was for partial paralysis of the facial muscles on one side. Speech would be affected. If the tumor were malignant I had a particularly deadly cancer to fight. I decided to have the surgery done back in New Jersey where my mother, a nurse, knew the doctors well and could care for me. But before I checked in, I checked out Mr. Recht. I researched his past, his holdings, I learned what I could, and then I dropped in on him. Approaching the Jersey City office of RexArt, a chemical plant, and his flagship business, I noticed the reserved parking spaces had names on them. The closest space to the entrance had his name on it. Better yet, there was a car in that space. A new two-tone blue Chevrolet Caprice. Odd choice for such a rich man I thought. It's extra wide tires and oversized exhaust tipped me off to the high power under the low key hood. Recht was not one to flaunt his hand, but kept an ace up his sleeve. I entered the lobby and told the receptionist that I was a friend of Bill Recht, would she let him know I was here. "He's expecting you? She asked. I nodded, "he should be" then winked and said "it's about bicycles". As expected, she knew about the boss's peculiar passion and laughed, "well then" I'll get you right in. I waited 90 minutes, but I took a seat where I could watch the blue Caprice, prepared to dash into the parking lot if he appeared there. Finally, I was ushered into Recht's office. We discussed the problems with the paint oven delivery, marketing ideas for Confente and my proposed sister company CyclArt. I was surprised that Recht hated the name, he proposed "Ferrochrome". "You know, Latin for iron-color", he said! I suspected he liked the name too much and had other ideas for it. I argued forcefully for the CyclArt name, and he relented saying, so you're not a "yes" man! Good, we'll go to dinner. And off we went. We learned lot about each other that night.
Mom got me the right doctor and the surgery went better than I dared hope. I was back in San Diego by the end of January. The paint shop was still on hold.
Mario's business had a very successful debut in early March 77 at the big annual bicycle trade show, then held in New York. Mario and I were not entirely comfortable with the brochure produced by Bill Recht, but we received many orders. At the show, Mario had revealed his intention to create molds for investment cast lugs and dropouts. Up to that time there had been few successful applications of the technique outside of jewelry and aerospace. Microfusione in Italy had done a crown for Masi, but lugs and bottom bracket presented a much more difficult challenge. The casting samples that had been attempted were thick, awkward looking and were distorted out of tolerance for proper fit. Mario's schooling has been primarily in metal working, specifically in investment casting. He told me that at school, he had intended to be a jeweler but could not afford the gold. Mario believed he could produce molds that would make beautiful lugs without the many hours of filing he did to the crude parts then available. We estimated that this would increase his production form 2.5 to 5 frames per week. In 1975 Mario had conducted a patent search and began the registration process for designs he had started before his employment with Masi. Bill Recht had offered to get castings made for Mario to test while we focused on delivering existing orders and shop improvements. Mario sent Recht his patent drawings and models.
I have extensive files of correspondence from this period. Bill Recht would generally dictate instructions which were typed on triplicate forms. Our responses would be written on the bottom of the form and returned, the middle layer returned and the carbon filed. As I became aware of problems at Confente, I began taking these documents home for safekeeping. Therefore, I still have a paper trail of correspondence from both sides. This documentation supports that Recht lead us to believe that the lugs, tooling and designs Mario and I created were for the exclusive use in building Mario's company. Shortly after joining Mario full-time on site, Recht came visited for a meeting. He reported that he had found a casting house he believed could cast the lugs properly. Mario wanted to meet with the casting engineer, he wanted to make the molds personally after consulting with them. Recht insisted that we had more important work to do at the shop and that if Mario provided models that the casting house could take it from there. Mario was skeptical and concerned that the esthetics of the lugs would be changed. (they were!) I wanted to know about the economics of the situation. After all, our goal was to break even or better within two years. Mario and I were taking a minimum draw (less than minimum hourly wage) to keep as much money as possible in the Confente account. We were willing to sacrifice in order to be "free" at the two year mark. I was concerned about how much the lug project would cost and how long it would take to get a return on it. I asked the question: If we create a great set of investment cast lugs, do we use them strictly on Confente bicycles, to boost our production, do we introduce a production model to use them on or do we offer them for sale? Recht looked surprised and responded cryptically, "yes that is the question!". I went on to speculate weather copyrights and Mario's incomplete patent efforts would provide any protection and how long it might take for competitors to copy us. Since Mario was opposed to an operation on the scale of Masi, I proposed that perhaps the lugs should remain a Confente exclusive until we had something better on the horizon and them sell them either exclusively to one company at a premium or to several manufacturers in greater volume. While we were discussing the merits of these tactics, Recht did not tell us that he already had plans for Mario's designs.
The first monthly paycheck I actually received for working at the Confente shop convinced me we were in a lot of trouble. I had expected that Mario had set up a business account for the seed money and we would always know how close we were to "2 year freedom" by simply balancing the checkbook. Mario had a checkbook alright, but Recht had "helped" Mario by handling his billing so Mario could concentrate on building frames. The problem was, that the paychecks and expenses were not written from a Confente account. Sure, the account held the correct balance, but Mario did not realize the significance of the Recht-owned company name at the top of his checks. As an employee of one of Recht's companies, he had no rights to inventions or anything else he developed! From Mario's point of view, and mine until that time, Recht had invested in our company. But with this slight of hand, Recht could deny our verbal agreement and show payroll records that would convince any judge that Mario was his employee. I held that first paycheck uncashed as long as I could, and insisted on speaking to Bill Recht about the "peculiar state" of the Confente accounts. As usual, it took weeks to get any reply. Meanwhile, I probed further.
Bill Recht had commanded Chris Sohmhegi, the president of Plexicraft to have Carol Moen, Sohmhegi's personal secretary put in two hours each day to handle correspondence and billing for Bicycles by Confente. She would pay the bills, prepare the payroll and transfer our handwritten notes to triplicate typed letters. Carol had worked for Sohmhegi for nearly 20 years. She warned me that Recht was ruthless in his pursuit of money and power. I already knew Bill Recht's riches were derived primarily from patents he controlled. Some of these involved obscure printing processes and materials which exploded in the 1970's. Specifically inks for printing credit cards and continuous roll printing as in fan folded computer paper. What I learned from Carol was that these patents and companies had often been "acquired" by Recht in ugly conflicts that he always won. Carol recalled betrayals where Recht used insiders to push out his opposition, clever legal challenges that spent the opposition into bankruptcy, and various forms of intimidation. Here she refuse to go further, she would only say that her own boss, a Czek WWII Army veteran and as dominating, rigid and tightfisted a manager as ever lived, never challenged Recht's commands, even when she knew he was completely opposed to them.
So it was clear that Recht had virtually already stolen Mario's lug designs. Further, it was doubtful that he would honor our agreement, so he would likely claim all tooling and profits made in the first two years belonged to "his" company. Mario refused to believe this at first. He felt that our agreement with Recht had been so clear and explicit that he could not believe the man he had shaken hands with could betray him like that. He was in denial. We were doing better than we could have expected and at the rate we were going we could pay Recht off early. He though it preposterous that Recht could steal "Custom Bicycles by Confente" from Mario Confente!
I tried to speak to Bill Recht about these things, I tried to get the accounts changed, to insure the copyright and patents were in Mario's name, but Recht was out of touch and when I did hear from him, he absolutely refused to address these issues.
It is clear that Recht made a real effort to hide the Medici company from Mario and I. There were signs of trouble as soon as I arrived. Mario would had not noticed because he was focused on his craft and let Carol handle all this mail and calls. But when I arrived, I opened and read all the mail first and I answered the phone. There were rumors that Gian Simonetti was involved in some sort of bike company. But what troubled me was the several instances where vendors we had used to buy one tool or a small quantity of supplies would contact me to request payment for several tools or a larger quantity of supplies. It was extremely rare that I could reach Recht by phone to report these billing problems, the few times that I did, told me to just forward anything like this to him so "his people" could deal with it. He suggested that it was an error or a scam or a purchase he made for his distribution company. I will never forget the day I uncovered his evasions, November 10, 1977.
I needed more adhesive for the decals and I stopped by the decal printer to pick them up. They thought I was there to pick-up the decals for "the bicycle company" and so gave me a package and invoice. They were Medici decals, billing address was Recht's New Jersey office, the delivery address was nearby. I delivered them personally. At the address I found Gian Simonetti. Gian was surprised to see me and very nervous. I tried to make small talk, but John "had to go" and I was ushered out of the shop immediately. When I got back I told Mario what I had found, and I called Bill Recht. I got through, and he was furious! He told me that now that I knew, I'd better figure out how to get Mario to cooperate with the Medici company. I was also informed that my CyclArt refinish business had to be set aside to accommodate the many frames Medici would soon be producing.
Although I resented the way Recht had manipulated things, to this point, it did seem to me that it might be best for Mario if he did as Recht wanted. He was heartbroken, but I insisted that he consider all his options. First, if he accepted his status as an employee, then he should have a very substantial raise. Recht had offered and he had declined an excellent wage to lead the new company. He was working for far less than that now. It seemed he should get the raise retroactive to the beginning of Bicycles by Confente as compensation for the "misunderstanding" that Mario "thought" he was working for himself. It made sense to maintain Confente bicycles as the custom, elite frame, while Medici built the production bikes. Since there were separate shops, Mario could limit his involvement in day-to-day operations at Medici and concentrate on the Confente operation, while benefiting from the considerable assets and clout of Bill Recht. Maybe we could get an agreement on bonuses for improvements to frame design and construction. Mario, however, would not be swayed. He pointed out that Recht had clearly betrayed us, was heavy handed and meddlesome in our operations and had hired people Mario did not respect. Mario did not want to be "part of a company of liars owed by a liar." Mario insisted he would not be associated in any way with the Medici company. He decided we would have to start over, if it meant leaving all this work for the past year and his designs behind. It was a lot to loose. I pointed out that the success of the past year would make it easier to get started again. At least we could take that with us.
Medici frames started to arrive for painting. Recht announced that they had to be ready for debut at the NY show. Mario would be sharing a booth with Medici. Recht also announced that dealers who wanted to order Confente frames would have to take 5 Medici for every Confente they wanted. Mario wanted to stop taking orders and to finish all work in progress so he could leave before the NY show. He did not want to be associated with Medici in any way.
I discreetly suggested to several of Mario's customer's that Mario was unhappy with his current situation and sought to move. Since the Confente account was not quite at break even, and we had not been able to put away much in personal savings, we would need some financing as well. One client, George Farrier, offered to let Mario stay and work at his ranch in Carmel California. I would have to find a way paint the frames elsewhere.
With a month to go, despite working extremely long hours, it was apparent that we could not finish all the orders. Mario decided to complete all orders possible and leave the remainder unstarted. We expected the deposits on those outstanding orders to be returned to the customers. With 30 days remaining until the show, Mario dictated a letter of resignation. It included an accounting of the deposits to be returned. We gave 30 days notice to give Recht time to make adjustments prior to the tradeshow. We wanted to leave on good terms. I edited the letter for clarity and gave it to Carol to type and send.
The day Bill Recht got that letter, we came to work as usual. As I locked my car I noticed Carol leaving the office in tears. She told me that Recht had called her personally and fired her for typing and sending the Confente letter. 20 years of service, she was Sohmhegi's right hand and Recht fired her instantly without even consulting Sohmhegi! She wished us well and told me to be "very, very, careful".
We were locked out of our shop. I approached Chris Sohmhegi who would say only that Recht had fired us and that we were not allowed on the premises. I pointed out that we had personal possessions and tools in the shop and requested that he accompany us into the shop so that we could claim them. Sohmhegi refused. His instructions were clear we were not allowed on the premises under any circumstances. Recht would call when he arrived in Los Angles to discuss return of our tools, Sohmhegi did not know when that might be. I asked if I could be allowed only to clean my primer gun. The paint in would harden in 48 hours, ruining the gun. Sohmhegi refused and insisted we leave immediately.
Mario and I retreated to a nearby coffee shop to discuss the situation. We expected that it might be some time before Recht arrived and meanwhile, there were things we needed, like personal tools, checkbooks, correspondence, and more. We made a list, but it was hard to remember everything; we kept coming up with more things. I called the police and tried to report that the things on our list had been stolen. When I explained that they were "taken" by locking us out of our workplace however they called it a "civil matter" and explained that the best we could do was to have a County Marshal escort us into the premises. He could stand by and notarize our inventory of the premises. We returned to Sohmhegi and asked him for an appointment time when he would open the shop for this inventory accompanied by the Marshall. We explained that nothing would be taken or even touched, that we just wanted an inventory so that we could take the matter up with Bill Recht. Having done so we would wait patiently for his call. I could not see any legitimate reason for Sohmhegi's flat refusal. I asked to call Recht myself to propose the idea to him. He handed me the phone, but Recht's secretary said she had strict instructions to refuse any call from me, Mario or any mention of Custom Bicycles by Confente. I told Chris Sohmhegi that I had always found him fair and reasonable, and could not accept his refusal, when he could present no legitimate reason for it. He asked that I give him a list of the items that needed to be returned and he would attempt to get permission for their return. I said I would do so only if he could close his eyes and give me an accurate list of everything on his desk. He conceded he could not do that. We would just have to wait for Recht. I asked if the shop would be kept sealed until Recht arrived. Sohmhegi said no, that since it was the from of one of his paper warehouses his warehouse manager would need access and the "Medici people" would need access because they needed frames painted. I decided to take a more direct approach.
I went home, made a protest sign, "unfair lock-out" and returned to the shop and waited. After a while, John, the warehouse manager came across the street with his hand-truck, for another spool of printing paper. John, an older quiet man with at penchant for horse racing had visited with us everyday for the past year as he made his supply runs almost hourly. I told John that I d did not want to get him in any trouble, but that if he opened the door, I was going in. He replied, that he had been given strict instructions that Mario and I could not be allowed in the shop. I said you'd better tell Sohmhegi. John came back a half hour later said he Somhegi had been furious and that the we REALLY needed more paper for the presses. He was sympathetic to my position. I told him I was not moving, he shook my hand and went back without his paper. A short while later, three pressman came over and told me top get out of they way, they postured and looked tough, but I could see their hearts were not in it. They had been ordered by Sohmhegi to "get me to out of the way", but the word had gotten around the print shop that I was standing up to the boss and they loved it! For security I pointed out my girlfriend holding a camera in my locked car across the street. They returned saying they could not move me. Little by little, the plant across the street got quieter and quieter, more and more heads popped up in the factory windows to watch me. Finally, Chris Sohmhegi came storming across the street looking like he would explode. He commanded me to step aside and put his key in the door. I told him calmly, there is no reason to deny us access for a simple inventory. I won't strike you but I will do what ever else is necessary to get in that door. We were pressed literally nose to nose. He stormed back across the street and suddenly the workers were leaving the shop. Some gave me a thumbs up and joked about the welcome day off. I returned several times over the next four weeks as we waited for Recht's visit. On one occasion, the door opened while I sat on the doorstep and out peeked Brian Baylis. I told Brian that I wanted to enter the shop escorted by a County Marshal to take an inventory. I needed him to let us in. Brian refused. I said that surely he could see that Mario and I were being ripped off, could he please do what was right here and let us do this. What could be wrong with our taking an inventory? Brian said that he had been told that we were not allowed in, for any reason, that he did not want to get involved; he was just there to do his job. He said he needed the money. I said he WAS involved - he was in our shop, surely he could see from the things it contained that we were locked out unexpectedly and that it was wrong. Still he refused. "I'm just following orders" he said. That did it. I was angry. I told him "that's what the Nazi's said," I called him a conspirator, whore, opportunist and a coward. He closed the door. Years later, I buried my anger with him when I argued that he be given a job and a place where he could continue to build his bikes in the shop I shared with Masi in San Marcos. When his frame building business foundered there, he conspired with others in the building to forced CyclArt out of the premises and vowed to put me out of business. Apparently, I was right about him. I have been civil to Brian at every meeting since, I have provided a venue where he could show his work at my Concours events and given him prizes for his fine work. Still he remains hostile to me, I frequently have people tell me that his hatred of me is evident. A simple apology would heal this as far as I'm concerned, but one has never been offered.
In Brian's account, he claims to have returned to the area in February 1979. He is off by a year. It was 1978. Mario Confente would spend the most of 1978 in Carmel where he built and delivered all the frames that he had taken deposits on despite the fact that Recht never returned any of the deposits.
When Recht finally arrived, he refused to give Mario anything of value and claimed that he would use the Confente name for his custom bikes. Not doing so was one of his sole "concessions" to Mario. He refused to speak to us together and in fact refused to see or speak to me at all. As feared he claimed all assets, deposits, and tools in the shop as his. Fortunately, I got some good legal advice and in his refusal to give us anything, Recht made the mistake of not giving Mario or I our final paychecks, nor did he re-reimburse our expenses. This meant that we were able to file a claim against him with the State Labor Commissioner. The claim was limited to our unpaid wages and the actual replacement cost of tools that had been lost, but we needed it to recover. I knew from Carol that a favorite Recht tactic was to use clever legal ruses to run up the cost of legal action, to lie under oath and to spend his opposition into oblivion. The State labor Commissioner uses an informal hearing process that prevents the use of most of these legal tricks and a judgment from the Labor Commissioner has teeth. We obtained a judgment, but Recht managed to escape our efforts to collect by claiming that he did no business in the State of California. I would need an attorney in NJ, preferably one who would not burn the entire judgment trying to collect it.
I asked my mom in NJ, if she new any good attorneys. Mom is a nurse and she had befriended and powerful attorney while in the hospital, she said she'd ask him. When she did, and explained that is was a matter of collecting a California Labor Commission judgment, the attorney said that mom had saved his life and he would handle the matter personally, at no charge. The attorney was Sheldon Leibowitz. At that time, Sheldon Leibowitz was one of the heaviest legal "guns" around. This was like having Johnny Cochran handle a parking ticket! I would have loved to seen Recht's face when he got Sheldon's notice that he was representing me! True to form, Recht performed spectacular, expensive evasions, easily spending many times the cost of the judgment defending it. I still have a deposition where it takes four pages to get an answer to the first question, which is the address of his principle residence. In it Bill Recht claims to have had no connection with Confente at all. He could not explain the 95 signed memos and letters I had given Sheldon. Sheldon saw Recht's game for what it was, and he fought back in kind. He told me at one point he spend more time on this case than others with millions at stake. Almost two years later, I got a check. Mario never got his as he died 6 months earlier, March 12, 1979 at the age of 33, of heart failure.
While Mario was in Carmel, I had taken a job managing one of the first "health food" supermarkets. Shortly after he moved back to the San Diego area and married Lisa. I made the decision to leave my promising career and restart CyclArt. Susan and I moved our residence into the unfinished industrial building in San Marcos so I could devote all my energy to it. I was sweeping out the building when I got the news of Mario's death.
Mario had rebuilt his tools and inventory since splitting with Recht. He had moved his shop from Carmel to Lisa garage. After Mario's death, his bereaved newlywed wife sold off his tools and inventory to an unscrupulous buyer for $800. That inventory has been dispersed. I'm sure most of it is in good appreciative hands, but there has always been concern about forgeries due to the nature of the way his things were lost. Mario had created a mold for his own improved lugs, in her confusion, his wife discarded them.
I believe Brian's assessment of the failure of Medici is correct. I also believe that Bill Recht was right that he needed Mario for that company to succeed. Without him, it slid into mediocrity. It is ironic that for many years, a picture of Mario hung in the Medici shop and they would claim him as their founder.
I could not help Mario enough, but I try to live up to his high standards to this day.
JFC
CyclArtist
Vista, CA