First off, it IS a fascinating story, but I agree with Brian Bayliss about the value of putting it together offlist to spare the rest of us the dispute.
I am in agreement with Eric Elman about the idea of having an impartial party edit and string together the sometimes controversial, sometimes downright acrimonious Mario Confente story. At the same time, I recognize that eventually, some brave soul is going to have to come down and say, "From what we can gather, these chunks of the tale are more probable than these." As a former history major (you want fries with that?), I understand all the perils inherent in writing this history, but it makes sense to do so. I'll stand on the sidelines and cheer on whoever tackles the task ... thank you for stepping up to the plate, Dave!
What I have learned from the list about Mario Confente boils down to this - he left a legacy, whether he intended to or not. Personally, I suspect he would have preferred to have continued breathing air and building bikes, and no doubt he would have some interesting comments for this list if he was still around.
It's interesting to go back and try to understand the power connected with his name and work. We can note that the number of frames he built under his own name is limited, and there will be no more. His work is described as spine-chillingly good by those familiar with it. He died too young and too soon. But we can say the same of McLean Fonvielle, and to date no such cult has sprung up about his work.
I could attempt to attribute it to the connection with Faliero Masi, which would be a start. But I really think the difference is that several very talented people came into personal contact with Confente in the course of his too-short career. Unlike McLean Fonvielle, other people were involved in the saga of his work.
For some, it was a life-changing experience, if not a central moment or turning point. Tack on a couple of decades of time, and you have the filters of memory making the tale murkier still. Not meaning to be obvious, no offense, and no slam on anyone, but remembering is essentially a reconstructive act, and human perception of the past is always alloyed by contact with the intervening time to the present. Later disputes will color recollection, sometimes almost beyond recovery.
To whoever is the brave historian who attempts to untangle this story - I can only hope those who come forward with information can provide documentation and dates. Those can do amazing things to a chronology. A humble analogy - for years, the Fender Musical Instrument Company claimed they introduced the Broadcaster/Telecaster line of guitars in 1948. It wasn't until the 1980s that someone finally got the idea of going through factory receipts for tooling that it emerged that it couldn't have come out earlier than 1950, as a crucial tool wasn't bought until then ...
Stepping way out of the bounds of proper behavior, I can only ask those who are in dispute about Confente, those who knew him and worked with him - would he have wanted the anger to still live all these years later? I never met the man, and I couldn't tell you, but I suspect the folks who did might want to ask what his response would be. My own personal experience - life is too short for grudges of this nature.
My apologies for continuing this thread, but all in all I'd rather talk about vintage bikes and more amused, more delighted legacies. And while I don't know for sure, I suspect Mario Confente would rather be remembered for his bikes and the positive influence he exerted on people, and not for difficulties that have survived him for too many years.
Russ Fitzgerald
Greenwood SC
rfitzger@emeraldis.com
http://www.emeraldis.com/
http://www.lostweekend.homestead.com