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dfunde01
08-29-2007, 11:55 AM
I guess CSR is setting in, but for the life of me I can't remember the sgtory of how the name Donzi originated. Can anyone help refresh my memory?

Dave

VetteLT193
08-29-2007, 12:37 PM
I guess CSR is setting in, but for the life of me I can't remember the sgtory of how the name Donzi originated. Can anyone help refresh my memory?
Dave

A girlfriend of Don Aronow nick named him Donzi...

BUIZILLA
08-29-2007, 12:38 PM
actually, his secretary nicknamed him

DonCig
08-29-2007, 12:44 PM
actually, his secretary nicknamed him
possibly one and the same; at some previous time.....???

Donziweasel
08-29-2007, 01:17 PM
That was one, and the most popular, version. Secretary called him Donzi. There are other stories as well.

mrfixxall
08-29-2007, 01:40 PM
i thought it was his wife..(daufgter,,correction :)

In 1962 Aronow established the Formula Marine boat company, followed it up with Donzi (his then wife’s pet name for him) Marine and in 1966 Magnum Marine, in company with Elton Cary.

Cary had a boat called ‘The Cigarette’ which Aronow campaigned successfully and in 1970 won the World Offshore crown.


The Cigarette built ,designed and driven by Don Aronow racing a 31’Bertram , Mona. - . ..
This prompted Aronow to again start a business on yet another block on 188th Street and using his own designs established the Cigarette Racing Team.

When discussing Aronow, it becomes increasingly difficult to separate fact from fiction, legend and myth.

There are so many stories.

One I heard from several sources was that Aronow and his throttleman, ‘Knocky’ House, a former US Navy submariner, hated wearing race helmets.

Aronow noticed that the race rules of the day only stated that helmets must be worn at the start.

There was nothing in the rule book requiring helmets afterwards.

Consequently, as soon as they crossed the start line in an offshore race, Aronow and House (and soon after many other crews) tossed their helmets overboard!

Makes you wonder how many race helmets are sitting on the sandy seabed off Miami?

Another legend or myth related to the pair was after a capsize that injured both and left them in the water.

House was losing blood from a couple of head cuts and these were shark-infested waters at that.

Asked what he did, Aronow replied straight to the point; 'I told Knocky to stop bleeding,' he said.

Forget the myth, the legend, the myriad of tall tales that surround Don Aronow, his boats have won in excess of 350 offshore events and at one time held every speed record in every country at one time.

Aronow has been elected to every powerboat Hall of Fame in existence and along with the immortal Gar Wood is one of the only two Americans to be honoured with the UIM (Unione Internationale Motonautique, the sport’s governing body) Gold Medal of Honour.

I never met Don Aronow (but I managed to visit his office and sit at his desk!); someone beat me to it and it was someone armed with a .45 calibre Government Model pistol who blasted six shots into the King of Thunderboat Row on the very street that was the hallowed ground of offshore racing.

Aronow’s brutal murder only served to enhance his status as a true legend.

Everyone in Miami has their own idea related to the murder.

Ben Kramer, a man who in his youth idolised Aronow and was himself a muscle boat builder (Apache Boats) was eventually convicted as the man who ordered the hit, while another, named Bobby Young was sentenced as the triggerman.

Kramer, also a convicted drug runner, was given life with no possibility of parole, while Young was hit with a 19-year sentence.

However, there remain people in Miami convinced the police got it wrong!

It all adds to the legend that surrounded ‘The King of Thunderboat Row.’

The pioneers have nearly all gone, now; Sam Griffith, cancer in the late 1960s,
Aronow murdered in 1987, Jim Wynne, dead from cancer in 1990 and Richard Bertram, passed away in 2000 at 84.

They have certainly left a legacy.

If there’s an offshore powerboat course ‘somewhere up there’, it’s a safe bet that whenever anyone hits a start button and fires up a pair of race engines, the old timers will be taking notes.

I’m indebted to the sport’s great chronicler, John Crouse, author of ‘Searace’ and his former most able (and delightful!) assistant Melanie Wood for some of the information written here.

In a future issue I will endeavour to paint something of a brief portrait of the sport’s Australian beginning.

Footnote: I cannot verify the complete accuracy of this, but ‘The Cigarette’, the 31-foot Cary that Aronow campaigned, was supposedly sold to Australia’s Carr brothers, Val and Paul, who lost their lives in the sport’s first recorded multiple fatality off Sydney in the early 70s.

Most of the story is true; what I cannot confirm is whether it was THE boat Aronow drove or an identical model.



by Bob Wonders




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Last Tango
08-29-2007, 01:45 PM
His daughter would have called him Daddy.
However, the Secretary/Girlfriend would have been roughly that same age.

Sweet little 16
08-29-2007, 02:24 PM
keep the stories coming eventually you'll get the right one
but for now the judges say BZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZT

the article by Bob Wonders is wrong that is one of the myths

bueller???? anyone???

hardcrab
08-29-2007, 02:50 PM
:toiletpap
I guess CSR is setting in, but for the life of me I can't remember the sgtory of how the name Donzi originated. Can anyone help refresh my memory?
Dave
It's worse than you thought, it is CRS , as in can't remember squat (toned down for the sensitive audience)

gcarter
08-29-2007, 03:53 PM
Footnote: I cannot verify the complete accuracy of this, but ‘The Cigarette’, the 31-foot Cary that Aronow campaigned, was supposedly sold to Australia’s Carr brothers, Val and Paul, who lost their lives in the sport’s first recorded multiple fatality off Sydney in the early 70s.
I vaguely remember a racing accident off Sydney at about this time. Races were longer in those days and much of it was further off shore (out of site of land). It seems that a particular boat was late and a helicopter was sent to search for it. The boat was found with the engines running and out of gear. The crew of three were all dead from spinal injuries, assuming they flew off a huge wave and were killed on impact.
I'm wondering if this was the same incident???????

Mr X
08-29-2007, 04:14 PM
Don was asked by "better homes and gardens" magazine if they could photo one of his boats.
He obliged them.
The magazine photographers filled the boat with all sorts of pillows and decor that was very colorful using pastel colors. A couple months later the magazine hit the stands.
One of his racing buddies questioned him about the colorful cabin asking him if he was the decorator of it. He jokingly replied in a feminine voice "no, it was that famous interior decorator "Donzi"
The name stuck and he later named his next boat company Donzi.

Sweet little 16
08-29-2007, 04:19 PM
DING DING DING!!!!!!!!
we have a winner
the buddy was aronow family friend and record executive Morris Levy who looked at the spread and said it was not quite manly enuff for a macho racer Donnie

thank you Mr X and for the rest of the class turn your text books to page 38

catch 22
08-29-2007, 04:34 PM
From Michael Aronow's book "Don Aronow The King Of Thunderboat Row" it states on page 38 "Why the name DONZI?" "The stories have floated around for years, but the truth is that Morris Levy, then head of Roulette Records in New York and a close family friend at the time, had kidded my father about being cited in Esquire Magazine for classy interior design with the Formula 23 foot. The implication was that it was not the most macho of honors. A large beefy man, Levy sidled up to my dad and said in a falsetto voice, Geez, Donnie, I guess we'll have to start calling you "Donsy". Well the last laugh was on Morris when "Donsy" became "DONZI" and "DONZI" became DONZI MARINE shortly after FORMULA MARINE had been sold". As told by Michael Aronow

apollo24
08-29-2007, 05:28 PM
This sums it all up..... The Man.

Cuda
08-29-2007, 08:13 PM
From Michael Aronow's book "Don Aronow The King Of Thunderboat Row" it states on page 38 "Why the name DONZI?" "The stories have floated around for years, but the truth is that Morris Levy, then head of Roulette Records in New York and a close family friend at the time, had kidded my father about being cited in Esquire Magazine for classy interior design with the Formula 23 foot. The implication was that it was not the most macho of honors. A large beefy man, Levy sidled up to my dad and said in a falsetto voice, Geez, Donnie, I guess we'll have to start calling you "Donsy". Well the last laugh was on Morris when "Donsy" became "DONZI" and "DONZI" became DONZI MARINE shortly after FORMULA MARINE had been sold". As told by Michael Aronow
That's basically what I heard. I heard someone asked him about his next boat, and told him he was sure it'd be a Donsy of a boat.

DonziChick
08-30-2007, 11:35 AM
From Michael Aronow's book "Don Aronow The King Of Thunderboat Row" it states on page 38 "Why the name DONZI?" "The stories have floated around for years, but the truth is that Morris Levy, then head of Roulette Records in New York and a close family friend at the time, had kidded my father about being cited in Esquire Magazine for classy interior design with the Formula 23 foot. The implication was that it was not the most macho of honors. A large beefy man, Levy sidled up to my dad and said in a falsetto voice, Geez, Donnie, I guess we'll have to start calling you "Donsy". Well the last laugh was on Morris when "Donsy" became "DONZI" and "DONZI" became DONZI MARINE shortly after FORMULA MARINE had been sold". As told by Michael Aronow

You got to it before I did!

VetteLT193
08-31-2007, 06:54 AM
It's funny there are so many versions of this. I've read the girfriend / secretary one a number of times and thought that was the 'real' story:bonk:

Barry Eller
09-02-2007, 02:20 PM
The answer is here on the Registry...

http://www.donzi.net/forums/showthread.php?t=33180