Anthony J. Messina

Cast

Tony Messina was from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He attended Upper Darby High School, Class of 1935. In 1964, he sung at the Copacabana in New York. He was also part of the comedy team "Dennis and Messina" with Danny Dennis at least up to 1967. He performed regularly at the Richetti’s Springfield Inn in Springfield between 1965 and 1971 with several combos such as the Tommy Simms Quartet, the Carl D’Errico Trio, the Don Dorney Trio, the Dave Ross Trio and Pep Lattanzi. He was discovered by Gerry Granahan and signed in Dec 1965 with United Artists, on which a single was released. In early 1967, he went with Dennis for a 2-month tour in Vietnam and they played dates with Nancy Sinatra. In 1968, Tony caught the attention of actor Richard Conte in Florida who set Tony for a part in a coming art film "Coffee" but the movie doesn't appear to have been carried out. In 1969 Tony was featured on the Merv Griffin Show. In 1970-71, he was also featured a couple of times at NYC's Upstairs at the Downstairs and signed for some movie roles. In 1972, he released his second single "A World That's Filled With Love" changing his last name to Massena for a short while and was cast in the movie "Love Gap" that was released as "Teenage Tramp" in 1973. After two years, he pursued a new nightclub singer career under the pseudonym "The Luv Machine" until 1975 and played at the Playboy Club. One of the crowd favorite was "I Kissed Her Once, I Kissed Her Twice, I Kissed Her Once Again." in which turned to each table group and each booth and asked the couples to kiss each other three times. After many recordings and performances while living in New York, Tony took a break from singing and moved to Hollywood, where he wrote and sold several screenplays that have yet to be produced. He also sharpened his acting skills for the big screen and television. Tony acted in "The Young and The Restless," "General Hospital" and in the Mel Brooks' films, "Life Stinks" and "History of the World".