The holiday was created to celebrate the Italian American community and to recognize their contributions to the United States.
She was born on August 16, 1928 in the Mount Eden section of the South Bronx, which was primarily a Spanish neighborhood at the time, before turning into a Puerto Rican area in the 1940s. Her family's surname was Gormezano and her father was a Sicilian immigrant from Palermo.
Her father's name was initially Nicola Gormezano until he converted to Judaism and changed it to Nessim Gormé after falling in love with her mother in 1923. Her mother was a Sephardic Jew. Eydie grew up speaking the Jewish languages known as Yiddish and Ladino, but also learned Spanish as a result of growing up in a Latin American neighborhood.
She worked as a Spanish interpreter after graduating from Taft High School in 1946. She decided to quit that job to pursue a singing career, touring with bandleader Tommy Tucker. In 1953, she joined Steve Allen's TV show known as The Tonight Show. That's how she met her husband Steve Lawrence, whom she married in 1957.
The pair won a Grammy in 1960 for their album We Got Us and performed together on many stages. The son of Eastern European Jewish immigrants, Lawrence was born Sidney Liebowitz in Brooklyn, New York on July 8, 1935. He had started singing in the synagogue choir where his father served as cantor while supporting the family as a house painter.
Eydie collaborated with the Mexican group Trio Los Panchos in the 1960s. Her best-known hit songs are “Too Close for Comfort,” “Love Me Forever," “Blame It on the Bossa Nova” and “If He Walked into My Life."
Throughout the 1980s, Gormé and Lawrence appeared on many well-known stages, including Carnegie Hall, the Universal Amphitheater in Los Angeles, Harrah’s in Lake Tahoe, Nevada, and Bally’s in Las Vegas. In 1991, they joined Frank Sinatra on his Diamond Jubilee Tour. In 1995, Eydie and Steve received Lifetime Achievement Awards from both the Society of Singers and the Songwriters Hall of Fame
First, our spies tell us that the Bistro (which went bankrupt and has been vacated for months) will be replaced by a new eatery called Maya Bohem, which appears to be a coffee/cafe from Turkey. We're told the targeted opening date is early December. This seems to be a completely new approach for that space, which has served as an eatery of some sort since the Mall first opened.
Second, The new Dick's House of Sport is expected to open on or about November 17, in time for the busy Christmas shopping season. The place will be mammoth and include onsite participatory features, the likes of which have never been available in one place in this area.
Finally, we're told that the Moorestown Barnes & Noble at Eastgate will move into a very large space at the nearby Moorestown Mall.
Uncle Giuseppi's, which will take over the Barnes and Noble space and the next door Pet Smart space is expected to open around this time next year.
Her work has been published in thirty-eight languages around the world. An award-winning playwright, television writer/producer, and filmmaker, Trigiani wrote and directed the major motion picture of her debut novel, Big Stone Gap, adapted her novel, Very Valentine, for television, and directed the award-winning documentary, Queens of the Big Time.
She has written for The Washington Post, the Richmond Times Dispatch and Bon Appétit magazine, among others. Adriana hosts the hit podcast, You Are What You Read, where she interviews authors and luminaries about the books that built their souls. In 2023, Adriana was named Cavaliere dell’Ordine della Stella d’Italia by President Sergio Mattarella of Italy, and in 2024, the Library of Virginia awarded her the Patron of Letters degree, their highest honor. She also holds honorary degrees from Saint Mary’s College and the University of New Haven.
Adriana is co-founder of the Origin Project, a year-round, in-school writing program that has served over 50,000 students since its inception in 2012. Trigiani is honored to serve on the New York State Council on the Arts and on the Board of the Authors Guild.
Adriana’s next novel is a sequel to The Godfather in partnership with the Mario Puzo Estate, Connie, the story of Connie Corleone.
She lives in Greenwich Village with her family.
NOW: Reporters confront NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani with questions about October 7 and his anti-Israel statement about the horrific Hamas attack. "Is there a line that you would add to your statement? Is there one you would take out?" Mamdani refuses to answer either question, instead describing the anniversary as a day of mourning for both sides of the conflict. He then accuses Israel's government of using the Hamas attacks to justify what he describes as an ongoing genocide: "We know that it brings up the most horrific memories for so many in the city, and also, for others, it is a day that is continuing, and it's in the Israeli government's use of it as a justification for a genocide."
— Fox News (@FoxNews) October 8, 2026
🚨 AWESOME! MLB Legend Roger Clemens just walked out in a USA hat at the Trump rally and DROPPED this line "GET OUT AND VOTE." "Don't forget, this man put his LIFE ON THE LINE for us. Don't EVER forget that." 🔥 "A man that loves our country, that puts all of us first, and puts AMERICA FIRST!" "He made us better, stronger...he's made us SAFER." Trump took a bullet for us, WE CAN VOTE IN NOVEMBER FOR HIM. He's working harder than ANYONE in politics right now, and has done so for over a DECADE
— Eric Daugherty (@EricLDaugh) October 7, 2026
