Santa spotted at Craig's !!!
This photo was taken after the annual Solvay Process Christmas party at Craig's (Community) Theater on Milton Avenue. The double feature that day was The Dalton Gang (Donald "Red" Barry, Robert Lowery and James Millican) and Gunga Din (Cary Grant, Victor McLaglen, Douglas Fairbanks Jr.), a 1937 film that had been reissued. I'd guess photo was taken in 1949, the year The Dalton Gang was made.

That's Mayor Buster Major (3), the smiling gentleman in the back row with a couple of clowns on his left.

I recognize other faces, but am only certain of these four names – Carl DeMarchi (4), to Buster's left, in front of a clown; Lena Rose Miori (5), directly in front of Carl; Francis Tarolli (1), in back, second from the left, next to the person whose mouth is hidden by Bobby Maestri (2). I seem to recall that the boy to the left of Francis Tarolli worked at the theater. The boy who's providing a shoulder for Santa's left arm could be Tommy Highland. The tall boy in the front row coud be Joe Cichocki (6).

Please email us if you recognize any others.

The Solvay Process threw these parties every year. I found two clippings from copies of the company's Solvay News. Unfortunately they were from different years. However, two employes were mentioned for playing Santa Claus – Jerry Santulli, soda ash packing and loading, and Joe Viviani of the boiler shop (where my father worked for several years).

The clowns in this photo may be different, but those mentioned in the Solvay News articles were Lloyd Bowman (boiler shop), Carlo DeMarchi (machine shop), Frank Pienkowski (soda ash repairs) and Carl Amato (blacksmith shop).

More than 1,000 children of Solvay Process employes attended these parties, at least one of which was held at the Loew's Theater in downtown Syracuse.