Voices from the Past: Tony Accetta (1940)

Tony Accetta was one of the great tournament casters of the 20th century, in addition to being the owner of a prominent tackle company. This blurb about his national tour (taken as a Shakespeare representative) was taken from the Kingsport Times of June 12, 1940.

ANGLERS' QUERIES TO BE ANSWERED

That an adequate knowledge of the ways and means of handling a rod, reel and line doubles the enjoyment from fishing for the average angler is the opinion of Tony Accctta, U. S. professional bait and fly casting champion. For that reason Aecetta will give as much instruction as possible tonight to fishermen in the handling of equipment when he appears at the Civic auditorium to demonstrate his ability with a fly rod.

Since Accetta is credited with being able to drop a fly into a six inch circle at the distance of 40 yards, there is little doubt but that he will be able to tell fishermen of this area much that they never heard about in casting, or at least much that they had never utilized before. Accetta is planning to answer, as many questions as possible at the conclusion of his demonstration.

Unlike many who have mastered the mechanical details of a sport or recreation but have no interest in the sport itself, Accetta is not a "dry land" fisherman. His initial interest in fishing was stirred by a brook near his home town of Cleveland when he was still in grade school, and he has received a thrill from the actual landing of members of the finny tribe ever since.

Appearance of Accetta here is sponsored by the Dobyns-Taylor Hardware store. His demonstration is scheduled to start at the auditorium at 7:30 p.m. today.

-- Dr. Todd