Amadeo Gianini | American Experience | PBS (2024)

A native of San Jose, California, Amadeo Peter Giannini became a true booster of the San Francisco regionand the financial guarantor of the Golden Gate Bridge.

Produce Magnate
Born into a family of Italian immigrants, Giannini knew early tragedy: his father was shot to death by a man who owed him a dollar. Giannini left school at age 14 to work for his stepfather's produce business. Within five years, Giannini had become a partner in the company. It was performing so well that Giannini could afford to sell his share and retire at the ripe old age of 31. But his business ventures were just beginning.

Blue Collar Banker
A year later, Giannini was named to the board of the Columbus Savings and Loan Society, a bank in San Francisco's Italian neighborhood. Giannini shared little in common with his fellow board members. The man with the blue collar background argued that the bank should lend more freely to working class people, whom he believed to be fiscally responsible. Giannini left Columbus Savings and Loan when he realized the bank did not share his point of view.

Post-Disaster Credit
In 1904, Giannini opened the Bank of Italy -- directly across the street from Columbus Savings and Loan. He went door-to-door and stopped people on the street to explain what his bank could do. Two years later,a disastrous earthquake destroyed San Francisco. Most bankers closed shop temporarily to assess the damage and formulate a response. Ever the contrarian, Giannini set up a rudimentary desk on the docks right away, and issued credit "on a face and a signature" to families and small businesses in immediate, desperate need. Giannini's investments built a foundation for San Francisco's economic recovery.

Legendary Funder
Giannini's legend grew as he continued to loan money to larger, even riskier enterprises. He bankrolled the new California wine industry and loaned money to Hollywood ventures, including Mary Pickford's and Charlie Chaplin's United Artists in 1923. Walt Disney went $2 million over budget makingSnow White, but Giannini helped him out with a loan. Only a few years later, in 1928, Giannini bought the Bank of America and consolidated his vast bank holdings.

Confidence Builder
San Francisco benefited from Giannini's commitment again during the Great Depression. Giannini urged the city's hard-pressed citizens to put money in any bank they could, to make it work for the community at large. Their deposits could help build homes, farms, and schools, yielding jobs. Giannini exhorted people with slogans like "Back to Good Times," and "California Can Lead the Nation."

Civic Leader
In 1932, Golden Gate Bridge chief engineer Jpseph Strausscalled upon Giannini for help. In the depressed economic climate, no one would lend him money, and without funding he could not start construction. Giannini listened to Strauss explain his 14-year struggle to improve the San Francisco economy by building the bridge. Strauss knew that if Giannini did not take an interest in the bridge, there were precious few other avenues to explore. Fortunately for Strauss, he had found to the right man.

"We Need the Bridge"
"We'll take the bonds," Giannini said to Strauss as he finished his plea. "We need the bridge." Bank of America bought $6 million worth of bonds, allowing Strauss' enterprise to get underway. Without Giannini's assistance, it is doubtful that the Golden Gate Bridge would ever have been built.

Now Streaming

• The Riot Report

  When Black neighborhoods across America erupted in violence in the summer of 1967, President Johnson appointed a commission to find the cause for the unrest. Their findings offered an unvarnished assessment of American race relations.

• The Riot Report (español)

  Cuando una ola de violencia se apoderó de barrios negros por todo Estados Unidos en el verano de 1967, el presidente Johnson nombró una comisión para encontrar la causa de los disturbios. Sus hallazgos ofrecieron una evaluación honesta de las relaciones raciales estadounidenses.

• Poisoned Ground: The Tragedy at Love Canal

  In the late 1970s, residents of Love Canal in Niagara Falls, NY discovered their neighborhood had been built on a former chemical waste dump. Housewives activated to create a grassroots movement that galvanized the landmark Superfund Bill.

Related Features

• Golden Gate Bridge | Article

  1930s Engineering

  An interview with Prof. Andrew J. Dunar, who teaches history at the University of Alabama in Huntsville.

• Golden Gate Bridge | Article

  Joseph Strauss

  Joseph Strausshoped to pursue a career in the arts, but hehelped create one of the most famous bridges in the world.

• Golden Gate Bridge | Article

  Irving Morrow

  Irving Morrow romanticized the Golden Gate long before he became a consulting architect on the bridge that would span it.