Giuseppe Gasco was born in Gallipoli, Puglia in 1903. He was the youngest of 9 children born from Maria and Antonio Gasco, a respected pharmacist and devout patriot.

At the outbreak of World War I, Giuseppe is barely more than a child, his family is wealthy and respected thanks to his father’s business, a man considered to be an important figure in town. Antonio The Doctor, as everybody calls him, is already 45 years old in 1915 and therefore excluded from the draft. He could live peacefully at home but after witnessing as a spectator the naval battle of Gallipoli the previous year, he cannot remain indifferent to the call of the Country: leaves his family and heads north to enroll in the army.

Giuseppe has always been his father’s most beloved son for both his cheerful, easygoing ways and his lively intelligence. From an early age he spent a lot of time in the store, helping to prepare potions and tonics, putting ingredient jars in order and working as an apprentice.

For this reason, despite not being the eldest son, Antonio says goodbye entrusting him with the responsibility of the family. It’s June 5, 1915 and is the last time that Giuseppe will ever see his father.  

The war begins and ends without leaving particular signs in the Gascos and their living habits, until the first days of 1919 when the hopes of seeing doctor Antonio come home are abruptly shattered by a telegram from the Ministry of Defense.

1919 is an awful year: the pharmacy is closed, Mario, one of Giuseppe's brothers, becomes seriously ill and dies, economic resources start to run short and it’s at this point that mother Maria makes a very difficult decision: to emigrate.

In Chicago lives her brother Vito, who moved there a few years back and started a successful transport business. From the moment he learned about his sister situation, he insisted on her coming with her family to America.

On June 20, 1920 Giuseppe and his family embarked from the port of Naples on the steamer Duca degli Abruzzi, destination America, with very little money in their pockets and so much hope in their hearts.

Just over a month later, on August 2, the ship docks in the port of Chicago and waiting for them is a man of impressive size and gentle eyes, uncle Vito: it’s the start of a new era for the Gasco family.

Shortly after Giuseppe, or better yet Joseph as uncle Vito calls him, starts working in his uncle’s company and that’s when the adventure that will make him “the Man-Rooster” begins.

These are the years of the Prohibition, years of great contradictions, of lives lived frantically, the desire for freedom and fun, but also of lawlessness, violence and large fortunes quickly created from nothing.

Joseph, as everybody now calls him, quickly understands that the wealth that his uncle is building is not only a result of trucks coming in and out at all hours from the remittances. The transport company actually serves as a cover for a far more profitable business: the trade of alcohol, declared illegal on January 16, 1920 by an act promoted by senator Volstead.

Vito “uncle” Rizzo, thanks to his close relations with the Italian community and with some individuals with a less than spotless criminal record, created a network of production and delivery that supplies most of the city’s “speakeasy”, as well as half of the country.

Gasco is a smart young man, with a keen business sense and an unique ability to create and develop social relationships. Under his uncle’s wing he grows fast and at only 19 years old he’s already a prominent figure of the “borderline” Chicago, the one that cultivates good relations with politicians, the police and known families but also with the emergent gangsters.

He becomes J.Gasco, Vito Rizzo’s nephew from Gallipoli: he’s a handsome and charming young man with charisma, he loves stylish clothes and accessories that make him recognizable, like colorful suspenders and an always neat, dark long beard. Fame doesn’t take long.

His main task is to manage and supply the network of “speakeasy” owned by the family in the “windy city”, as well as in other cities; among them also New York’s Club 21, one of the most famous clubs of the time.

J.Gasco contributes to the notoriety and success of the places he frequents: he’s bright, magnetic, always accompanied by beautiful women and his presence makes parties memorable; parties where, naturally, alcohol flows like rivers, dollars multiply but not enough for a business man like Joseph Gasco.

But how? As any good Italian Joseph knows that the problem lies in the taste: beers, the “moonshine” whiskeys and other spirits produced in the black market are of very poor quality, they taste awful and are hardly drinkable especially for women, who regularly come to his clubs. That’s when the experience gained by helping his father Antonio the pharmacist to prepare tonics, digestives and decoctions, came to the rescue.

The idea is simple but successful: create a range of drinks that mixed with alcohol makes them more pleasant to the taste, gives them a nicer look, lighter in appearance and thus increase consumption.

The success of the tonics and the sodas created by J.Gasco goes beyond all expectations and travels by word of mouth through all of the United States, to the point that even competitors of uncle Vito want the products created by Joseph Gasco from Gallipoli: “the Man-Rooster”.

Years pass quickly and we find J.Gasco on December 4, 1933 sitting in the center table of one of his clubs. It’s been a long time since a boy named Giuseppe, full of fears and hopes, left Italy in search of fortune…sitting in a dominant position while smoking a cigar, now there’s a respected and feared man that wears tailored suits and moves with the awareness of a winner. A man who’s ready tonight to bring to life the longest and wildest party of the last decade.

But what’s the occasion? Actually, nothing. In fact, for the Gasco family and many others this is the beginning of the end: tomorrow at 17:30 or so, the Prohibition will finally come to an end, the sale of alcoholic beverages will be legal again. With this freedom millions of dollars from the illegal trade of alcohol and the “speakeasy” will vanish.

Even so tonight, with the recklessness and boldness that have always distinguished him, J.Gasco just wants to party. Many things have changed: uncle Vito and his mother Maria died, his brothers and sisters have a family, home and children. Joseph remained a free agent instead, a lone wolf, but also a visionary, a dreamer, a daredevil.

What will remain of J.Gasco? A fortune accumulated rapidly, a transport company and several hundred barrels of soda and tonic of various flavors and colors, created to make the black market alcohol les mediocre.

“The Man Rooster” - oh yes, because from “l’Uomo di Gallipoli” (the man from Gallipoli) to “l’Uomo Gallo” (the Man-Rooster in English) the step was short – had yet another hunch: the price of alcohol will collapse, consumption will change, people will try new things and develop new tastes, so why not create a line of beverages to drink mixed with alcohol as well as to enjoy straight?

It will only be necessary to improve the formulas of the existing products, create bottles with labels that make them recognizable and finally deliver them to anyone who requests them, but this is not a problem.

And thus the J.Gasco soft drink line was born, on Tuesday December 5, 1933 at 17:57 in “Vito Rizzo & Sons” transport company; “the Man-Rooster’s” products that in a few years became the most drank and “mixed” in America’s trendy clubs, the places where jazz and bebop was played and where a generation of young rebels, dreamers and revolutionaries is the host: they are the “hipsters”, but that’s a whole different story…