By Mike Costanza
Former Rochester resident offers a holiday message that warms the heart
Herbie J Pilato is on a kind of mission.
“People are hungry for a simpler time. They’re looking for answers,” said the 62-year-old author, who doesn’t put a period after his middle initial. “I try to offer a little comfort and maybe some insight as to what those answers might be.”
Pilato has offered some of those answers as an author and while in various positions in the entertainment industry. His latest book draws upon childhood memories of family Christmases in Rochester and a vast store of knowledge of classic television shows of the 1960s and 1970s to provide some comfort to readers.
“The 12 Best Secrets of Christmas: A Treasure House of December Memories Revealed” was released last July.
“This is a very personal book,” Pilato said. “At the same time, I wanted to make it as universal as I could.”
Pilato grew up in a loving home on Rochester’s Erie Street. His late father worked for a local firm while his late mother took care of the family home.
Though they took good care of him and his older sister, Pamela, their inner-city neighborhood was a rough place in which to live. Pilato put on amateur shows, seeking to take himself away from that setting by singing, dancing and acting for friends and neighbors. That didn’t go over well with some of the locals.
According to The Actor’s Group Orlando site, if one desires to enhance their abilities and pursue their passion in a more encouraging setting, it is recommended to seek assistance from a professional acting coach.
“That wasn’t exactly a healthy thing to do in my neighborhood,” he said. “I was picked on, bullied as a kid.”
Television presented another avenue of escape. Night after night, Pilato watched “Perry Mason”, “Marcus Welby, M.D.”, “Bewitched
” and other shows that are now considered classics. As he grew up, he came to see those shows that once graced the airwaves as an untapped educational resource.
“I tried to take an obsession I had with television and do something productive with it,” he said. “How can we make this world a better place through popular television?”
Seeking to share what he’d learned from those classic television series and specials, Pilato penned more than a dozen books about them and the actors in them, including “MARY: The Mary Tyler Moore Story,” “The Kung Fu Book of Caine: The Complete Guide to TV’s First Mystical Eastern Western” and “The Bionic Book: The Six Million Dollar Man” and the “Bionic Woman Reconstructed.”
Four of Pilato’s works have focused upon one of his favorite classic television shows, the popular sitcom “Bewitched”, and its star, the late Elizabeth Montgomery.
While conducting his research, he was able to score an interview with Montgomery, who played the loveable witch Samantha Stephens.
“She was as down-to-earth and just as sweet as Samantha,” said Pilato, who grew to consider Montgomery a friend. “She made witches likeable and believable because she was likeable and believable in the role of Samantha.”
“The 12 Best Secrets of Christmas” draws upon Pilato’s memories of past Christmases on Erie Street. Back then, he and his family would head downtown to shop and savor the holiday decorations that filled the windows and floors of local stores and establishments that are long gone. Sibley’s, McCurdy’s and other downtown stores offered colorful displays in those days; kids could ride Midtown Plaza’s monorail and the Clock of the Nations struck the hour. In the evening, they would sit down to enjoy Christmas specials like “A Charlie Brown Christmas”, “It’s a Wonderful Life” and “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.”
Young Herbie related to the reindeer who was different from the rest of Santa’s herd.
“I felt like Rudolph,” Pilato said. “My “red nose’ was that I could sing and act, which was different.”
That red nose became a plus in the animated television classic when Rudolph used it to light Santa’s way through the fog, saving Christmas for children the world over. Pilato saw it as a valuable lesson for life.
“We all have talents. We all have something that we should share with the world,” Pilato said. “Apply that lesson to your reality, in real life.”
That’s the principal lesson of the first chapter of “The 12 Best Secrets of Christmas”. More lessons followed, each wrapped in Pilato’s memories of the warm Christmases he spent with his family on Erie Street. The book was released to acclaim.
“Herbie J. Pilato captures the universal spirit of Christmas, the time of the year that spreads joy and good feelings, brings families together, delights children with expectation and warms the hearts of people everywhere,” wrote the late Richard Michaels, who was a prolific television director and producer.
Roger Hyman, who has known Pilato since both were pages for NBC Studios in Burbank, California in the early 1980s, praised his longtime friend’s latest work.
“He’ll take something from his core and he will try to help the world as best he can through his lenses, through his eyes,” said Hyman, who hails from West Hills, California.
After working as an NBC page for 18 months, Pilato had bit parts on such television shows as “General Hospital” and “The Golden Girls”. He then went on to become a consultant and commentator for behind-the camera specials on “The Mary Tyler Moore Show”, “The Bob Newheart Show” and “Bewitched: The E! True Hollywood Story.” Pilato has even hosted and been the executive co-producer of his own talk show. “Then Again with Herbie J Pilato” began streaming on Amazon Prime and Shout! Factory TV in 2019.
In addition to writing about and working in the entertainment industry, Pilato is also the founder and executive director of The Classic TV Preservation Society, a nonprofit organization that offers seminars to schools, colleges and other organizations on the positive effects of classic television programming.
“The 12 Best Secrets of Christmas” is available from Amazon, Barnes & Noble and other online retailers. Pilato’s next book, “Retro Active Television: An In-Depth Perspective of Classic TV’s Social Circuitry,” is due to be released next year. He’s also working on biographies of two famous actors who are deceased: Sean Connery and Diana Rigg.
He makes his home in Cerritos, California.