Los Angeles
County
Biographies
NICOLA GIULII
Nicola Giulii, a native of Italy, is
an adopted son of Los Angeles of whom the municipality may well be proud. He figures prominently in public affairs and
is also successfully engaged in business as president and general manager of
the firm of Guasti-Guilii, Inc., who have the agency for United States
Tires. Mr. Giulii was born in Abruzzi,
Italy, December 5, 1885, his parents being Zapito and Vergilia (Di Fulvio)
Guilii. The mother passed away in 1923,
but the father is still living in Italy at the advanced age of eighty-four
years.
Nicola Giulii attended school at Naples,
his educational training including a course in languages. Subsequently he studied music under some of
the best instructors of the art in Italy and mastered the flute. He was a youth of about eighteen when in 1903
he crossed the Atlantic to the United States and during the succeeding six
years he traveled throughout the country as a professional musician, playing
with opera companies, Italian bands, etc.
On April 7, 1906, he married a native daughter of Los Angeles and
established his home in this city. In
1909 he became associated with Secondo Guasti, Sr., as a member of the Italian Vineyard
Company and still has his interests in the corporation. When prohibition was declared he and Secondo
Guasti, Jr., became associated together in the firm of Guasti-Guilii, Inc., Mr.
Guilii being president and general manager since the death of Mr. Guasti. The concern now conducts three places of
business in Los Angeles and is capitalized for one hundred thousand
dollars. Guasti-Guilii, Inc., are agents
for United States Tires, also service motor cars, handle supplies, etc., and
furnish employment to seventy-two people.
The wife of Mr. Giulii bore the
maiden name of Aurelia Amillo and, as above stated,
was born in Los Angeles, representing a pioneer family of southern California
that settled here in the early ‘50s. Mr.
and Mrs. Giulii are the parents of a daughter,
Virginia, who is the wife of Richard Zobelein, of Los
Angeles, and the mother of one child, Giulii.
Mr. Giulii was a Republican in
politics until March, 1932, when he was appointed alternate delegate at large
to William Gibbs McAdoo, attending the National Democratic Convention in
Chicago. He was appointed a Democratic
presidential elector and has the distinction of being the first citizen of
Italian birth to be thus recognized by either of the major political
parties. In 1933 Mr. Giulii spent six
weeks in Washington, D. C., assisting an Italian-American, O. R. Angelillo, a civil engineer and economist, to the
appointment as assistant secretary of the department of commerce. The latter has since been appointed registrar
of the Federal Farm Loan Bureau for the Eleventh District at Berkeley,
California. He is proud of his
nationality and is ambitious for the continued progress of the Italian
people. He is justly proud of the part
his countrymen have played and are playing in all lines of endeavor in
California and the nation, especially in this state, where they have led in
agriculture, horticulture, mining, banking, railroad building, fine arts,
etc. He was elected first vice president
of the Fruit Industries, Ltd., is a member of the executive committee, and was
selected by the stockholders of the Italian Vineyard Company a member of the
board of directors. Mr. Giulii is a
communicant of the Catholic Church and also belongs to the Jonathan Club and
the 20 Club. He likewise has membership
in the Uplifters Club and directs the club orchestra,
for music is still his chief diversion and the flute his favorite instrument.
Transcribed
by V. Gerald Iaquinta.
Source: California of the South
Vol. IV, by John Steven McGroarty, Pages 787-788,
Clarke Publ., Chicago, Los Angeles, Indianapolis. 1933.
© 2012 V.
Gerald Iaquinta.
GOLDEN NUGGET'S LOS ANGELES
BIOGRAPHIES