- He got rid of the lurid fluorescent lights that were a staple of early television. He used incandescent lights and shadows to downplay double chins and balding pates.
- He was hired to design the lighting for the last three Nixon-Kennedy TV debates, improving Nixon's appearance on camera. He subsequently designed the lighting for more than a dozen national political conventions, Democratic and Republican.
- Several months before graduating from high school, he found what he thought was an empty shell casing in the street. He planned to make it into a key chain, and used a soldering iron on it. It was a live round; shrapnel from the explosion blinded his right eye.
- He earned a bachelor's degree in theater at Carnegie Tech in 1950. He was hired to teach theatrical lighting at Indiana University. Before he could start the job, his father died, leaving him as the family breadwinner. In New York, he sought work creating visual displays. He applied to Macy's, Gimbels, and the TV networks, and was hired as a member of ABC's lighting crew.
- His parents were Sicilian immigrants. Young "Immie" was taken by an uncle to see every new show at Radio City Music Hall. The use of lighting and color impressed him. He read every available book on the subject. In high school, he lighted student shows, including those featuring classmate Vito Farinola, who later took the stage name Vic Damone.
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