MARIO PELINO was born in Sulmona on 24th August 1892. He started collaborating with his father Alfonso in the confectionary industry when he was very young; his expertise in technical problems led to significant improvements in the mechanical system of “confetti” manufacturing, and he invented a machine for the production of effervescent citrate.
His inventions have been patented, and are valid both in Italy and abroad (Germany, France and Switzerland). He inherited the Factory situated near the station of Sulmona-Introdacqua after his father’s death in 1921, and continued the production of “confetti” with the aim of maintaining their ancient formula unaltered. This, along with his abilities based on a long industrial tradition, allowed him to keep on collecting important honours in Italy and around the world.
During the 1930s, he put his efforts into defending the original Sulmona “confetti”, with the aim of preventing “that swills of flour and starch kneaded with sugar produced Goodness-knows-where be taken for Sulmona “confetti” (from one of the many comments dedicated to the MARIO PELINO INITIATIVE, available in the roman daily paper “La Tribuna”, of 22nd January 1935).
He began the difficult manufacturing of Silver “confetti” and perfected that of “confetti” filled with liqueur or rosolio. MARIO PELINO also fervently promoted exportations of the Sulmona “confetti”, and thanks to his efforts it found success in North America, where it was adopted as a significant symbol of their original land by those who had left the region of Abruzzo and would never return to it.
As well as in his industrial activity, which was very intense but still not up to the standards of his intelligence, Mario Pelino excelled in his passion for music and figurative arts. Under the guidance of Professor Pierto Piccirilli, he produced excellent water colour, charcoal and pen-and-ink paintings at the early age of 13: when he was 15 he made plaster models of his bust and different figures. When he was 18 he composed a Waltz, and later became an excelling violinist.
In 1922 he participated in the “Folkloristic week of Abruzzo”, in Pescara, with the Choral Group of Sulmona; in the same year, as president and benefactor of the musical Concert of Introdacqua, founded around the mid 1800s by his great-grandfather Panfilo Pelino, he made the band obtain the Silver Cup of the National Print Association at the spectacular manifestation of the Augusteo theatre in Rome
He also founded and directed the Istrumenti Musical Bow Association (A.M.I.C.A.) in Sulmona (see the newspapers “Il Tempo” and “Il Messaggero” of 14th June 1973).
His multiform personality has been praised and admired by some very significant characters of the show business, as well as in the cultural and art world, such as Guido Albanese, Giuseppe Ciocca, Alessandro Cutolo, Edoardo De Filippo, Luigi Dommarco, Aldo Fabrizi, Guglielmo Guasta, Luigi Illuminati, Pasquale Ruocco.
He was president of the “Regina Margherita” kindergarten of Sulmona and a member of the council of the Holy Annunziata House, of the Direct Tax District Committee, of the Charitable Institution for the Assistance to the Families of Convicts, of the Municipal Committee for Commercial Discipline and the Governmental Committee for the Charity Congregation. Moreover, he represented the Province in the Professional School “Gentile Mazzara” in the Agricultural Industrial Bank and in the Committee for local tributes; President of the Traders Association and Honorary Member at the Savings Bank of L’Aquila.
He actively promoted sports, financing representations and teams (and for this unique deed he also obtained the Gold Medal from the Italian Cycling Federation).
He was also awarded the honorary title of “Commendatore” of the Italian Republic. In 1968 the Italian Automobil Club awarded him a Silver medal as Pioneer of the Wheel, as he was the first to own a car in Sulmona in 1912.
He died on 13th June 1973.
The factory and commercial activity have been inherited by his sons, Alfonso and Olindo.