Amadeo Giannini - Legacy

Legacy

The large plaza of the Bank of America Building, at California Street and Kearny, in downtown San Francisco, is named for Giannini. A.P. Giannini Middle School, which opened in the Sunset District of San Francisco, in 1954, is named after him, also. Other places and groups named after Giannini include The Giannini Foundation of Agricultural Economics and the building that houses the Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics, at the University of California, Berkeley.

The U.S. Postal Service honored Giannini's contributions to American banking by issuing a 21¢ postage stamp bearing his portrait, in 1973. A ceremony to mark the occasion was held near his former home, in San Mateo.

Time magazine named Giannini one of the "builders and titans" of the 20th century. He was the only banker named to the Time 100, a list of the most important people of that century, as assembled by the magazine.

Walter Huston's bank president in Frank Capra's 1932 film, American Madness, was based largely on Giannini.

The Italian-American banker played by Edward G. Robinson in House of Strangers (1949), was also loosely based on Giannini.

The fictional omniscient banker A.P. Gallo in J.J. Lask's upcoming 2013 film, The Uncrowned King is based on Giannini and his involvement with the 1932 Summer Olympics.

American Banker magazine recognized him as one of the five most influential bankers of the 20th Century.

In 2004, the Italian government honored Giannini with an exhibition and ceremony in its Parliament, to mark the centennial of his founding of the Bank of Italy. The exhibition was the result of the collaboration of the Ministry of Finance, the Smithsonian Institution, Italian Professor Guido Crapanzano and Peter F. De Nicola, an American collector of Giannini memorabilia.

In 2010, Giannini was inducted into the California Hall of Fame.