Victor H. Schiro - Early Life and Political Career

Early Life and Political Career

Schiro was born in Chicago, Illinois, the son of Italian immigrants Andrew Edward and Mary (Pizzati) Schiro. After moving to New Orleans with his parents as a child, Schiro spent his young adulthood in Honduras and California, where he worked as a movie extra, and co-managed a Nevada gold mine before returning to New Orleans. He worked briefly as an assistant cameraman for Frank Capra. Having returned to New Orleans in 1928, Schiro became a radio announcer. In 1932, Schiro married Mary Margaret Gibbes, better known as Sunny Schiro.

Schiro founded his own insurance company and became an active civic leader in the 1940s; he was president of the Young Men’s Business Club. In 1950, he was elected commissioner of public buildings and parks. Under the new mayor-council charter of 1954, Schiro was elected councilman-at-large. When DeLesseps S. "Chep" Morrison, resigned his position as mayor in 1961 to become U.S. Ambassador to the Organization of American States, the City Council elected Councilman Schiro, then Councilman-At-Large, as interim mayor. Schiro was subsequently elected to two full terms in 1962 and 1965. Schiro inherited Morrison’s Crescent City Democratic Association, formed as a rival to the Regular Democratic Organization, but the political machine was deeply divided by the 1962 election, and it declined thereafter.