That newspaper headline inspired the lively SOUNDPRINT documentary program Waiting for Joe DiMaggio, which aired in December, 1995. The program tells the story of Isola Delle Femmine, a poor fishing village near Palermo, where Joe DiMaggio's father lived and worked until he emigrated to the United States in the early 1900s.

In 1993, the National Italian American Foundation announced a tour of Italy, with baseball hero Joe DiMaggio as one of their emissaries. The several thousand citizens of Isola Delle Femmine spent the village's entire annual budget to prepare for DiMaggio's scheduled visit. They organized a massive feast, decorated the streets with Italian and American flags, and built a commemorative stone piazza over the water where DiMaggio's father used to fish. "The townspeople," say Davia Nelson and Nikki Silva, producers of Waiting for Joe DiMaggio, "had even gone without baths or pasta, as the village water supply was diverted to clean up the streets."

Meanwhile, DiMaggio began his tour of Italy in Rome. He threw the first pitch of the Italian baseball season, served as celebrity spokesman for Rome's Rainbird Sprinklers, and received honorary Italian citizenship from the president. The 80 year old DiMaggio also got sick in Rome, and was instructed by doctors to cancel his trip to Isola Delle Femmine. But villagers there had already mobilized to greet the star at the airport in Palermo, and had purchased 2000 baseballs for him to autograph.

"What happened then? How did the townspeople react? How did they feel?" says Nikki Silva. "We wanted to know! Davia wrote letters to everyone mentioned in the newspaper article, had them translated into Italian, said she was coming, and went."

The producers spent a week interviewing the mayor and townspeople in the Sicilian village, where, Silva says, "DiMaggio is known as much for being the husband of Marilyn Monroe as for being a sports hero." Back in the United States, they collected archival recordings of DiMaggio and taped interviews at the National Italian American Foundation gala in Washington, DC. Silva and Nelson even traveled to Pittsburg, California, the sister city of Isola Delle Femmine, home to many immigrants from Isola, and the birthplace of DiMaggio. Over twenty hours of audio tape later, the producers, who collaborate under the name The Kitchen Sisters, had more than enough material for a half-hour radio documentary program. The result is Waiting for Joe DiMaggio.

The program includes an interview with Kenneth Ciongoli, a neurologist from Vermont and, with DiMaggio, a member of the National Italian American Foundation delegation. He was sent to Isola Delle Femmine in DiMaggio's place, and was greeted there by thousands of villagers, still eager for autographed baseballs. "They wanted me to sign Joe DiMaggio's name," says Ciongoli. "And I said, I can't do that, there's no way I could do that. On the other hand, all of the kids of this town wanted a baseball that had something to do with Joe DiMaggio. So I signed these baseballs 'Ken Ciongoli for Joe DiMaggio.'"