by John Harney

The actor who would become Mayor Fiorello H. La Guardia in a few hours sat in his living room, the windows framing a sparkling spring landscape of the Central Park Reservoir and the Upper East Side. The fat suit that would help transform the actor, Tony Lo Bianco, into New York's 99th mayor had been folded into a large suitcase nearby.

Mr. Lo Bianco was assessing the city's 106th through 109th mayors, criticizing the response of the mayor of Baltimore to the racial disturbances there, and weighing in on American foreign policy.

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Source: http://www.nytimes.com/