A Fascinating Story of an American Family in Greece
Original manuscript written in 1967
This is a story about how Bill Battista, his wife Kay and his best friend, Bob Newman, moved from New York City to Athens Greece in 1960. At the time, Bill was the top salesman for Family Circle Magazine, the best selling woman’s magazine in the country. Bill was restless, he was bored selling “Americana” and wanted to get back to basics. He came to dislike and detest the Madison Avenue, 3 martini lunch lifestyle that he had become all too accustom too. It was time for a radical change.
Bill was a first generation Italian-American, born on the wrong side of the tracks in the Bronx. His wife, Kay, was a first generation Greek American, born also in the Bronx, but in Riverdale. Bill had a wild scheme to move to Greece and use Kay’s family connections there to open a NY “Supper Club” in Athens. Like the 21-Club in NYC. Bill convinced his childhood friend, Bob Newman, to move to Greece and help them. Their grandiose plans led them to Greece, when in 1960 Bill and Kay moved their family of 3 kids and a full-size collie named Schwartz. When all was said and done, they ended up opening up a very successful and locally famous rotisserie Chicken place called: Bob & Bills, in Omonoia Square, Athens. Bob got the banner headline as he closed his rotisserie Chicken joint in the Bronx to join Bill and Kay in Greece.
So, this is their story and in all ways my story. I am their 4th son, Bob Battista, born in Greece in 1962. My father, Bill, wrote the book e-published on this site: Chicken In Greece. I wrote the Prologue also found on the site. My dad died at the young age of 47 and my mom at the age of 59. They never were here to read my Prologue as it was written 20 years after my father died and 10 years after my mother died. Their friend, however, Bobby Newman, was alive at the age of 70 to make my Prologue a reality. Everything that you will read in the Prologue is 100% true, it is the book that had embellished the truth into fiction.
by Bob Battista