When a Gambino’s Birthday Cake Made it to Hollywood

Hollywood superstar Gregory Peck was in New Orleans speaking at a meeting of the American Cancer Society. It also happened to be his 50th birthday — and what better way to celebrate than with a Gambino’s cake?

In our 75 years baking for the Greater New Orleans area, we at Gambino’s have had the honor of serving some very important people. Providing sweets to politicians, athletes, and — of course — the families in the communities we serve all give us immense pride.

Occasionally, our confections even find their way into the hands of Hollywood celebrities. 

Perhaps none of our brush ups with stardom were more memorable than when, in 1966, we were asked to bake a birthday cake for Hollywood icon, Gregory Peck.

But this wasn’t just any celebration for the Academy Award winner. Peck was in New Orleans on April 5 of that year. He was here to deliver a speech to the American Cancer Society, and also to celebrate his 50th birthday!

The Legend

No matter your line of work and list of accomplishments, few days in life require a special cake more than a 50th birthday celebration.

Of course, if you’re Gregory Peck, your celebration might be a littler flashier than what the rest of us get.

For those of you who don’t know — Peck is no run-of-the-mill actor. He was nominated for five Academy Awards before finally winning Best Actor in 1962 for his performance in To Kill a Mockingbird as Atticus Finch, the small-town Southern lawyer who defied public sentiment to defend a black man accused of rape.

In 2003, the same year Peck passed away, an American Film Institute (AFI) ranking listed the actor’s Atticus Finch as the top hero in film history.

In another AFI poll — this one from 1999 — Peck was named Hollywood’s 12th-greatest male star of all-time!

He was at the top of his game between the 1940s and 1970s, and acted all the way through the end of the century. From his film debut in 1944, he was a star, though his roles were quite varied: he portrayed a priest in “Keys of the Kingdom,” a romantic in “Roman Holiday,” westerners in “The Gunfighter” and “Yellow Sky,” and combat heroes in “Pork Chop Hill” and “Twelve O’Clock High.” Due to his legendary presence, he often won important and memorable roles such as King David in “David and Bathsheba,” sea captains in “Moby Dick” and “Captain Horatio Hornblower,” the famous general in “MacArthur,” F. Scott Fitzgerald in “Beloved Infidel,” and even President Abraham Lincoln in the TV miniseries “The Blue and the Grey.”

Peck won a lifetime achievement award from the Screen Actors Guild, and was awarded the National Medal of Arts in 1998 by President Bill Clinton. 

Over time, however, the lauded actor would grow to be known for much more beyond his incredible film, television, and stage career.

Esteemed man

In 1967, the Academy awarded Peck the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award.

The words he used when told he would be winning that award showed why so many people — then, but still today — have referred to him as a graceful and humble man.

“I’m not a do-gooder,” he insisted. “It embarrassed me to be classified as a humanitarian. I simply take part in activities that I believe in.”

The most frequent of those activities took place with the National Endowment for the Arts, the Motion Picture and Television Fund, as well as serving as president for the Motion Picture Academy, and chairman of the American Cancer Society.

President Lyndon B. Johnson awarded Peck with the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1969 for the actor’s lifetime of humanitarian work. The president also once reportedly told Peck he would have made him his ambassador to Ireland (Peck was Catholic) had he decided to run again in 1968.

50th birthday

His humanitarianism was the reason Peck was in New Orleans on that special April 5, 1966.

There was a luncheon for the American Cancer Society at the Jung Hotel downtown. (Ironically, President Johnson had visited the Jung Hotel two years earlier for a speech that many political experts believe was pivotal in the south’s eventual move from the Democratic Party to the GOP.)

Peck’s speech was not political at all, however. He gave it as chairman of the American Cancer Society. And the speech was well received.

Of course, the event wasn’t all business. According to the excerpt in the New Orleans Saints-Item newspaper, Peck was surprised with a rendition of “Happy Birthday,” played on piano, as well as a delicious birthday cake donated by Gambino’s Bakery. (The cake was also well received!)

Peck went on to live another 37 years, succumbing in 2003 to bronchopneumonia in his Los Angeles home.

He acted until 2000, solidifying his place as one of the greatest actors of his — or any — generation. We’re honored to have been part of one of the many, many special gatherings he no doubt enjoyed over the course of his celebrated lifetime.