Francis Charles “Frank” Cicero, co-owner of his family’s poster printing business that created a performance business buzz with bold black types and fluorescent colors, died on March 7 at his home in Mays Church. He was 80.
His company Globe poster printing has produced placards for generations of R&B artists. Its work at Motown Revue encompasses the names of temptations, Stevie Wonder, Martha and Vandellas, and four tops on cardboard that find their way into phone poles and vacant buildings, creating an effective but cheap, inexpensive word-of-mouth sales campaign for performers.
His brother Robert J. Cicero Sr.
Born in Baltimore and raised in Parkville, he was Joseph J. before graduating from Towson Catholic High School, he attended St. Ambrose and Immortal of the Mary School. He received a degree in psychology from the University of Baltimore.
Mr. Cicero briefly worked in his father’s poster printing business in the early 1960s, but became a worker in the Baltimore City Department of Social Services. There, he meets his future wife, Debra “Debbie” Rice. They got married in 1975.
That year he joined his father and brother at Globe Poster, an old Baltimore company that moved from South Hanover Street to Candler Street, Bird Street in southern Baltimore, and then to Highland Town.
“Frank’s work at the front desk is a microcosm of being kind and helpful,” said client Milton A. Dugger Jr. “In the black community, his posters speak loudly. If you don’t have a poster, no one knows your event will happen. His posters make your life one.”
This is not all about displaying the business. Over the years, Globe posters have announced candidates for the city council and summer carnival. The late Baltimore Orioles owner Peter G. Angelos used Globe in the 1960s city council campaign, and Spiro T. Agnew also performed for his various election ambitions.
But they are known for the fluorescent colors behind the fonts of James Brown, Aretha Franklin, BB King and Bobby “Blue” Bland.
“We actually did most of the work for our clients in Baltimore,” said his brother Robert. “We worked closely with clubs in Washington, D.C. for funk and hip-hop artists. We also worked for rhythm and blues artists in Kansas City, St. Louis, Louisiana, Louisiana and Texas. We were just the cheapest form of advertising.”
The company’s minimum order is 50 posters; for large travel shows like Motown Revue, Globe will produce 5,000 posters and leave them blank under the name of the show venue so that it can be added later. The company once had eight presses pressing four hours a day.
The poster enters the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, the Smithsonian’s Cooper-Houte Museum of Design, the Cockran Art Gallery, and the National Museum of African American History and Culture.
Related Articles
His wife said Mr. Cicero designed many posters from the mid-1970s to the closure of Globe in 2010. The family then donated Globe’s printing materials to the Maryland Institute of Arts.
Mr. Cicero is a student of Baltimore History and a member of the Baltimore Tram Museum. He also developed a love for Italian cooking and made meatballs, pasta and Italian cookies.
“His childhood was filled with laughter,” said his daughter, Sarah Cicero. “He likes to make fun of it. He built many friendships in his youth that remain strong to this day.”
Survivors include his wife, Debra “Debbie” Rice Cicero, a former social worker who also works in a family business. three daughters of Baltimore County, Sarah Cicero, Julia Cicero and Mary Cicero; Cockeysville’s brother Robert J. Cicero Sr.; and six grandchildren.
Mass was held on March 15 at the Immaculate Conception Church in Towson.
