Dr. Anthony “Tony” Minichiello
Dr. Tony Minichiello was a dentist who turned a love of jazz into a specialty – operating on jazz musicians.
Anthony Minichiello was born in Boston in 1913, to Carmen and Concetta Minichiello, and had nine siblings. He graduated with a bachelor’s degree from Tufts and became a dentist after graduating from the Dalhousie University dental school. This was shortly before US entry into World War Two, where Anthony became a major in the Air Force and served in its Alaska Division from 1941 until 1949.
After his military service, Minichiello worked at a Boston dental practice, which he eventually owned and operated. But his passions were in jazz and tennis. The renowned jazz trumpet player Buck Clayton recalls the time he visited the office of Dr. Minichiello and Dr. Norman Becker, and learned that the two were “real jazz buffs” who were “very familiar with me and my playing and they were happy that they could do something for me.” The dentists even had Clayton play his trumpet so they could “get certain particulars on my teeth, gums and jaws.” Other jazz musicians for whom Dr. Mini provided his services included Louie Armstrong, Cozy Cole, and Jack Teagarden. Minichiello was also the Teamsters Local 25 dentist and practiced for them at the Charlestown Health Center.
Minichiello was equally as passionate about tennis, and was a long-standing member of the Boston Badminton and Tennis Club. For his organization of a weekly tennis group that played for over forty years in Newton, the Mayor of Newton announced a renaming of the site where they played, now the Dr. Anthony Minichiello Tennis Court. Minichiello died at ninety-six in December 2010 due to illness.
