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Sam Lembo: Spanning the Ages
By Gene Yoes

Sam Lembo has one of the most recognized names in the sport of racing pigeons. For thirty years he visited the most famous pigeon flyers in the world. Some of the greats he has personally visited are: Delbar, De Scheemaecker, Devriendt, Fabry, Gurnay, Van Riel, Roosens, Vanbruaene, Vanhee, Dordin, Van Spitael and Gallez.

He is known for his translations of Belgian articles for the old "Racing Pigeon Bulletin." Also known for his Stichelbauts and Roosens, Sam is believed to be the only breeder that has bred two first place winners in AU Convention races.

Lembo now resides in Florida. He moved there after his wife, Anne died. He no longer races but keeps a group of breeders in a storage shed, hidden from view in his subdivision which arguably restricts such pets. Sam still harbors a desire to race again-to see how he would do in the Gulfcoast Club in Spring Hill.

He can reminisce with the best of them, recounting his days flying in Massachusetts and later Arizona, his military service, his days as a songwriter when he was blackballed by none other than Frank Sinatra, and his book Boiling Mad!, a self published book about his life, his military years, politics and the record industry.

A year and a half ago, I had an extended conversation with Sam, but then I received an article on him by another writer so I delayed publication of this profile. He still has the same hopes and dreams of racing again one day, but this is his story and some of his pigeon observations.

Getting into Pigeons

Sam received his first pigeons at age 12. His father bought home rollers and common pigeons from a grain man he knew. They already had chickens. Both the pigeons and chickens were for food consumption, but young Sam had an affinity for the pigeons and asked his father to quit eating their squabs. And he did!

"I'd go out and watch them roll. I and a couple of other kids my age would go visit E. R.B. Chapman, an expert roller breeder, and because he was very old, he would give us rollers for cleaning his pigeon coops. I had great rollers. Some would roll 150 feet before pulling out," he recalls. Chapman then started buying Sam's rollers, all down from his own stock, for .25 a piece and would then resell them to others who wanted Chapman's stock, for $15 each.

One day, while he was at Chapman's, he saw other pigeons flying and asked who they belonged to. Chapman told him they belonged to Charlie Wellman, a lawyer. Sam visited him and he gave the preteen some racers. Sam was 13 when he started in racing. He joined the Wakefield Racing Pigeon Club. The club required written permission from Sam's father before they would let him in the club. Sam won a race in his very first year.

Military Service

Sam was out of pigeons, so to speak, when he entered the Army during WWII. He had taken three years of French in school and that served him well in the field of military intelligence. He was there when Jews were freed from some of the concentration camps. "I never say anything bad about Jews. It was horrible to see what atrocities committed against people because of their race," Sam recalls looking away as his eyes welled up even after all these decades.

But his interest in pigeons did not abate while he was serving his country. "I had read that Lew Curtis was friends with Noel De Scheemaecker. Curtis had sent some of his American birds to an exposition in Belgium and won everything.

"I was on a pass and walking down a street and I noticed that every house has a pigeon loft. There was a fellow standing at a bus stop and I asked if he knew De Scheemaecker. The guy answered that De Scheemaecker was 'one of my best friends,'" remembers Sam. The bus stop companion was Louis Vermeyen, the Belgium writer, someone very famous in his own right. He took Sam over to Noel's. That was the beginning of long friendship which stood Sam in good stead in obtaining super European birds. It was from De Scheemaecker that he eventually got the Stichelbauts that he became so famous for.

Anne

After the War, Sam returned to Boston. He soon met and married Anne. She was just 18 when she met Sam, age 24. She was a college student but the two knew they were destined to be together and married within a year of meeting. They eventually had one son.

"In every aspect of my life, she was my biggest supporter. She helped in everything that I tried and even pushed me when I needed to be pushed. When I wrote rock and roll songs, she was my pianist. When I was working two shifts, she would take care of my pigeons, crate them and bring them to two clubs to ship. When I translated articles for the "Bulletin," she corrected my English. She was the one who suggested that I import and sell pigeons.

"When she died, I didn't want to live anymore, but I remember the promises she made me make to her on her deathbed and I've continued on," he says, still heartbroken.

It was her health that caused them to move from Massachusetts to Arizona. They left Massachusetts for Arizona in 1976 because Anne suffered from interstitial pneumonia. She was given only six months to live if she stayed in Massachusetts. Their son was in Arizona and he told them that the air was very dry. Within a month of moving to Arizona, she was able to throw away all of her medications. Anne lived 23 more years before she died of liver cancer in 2000.

Getting Back in Pigeons

Besides getting married, Sam wanted to get his pigeons back again. He recalls going to visit the famous Lewis Curtis. But Curtis had been president of the Boston Concourse and had gone through a tough divorce. At a concourse meeting, Curtis told the members that he was being forced to auction off his pigeons but his lawyers told him that if no one bought his pigeons he could keep them. He asked that the members of the Concourse to not bid.

To his consternation, many did anyway. Curtis did get several of his birds back. After the auction, he was so mad, that he told the Concourse members to never come to his house again for pigeons.

Sam called Curtis to see if he could meet him and Curtis agreed. "He probably won more 500 and 600 mile races than anyone else in the Boston Area," Lembo recalls. "Curtis lived in Chestnut Hill, one of the wealthiest sections of the area. He was so wealthy that he would charter a plane and go to the release points and follow the birds home from a race, just see where they went." Sam also remembers seeing gold plated bath pans for Lewis' birds to bathe in.

Sam asked if he could buy youngsters but Curtis related the divorce story and said he wouldn't sell him any. A couple of weeks later, Sam got a phone call from a pigeon flyer who said he had a couple of pigeons for him. Sam asked what they were. The flyer said that he was at Curtis' house and "He told me to give you these pigeons."

"I got a chocolate Bastin and a blue checker hen. The next year I mated them up and I won the concourse with one of their youngsters," Sam boasts.

"As the years progressed, I concentrated on the Bastins. The Bastins were dying out and you couldn't get other good ones to bring in. In you don't bring in new Bastins, they weaken. The more you inbred, the more you weaken the line. That is why British pigeons have trouble here-they inbreed a lot and it weakens the stamina of the strain. They have a hard time competing against the crosses."

"During the 50's, I met Arnie Vitale who had some wonderful Grooters. They were good too. In 1970, I had a wonderful team of Grooters that were winning, but that was the year I bought in my first imports, the Roosens.

"In 1969, I took my first trip back to Belgium after the war. I was part of a tour so I didn't have time to visit any pigeon flyers. So in 1970 I decided to go back and I went every year until the year 2000, when Anne died. I spoke French fluently and I never spoke English when I was in Belgium.

"I wanted to know who was the best pigeon flyer in Belgium at that time and went to the editor of the Belgium pigeon magazine. At the time Jules Dehantschutter was the editor. He told me, "Marc Roosens-- I go over there every Thursday to talk to him and I'll take you."

Anne was with him for the visit. In route, she suggested, "Sam, why don't you start selling pigeons because you speak the language here so you could get some good pigeons."

"We got to Roosens' house and he had 32 widowhood cocks and only eight pairs of breeders. I asked him if he sold youngsters and said he did. I asked for a round from the breeders and a round from his best widowhood cocks. He said, "For the 32 pigeons, it would be $100 a piece." But Dehantschutter told Roosens that Lembo was a good friend, so Roosens sold them to him for $25 a piece!

Within three years, Sam couldn't import anymore Roosens-they went up to $2000 a piece as Roosens' fame spread. "Every year there was a Japanese pigeon flyer would buy 50 pigeons from him for $2000 a piece- every year-- until the year that he died!"

"Two years later I won All American in the Boston Concourse, with an average speed margin of 100 yards per minute. I was in the top ten in almost every race. "The Roosens made the difference," comments Sam.

"In 1974, I had a Marc Roosen pigeon, MAL 710, which won five state races from 100 to 300 miles in youngbirds, the first pick bird in all five races. Every race, 710 stayed out 10 to 20 minutes and still won. This is the best pigeon I ever owned. One year I flew widowhood with just one bird, 934. I put 12 birds in the widowhood loft and this bird, 934, was beating every one of them in every race, so I took the other 11 out of the loft and gave him the loft to himself. I sent him every week and every week he won the money in races from 100 to 500 miles. My wife Anne used to ship my birds for me. And every week, he would be sitting on the window sill sunning himself. Anne would go in there and say, 'Come on 934, come on," and the bird would walk into her hands.

"And talk about sportsmanship-even though I was taking their money with 934, every week, they would ask if 934 was back and they were glad that he made it home."

Lembo won the "Bulletin" All American award in 1973 and again in 1974. The next year, Sam didn't submit, although he had a great year. The guy who finished second to him that second year did submit and won the All American Award. That man was Harold Durken.

Sam was sold. "I became a believer in Belgian pigeons. I found that you could send Belgian pigeons to almost every race and a good pigeon will be in the clock on every race-until, the speed drops below 1200 ypm. You should never repeat them the next week if the last race was less than 1200 because they were hurt. They need a week off. Don't be fooled by looking at the pigeon the following week when it is time to ship again," offers Lembo.

Sam flew with the famous George Twombly, who was in his club. Twombly had played baseball for the Red Sox. Later he published an all breeds pigeon magazine Sam offers, "He got his pigeons from England but he had a Belgian take care of his pigeons."

Sam also flew against Morris Gordon. "He was Jewish and you could beat him up to 300, but he was always there on the 400s, 500s and 600s."

He thinks George Buitta and Bruce Porter were the best flyers he ever competed against in Boston. "Porter's birds were down from Morris Gordon. But no one else could win with Porter's birds; he was the only one who could win with them. Buitta was probably better. He lived with the pigeons. When he walked to the coop, the pigeons would fly to him. They treated him like a pigeon," he recalls.

In Massachusetts Sam flew with two clubs, the Malden and Lexington Clubs

Rock and Roll Years

Several years after Sam and Anne were married, from 1959 through the 60's, Sam wrote rock and roll songs. Sam would write the poetry and would tell Anne the tunes he had in mind. "Anyone could get into the music business at that time. Before that, it was a closed shop and you had to have a connection. I formed my own music company and signed up singers. But then Frank Sinatra came to Boston and I went to visit him and showed him a couple of my ballads. Sinatra said he was too busy at the time but that Sam should go to the Latin Quarters Night Club, where Sinatra was performing that night, and during an intermission 'I'll look at your songs.'"

"My mother-in-law took me and my wife because I didn't have any money." Sinatra refused to see him. Lembo stormed into Sinatra's room and confronted him about reneging on his word. Sinatra was taken aback and then angry but told him to give the songs to his piano player and he'd look at them later. Sinatra later sent word that he was going to blackball Lembo-and he did. Lembo's songs, already sold, were killed-he got money from the record companies but they were never given play on radio stations. Sam tried to produce some other songs under the stage name Eddie Paris, but those records were shut out of air time as well as soon as he was discovered.

Stichelbauts

Sam is well known for his Stichelbauts. "I liked the Stichelbauts because they could win from 100 to 600 and they were wonderful handling birds. They had wonderful vents; they were up high, not low and they weren't mushy. And I don't like a pigeon that has to wait to win; I want them to win even in youngbirds."

He got his first Stichelbauts from De Scheemaecker. But Sam only got hens because De Scheemaecker flew the cocks. He also got some from a retired army colonel name Walter Herreweghe whom he read about in one of Tom Smith's articles for the "Bulletin."

When he visited Van Herreweghe, the colonel's wife answered the door. "She said that he was in the backyard picking some pigeons for an auction in England. Through a picture window I could see that the colonel was crying." Sam asked his wife if he was and she said probably. She said that her husband had had a heart attack and the doctor told him he had to get rid of his pigeons because it was too much stress on him, he was heartbroken. The colonel offered him the best breeders for $100 a piece.

Sam tried some Roodhofts with great success and also brought in some Verheye Hofkens to add a little speed to his birds, but mainly stuck with the Stichelbauts and Roosens.

Becoming a Pigeon Translator

"I started translating pigeon articles after Paul Veegate stopped doing it for the "Bulletin" in the 70's. Veegate was from Detroit. He spoke Flemish and no French but I don't know if his wife didn't know more about the pigeons than he did.

Veegate might not have been as good as Sam in French, but Sam's secret weapon was that his wife Anne had majored in English, so she kept his French in proper English form.

"The national language of Belgium is French, not Flemish. When they made Belgium, they took the southern part of Holland. Flemish is Dutch. The pigeon magazines in Belgium were issued in two languages and I would translate the French versions. I only translated articles from De Scheemaecker's publication," explains Sam.

At the end of the reign of the "Bulletin," Sam would often be told by subscribers that if it wasn't for his articles, they would have dropped their subscriptions long before.

Truth be told, Anne would often tell me that she kept suggesting to Sam that he switch and do his translations for the "Digest" rather than the "Bulletin," but his loyalty to even a sinking ship was important to him.

Arizona

He flew competitively in Arizona, very successfully. In Arizona, he flew with the Northwest, Super, Mesa, Phoenix and the Compass clubs.

Opinions and Observations

Sam has been in pigeons sixty years. He has developed a strong set of opinions on pigeon racing. You have already gotten a glimpse of two-races under 1200 ypm hurt a pigeon to the point that it shouldn't be shipped the next week ( and this applies to all pigeons coming home late from a race where the winning speeds exceeded 1200 ypm) and that inbreeding reduces stamina. Sam gave a few more opinions, but did come back to the inbreeding issue first.

Inbreeding

"Almost all racing pigeons in Belgium are crosses, even though they go by the fanciers' names. They feel they are justified in naming the birds after themselves because they feel they are the ones who selected the birds to cross.

"All super pigeons come from crosses. The minute you inbreed, the youngsters can win races but they don't have the stamina to give consistency. If you are flying inbred pigeons, you have to fly 100 because the one that won last week is not going to be the one that wins the next week because they have lost their stamina to bounce back.

"The problem with the US and England for that matter is that you have trouble selling crossed pigeons; Americans and Brits only want straight pigeons. Even when they buy Belgian pigeons that are crossed, they start keeping them straight. Belgian pigeons have progressed because they are crosses. That is often the problem with American birds."

More on European Birds

"In Europe, Huyskens van Riels had been the best pigeons before the 70's. In the 70's Marc Roosens had the best pigeons. In the 80's things started to change and you started getting more and more champions because they were able to buy more quality birds to cross.

"Even in Europe there were a lot of people that had good birds, but didn't have the knack of taking care of them. They sometimes have a great bird that wins in spite of the lack of skill of the owner. There are better birds than there are pigeon flyers. In most areas, only ten per cent are pigeon flyers and ninety percent are pigeon keepers. Most of the knack is feeding."

Feeding

Turning his attention to feeding, Lembo offered, "A bird can win a tailwind race on an empty stomach and win a tail wind race, but who wants to win a tail wind race which is only a trapping race. If you have a 20 mile hike and you have nothing in your stomach, you can make it but you are going to hurt your system because you don't have enough food to fuel the hike-it has to come from the pigeon's own body. And when it draws on its own reserves, there is less there the next time he needs to draw on it.

"The bird has to be fed real good so that bird can call on that stored energy. The day before shipping, you feed based on the distance and difficulty of the race. To do that, the day before shipping you feed the birds all they want. On the day of shipping, if it is a 100, you feed them all they want before 9:00. The bird's metabolism works very fast and it will be gone before the next day. As the races get longer, you leave all the feed they want until 3:00 for a 300. You adjust how late you feed them the day of shipping based on the type of race it is going to be. I did give my birds a very light feed at three or four in the afternoon so they would go get a drink of water.

"One thing I did learn from De Scheemaecker was that he didn't believe in feeding Barcelona birds on the day of release because it takes energy to metabolize the food it eats, so it is losing energy while it is getting energy. Water yes, feed no. So when you ship them, give them a food that is easy to digest, like safflower."

Selection

His next favorite topic is selection. "I only met one person who really knew how to grade pigeons and that was Rene Genet. It was a color in the wing that told you a breeder-not a flyer. Piet Deweerd could tell a good bird but he doesn't know how to mate them.

"Recently I found another man who could really grade pigeons, Hennie Sadewater. I usually turn my nose at graders - at most of them-not all. I let him look at the birds. I pulled 20 birds out and put in two that had never bred me anything. Sadewater pegged the two duds. I was convinced he knew what he was doing."

Sadewater is known as an eyesign expert, though! But it isn't for Sam. "I don't look at eyesign. It is alright for somebody that knows eyesign, but I don't know eyesign. I tried to study it once, but made the mistake of eliminating two of the best pigeons I every owned because of eyesign, so I never trusted it after that.

"I have handled thousands and thousands of pigeons. If a guy wants to use the eye there are two types of pigeons-those from Liege and those from Antwerp. The pigeons from Liege have good eyesign, buy the Antwerp pigeons are down from Dragoons and don't have good eyesign."

But interestingly, Sam does have confidence in his own ability to select good birds-but it doesn't involve handling.

"Marc Roosens had confidence that I could pick good pigeons. Every year that I visited him, he would ask my opinion of birds and possible pairings. I don't even handle a bird to evaluate it. I think you tell a pigeon's intelligence is to look at the pigeon on the perch. The pigeon that is the most observing is the best pigeon in the loft. The way the bird looks at you when you move around the loft. If he is interested what is going on, if he sees every movement you make-those are the top pigeons in any loft.

"I told Anne, on a trip to Belgium one year, that I was going to try and pick the best pigeons in every loft we visited, without handling them. She said I'd make a fool out of myself. We visited nine lofts and I picked out the best pigeons in each loft just by looking at them on the perch. The best pigeons take the highest perches in a loft. So every time one of the birds on the top perches kept an eye on me to see what I was doing, I'd pick that one and I was right every time."

Breeders

Besides his comments on selection, he believes that you shouldn't be buying birds from the winners in a loft, but from the good breeders in the loft. And he believes that most of the time the brothers and sisters of the winners are the better breeders than the winners themselves. "The brothers and sisters got the breeding blood and the others got the racing blood. There are exceptions to the rule, but that is what I have found."

Racing Considerations

Sam then turned his attention to actual racing. "When you want to know if a bird is in condition, you look at the keel. You want it to be perfectly white, with no discoloration. If pigeon has as any tinges of yellow or orange on the breast bone, it is hurt; it needs a rest. Don't send it.

"Then you look at the skin; a bird in top condition has its veins sticking out. Then you look at its flights; if he is missing the ninth, he won't win. I have also found out that a pigeon that has dropped its ninth flight is not the one to bet on it because it will never win any money. If he has his ninth, but not the tenth, it can still win."

Asked about the blood dot on the keel as a sign of condition, Sam said not all birds get it, but it is a sign of health. "If it down low, an inch to two inches from the vents, the birds is in good condition. When it is further up the keel, the bird is going out of condition. But if it has a bloodspot and was in a race under 1300 ypm the week before, it won't score. Keep him home because that previous race hurt him. Don't go by the distance of the prior race, only by the speed.

"A bird as a general rule needs an extra incentive. If I fly again, I am going to fly separated sexes in youngbirds to get that incentive. And I would only fly a team of 35 birds, no more. If you are a good pigeon flyer, that is all you need. If you are not, then you need to fly more.

"It takes a special pigeon to win 600 miles. I'm not interested in winning a 100 or 200 mile races, unless it is a smash." According to Sam, a straight Janssen doesn't win past 300 miles. If a "Janssen" does win past 300, he says, it has a cross in it. He points to Hank Vernazza's original birds which were crosses. Later Vernazza tried straight Janssens but they were never as successful as the crosses. "That is why I don't want straight Janssens in my loft."

Journey to Spring Hill

Lembo explains his new relocation: "I lost interest in the birds the day my wife Anne died. The day she died, I spent the whole night talking to her. She told me to never give up the pigeons. We talked about the book I always said I was going to write about my life. I had only thirty pages written. I read it to her when she was dying. She made me promise that I would finish the book.

But after she died I really didn't know if there was anything left in life for me. But I had promises to her, and she was right. I was just feeling sorry for myself for losing someone who was my best friend for most of my life.

His book was published in 2001. He stayed in Arizona for awhile but he "couldn't take the heat in Arizona anymore." He moved back to Massachusetts, only to move to Spring Hill, Florida in January of 2004 with hopes of flying again one day, even though he is now 84.

"I wanted to be known as the best youngbird flyer in the US. I'm not set up to do it now. I really want to compete in the Gulfcoast Club because that is the best competition there is. It is a club of champion flyers from all over North America who want to see how they can do against the best. It is more of an honor to win one race here against the best there is, than to win every race against the worst there is. The better the competition, the greater the honor when you win."

He doesn't know if or when he will be able to join the races.

Conclusion

It would be hard to find a more sincere man than Sam Lembo. It would also be hard to find a man with such a varied career inside and outside of pigeons. One can listen for hours as he talks about his visits with the greatest pigeon flyers in history, but he will also rejoin you with stories of politicians and other celebrities. He is a piece of living history-who dreams of racing again.