Marcel Grantello

Died August 19, 2021. Marcel Grantello aka Anthony "Little Anthony" Bellante, Jr. was a Dallas, Texas based entertainer in the Northern Soul and hard rock genres. Of Italian heritage, he came to prominence as the first white entertainer to be hired to Charles Taylor's Cotton Club Revue, which he later headlined. His longtime manager was Ray Brondo, a Dallas-based talent manager who was close friends with club owner and Lee Harvey Oswald assassin Jack Ruby. He recorded several regional singles under the Little Anthony and Marcel Grantello monikers, and worked with the UK label Smudge Records in the 1980s. Grantello aka Little Anthony was a lifelong James Brown devotee, and in fact was dubbed "The Second Hardest Working Man In Show Business" due to his convincing impersonation of James Brown. Starting in 1991, he sponsored numerous talent shows under names such as Little Anthony's Star Search and Little Anthony's Talent Revue. He passed away on August 19, 2021 due to complications related to the coronavirus (COVID-19).