Sonny O’Day at his Laurel Montana bar. That’s him in his twenties, in the picture behind him.
Sonny made his name as a boxer, in more ways than one. Born Carlo Giorgi in Lucca, Italy, in 1913, his name was Americanized to Charles George when his family came to the United States in 1920. As a boxer during the 1930s in New York City, where the game was controlled by the Irish, he was persuaded to change his name to Sonny ODay.
Sonny, who grew up and learned to fight in Butte, was also known in boxing circles as The Kid from Meaderville, the Italian enclave on the Butte Hill that was long ago swallowed up by the Berkeley Pit.
After opening two nightclubs in Butte during the late 1930s and serving in the Army during World War II, Sonny and his wife, Carra, moved to Laurel, where he opened Sonny ODays. The memorabilia-packed saloon on Main Street, complete with a corner boxing ring, soon became one of the most best-known taverns in Montana.