Fifty years ago this fall, Prince Pasta began running their now-iconic "Wednesday is Prince Spaghetti Day" TV commercial. It featured a young Anthony Martignetti running through the streets of the North End, and made him a bit of a local legend here, where he still gets recognized as "Anthony!"

"I remember getting letters, people saying they named their kids after me, Anthony," Martignetti said. "People say to me, 'My name's Anthony and people stretch it out when they say it, the same way they do it in the ad. They sing it.'" The commercial ran on television for 13 years starting in the fall of 1969, and it was produced by the then Lowell-based Prince Pasta Company.