ACT I : The true musical legacy performed and lived by Frank, Freddie, Betty Owens (the Duchess) and PaPa "Jac" Assunto (see the "History" page)

ACT II : Here we list the "actors" who participated in the events following Franks death in 1974.
(names and details to be listed later)

ACT III : Here we set the stage for the "actors" to play their parts ...."the Family"....  The Family's situation in February 1974 really started in April 1966 with the death of Freddie Assunto at the age of 36.  Not only did the death of Freddie leave Betty "the Duchess" a widow, it also left her to raise 3 children from the ages of 18 months to 10 years old.  Freddie's death also left Frank (33) the task of maintaining the Band and business that he and Freddie started as teenagers in 1949.  Add to that Frank was dealing with his wife Joan and her recovering from the first of many brain tumor surgeries.  All the while raising 4 children of his own ages 6-10 years.  Then some 8 weeks after Fred's death PaPa 'Jac' quit the Dukes due to his sadness over Freddie's death.

Thus for close to 8 years Frank found a way to maintain the band while helping Betty and her children along with Joan and her recovering from some 3 or more brain tumor surgeries in a span of 5 years.  These brain surgeries left Joan an invalid and confined to a wheelchair and unable to feed herself.  The early morning phone call on Monday, February 25, 1974 was a devastating blow.  Frank J. Assunto, founder and leader of The Dukes of Dixieland was dead at the age of 42.

So the stage was set, the widow Joan Assunto an invalid with 4 children and who shortly after Frank's unexpected death underwent her 5th brain tumor surgery.  This left her confined to a hospital bed and could only be fed thru a tube in her nose.  Until Joan's death in December 1978 she was cared for at home by her 4 young children along with the person most credited with providing Joan more than just medical care, she gave Joan a quiet sense of assurance that her 4 children were going to be OK.  This special person was Lena Green. Lena came to our family in 1968, she was to help clean and maintain the Assunto home plus assist Joan due to her condition.  As Joan's condition got worse Lena soon became a skilled caregiver/nurse not to mention a second mother to us children.

Now that the stage has been set, enter...(to be continued)

ACT IV :  Legal action was taken on behalf of Frank and Freddie Assunto and their Dukes of Dixieland for various reasons.  One of which is to re-coup royalties from numerous record companies.  These issues while quite complicated are being addressed without much trouble as we have settled with some but not all as of now.  The main objective of our law suit is to stop the unauthorized use of the Assunto Brothers' musical legacy and accomplishments (which has resulted in defrauding the public).  Plus the unauthorized release of pre-1974 recordings, collecting those royalties and all the while contacting record companies with the intent to re-direct royalty payments being paid to Frank's widow who was an invalid unable to care for herself.  To obtain our objective we were forced to bring legal actions against John S. Shoup who started this operation 5 months after the death of Frank Assunto with the full knowledge that not only was Frank's widow an invalid there were 4 juvenile children also left without their father at that time.  While the issues with the record companies is pretty cut and dry, the issues with Shoup is not the same....not when you consider some of the responses by Shoup and his lawyers to our questions.  Here are two examples, when asked "what is Frank Assunto's claim to the name Dukes of Dixieland" Shoup's reply was 'none' because Frank was just another trumpet player in the band.  The second example is, in Federal Court (2000) Shoup stated that he had permission from the Assunto heirs to do the things he's been accused of, but......after losing his case in Federal Court and the case moved to Louisiana Civil District Court in New Orleans, Shoup's defense had changed. Now his defense is that he didn't need permission to do what he's been accused of because his group calling themselves the Dukes of Dixieland has no connection to the Assunto Brothers' Dukes of Dixieland from the early 1950's thru 1974.....(more to come)