In 1933, after a fire almost destroyed the family home the previous year, Johnny, at the age of 16, with his father's blessing, decided to travel alone to New York City to become a band vocalist.
His childhood idols and inspirations included Russ Columbo, Bing Crosby, Red McKenzie, Enrico Caruso, Rabbi Joseph Rosenblatt and John McCormick and others.
Johnny was employed at Mills Music Publishing Company in the Brill Building as a song demonstrator and office assistant during the day, and singing in various clubs in NYC at night.
In 1935 Major Bowes, impressed by young Don when he refused to perform on his amateur show and asserted and demonstrated his professionalism at audition, gave him three sustaining (non-sponsored) 15-minute spots a week, broadcasting on WHN in NYC.
Upon leaving WOR, and after turning down an offer to broadcast nationally on CBS radio, Darcy desired to go on the road and learn the band business.
For the next several years Darcy was the male vocalist for Joe Venuti's Orchestra c.1936–40, after having worked with Charlie Barnet, 1935, Lud Gluskin, 1934, Louis 'King' Garcia, 1936, and others.
Contrary to what has been previously written, the only association Darcy had with Rhode Island was any number of one nighters with the various bands he performed with over the next several years, i.e., Dick Gasparre, 1940, Joe Marsala, 1941–42, Sonny Dunham, 1943–44, Boyd Raeburn, 1944–45, Art Mooney, 1946–48, and Johnny Bothwell in 1948–49.
In 1952 Darcy reverted to his original birth name of John Arcesi when he signed with Capitol Records, after being heard on late night weekend broadcasts on KNX-LA with just voice and piano.
Arcesi also received positive reviews in Variety for his live performance work at the Thunderbird Hotel in Las Vegas in October 1952, before the notoriety of the incident written of below.
An article in the December 1, 1952, issue of Time expounds at length on a gimmick cooked up by the Arcesi's press agent, Ed Scofield, whereby the mere sound of his voice could send impressionable young women into a trance upon hearing the song "Lost in Your Love".
During this time however, using the name/aliases of 'Tony Conti' and 'Chick Johnson' as a producer and songwriter he developed and recorded other artists, most notably a group called 'The Bombers', an R&B vocal quartet.
A 45 rpm single from the LP, 'Reaching' b/w 'Pictures in My Window' was released in limited quantity in 1979 in Honolulu on the Orpheus-Alephia label, the current holders of the rights thereto.
The stark white cover of the original LP release (containing only the artist's name and album title) belied the decidedly unusual music inside.
As one might expect, the leader of Arcesia was in fact the 54-year-old John Arcesi himself, who spent the better part of the 1960s devoting himself to writing, painting, songwriting and occasional rare vocal appearances at benefits in Palm Springs, California.
It is known that after John recorded "Reachin' Arcesia" he visited with his family in Waverly, New York, and Maryland in 1972, leaving them with copies of his final LP before returning to Palm Springs and then to Hawaii.
Between 1971 and 1974 Arcesi was very successful in the Fine Arts field in Palm Springs, representing the work of Jose Montanes, Ivar, Igor,Valdez, Frank Fuller and other lesser known painters.
Arcesi lived in Honolulu,Hawaii from 1974 to 1982 where he continued to write songs and essays, draw, paint and create in his spare time.
He then spent the remaining months of his life in Palm Springs, California, where he had lived during the sixties with his wife of 21 years, the late Louise Marie de Lesseps Arcesi.