[1] He received a BA in English from the University of California Berkeley, which he attended on an exchange scholarship, and then an MA from the Columbia School of Journalism in 1937, after which he began writing articles and reviews for the New York Times and Opera News.

Artists whose work was exhibited at the gallery included Fabrizio Clerici, Horst (an old friend of Rasponi's from his army days), Cecil Beaton, and Don Bachardy.

Sam Aldrich,[c] who worked with Peggy Bancroft on one of her charity events, described meeting Rasponi for the first time: "Her escort was a nice-smelling, polished, pomaded young man with an obsequious air, a smooth Italian accent, and a clipboard.

In 1963 Valenti's foundation was dissolved by the New York Supreme Court after charges were brought by the state's attorney general that the actual beneficiaries of her charity balls were herself, Rasponi, and others who helped her promote the events.

[17][18] In the late 1960s, he published two books on the life of the jet set, The International Nomads and The Golden Oases, which featured many of Rasponi's friends and clients from his New York days.

[19] He then worked on what was to prove his most enduring book, The Last Prima Donnas, a 636-page exposition on 55 great women singers of the past whom he knew and had interviewed during his time New York and later in Europe.