[1] Called "Rico" by his friends, Marcelli was born in Rome, then was raised in Chile and educated at the conservatory in Santiago, the capital.
As well in 1920, Marcelli began conducting the house orchestra for silent film showings at the Tivoli Theatre, a position he kept until he was hired away by Sid Grauman in 1922.
[3] Grauman used Marcelli in his various Los Angeles, California, theaters until the advent of sound in the movies in the late 1920s removed a great number of musicians from their steady jobs.
[5] On Christmas Day in 1937, Marcelli married a second time, to the soloist violin player of the Fibber McGee band, Audrey Call.
[1] She died on June 3, 2001, in Sonoma, California,[8] and left as a memorial the Audrey Call Marcelli Music Scholarship, awarded annually to one student at Santa Rosa Junior College.