A popular story of how Mario went from Jumpman to Mario is that an Italian-American landlord, Mario Segale, had barged in on Nintendo of America's staff to demand rent, and they decided to name Jumpman after him.
After some heated words, Segale eventually accepted Nintendo of America President Minoru Arakawa's promise that the rent would be paid soon, and left.
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Segale's firm M.A. Segale Inc., a privately owned asphalt and construction business, sold for $60 million in 1998 to Irish concern CRH plc, for integration into its Oldcastle Materials unit.
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This story was first published in David Sheff's 1993 book Game Over (however, because of a spelling error in the aforementioned book, for years it was thought his last name was spelled Segali), and later appeared in Steven L. Kent's The Ultimate History of Video Games in 2001.
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