Tag Archives: 1950s

Entertainment

Gina Lollobrigida, Italian film siren of the 1950s, dies at 95

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The Italian movie industry after World War II was a juggernaut that competed alongside Hollywood as one of the world’s leading exporters of films. Grittily poetic works such as Roberto Rossellini’s “Rome, Open City” and Vittorio De Sica’s “Bicycle Thieves” were masterpieces of neorealism that turned themes of deprivation and desperation into high art.

But when Time magazine examined the might of Italian film production in 1954, it did not put Rossellini or De Sica on the cover. Instead it featured Gina Lollobrigida, a ruby-lipped bombshell encased in clinging gowns, whose presence in comedies, romances and adventures powered a rebellion against neorealism.

Ms. Lollobrigida, who died Jan. 16 in Rome at 95, was for a time an international sensation with few equals.

In the estimation of actor Humphrey Bogart, her allure made “Marilyn Monroe look like Shirley Temple.” Life magazine called “La Lollo” — as she was nicknamed — “the most fetching argument ever advanced for liberal immigration policies.” For New York Times movie critic Bosley Crowther, she was “the original Italian over-stuffed star,” a pneumatic precursor to Sophia Loren, who would soon be ensconced in the public imagination as the quintessential Italian sex goddess.

Ms. Lollobrigida (pronounced lo-lo-BRIDGE-eeh-dah) was among the European screen beauties, along with Brigitte Bardot and Anita Ekberg, whose charms stirred the fantasies of a generation of moviegoers.

In a heyday that spanned a quarter-century and more than 50 films, Ms. Lollobrigida had a decidedly mixed reputation as an actress. “She is handicapped by a lack of intensity, lack of presence,” film historian David Shipman noted. He likened her sex appeal to the one dimensionality of an advertisement billboard.

She began her career on a lark in 1946, when a movie director eyed the onetime art student on the streets of Rome and was besotted. And it was a photo of Ms. Lollobrigida in a bikini that proved sufficient to entice billionaire industrialist and film producer Howard Hughes to fly her to Hollywood in 1950. He kept her a virtual prisoner for weeks in a fancy hotel, she later said, until she agreed to a contract. She said that she refused his sexual advances and that he, in return, made her prohibitively expensive for other filmmakers in the United States.

As a result, the younger Loren conquered Hollywood first. Ms. Lollobrigida, who often stoked their rivalry, would later cattily remark to Life: “We are as different as a fine race horse and a goat.”

Her ascent continued, but in European movies or European American co-productions such as “Beat the Devil” (1953) and “Trapeze” (1956). The former is a shaggy-dog caper about con artists in which Bogart and Ms. Lollobrigida were cast as husband and wife. The latter featured her as a circus performer whose wiles and ambition threaten to break up the partnership of aerialists played by Burt Lancaster and Tony Curtis.

Even after she escaped Hughes, Ms. Lollobrigida was long subjected to the cinematic leer. In “Solomon and Sheba” (1959), she performed, as Sheba, a memorable Technicolor pagan dance to the delight of co-star Yul Brynner as Solomon. Her tub scene was the highlight of an otherwise wan World War II movie with Frank Sinatra, “Never So Few” (1959). In the drama “Go Naked in the World” (1961), she was a call girl wooed by a construction tycoon’s son (Anthony Franciosa), and she played a nurse recruited for a murder scheme in “Woman of Straw” (1964) co-starring Sean Connery.

Her career diminished gradually with farces such as “Strange Bedfellows” (1965), opposite Rock Hudson, “The Private Navy of Sgt. O’Farrell” (1968), with Bob Hope, and “Buona Sera, Mrs. Campbell” (1968), about an Italian woman entangled with three ex-GIs (Telly Savalas, Peter Lawford and Phil Silvers).

Over the years, Ms. Lollobrigida had acquired a reputation as quarrelsome and demanding, a performer with insatiable vanity and unbridled desire for control over the set. She was also litigious, filing as many as 10 lawsuits at a time.

She sued producers for what she alleged were broken promises and sicced her lawyers on advertisers and publications she claimed had used her image without permission. According to Time, she prevailed over an Italian film critic for his disparaging description of her “udder.”

In interviews, Ms. Lollobrigida presented herself as one of life’s indomitable survivors: an Italian country girl who endured wartime hardship, sexual assault, deceitful producers and a vicious entertainment press.

When her screen career dimmed, she moved on with vigor. She became a sculptor, and she published books of her photography. “I may not be Cartier-Bresson, but I can do something good,” she later told the New York Times. She made a short film documentary about Cuban leader Fidel Castro in 1972.

She also was a fundraiser for U.N. humanitarian missions, work that led to her failed attempt in 1999 to win one of Italy’s seats in the European Parliament. Through it all, she remained “La Lollo,” managing to spice up scandal sheets and celebrity magazines with private travails brought on by her self-professed “weakness for young men.”

As an octogenarian, she sued a boyfriend 25 years her junior who she alleged had orchestrated an unauthorized marriage to siphon off her considerable fortune, estimated in the tens of millions of dollars. Her son tried unsuccessfully to have her declared mentally unfit to handle her business affairs. She emphasized her independence by comparing herself to the Colosseum, declaring, “I will never crumble and never collapse.”

The second of four daughters, Luigia Lollobrigida was born in the Sabine mountain town of Subiaco on July 4, 1927. Her father lost his furniture factory in an Allied bombing raid during World War II and moved the family to Rome, 50 miles to the west, where he began selling black-market cigarettes and military blankets.

“We were so poor I made my shoes from stable straw,” she later told the Weekly World News. After Italy’s surrender, she sang and sold sketches to American GIs. She used the money she earned to pay for singing lessons and won a scholarship to the Academy of Fine Arts in Rome.

A chance encounter with a studio official led to roles as a movie extra and then to gradually bigger parts. She also worked as a model and won the title of Miss Rome before placing third in the Miss Italy competition.

In 1949, she married a Yugoslav doctor, Milko Skofic, who became her manager. He took the ribald publicity photos of 23-year-old Ms. Lollobrigida that intrigued Hughes, who promptly provided her with a single, one-way ticket to Los Angeles.

Hughes had her chauffeured to a luxury hotel, where guards were stationed outside her door and she was allowed no mail or phone calls. He told her to leave her husband and, to press the point, assigned her divorce scenes for her screen test.

Weary after six weeks in gold-plated captivity, Ms. Lollobrigida said she broke down during a 2 a.m. meeting with Hughes and signed a contract. Only then was she allowed to fly home.

Ms. Lollobrigida advanced up the marquee in European films. She made a bodice-busting impression in “Fanfan la Tulipe” (1952), a swashbuckler starring the French star Gérard Philipe. She had a breakthrough the next year, playing a sparky, barefoot peasant in the vivacious comedy “Bread, Love and Dreams” opposite De Sica, who was also a noted actor and portrayed the uptight but smitten Carabinieri officer.

She commanded $48,000 for the film, a fee that was doubled for the equally popular sequel “Bread, Love and Jealousy” (1954). When she held out for half the profits of the second sequel, “Scandal in Sorrento” (1955), Loren was hired instead and mamboed her way to Hollywood.

Meanwhile, Ms. Lollobrigida drew headlines more for her romances than her movie roles. In the 1960s, she had a brief engagement to New York real estate heir George S. Kaufman and a torrid affair with South African heart surgeon Christiaan Barnard, whom she later called a “cheap publicity seeker” for revealing that she had once driven him to his hotel in a Jaguar while wearing only a mink coat. She said she tried to seduce Hudson, who was gay and who, she later told CNN host Larry King, “fell asleep” in bed.

In 2006, Ms. Lollobrigida said she called off a planned marriage to Javier Rigau y Rafols, a Spanish businessman. But in 2010, Rigau staged the wedding in Barcelona with a proxy “stand-in” bride. She called the matter a “horrific and vulgar fraud” perpetrated by a fortune hunter.

Rigau produced witnesses who testified to her having signed authorization for a proxy. After a court in Rome ruled against Ms. Lollobrigida in 2017, she continued to seek an annulment. Meanwhile, as her son, Andrea Milko Skofic, challenged her competence, she was often seen in the company of her new manager, Andrea Piazzolla, who was 60 years her junior and whom she called “the best person I have ever found in my life until now.”

Gennaro Sangiuliano, Italy’s culture minister, announced the death but gave no further details. A complete list of survivors was not immediately available.

Ms. Lollobrigida once told Vanity Fair magazine that, whatever her public image, she saw herself as essentially a solitary soul, needing little but art. “I have never made any compromise, remaining independent and always alone,” she said in 2015. “My strength is my free spirit, and my great imagination gives me strength and vitality.”

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US

Stanford limited Jewish student admissions in 1950s, university admits

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Stanford University apologized on Wednesday after an internal task force confirmed the school had limited the admission of Jewish students during the 1950s and then “regularly misled” those who inquired about it afterward.

The university’s president, Marc Tessier-Lavigne, called the restrictions “appalling anti-Semitic activity,” in a university-wide note, adding that “this ugly component of Stanford’s history, confirmed by this new report, is saddening and deeply troubling.”

The practices were first reported on a blog by historian Charles Petersen, who wrote last year in a post titled “How I Discovered Stanford’s Jewish Quota” that a memo in the school’s archives amounted to “a historical smoking gun.”

Petersen found a 1953 letter to J.E. Wallace Sterling, then the president of Stanford, from the assistant of the admissions director, Rixford Snyder, in which it was noted that the incoming freshman class would have a “high percentage of Jewish boys.” Snyder, the assistant wrote, “thought that you should know about this problem, since it has very touchy implications.”

The memo lamented that “the University of Virginia has become largely a Jewish institution, and that Cornell also has a very heavy Jewish enrollment.” It warned that if Stanford were to accept “a few” applicants from two heavily Jewish high schools in Los Angeles, “the following year we get a flood of Jewish applications.”

Such a dilemma, the memo said, forced them to “disregard our stated policy of paying no attention to the race or religion of applicants.”

The report by the task force — which was assembled nearly a year ago — found in its review of annual reports from the registrar’s office that from 1949 to 1952, Stanford enrolled 87 students from the two schools, Beverly Hills High School and Fairfax High School. From 1952 to 1955, however, only 14 students were enrolled from those schools. The report said that records “do not indicate any other public schools that experienced such a sharp drop in student enrollments over that same six-year period or any other six-year period during the 1950s and 1960s.”

Tessier-Lavigne, the current president, said the practices — as well as “the university’s denials of those actions in the period that followed” — were “wrong,” “damaging” and “unacknowledged for too long.”

Arguments in a case over modern-day quotas at an elite institution are set to be heard at the Supreme Court this month. A group of Asian Americans is suing Harvard — which also limited its admissions of Jewish students early in the 20th century — alleging that the university unfairly discriminated against them by capping admissions as a sort of “racial balancing” of its students. Harvard denies the allegations. The plaintiffs have cited Harvard’s past quotas on Jewish students as evidence in their case.

Before Asian Americans sued Harvard, the school once tried restricting the number of Jews

Petersen, the historian, had written that the only previous comment he could find from the admissions office on the topic was a statement in 1996 to the Stanford Daily, the school newspaper, in which an admissions official said such allegations were simply “rumors” and that “assertions of the existence of quotas are only based on the convictions of the few Jewish members of the Stanford community in the ’40s and ’50s.”

“Either the admissions office was lying,” Petersen wrote, “or else they didn’t look that hard.”

Rabbi Jessica Kirschner, executive director of Hillel at Stanford, said in an email that “for the people who knew there was something wrong despite official denials, hearing the symbolic head of the university speak the truth out loud and apologize is validating, and maybe even healing.”

She said the university’s response Wednesday was “an example of what productive institutional apologies look like,” noting how “a new generation of Stanford leadership took evidence seriously, commissioned a strong task force, and did not flinch when its findings did not reflect well on the institution.”

Sophia Danielpour and Ashlee Kupor, co-presidents of the Jewish Student Association at Stanford, said in an email that while they were “disappointed” about this aspect of the university’s history, they were “also appreciative that Stanford allowed a thorough discovery process and issued a real apology.”

They said they hope the findings spur “concrete changes,” including awareness of the Jewish high holidays in relation to the academic calendar and of a “blind spot” in the school’s diversity and inclusion efforts “that doesn’t always include religious minorities.”

In his note to the school, Tessier-Lavigne wrote that Stanford will implement a number of recommendations from the task force, including addressing the “deeply regrettable” scheduling of the start of Stanford’s fall quarter during Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish new year, which happened last month. Stanford will also create an ongoing Jewish advisory committee, he said.

Tessier-Lavigne added that “it would be natural to ask whether any of the historical anti-Jewish bias documented by the task force exists in our admissions process today. We are confident it does not.”

April Bethea contributed to this report.

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Technology

Unboxing Of Vintage 1950s Nintendo Souvenirs Ends In Tragedy

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Erik Voskuil, who runs the wonderful Before Mario (and has written an excellent book by the same name), has one of the world’s finest collections of Nintendo stuff. Recently though he managed to get hold of something that was special even by his standards: a couple of packets of Nintendo playing cards from the 1950s, depicting the company’s hometown of Kyoto.

“I cannot overstate how exicited I was to find these seventy year old Nintendo cards, featuring Kyoto in the 1950s”, Voskuil wrote excitedly on August 7. “In all my years of collecting, these are the only copies I have come across”. To put that into perspective, writing on his blog Voskuil adds this is the first time he’s ever seen the cards–printed entirely in English–up for sale, after spending “more than twenty years of searching for vintage Nintendo items”.

Having publicly aired his hesitation over opening the packets—these are valuable, and if remained closed would retain that value—Voskuil eventually decided to open one of them and leave the other, since that would let him see what the cards were actually like inside while also keeping the second set sealed.

Sadly, his initial excitement didn’t last long.

“However, when I carefully removed part of the wrapper, I quickly discovered that all cards had been completely fused together”, he writes. “They had remained pressed together for such a long time, likely under hot and humid conditions, that the ink on all cards had made them stick together completely. The stack of individual cards had turned into one solid brick. The photo prints on the cards, that contain relatively large amounts of ink, may have contributed to this as well.”

Note that these cards are old, and so lacked any of the plastic or laminates we’d normally associate with playing cards produced in more recent decades. These ones were made entirely of paper, so when he says they have fused together, he means it. This is no longer a deck of cards, but an expensive block of paper.

Checking the second pack, Voskuil found those cards had suffered a similar fate, and while some have suggested “placing the packs in the freezer for some time”, or “putting them in a ‘sweat box’ also used by stamp collectors”, he says grimly that “these packs, unfortunately, are beyond any of these methods, and will remain fused together, forever.”

Bummer! The only solace to be found is that even the boxes are lovely, and that Voskuil at least came away with one card, since one of the two decks had a sample card attached to the back of it that could be removed.

You can see more pics of the cards, and learn more about just why they were so important, at Before Mario.



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US

1950s census archive: Millions of families can now research their history

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The digital records were released on Friday and are available to the public free of charge at a dedicated website, allowing viewers to research their family histories and backgrounds. They include 6.57 million population schedules — many of which include multiple families and households — and 33,360 Indian Reservation schedules for Native Americans living on reservations.
In a video celebrating the release of the archives, Archivist of the United States David S. Ferriero explained the National Archives has been preparing for the release for a decade. The images shown on the website are actually microfilms taken by the bureau in 1952 that had to be carefully scanned by archive staff. The original paper documents were destroyed in the 1960s.

Ferriero commended the archive’s staff “for their dedication in preserving and providing access to this important set of records.”

“I personally can’t wait to look up my own family in Beverly, Massachusetts,” he added.

The archive recommends users search for the first and last name of the head of household they’re looking for; the database will return close matches even if users don’t know the exact spelling. The archive used an Artificial Intelligence technique called “Optical Character Recognition” to extract names from images of handwritten text, so not all the names are perfect.

Users can refine the name index by editing and adding correct names. The National Archive also released a video explaining how amateur genealogists can explore the newly released records.
Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland also explained in a video the census is “particularly important to Indian Tribes, because it helps decide federal funding, which then impacts the government’s trust responsibility to Native communities.”

The 1950 census included 20 questions for all respondents age 14 years and older; some respondents were also asked an additional six questions.

“Since 1790, census data have painted a vivid, vibrant portrait of America,” said Robert Santos, director of the US Census Bureau, in another video celebrating the publication.

Notably, the 1950 census marked the last time census takers personally visited most households. The bureau then switched to mailing households enumeration forms, and today citizens can fill out the census online, by phone, or by mail.

According to the archive, censuses from 1960 and later are not available to the public “because of a statutory 72-year restriction on access for privacy reasons,” but they can be privately requested from the US Census Bureau.

“The Census is full of family stories, and we know you are eager to look for yours,” said Ferriero.

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Sports

Packers unveil new 1950s throwback uniforms to wear in Week 7

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The Packers will wear a new-old uniform set on Sunday against the Washington Football Team, paying homage to the 1950s.

The uniforms don’t differentiate much from the current getup: simplistic with green heavily featured. It’s a heavier dose of green than usual, with the pants almost completely devoid of yellow.

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Green Bay Packers wide receiver Allen Lazard (13) celebrates his touchdown with teammates during the first half of an NFL football game against the Chicago Bears Sunday, Oct. 17, 2021, in Chicago.
(AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh)

The other unique feature is the absence of the iconic “G” logo, which usually sits in the center of the helmet. Green Bay will roll with logoless lids, just as they did in the ’50s. However you might feel about the amount of green in the uniform, I think we can all agree it’s a steep upgrade over the 1937-1948 alternates that the team donned from 2015-2019. They were an eye sore, as you can see below.

Aaron Rodgers #12 of the Green Bay Packers warms up before the game against the Buffalo Bills at Lambeau Field on September 30, 2018 in Green Bay, Wisconsin.

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Green Bay Packers kicker Mason Crosby, left, celebrate his field goal with holder Corey Bojorquez during the first half of an NFL football game against the Chicago Bears Sunday, Oct. 17, 2021, in Chicago.
(AP Photo/David Banks)

That is one of the ugliest uniforms you’ll ever see on an NFL field, next to the Steelers bumblebee throwbacks. The Packers will hope the new set of throwbacks will be a hit, both on the field and in merchandise sales.

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Health

Illinois man dies of rabies in state’s first human case since the 1950s

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An Illinois man died this month in the state’s first human case of rabies since 1954, according to health officials on Tuesday. 

The Lake County man, in his 80s, awoke in mid-August to find a bat on his neck. 

The bat was captured and tested positive for rabies, but when health officials told the man he needed to start post-exposure rabies treatment, he declined, the Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH) said in a statement. 

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A grey-headed Flying-fox (Pteropus poliocephalus), a native Australian bat, stretches its leathery wings as it flies high over Sydney’s Botanical Gardens, 17 August 2005. (GREG WOOD/AFP via Getty Images)

A month later, the man started experiencing symptoms of rabies, including neck pain, difficulty controlling his arms, finger numbness and difficulty speaking. 

He subsequently died and a bat colony was found in his home.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) confirmed the diagnosis Tuesday. 

Only one to three human rabies cases are reported in the U.S. each year, according to the CDC. Without proper treatment after symptoms appear, rabies is usually fatal, health officials added. 

“Rabies has the highest mortality rate of any disease,” said IDPH Director Dr. Ngozi Ezike.  “However, there is life-saving treatment for individuals who quickly seek care after being exposed to an animal with rabies.  If you think you may have been exposed to rabies, immediately seek medical attention and follow the recommendations of health care providers and public health officials.”

While cases of human rabies in the U.S. are rare, incidents of rabies exposures are still common, with an estimated 60,000 Americans receiving the “post-exposure vaccination series” each year, according to health officials. 

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“Sadly, this case underscores the importance of raising public awareness about the risk of rabies exposure in the United States,” said Lake County Health Department Executive Director Mark Pfister.  

In Illinois, bats are the most common species to carry rabies. At least 30 bats have tested positive for rabies in the state this year. 

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Rabies is usually spread through an animal bite. Other animals most likely to spread rabies include dogs, coyotes, foxes, skunks and raccoons, according to the CDC.

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Health

Illinois man who woke up with bat on neck dies in state’s 1st human rabies case since 1950s

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An Illinois man who awoke to find a bat on his neck weeks ago died this month in the state’s first human case of rabies since 1954, health officials said Tuesday.

The Lake County man, who was in his 80s, found the animal on his neck in mid-August and declined treatment, but a month later he experienced symptoms of rabies and died, the Illinois Public Health Department said in a statement.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention confirmed the diagnosis Tuesday.

Only one to three human rabies cases are reported in the U.S. each year. Once clinical symptoms appear, the disease is almost always fatal, according to the CDC.

The man in Lake County suffered symptoms of rabies, including neck pain, difficulty controlling his arms, finger numbness and difficulty speaking, the state health department said. A bat colony was found in his home.

“If you think you may have been exposed to rabies, immediately seek medical attention,” the health department’s director, Dr. Ngozi Ezike, said in a statement. He and others said they hoped the unfortunate case would raise awareness.

A vaccine can be given after exposure, and 30,000 to 60,000 people in the U.S. get treatment every year, the CDC says.

In the U.S., most rabies deaths in humans come after exposure to bats, according to the CDC, but any mammal can get it. Other common wildlife vulnerable to rabies are raccoons, skunks and foxes, it said.

Worldwide, rabies causes the most deaths in Asia and Africa, and dogs are the primary source of transmission to humans, according to the World Health Organization.

Phil Helsel is a reporter for NBC News.

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