NEW - Frank Capra - film director
Giant of American cinema from humble roots in Sicily
The film director Frank Capra, one of the most celebrated figures of the so-called Golden Age of Hollywood, was born on this day in 1897 in Bisacquino, a hilltop village about 80km (50 miles) south of the Sicilian capital of Palermo. Capra, whose films often championed the cause of society’s underdogs in the face of greedy, powerful elites, were hugely popular with audiences and critics in the 1930s, their stories seen as personifying the American Dream. He won the Oscar for Best Director three times, starting with his breakthrough movie It Happened One Night (1934), starring Clark Gable and Claudette Colbert, followed by Mr Deeds Goes to Town (1936) and You Can’t Take it With You (1938). While initially less well received by the critics and filmgoers, his 1946 tearjerker It’s A Wonderful Life, which starred James Stewart, has come to be regarded as one of the most heartwarming Christmas films of all time. Read more…
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Ezio Pinza - opera and Broadway star
Poor boy from Rome who made his home at the Met
The opera star Ezio Pinza, who had 22 seasons at the Metropolitan Opera in New York from 1926 to 1948 and sang to great acclaim at many other of the world’s most famous opera houses, was born on this day in 1892 in Rome. Pinza, a bass who was blessed with a smooth and rich bass voice and matinee idol looks, also had a successful career in musical theatre on Broadway and appeared in a number of Hollywood films. Born Fortunio Pinza in relative poverty in Rome, he was the seventh child born to his parents Cesare and Clelia but the first to survive. He was brought up many miles away in Ravenna, which is close to the Adriatic coast, about 85km (53 miles) from Bologna and 144km (90 miles) from Venice. He dropped out of Ravenna University but studied singing at Bologna’s Conservatorio Martini and made his opera debut at Cremona in 1914 in Bellini’s Norma. Read more…
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Giovanni Falcone - anti-Mafia crusader
Sicilian lawyer made life's work of taking on Cosa Nostra
Giovanni Falcone, who would become known as an anti-Mafia crusader during his career as a judge and prosecuting magistrate, was born on this day in 1939 in Palermo. The son of a state clerk, he was raised in a poor district of the Sicilian city. Some of the boys with whom he played football in the street would go on to become Mafiosi but Falcone was determined from an early age that he would not be drawn into their world. Educated at the local high school, he studied law at Palermo University. In 1966, at the age of 27, he was appointed a judge in Trapani, a crime-ridden port on the west coast of Sicily and began his lifelong quest to defeat the criminal organisation. In time, Falcone became the Mafia's most feared enemy, appointed the chief prosecutor at the so-called 1987 Maxi Trial in Palermo which convicted 342 members of the so-called Cosa Nostra. Read more…
Domenico di Pace Beccafumi – artist
Painter from Siena experimented with rich colour
Considered one of the last true representatives of the Sienese school of painting, Domenico di Pace Beccafumi died on this day in 1551 in Siena. He is remembered for his direction of the paving of the Duomo - cathedral - of Siena between 1517 and 1544, when he made ingenious improvements to the technical processes employed for this task, which in the end took more than 150 years to complete. Domenico was born in Montaperti near Siena in about 1486. His father, Giacomo di Pace, worked on the estate of Lorenzo Beccafumi, whose surname he eventually took. Seeing his talent for drawing, Lorenzo had taken an interest in him and recommended that he learn painting from the Sienese artist, Mechero. In 1509 Di Pace Beccafumi travelled to Rome for a short period, where he learned from artists working in the Vatican. Read more…
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Giuseppe Ayala – politician and magistrate
Judge who was part of struggle against the Mafia
Anti-Mafia prosecutor Giuseppe Ayala was born on this day in 1945 in Caltanissetta in Sicily. Ayala became well known as an anti-Mafia magistrate and anti-Mafia judge. He was a prosecutor at the so-called Maxi Trial in Palermo in 1987, which resulted in the conviction of 342 Mafiosi. He has continually raised doubts about whether it was the Mafia working alone who were responsible for the killing of his fellow anti-Mafia investigator Giovanni Falcone in 1992. The deaths of Falcone and another prominent anti-Mafia magistrate, Paolo Borsellino, also murdered by the Mafia, came a few months after the killing of Christian Democrat politician, Salvatore Lima, who was thought to be the Mafia’s man on the inside in Rome and had close links with Italy’s three-times prime minister, Giulio Andreotti. Read more…
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Book of the Day: Frank Capra: The Catastrophe of Success, by Joseph McBride
Joseph McBride is an American film historian, biographer, screenwriter and author. He has written books on a variety of subjects including notable film directors, screenwriting, the JFK assassination, and a memoir of his youth. He is a professor at the School of Cinema at San Francisco State University.
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