Why are fictional Italians who behave like violent Neanderthals considered more “authentic” than living legends like Bennett?
On CBS’ 60 Minutes a few weeks ago, reporter Anderson Cooper offered a profile of 95-year-old Tony Bennett, detailing the great crooner’s struggles with Alzheimer’s. For those of us lucky enough to catch Bennett’s annual performances at Ravinia over the past decades, it was bittersweet to watch. Though slowed by the disease, Bennett’s performing spark lit immediately whenever he heard music or was in front of a crowd. Bravo, Antonio!
I found it telling, though, that on that same weekend The Many Saints of Newark — a prequel to The Sopranos TV series — opened in theaters and via HBO. Critics and fans constantly comment on the “Italian” background of the film’s characters, all of whom (it’s rather embarrassing to have to point this out) are completely fictional. They do not exist.
On 60 Minutes, Cooper never once mentioned that both Tony Bennett and Lady Gaga, his frequent partner for duets, are Italian Americans. Bennett was born Benedetto, Gaga was born Germanotta. Was Cooper obligated to do so? Course not. Bennett and Gaga are, first and foremost, Americans. Their talents belong to us all.
But this does raise the question: Why are fictional Italians presented as violent Neanderthals considered more “authentic” than living legends like Bennett and Gaga?
Talk about “illusion” vs. “reality!”
The novelist Luigi Pirandello, who specialized in that literary theme, would have been disturbed by this.
So should we all. -BDC
[Published as a letter in the Chicago Sun-Times, Oct 8, 2021]
There seems to be cultural amnesia when it comes to real Italian Americans. Recently while cleaning out some old papers I came across an article in 1991 from the Jazz Archivist (Tulane U.) and a discussion of the Original Dixie Land Jazz Band, the first recorder of a jazz piece, featuring Nick LaRocca and Tony Sbarbaro. When the band was mentioned at a panel discussion about early Jazz celebrities, the matter was discounted to the point that an observer felt compelled to write an article called Jazz and the Italian Connection.
It’s a fascinating article but the punch line for me is the following statement: “Yet one can only wonder how historians who are trained to ask hard questions could have contented themselves with such a brusque and simplistic response to an apparently sincere request on the matter of the ODJB….” That observation is as relevant today, if not more so than when it was made in 1991. The famed Public Television Series on Jazz by Burns made the same omission thereby making once again real Italian American life less engaging than fantasy tales. Keep telling the big lies without a rebuttal becomes a self-fulfilling construct and more the danger.
Very true re: “self-fulfiling prophecy.” Italian Americans see only negative images; therefore, that is all they imitate. And—an even deeper issue–this attitude creates a type of intellectual “brain-freeze”; that is, they have no desire to look beyond the stereotypes or refute them.
They accept them as “real,” even though they themselves know them to be caricatures.
The American media reinforces this brain-freeze by regurgitating Puzo and Coppola’s imagery from “The Godfather.” These images have been on auto-pilot for 50 years now.
As for jazz: As you may know, I co-wrote a 2015 book (available on Amazon) called, “Bebop, Swing and Bella Musica: Jazz and the Italian American Experience.” Even while doing early research on the book back in the late 90s, I sent a letter to Burns’s production company and showed him my findings regarding the Italian Americans’ contributions–including the mutual admiration society between Black and Italian jazz artists (Burns is very big on Black history, and I thought this tidbit would open his eyes and move him).
As it turned out, Nick LaRocca is mentioned only in passing in the PBS film, and dismissed just as casually as he was in that article which you mention. We are literally being written out of American history. The power of the “Godfather” image cannot be understated.
The racist habit of identifying only negative characters and people as Italian can be seen not just in movies and culture but also in current events.
Think about the murder of girl next door, Gabby Petito. With so much coverage from traditional and social media and this country obsession with race, nobody has mentioned that she is Italian-American (her father is a a New York Italian American, Joe Petito). It must be unconceivable for many that a beautiful “all-American” blonde blue eyed victim of a violent crime is actually Italian-American. Same for her dad who has shown tremendous dignity and composure during the ordeal.
Let us imagine for a second if Gabby had been the perpetrator, instead of the the victim. Her and her family heritage would have been definitely been brought up and discussed for sure.
Absolutely. Her father would have suddenly had “mob ties.” No exaggeration.
In an interview with Professor Richard Gambino in a previous issue of Italic Way Magazine (you can access it in the Research Library menu of the website), he relates a story of going to a restaurant with colleagues and hearing one of them whisper to another that it was “owned by the mafia.” Gambino smiled: He knew the family who owned the restaurant; they had absolutely zero ties to anything criminal-related.
But this is the exact thinking that it out there. No exaggeration!!
Things have not changed and only will when enough Italian Americans use their numbers, wealth and position, demanding change!
Beebop, Swing, and Bella Musica is on my shelf and was part of my holiday gifts a couple of years back. Kudos,.. it’s an amazing and fun book and a brilliant piece of research.
It also underscores the observation, about the expectations we should all have about a certain level or standard we should demand of historic research. What is passing for historical analysis is nothing more than a political agenda and or pop entertainment. What is left out is equally striking especially for Italian Americans. A lot of Burns stuff is that too. And mores the pity, in the case of really trying to learn about or come to terms with the complexities of a particular matter. Even the emergence of Jazz in the 1880s and some of its roots in Little Palermo, aka French Quarter in NO, is a lot more fascinating than ‘Party line tales”.
Kind words, thanks. Your point about political agendas is spot-on; they even inform something as innocuous as Stanley Tucci’s recent CNN special on Italian food. I happen to like Tucci and also agree with some of his political ideas (treating migrants with dignity).
But what, pray-tell, did any of these ideas have to do with the subject of “Italian food and culture?” In show after show, he did segments specifically celebrating well-known Leftist
icons: the poor, women, and people of color–and always at the expense of undercutting the Italian state. “Food-for-thought” is what we need via Italian/Italian American history.
Prof. DiNovo is also correct: With the immense wealth in our community, it is a scandal that we have yet to move the needle on either our media images or political power.
For Italians born and raised in Italy, things are different. As you can imagine, we are exposed to everything, not just mobsters.
Think about the recent animated film Luca, produced by Pixar. I have not watched the movie but – shockingly – the plot and the trailer do not seem to contain any racist references to criminals. It looks like a nice coming of age fantasy film for children set in Italy with Italian characters. Definitely, a must watch for Italian-American children.
Well, the film director is an Italian, born and raised in Italy (Enrico Casarosa). Had he been Italian-American, he would have most likely injected negative stereotypes.
I had high hopes for Luca. Alas, due to the pandemic, which was still with us in early summer of 2021 (re: the Delta variant), the film died a slow water death. It is technically not a bad film at all, but Pixar needs some new writers: the script was predictable.
As for the lack of negative stereotypes: Yes, I had read that the animator was himself a native Italian, so I breathed a sigh of relief.
That said, two oddities in the film: a) the three main characters, though ostensibly Italian, speak perfect American English; and b) the main villain in the piece is a local bully with a completely exaggerated Italian accent–not a mafioso, but still “the bad guy.” Mamma mia!