Word: romilda
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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...work as Garbo's double, but Romilda's mother refused to let her go on the ground that Rudolph Valentino had reportedly been poisoned and that was a portent of what a good Italian could expect in America. So Romilda began living with Scicolone instead, and ended up by returning to her native Pozzuoli with a baby daughter...
...streets, cluttered pink and white buildings, seagulls screaming overhead, a bright blue waterfront, a Roman amphitheater where Gennaro-patron saint of Naples-achieved his exaltation simply because a pride of lions refused to eat him. It now has a municipal slogan: "What a woman we have exported." Romilda's health was poor, and her breasts went dry. Little Sofia-the ph was inserted later because it seems more exotic to the Italian eye-was turned over to a hired wet nurse. From a bed swarming with six grandchildren, the wet nurse last week reminisced: "Sophia was the ugliest child...
Last month Maria Scicolone was married to Romano Mussolini, son of Il Duce and now a jazz pianist. "Since Maria has been married in white in church and in the eye of the world, my happiness is nearly complete as a mother." says Romilda. "But never as long as I live will I overcome my hate for Scicolone. Now he comes around trying to be friendly, but we don't want him, and my vendetta was nearly complete when Maria refused to let him come to her wedding. That is poetic justice." Nonetheless, when he comes around, Romilda still...
Generazione Bruciata. In the early days, before World War II, Romilda helped support her daughters by giving piano lessons in Pozzuoli and playing in local cafés. Sophia's grandfather-who now at 78 struts about town in the warmth of his magic celebrity-was then a cannon maker at the local arms factory. In the four-room family flat, nine people slept in one bedroom; Sophia shared a bed with her grandmother, grandfather and an aunt...
...There I told my first big lie for Sophia," Romilda says. "Someone called out. This way for girls who speak English.' 'Sure!' I told the man, 'my daughter speaks English. Don't you speak English, Sophia?' 'Sì, Mamma.' And we found ourselves in a room with lots of people and Mervyn LeRoy sitting in a chair. He said in English, 'Do you speak English?' And Sophia asked me in Italian what he was saying. They realized we were bluffing, but for our courage they gave us both jobs...