Scaramacai is an Italian television personality of the mid- 20th century . He made his first appearance on television in 1955, to appear on several broadcasts until 1966.
| “Mi sun Scaramacai, in the midst of his troubles. Mi sun Scaramacai, cumbinu always trouble. Mi sun a romper with no home and no roof. “ |
| ( Scaramacai’s smash [1] ) |
Scaramacai was a clown characterized by a horizontal striped shirt and the “sad smile”; the shirt and make-up were colored, but the broadcasts at that time were in black and white. The origin of the name would be due to a term that was used to indicate walkers and acrobats. [2]
History
He was played by the magazine actress Pinuccia Nava [3] , very famous in the 1940s. The character was invented by Umberto Simonetta and Guglielmo Zucconi . Among the fifties and sixties Scaramacai achieved great success in young audiences, becoming famous enough to have employed the quintessential value of name for a person dressed or made up so flashy, but sloppy and ridiculous [ citation needed ] .
Scaramacai was created for children’s TV and later starred in two Carosello series between 1957 and 1967 for Goliath candies for the Clan agency. [4] The first series, Scaramacai , produced by General Film, directed by Mario Fattori and written by Nava herself, was broadcast from 1957 to 1958 and then resumed from 1965 to 1966. [4] The first broadcast, in 1957, he saw Scaramacai in some circus skits engaged in confronting the white clown played by Tonino Micheluzzi . [4] The following one in 1958 saw Scaramacai sharing the scene with the German trainer played by Aldo Giuffré. [4]
In the series broadcast between 1965 and 1966, the atmosphere changes and Scaramacai is transported to other settings, such as an unspecified war between two neighboring countries or to the Moon where he meets a selenite played by Talita Pool . [4] In all these carousels at the end Scaramacai always pronounced the slogan “For the voice and for the throat of Goliath there is only one!”. [4]
A subsequent series of Carosello , entitled Etiquette for the little ones , also for the Clan agency, was produced by Nino and Toni Pagot [N 1] and aired in 1967. The series sees Scaramacai busy teaching children good manners , assisted by his assistant Professor De Michelangelis, played by Elio Crovetto . [4]
Scaramacai was also the protagonist of the film Scaramacai e la Befana (1962), directed by Gianni Serra , and of the six-part series Scaramacai and the beata island , directed by Alda Grimaldi .
The character does not appear in the online archive of Rai broadcasts (which includes only some images of the character) [ without source ] .
Illustrated stories
The character of Scaramacai also appeared in some volumes of large format hardback necklace Precious stones of Mondadori , since 1960, on texts by William Zucconi and with the drawings Manlio Amodeo and Grace Nidasio [5] [6] . It was also published in the Corriere dei Piccoli from 1961 onwards [7] .
Filmography
Television
- The Adventures of a Clown – TV Miniseries (1961)
- Scaramacai and the Befana , directed by Gianni Serra – TV film (1962)
- Scaramacai and the blessed island , directed by Alda Grimaldi – TV miniseries (1963)
Partial discography
Singles
- 1960 – Pinuccia Nava Scaramacai N. 1
- 1960 – Pinuccia Nava Scaramacai N. 2
- 1961 – Pinuccia Nava Scaramacai
- 1963 – Pinuccia Nava The songs of scaramacai
- 1963 – Pinuccia Nava The songs of scaramacai
Books
- Guglielmo Zucconi , Scaramacai and the baroness woman , Grazia Nidasio (illustrations), Milan, Mondadori, 1963, SBN IT \ ICCU \ SBL \ 0255139 .
Influences in culture
The character of Scaramacai was a source of inspiration for Sandra Mondaini in the creation of the character of Sbirulino [8] .
Note
Explanatory
- ^ In the same year, the Pagot family created the famous character of Draghetto Grisù for Carosello, again for Caremoli, but for Menta Fredda candies .
Sources
- ^ Vittorio Ferorelli, The signs on the map , on Emilia-Romagna Region – Institute for cultural and natural artistic heritage .
- ^ Luca Boschi, 2007 , p. 28 .
- ^ Enrico Lancia and Roberto Poppi, 2003 , p. 260 .
- Marco Giusti, 1995 , p. 131 .
- ^ Luca Boschi, Fininvest sentenced (with discount) for the Mondadori award (updated to 10 July) , on Global Cartoonist , Il Sole 24 Ore – Nova , 10 July 2011.
- ^ Guglielmo Zucconi, 1963 .
- ^ Scaramacai , in Corrierino and Giornalino , Blogspot .
- ^ Interview with Lisetta Nava , on Vigro , Libero .
Bibliography
- Luca Boschi , Unrepeatable. The great seasons of Italian comics , Coniglio, 2007.
- Marco Giusti , The great book by Carosello. And now all to bed … , Sperling & Kupfler Editori, 1995, ISBN 88-200-2080-7 .
- Aldo Grasso, Encyclopedia of television Garzanti , Garzanti, 1996.
- Enrico Lancia and Roberto Poppi (edited by), The actresses. From 1930 to the present day , Gremese, 2003.
- Angelo Olivieri and Alberto Castellano, The Stars of Variety. Magazine, show and cabaret from 1936 to 1966 , Gremese Editore, 1989.
[translated from the Italian Wikipedia]