MUSSOLINI: THE WILD MAN OF EUROPE - Part 3
CONTENTS:
(7) THE MUSSOLINI MOMENT IN AMERICA
(8) MUSSOLINI, VALENTINO AND "THE STAR SYSTEM"
(9) WHO WAS JOHN BOND?
FOR THE BACKSTORY, SEE:
MUSSOLINI: THE WILD MAN OF EUROPE - Part 1
MUSSOLINI: THE WILD MAN OF EUROPE - Part 2
(7) THE MUSSOLINI MOMENT IN AMERICA
John Bond was not just a reductive thinker, he was a conspiracy theorist too. Time and again, this wreaked havoc with his facts —as we have seen.
Case in point: the Knights of Columbus was a Catholic fraternal organization founded in New Haven, Connecticut in 1882 but with a growing presence in other countries.
Right there on the Knights' own crest— observed by Bond when he visited their offices in Rome —was the chief Fascist symbol... or so it seemed... with the dire conspiracy it implied.
“The close association in this country between Fascism and Romanism…”
“Romanism” was Bond’s favorite catch-all for the entrenched wickedness of the Eternal City —more or less co-extensive with “Catholicism” or at least "Catholic Culture", it would seem.
“This country” refers to present-day Italy, not the homeland(s) of his mostly Protestant English-language readers.
Whatever news Bond was picking up in Rome, he could be oddly clueless regarding essential facts even on the American side.
To wit: the Knights of Columbus incorporated the fasces into their escutcheon in 1883.
On the historical timeline, that was the year of Mussolini’s birth, thirty-five years before his foundation of the initial Fascist Party and forty-six years before the Lateran Accords.
As for the fasces itself, it had been a prime emblem of national destiny from the very conception of the United States, with its implied motto, “Epluribus Unum / Out of Many, One”.
Returning to "weeds" and "hothouses", John Bond might have been obsessed but he wasn't wrong when it came to Mussolini 's calculated manipulation of the Italian community in America.
Where is Bond coming from?
Where is Bond not coming from?
Bond was more right than wrong when it came tio Mussollni's workings in America
Francesco di Legge, Among historians at least, Mussolini’s well-organized and highly effective propaganda initiatives among Italian Americans is now awell-documented story…
(8) MUSSOLINI, VALENTINO AND "THE STAR SYSTEM"
World,” Liberty Magazine, January 16, 1926.
This could only have come out of America…
Both stars in the age of cinema—which was also the age of modern publicity and advertising—suddenly just as crucial in the world of modern statecraft, modern entertainment and modernanything else..
Theirstrange relationship (for lack a better word) exemplifies the complexities of what was both “The Benito Mussolini Moment” and “The Rudolph Valentino Moment”.
Learned it in Italy from Mussolini
Archivio Storico Capitolino, Rome)
Unfortunately,we don’t have a photo of “America’s Sweetheart” and “The King of Hollywood” tête-à-tête with “The Founder of Fascism”—but at least, we have this little gem of international press-agentry.,
The rise of Mussolini coincided with advent of the Star System in Hollywood (not to mention Cinecittà in Rome).
The Mussolini regime was brilliant when it came to harnessing star power...in fact, it began with the ultra charismatic Duce himself
Marconi
Balbo--the most compelling of the Duce's surrogates (so compelling that there wasn't room for both of them on the same stage in the same regime)
Not just top-notch celebrities but also everyday Italian Americans
Ray Tucker, Washington Correspondent for the New York Telegram, published three-part article that appeared in more than 50 papers in July 1927 including an italian translation in Il Nuovo Mondo (July 29, 30 and 31 1927)
Which is why the external captioning of the Engliosh-language cartoon is in Italian.
Il Nuovo Mondo was an Italian language anti-Fascist daily newspaper which was published in New York City and then, in Chicago between 1926 and 1931. The paper was the first anti-Fascist daily published abroad by the Italians.[1]
childlike figure delivering laundry
"This isn't our style"
"Il fascismo non è merce da esportazione" Mussolini
Liberal columnist & an Italian-American Socialist newspaper
Questa citazione si riferisce a una celebre riflessione del sacerdote e statista siciliano Luigi Sturzo. Fu scritta nel settembre del 1945 e pubblicata sulla rivista Nazioni Unite, poi confluita nella sua raccolta La mia battaglia da New York.
In 1927, the Klan reference was far from idle.
'The Black and White Brotherhood' — American cartoon published in the New York Call (11 November 1922) showing an Italian Fascist gazing across the ocean to his 'brother' in the KKK. Artist: Ryan Walker.
Socialist paper Walker was intensely involved with racial issues--especially lynching and the KKK
Were the Fascists and the Klan on the same side?! Working on the assumption that all his enemies are necessarily friends
Playing up the Italian connection
Bringing it back to Washington
Alfred E Smith is the big story
1936--After the disolution of the Fascist League of North America (FLNA) in 1929
Italians celebrate Mussolini's victory in Addis Ababa. New York's "Little Italy" went wild with joy over entry of Il Duce's troops into Addis Ababa. This group in front of 115 Mott Street drinks toast to Mussolini and to victory.
(9) WHO WAS JOHN BOND???
Related posts
MUSSOLINI: THE WILD MAN OF EUROPE - Part 1
In a "Little Library" in Washington DC, I happened upon "Mussolini: The Wild Man of Europe"— John Bond's eccentric exposé of Benito Mussolini, printed in the Nation's Capital in 1929.
In my first post, "Wild Man, Part 1", Bond helped reveal the inner workings of the Ku Klux Klan in Washington DC, Atlanta GA and Altoona PA.
In "Wild Man, Part 2", we took Bond's book to Fascist Italy and viewed the Duce through the outraged author's eyes.
Here in "Wild Man", Part 3", we bring Bond back to Philo-Fascist America. There we see the Duce lauded by Italian Americans, by Hollywood celebrities and by the mainstream press.
Who was John Bond? A "Militant Freemason", a virulent anti-Catholic and an anti-Mussolini conspiracy theorist.
How about his message? Bond was strange and obsessed but he wasn't always wrong.
MUSSOLINI: THE WILD MAN OF EUROPE - Part 2
In a "Little Library" in Washington DC, I happened upon "Mussolini: The Wild Man of Europe"— John Bond's eccentric exposé of Benito Mussolini, printed in the Nation's Capital in 1929.
In my first post, "Wild Man, Part 1", Bond helped reveal the inner workings of the Ku Klux Klan in Washington DC, Atlanta GA and Altoona PA.
Here in "Wild Man, Part 2", we take Bond's book to Fascist Italy and view the Duce through the outraged author's eyes.
In "Wild Man", Part 3", we bring Bond back to Philo-Fascist America. There we see the Duce lauded by Italian Americans, by Hollywood celebrities and by the mainstream press.
Who was John Bond? A "Militant Freemason", a virulent anti-Catholic and an anti-Mussolini conspiracy theorist.
How about his message? Bond was strange and obsessed but he wasn't always wrong.
GUGLIELMO MARCONI: Science, Fascism, Antisemitism and What Else?
History has given a free pass to Guglielmo Marconi, who was both a scientific genius and a Fascist ideologue.
There are two stories to tell—first in Italy and then in America.
COLUMBUS, MARCONI AND BALBO: Italian Heroes Collide with American Reality
In 1930s America, Guglielmo Marconi, the inventor of the radiotelegraph and Italo Balbo, the aeronautical "Second Columbus" led a brilliantly orchestrated public relations campaign on behalf of Benito Mussolini's regime.
Americans—especially Italian-Americans—enthusiastically embraced the emblems of Fascist ideology until the Second World War intervened.
ANNO FASCISTA = FASCIST YEAR: Florence’s Mussolini-era sewer caps
Benito Mussolini had a rare knack for signs and symbols. Throughout Italy, they still follow us wherever we go.
What about Florence's ubiquitous "Anno Fascista = Fascist Year" sewer caps?
Thereby hangs many a tale...
E.42: Mussolini's Fascist Theme Park on the Outskirts of Rome
What if the Duce threw a World's Fair and no one came?
That is basically the story of the E.U.R. (Esposizione Universale Roma 1942)—one of the Eternal City's strangest and most intriguing districts.
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