25.8.10

People: Anita Page & Benito Mussolini

Although I find Bessie Love far more interesting than her "sister" from "Broadway Melody of 1929" there is an interesting thing about Anita Page : apparently she was a big movie star in her time and between other love letters she was getting,there were several sent by Benito Mussolini who admired her in this very movie. Her mother was responsible for sending him Anita's pictures (as she did with any other fan mail) all of this against big MGM bosses who advised this is not such a good idea.


In light of Mussolini's later life,this puts a different angle on his character - we know him as political dictator and bad guy,but to find out he was writing love letters to a movie star (whom he only knew from a screen) well this shows there was a lovelorn hope and daydreaming in him - never mind Anita Page right now (by all accounts she didn't really act all those scatterbrained characters) - I am fascinated with the unexpected glimpse into a character of a man we all know as a epitome of evil fascist (and you can't forget those gruesome pictures of his death,hanged upside down with the crowd cheering) and this little story inexplicably fills me with sadness.

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