Mike Bongiorno

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Mike Bongiorno

Mike Bongiorno (born May 26, 1924 in New York City , † September 8, 2009 in Monaco ; actually Michael Nicholas Salvatore Bongiorno ) was the most famous television presenter in Italy . He was known as the "king of quiz shows " and was on television from 1953 to 2009.

youth

Mike Bongiorno was born in New York City on Fifth Avenue and 12th Street in 1924. His father Philip Bongiorno came from a Sicilian emigrant family. He was the first Italian-American to be admitted to Princeton University, worked as a lawyer and was chairman of the Sons of Italy Association . Mike's mother, Enrica Carello, was Italian from Turin . After their parents separated, Mike returned to their hometown with his mother and attended high school there. In 1942 he began a casual job for the sports pages of La Stampa newspaper .

During the Second World War , he interrupted school and in 1944 joined the partisans of the Resistancea , for whom he worked as a messenger. During an attempt to escape through Ashenvale to neutral Switzerland, he was arrested by the Gestapo on April 23, 1944 in the village of Cravegna near Crodo on charges of being an American agent. He spent several months in San Vittore prison in Milan with the well-known journalist Indro Montanelli . He was then deported, first in September 1944 to the Bolzano transit camp , then to the Reichenau camp . Thanks to his American citizenship, he was released in January 1945 during an exchange of prisoners of war between the United States and Germany, mediated by the Red Cross .

Beginning with radio and television

Immediately after his release, in February 1945, Bongiorno went to New York and from 1946 worked for the radio station of the newspaper Il progresso italo-americano on the program Voci e volti dall'Italia . The head of the news program of the Italian RAI , Vittorio Veltroni - the father of Walter Veltroni - noticed him and offered him a contract. Bongiorno produced reports from America for the RAI radio program, mainly about sporting events, such as B. 1951 a report about the boxing match Joe Louis against Rocky Marciano . In 1953, Bongiorno returned to Italy and was one of the people involved in the launch of Italian television: the official RAI television broadcasts began on January 3, 1954, and on that day Bongiorno directed the interview program Arrivi e Partenze .

Lascia o raddoppia?

In November 1955, Mike Bongiorno started the first quiz show on Italian television: Lascia o raddoppia? , a version of the American show The $ 64,000 Question , ran through 1959 and became a huge hit. She contributed to the unstoppable triumph of television and made Mike Bongiorno an icon of the new medium.

The 1960s and 1970s

For the first time in 1963 , then ten more times, Bongiorno moderated the Sanremo Festival .

Return to the RAI and show scandal

After 27 years in which Bongiorno had worked almost exclusively for Silvio Berlusconi's Mediaset group, he made his long-announced return to RAI in September 2007. He moderated the Miss Italia election in Salsomaggiore on RaiUno . Bongiorno came on stage, mentioned his return and said his usual "Allegria!". Then there was a live connection to Bergamo, where the presenter and impersonator Fiorello was on tour. Bongiorno was friends with Fiorello, who was 36 years his junior. The live conversation was overshadowed by technical problems. Then Bongiorno announced his moderation partner, Loretta Goggi . The result was a scandal that received much attention from the Italian media. Goggi, expressly desired as a partner by Bongiorno, stepped down the show stairs, complained about her treatment by Bongiorno and went off. A visibly perplexed Bongiorno then tried to get the show through to the first commercial break. Eventually Goggi reappeared on stage and sang a designated song. Standing by Bongiorno's side, she complained that she had to wait half an hour backstage for her performance while the showmaster did a live link to presenter Fiorello. Italian media reported that Goggi had to be persuaded by broadcaster Fabrizio Del Noce, jury president Michele Placido , the organizer and her husband to perform again. Reference was made to the valid contract and a possible penalty payment. Initially, there were no public statements from Goggi or Bongiorno on the matter. However, Bongiorno told some journalists with watery eyes at his hotel that he did not understand the matter and was very offended.

Robbery of the coffin

About a year and a half after Bongiorno's burial in Arona cemetery in September 2009 , the coffin containing the television presenter's remains was stolen by unknown perpetrators. On December 8, 2011, his coffin was found in Vittuone near Milan. His sons have decided to have him burned (urn).

Others

  • Umberto Eco , who knew Bongiorno because he worked for Lascia e raddoppia? Had formulated quiz questions, wrote an essay in 1961 with the title Fenomenologia di Mike Bongiorno (in: Diario minimo , in German: Phenomenology of the quiz master ), in which he analyzed the television character Bongiorno. Quote:
    “This man owes his success to the fact that there is an absolute mediocrity in every action and every word. The viewer sees in him the image of his own limitations glorified. "
  • The American avant-garde composer John Cage was a mushroom expert candidate for Lascia o Raddoppia? In 1958, after taking part in the Darmstadt Summer Course for New Music that summer and then recording the composition Fontana Mix for the RAI in Milan for four months . He won the equivalent of $ 6,000 in six episodes. During the course of the broadcast, one of his works, entitled Water Walk, was performed using 34 different sound generators, including a bathtub, a grand piano, a pressure cooker, ice cubes in a blender, five radios. Bongiorno's closing words remained known:
    "Bravo, Signor Cage, Arrivederci and have a good trip, are you returning to America or are you staying here?"
    "... My music stays."
    "Ah, you go away and your music stays, but the opposite would be better: if your music goes away and they would stay. "
    (Laughter and applause.)
  • Bongiorno was also called SuperMike due to its decades of success.
  • His exclamation: "Allegria" (joy!) Had become Bongiorno's trademark.
  • Mike Bongiorno was an avowed fan of Juventus Turin .
  • In 1957, Bongiorno founded the Trofeo Topolino , one of the most important youth sports events in alpine skiing.
  • He has also acted in several films, in which he mostly interpreted himself as a quiz master.

Filmography

  • 1955: Father, we want to get married (Ragazze d'oggi) - Director: Luigi Zampa
  • 1955: Journey to Hell to Tobruk (Il prezzo della gloria) - Director: Antonio Musu
  • 1955: Motivo in maschera - Director: Stefano Canzio
  • 1956: I miliardari - Director: Guido Malatesta
  • 1956: Totò, lascia o raddoppia? - Director: Camillo Mastrocinque
  • 1961: The Last Judgment does not take place (Il giudizio universale)
  • 1972: Providenza! - Mousetrap for two weird birds (La vita a volte è molto dura, vero Provvidenza?)
  • 1974: We were so in love (C'eravamo tanto amati) - Director: Ettore Scola
  • 1982: A Spicy Dream (Sogni mostruosamente proibiti) - Director: Neri Parenti
  • 1999: Venti - Director: Marco Pozzi

Web links

Commons : Mike Bongiorno  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ ansa.it
  2. ↑ Italy: Mike Bongiorno's coffin stolen orf.at
  3. ↑ Umberto Eco: Plato in the striptease bar. Carl Hanser Verlag, 1990, ISBN 3-446-14366-1 .
personal data
SURNAME Bongiorno, Mike
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Bongiorno, Michael Nicholas Salvatore (real name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Italian television presenter
DATE OF BIRTH May 26, 1924
PLACE OF BIRTH New York City
DATE OF DEATH September 8, 2009
Place of death Monaco