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Articles on Italian American Stereotyping
Italian
America Magazine Column: It's Only A Movie
The
Sons of Italy's Sempre Avanti column by Dona
De Sanctis
2007
2006
2005
The Sons of Italy's Adweek article by Dona De Sanctis
Italian
American Stereotypes in U.S. Advertising
This report from the Order Sons of Italy in America shows
the American advertising industry's alarming pattern
of promoting damaging stereotypes of Italian Americans. "Italian
American Stereotypes in U.S. Advertising" presents
a random sampling of print ads and television commercials
seen nationally between 1999 and 2003 that use Italian
American characters or include Mafia references. Men
are invariably presented as uneducated, dishonest or
violent, while the women are always elderly, overweight
housewives. Click here to
read the full report.
Made
in Hollywood:
Italian Stereotypes in the Movies
Behind the camera, the early Italian immigrants helped
launch Hollywood's film industry while on-screen they
were typecast in roles still recognizable today.
Among the Italians who immigrated to America 100 years
ago were men and women whose talents were useful to the
brand-new American movie business. Their training in stonecutting
and sculpture, church decoration and garment-making made
them natural resources as costume designers, set decorators,
painters, masons, and the all-purpose artisans desperately
needed on the movie set.
Their long history with spectacle and festivals made them
comfortable with filmmaking's monumental tasks while their
natural inventiveness and mechanical aptitude were essential
to an industry creating itself at breakneck speed.
Italian Americans like director Fred Niblo, cinematographer
Tony Gaudio and writer/director Frank Capra rose to the
top even before talking pictures were invented. But on-screen,
Italian Americans fared very differently. Why? ... Click
here to read more of "Made In Hollywood" by Rosanne De
Luca Braun.
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| The
Italian American gangster didn't surface until talking
pictures in the 1930s, but a few early films had
Mafia themes. This scene is from "The Black Hand"
in 1906. |
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Italian American director Frank Niblo (L) with Rudolph Valentino on the set
of "Blood and Sand" (1922). Talents like Niblo, cinematographer Tony Gaudio
or writer/director Frank Capra helped create Hollywood. |
At the Movies: Positive Film Portrayals
of Italian Americans, 1972- 2003
In 1972, the first "Godfather" film was released.
The following is a partial list of movies made by major
Hollywood studios and independent producers since 1972
that present Italian American characters and situations
in a positive light.
During that same three-decade period, however, more than
260 films - an average of nearly nine movies a year -
have been made about the Mafia. Click
here to read more.
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