{"id":30607,"date":"2024-06-06T00:04:00","date_gmt":"2024-06-05T22:04:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/la-bella-vita.club\/?p=30607"},"modified":"2025-06-21T22:35:56","modified_gmt":"2025-06-21T20:35:56","slug":"sophia-loren-the-career-of-the-italian-diva","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/la-bella-vita.club\/en\/sophia-loren-die-karriere-der-italienischen-diva\/","title":{"rendered":"SOPHIA LOREN - The story of a super diva"},"content":{"rendered":"

Collage: Immortal-truth at English Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 3.0<\/a> via Wikimedia Commons<\/sup><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Sophia Loren at 15 at a pageant in Naples and at 74 at an event in London<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Sophia Loren (88), the super diva from Italy. Famous all the way to Hollywood, in show business for more than 60 years. Yet her childhood in Naples was tough: little or nothing to eat, born out of wedlock. The story of a poor girl from Naples who becomes a world star. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Italy's stars and starlets: The rich & beautiful of the Bel Paese<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\"When I think back on my life, I am sometimes surprised that everything is actually true,\" Loren writes in her memoirs. Her childhood was a \"hard struggle\". Perhaps that is also why Loren later never gives up, no matter how much headwind there is. How a skinny girl from Naples becomes the darling of Hollywood...<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\"sophia
The Loren 1979 interview: With this smile, the film world melts...<\/strong>
Photo: ETH-Bibliothek Zurich, picture archive \/ Photographer: Jules Vogt \/ Com L28-0277-0001-0004 \/ CC BY-SA 4.0<\/a><\/sub><\/sup><\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n
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Birth in a social care unit<\/strong><\/h5>\n\n\n\n
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Sophia is born on 20 September 1934 as the <\/b>So<\/em>fia Villani Scicolone <\/em>born in a charity ward for unwed mothers in Rome. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Her father is still married to another woman. Loren and her younger sister grow up in extreme poverty. They are raised by their mother, Romilda Villani, her grandparents and extended family outside Naples in the town of Pozzuoli. From the Second World War, Loren is left with memories of the bombing raids, during which they hide in a railway tunnel. Money is so scarce that sometimes there is nothing to eat. That's why the skinny Sofia is called \"toothpick\" at school. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\"Sophia
At the age of 21: Sophia Loren was born Sofia Scicolone
<\/strong>Photo: Flickr verified by UploadWizardCC-BY-SA-2.0Files from Flickr uploaded by Moheen<\/sup><\/sub><\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n
It all starts with beauty contests<\/strong><\/h5>\n\n\n\n
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In the teenage years comes the turning point: The \"toothpick\" becomes a curvy swan with a super slim waist and a voluptuous bust. In 1949, Sofia was 14 years old at the time, and an advertisement was placed in the \"Corriere di Napoli\" seeking candidates for a beauty contest. The \"Princess of the Seas\" is to be chosen in the local \"Press Club\". <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Overnight, mother, grandma and aunts sew a sensational evening dress from curtains. A first appearance with consequences. When Sofia Scicolone \"only\" came second, the audience was so outraged that dishes flew - and in the end even the police had to come. \"From that day on, something changed in me,\" Loren later recalled. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\"Sophia
Do you recognise Sophia Loren from the 1950 Miss Roma pageant? P. S. She is third from the left<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n
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The mother as manager<\/strong><\/h5>\n\n\n\n
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At 16, Sofia becomes \"Miss Eleganza\", a sign for her mother: \"From that moment on, I knew she would realise my dream.\" As a young woman, Romilda Villani had come second in a Greta Gabor lookalike competition, won a trip to Hollywood. But her boyfriend at the time and later father of her daughters gave her a choice. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The mother, as manager, plans the career in general terms. Not an isolated case at the time. \"It's the mothers who make careers,\" writes Swiss journalist Edith Gloor about the phenomenon. In order not to leave Sophia to the dangers of the film industry, the mother moves to Rome with her two daughters. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Sophia Loren (here aged 25) with Italy's paparazzo king Rino Barillari
<\/strong>Photo: Ziogiucas at Italian Wikipedia, CC-BY-SA-3.0,2.5,2.0,1.0<\/a><\/sup><\/sub><\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n
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The path to the film industry is difficult. Such small extra roles that Sofia is not even mentioned by name. At first Sofia appears under her real surname Scicolone, then under the stage name \"Lazzaro\". Life in Rome is hard, money is always tight, the family always has to move to another boarding house.<\/p>\n\n\n