Maybe Enzo Tortora had the physique du rôle of the victim. High, lean, bonario smile, stretched face. An unsuspectable for the Italians (the ones he was sympathetic to) who took his defenses and never believed the defamations from the prison of Giovanni Pandico. For the other half of the Italians (those who did not bear it) instead that sympathy was the proof of a rotten mal celate. If Enzo Tortora passed to history as the victim of Italian justice, candid as a martyr, he was not however a disproven, indeed. On the occasion of the release on HBO Max in Portobello, TV series directed by Marco Bellocchio, we retrace the history of the host.
Genovese of 1928, Tortora does not hide his early interest in the arts and entertainment. He combines a law degree with the passion for music and acting with the fellow Paolo Villaggio. A little less than thirty-year-old enters Rai. In 1956 he appeared for the first time in the First Applause program and then took over the leadership. It is a year later that they will begin to outline in him not only a very precise television character but various interests, themes, aspects that Rai had never imagined to make central. In 1957 Tortora was sent outside for Telematch, a prize-game program. Among these, the column The mysterious object was intended to travel for the Boot by asking the local people, now of a municipality, now of another, to guess the name and function of a strange tool every time different. Similar was also Campanile evening (in which he always worked Tortora), where even common extracts were challenging in quiz and athletic tests.
If until that moment the profile of the conductor was from imaginary radio, imperturbable and comforting in his diction, always two steps back to the ladder and guests, now his character begins to take a more defined form. Tortora, in the porsi, is natural, affable, courteous and despite everything still manages to make mean a subtle irony, without ever deride the interlocutor, of any class and province. But he is also capable of countercurrent choices. Already in 1962 he was removed from Rai studies because in a episode of Telefortuna, the program he conducted, Alighiero Noschese imitates the president of the council Amintore Fanfani. But he’ll be stronger than before.
Sports Sunday (on air since 1953) is the first real opportunity for Tortora to demonstrate the talent and vision of his role as a conductor. The famous program, from mere sports news, becomes entertainment. Along with the direction of Gianni Serra, Sunday sports goes beyond the chronic narrative and is seasoned with guests, insights, comments managed by the ficcante sympathy of Tortora (which unexpectedly, confesses in the interviews of the time, sport is really dry). Momento topico: February 28, 1965, debuts the moviola that allows to slow down the footage of the actions and capture the details.
It is 1969 when, loved by the Italians, he gives an interview to Today in which he criticizes the political management of Mamma Rai. He calls it “a colossal jet driven by a group of boy scouts who enjoy playing with the controls.” Behind the busy/conductor with a serene look, there is a disappointed and reluctant dreamer who imagines an independent television, perhaps in competition to that of state. He is listened to and then removed from studies. Return to the printed paper and discover the new local television. Among these, in 1972 Telebiella appeared, the first private Italian television, to which the famous face of Tortora makes a remarkable contribution of popularity. It seems the ideal scenario to carry out the work of customs clearance of the realities of the province, but the experience is not destined to last long. The government wants to regulate private emittence almost to the point of banning it, so only a year after Telebiella and her sisters close.
I wonder if thanks to the protests or a rethink on the part of politics, however in 1976 the Rai monopoly is revoked and, despite the difficulties, private networks can restart broadcasting. Tortora believes a lot in a more real, alive television, which reflects Italians in their everyday life and sincerity. He believes in particular in the expression of several voices, even those less known and authoritative, believing that the state monopoly is dangerous. He continued his militancy with Renzo Villa, founding Antennatre Lombardia, which won the color before the Rai: a basin in which to experiment the technological and television languages.
In 1977 the Rai conquered the color (later) and also the return of Tortora, which will officially enter the history of Italy, in the memories of young and old, with the immortal jingle and the stylized green parrot of the theme of his Portobello. Created with her sister Anna, she aired on Friday night on Rai 2. Portobello is the name of the street where the famous London market is held, but also that of the real parrot in the studio that no one can speak, while alternating rubrics on rubrics. Now we sell a statue of St. Anthony, now we desperately seek a harp, or try to reunite two friends who do not see themselves from the military lever or to mate single no more than first fur. Tortora creates its market, mad and confusing, where improvisation and entertainment are constant.
Tortora “scopre” the Italian province. A dimension that is not exactly new to the Rai (if one of his first programs was thought to even teach Italians to read, write and take into account: It is never too late, 1960). But Portobello is just a popular television, on the outskirts, perhaps at a time of (appearing) well-being in which color would bring more sequins to grossly level the unsolved of a country that remained somehow back. A country full of eccentric individuals, sometimes ignorant, unaware or simply strange to whom Tortora granted, with respect and without judgment, five minutes of notoriety because they possessed a treasure, which was an object or a particular quality. All of them were impressed in the minds of the Italians: the neighbor who suddenly arrived on television. More than twenty-five million viewers, a success interrupted by the accusations of 1983 and resumed, in 1987, after the storm.
Tortora becomes a symbol of resistance. Totally supported by the Radicals of Pannella, he is a candidate and elected MEP in their list in 1984, while he is at home. Despite the judiciary, he will force him to resign a year later, in the short term he will be able to conduct a demanding political activity. He died shortly after the acute innocence and freedom, in Milan in 1988. Of the scandal we talk so much and in depth in numerous podcasts, videos, articles. Everyone knows the absurdity of the supposed. Perhaps the same strangeness and peculiarity that Tortora traced to its many guests in Portobello, who made the history of the program, ironically turned back to her. In this case he tells Bellocchio, who still gives Fabrizio Gifuni the task of wearing his clothes. Who knows if even this time the traits of a character of Italian history and those of Gifuni will be confused to this point by being indistinguishable.
The article For an independent television: Enzo Tortora beyond the scandal comes from SentieriSelvaggi.
