Divo and the Duce

A free ebook version of this title is available through Luminos, University of California Presss Open Access publishing program. Visitwww.luminosoa.orgto learn more. In the postWorld War I American climate of isolationism, nativism, democratic expansion of civic rights, and consumerism, Italian-born star Rodolfo Valentino and Italy's dictator Benito Mussolini became surprising paragons of authoritarian male power and mass appeal. Drawing on extensive archival research in the United States and Italy, Giorgio Bertellini's work shows how their popularity, both political and erotic, largely depended on the efforts of public opinion managers, including publicists, journalists, and even ambassadors. Beyond the democratic celebrations of the Jazz Age, the promotion of their charismatic masculinity through spectacle and press coverage inaugurated the now-familiar convergence of popular celebrity and political authority. This is the first volume in the newCinema Cultures in Contactseries, coedited by Giorgio Bertellini, Richard Abel, andMatthew Solomon.