IL DUCE’S SON

Southland Times, Issue 23377, 8 December 1937, Page 8

IL DUCE’S SON

Vittoria Mussolini In

Hollywood

VISIT BRINGS DANGER OF “INCIDENTS” Romulus, son of the wolf, is creating no little stir as he moves here and there about the film capital, though a good deal of secrecy is being injected into the proceedings by the authorities as incident after incident is registered in studio conversations, says a writer in The New York Times. The latest episode occurred when young Vittoria Mussolini was invited by his host, Hal Roach, to visit some of the studios and see how pictures are made. A group of writers on the Warner lot got the wind of the impending visit to their studio and set up a miniature Union Square in front of stage 14, crying “Down with the Fascist!” and other impolite phrases to anyone who would listen. They continued this for a while. Then, finding no one more dangerous on whom to vent their wrath than a couple of amused publicity people who had been detailed to take the Duce’s son around the set, they departed for their separate offices breathing slaughter. Young Mussolini drove up to the stage 15 minutes later, unaware that he was anything but a visiting hero, alighted smiling from Mr Roach’s limousine, spent half an hour watching shots on the set and, with a few waves to the gathered players, who were simply overwhelmed at his presence departed. An attempt to reach the writers and the one director implicated in the earlier demonstration elicited the information that some had gone home and others were “in conference with Mr Le Roy.” An international incident had been escaped by the breadth of a hair. Toward Mr Mussolini himself there is nothing but the usual amenities dished up for all visiting dignitaries. The red carpet is rolled out, the prettiest girls are brought around to lavish their most bewitching smiles, a battery of photographers works incessantly with camera and flashlight, and duly appointed Press agents speak learnedly of the place of the American picture in the international scheme of things. Once he is gone the set is arranged for a new camera angle. The red carpet is rolled up, the girls depart, the pictures taken are put under the knife and the Press agents go back to the outer offices to await another assignment. One thing is certain: Hollywood, under the strictest self-imposed censorship it has ever experienced, will not breathe freely again until the rotund little enfant terrible is gone.