UCLA Electronic Theses and Dissertations
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UCLA UCLA Electronic Theses and Dissertations Title Exporting Mrs. Consumer: The American Woman in Italian Culture, 1945-1975 Permalink https://escholarship.org/uc/item/2kv6s20v Author Harris, Jessica Lynne Publication Date 2016 Peer reviewed|Thesis/dissertation eScholarship.org Powered by the California Digital Library University of California UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA Los Angeles Exporting Mrs. Consumer: The American Woman in Italian Culture, 1945-1975 A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree Doctor of Philosophy in History by Jessica Lynne Harris 2016 © Copyright by Jessica Lynne Harris 2016 ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATION Exporting Mrs. Consumer: The American Woman in Italian Culture, 1945-1975 by Jessica Lynne Harris Doctor of Philosophy in History University of California, Los Angeles, 2016 Professor Brenda Stevenson, Co-chair Professor Geoffre W. Symcox, Co-chair “Exporting Mrs. Consumer: The American Woman in Italian Culture, 1945-1975” examines the development and growth of a mass consumer-based society in Italy after the Second World War. Employing a gendered and transnational approach, the dissertation puts women at the center of the analysis by specifically focusing on American female consumer culture’s influence on Italian women’s lives from 1945-1975. This study, in contrast to existing literature on the topic, provides a more comprehensive understanding of the nature of the models and messages of American female consumer culture in Italy during this period, how they influenced Italian women, and the extent of this culture’s influence. Furthermore, the analysis of the intersection of the modern “American woman” (the white middle-class suburban American ii housewife), consumerism, and Italian female culture and identities provides new insight into the unique cultural relationship between the United States and Italy following the Second World War. The American female consumer products and institutions—beauty products, the refrigerator, mass produced ready-to-wear fashion, the department store, and the supermarket— transferred to Italy by American companies and Italian entrepreneurs during this period, introduced new models of behavior and ways of life that promised prosperity, a higher standard of living, and relief from burdensome and tiring daily chores to Italian women seeking to emerge from the suffering they endured during the war. Additionally, they promoted democratic consumer capitalist values—freedom of choice, individualism, abundance, and affluence—that contrasted with Catholic values, such as modesty and religious morality, and Communist values, such as collectivism, equality, and financial morality. As such, the modern “American woman” became a significant figure in Italy’s cultural and social contest for the hearts and minds of Italians fought between the Catholic Church and the Italian Communist Party. Overall, American female consumer culture’s invasion of postwar Italy challenged Italian notions regarding women’s societal roles and transformed the ways in which Italian women from the upper to middle-classes styled themselves and their homes, shopped, and ultimately, how they identified themselves. iii The dissertation of Jessica Lynne Harris is approved. John A. Agnew Robin David Gibran Kelley Kathryn Norberg Brenda Stevenson, Committee Co-chair Geoffre W. Symcox, Committee Co-chair University of California, Los Angeles 2016 iv To Granny Vee v TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction………………………………………………………………………………………..1 Chapter 1: Modernize and Americanize: Rebuilding the Mondadori Publishing Company’s Magazine Division in Post World War II Italy…………………………………………………..23 Chapter 2: La Rinascente: A Symbol of Postwar Italian Rebirth with American Roots…….......53 Chapter 3: The Arrival of Modernity and Tradition: The Refrigerator and Italian Women in the Postwar Period………………………………………………………………………………….103 Chapter 4: The “American Way of Life” in Print: Beauty Culture in the Italian Women’s Magazine Annabella, 1945-1975……………………………………………………………….152 Chapter 5: Noi Donne and Famiglia Cristiana: Communists, Catholics, and American Female Culture in Cold War Italy………………………………………………………………………194 Conclusion……………………………………………………………………………………...234 Bibliography……………………………………………………………………………………245 vi LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1: La Rinascente, Milano Piazza del Duomo, Before Bombing in August 1943………...51 Figure 2: La Rinascente, Milano Piazza del Duomo, Damage from August 1943 Bombing……63 Figure 3: La Rinascente, Milano Piazza del Duomo, Damage from August 1943 Bombing……63 Figure 4: Umberto and Cesare Brustio, Los Angeles, November 1948…………………………69 Figure 5: The American Department Store, Escalator at Foley’s, Houston, Texas……………...71 Figure 6: The American Department Store, Window Display, Lord and Taylor, New York…...73 Figure 7: Newly Rebuilt La Rinascente, Milano Piazza del Duomo on Opening Day………….76 Figure 8: La Rinascente, Milano Piazza del Duomo, Escalator with Cardinal Schuster, Opening Day, December 4, 1950………………………………………………………………………….77 Figure 9: La Rinascente, Milano Piazza del Duomo, Window Display, 1950…………………..80 Figure 10: La Rinascente Advertisement.......................................................................................90 Figure 11: Items for Sell, “Un mese d’America”………………………………………………..93 Figure 12: Ignis, Frigorifero 180L, 1956……………………………………………………….114 Figure 13: Ignis Refrigerators in the Factory……….…………………………………………..115 Figure 14: Frigorifero “Side-by-Side” 540 L, 1968…………………………………………….117 Figure 15: Frigidaire “Sheer Look” Advertisement…………………………………………….134 Figure 16: Ignis “In Happy Hours” Advertisement…………………………………………….136 Figure 17: Ignis “La tecnica…i vantaggi” Advertisement……………………………………..137 Figure 18: Max Factor Pan-Stik Advertisement………………………………………………..170 Figure 19: Revlon Million Dollar Look Advertisement………………………………………..180 Figure 20: Revlon Cleopatra Look Advertisement……………………………………………..186 vii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I have many people to thank for the roles they have played in this project. I would like to thank my committee members Brenda Stevenson, Geoffrey Symcox, Kathryn Norberg, Robin D. G. Kelley, and John A. Agnew for their support, guidance, and the time they have dedicated to this project. Professors Norberg, Kelley, and Agnew gave me invaluable insight, advice, and suggestions. Professors Symcox and Stevenson supported this project from the very beginning and helped shape it into a broader and more diverse narrative. Professor Symcox’s personal accounts of being in Italy during the time period under study provided me with important insight into Italian culture at that time, and the stories were also a delight to listen to. I have been working with Professor Stevenson for eight years now, from when I first entered UCLA’s Afro- American Studies Master’s program. During these eight years, she has been a true mentor and has shaped the scholar that I have become. I cannot thank her enough for this. I also would like to thank Emanuela Scarpellini for her suggestions and insight into this project. I am also grateful for Manuela Terenzi’s assistance with some of the peskier translations of the articles and advertisements. The research for this project was conducted in Italy, and I am grateful to the archivists and librarians in Milan and Rome who assisted me with my research. In Rome, the staff at the Fondazione Istituto Gramsci helped me with Noi Donne. In Milan, the librarians at the Biblioteca Nazionale Braidense and the Biblioteca Palazzo Sormani, in particular the deposito esterno, helped me with understanding the Italian library system, as well as with my research on the numerous magazines consulted at their libraries. I also am grateful to the archivists, in particular Tiziano Chiesa, and the staff at the Fondazione Arnoldo e Alberto Mondadori in Milan. viii Everyone at Bocconi University in Milan where I consulted the Archivio Famiglia Brustio— from the staff at the Welcome Desk who helped me with my ID card to the library director Dr. Marisa Santasiero who authorized my visit and the reproduction of the archival material to the archivists, Tiziana Dassi, Silvia Franz, and Gianmarco Ambrosetti, with whom I worked on a daily basis—were very friendly and accommodating. I am very appreciative for this and their assistance. I also would like to thank Marco Calini, Silvia Magistrali, and Sonia Orlandi, whom I met and worked with in Milan. Marco retrieved crucial information on Ignis for me and assisted me with receiving authorization to use the Ignis images in the dissertation. Silvia and Sonia, at Rcs Mediagroup, were great in helping me with my research on Annabella and with bringing to my attention other archival material that was pertinent to this project and my other scholarly and cultural interests. Marco, Silvia, and Sonia went beyond just assisting me with my research. They were always so welcoming and kind, inviting me to lunch, movies, and even the symphony. They made my time in Milan a very enjoyable experience. I am truly grateful for their kindness and to be able to have them as friends. Grazie mille! I must mention other people I have met during my graduate studies that have become great friends these past years. Andrew Gomez was always there anytime I needed help, advice, or support. Thank you so much. I would like to thank Giuseppe Betti for showing me his Milan and always taking time out of his busy schedule to meet with me whenever I was in town. This project would not have been possible without the funding I received