Away from… Messina. Same title but different storytelling the story of many of our fellow citizens who have achieved international success abroad, come from families who have emigrated from our land.
Thanks to digitization immigration archives (primarily the huge Ellis Island archive), to DNA analysis, to the growing popularity of sites that help share relatives celebrities and no, and even to tomb-reporting sites, reconstructing family trees can be a fascinating, if surgical, exploration.
For these people and their families, “Far from… Messina” was the beginning of their story.
- Gia Scala pseudonym Joan Scoglio (1934 – 1972),
was a British actress who achieved a brief but notable feat in Hollywood.
Her most famous interpretation remains the blockbuster Greek partisan. Cannons of Navaronealong with stars Gregory Peck, David Niven, Anthony Quinn and Irene Papas. Like Steve McQueen, with whom she was in a relationship from 1952 to 1954, her life was that of an “anti-heroin”. His rise, like his fall, was steep due to problems with alcohol and failed marriages.
After film, he pursued a career on the small screen, appearing in various television series (Alfred Hitchcock Presents, The Elusive Ones, Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, Tarzan, It Takes a Thief) before dying of an overdose at age out of 38.
The father, Pietro Scoglio, was a native of Mili San Marco, the youngest son of Natale Scoglio, one of the largest lemon producers in the province. Tina Skala, Gia’s sister, has also made an acting career in Hollywood.
Fred Shepisi (1939), fine Australian director, Golden Bear nominee for film. Russian houseadaptation of Le Carré’s novel of the same name, winner of the AACTA Award for Best Director and the AFI Award for Best Screenplay for The Devil’s Yard and A Scream in the Night.
Father Frederic Thomas Schepisi was a fruit and car seller, the son of Giuseppe Schepisi from the Aeolian Islands of Leni (Salina).born in 1884, emigrated to Australia, where in 1905 he married an Irish immigrant.
Today, Fred Schepisi is one of the founders of the movement advocating the transformation of Australia from a monarchy to a republic.
…continued next week…
read the first episode of “Far from… Messina”: Al Pacino, Kevin Schon, Daniel Ricciardo
read the second series of Far from… Messina: Lady Gaga, Anthony Rossi
Read Far From… Messina Series 3: Jake LaMotta, Nikka Costa
read Far from… Messina episode four: Guy Williams, Bruce Arena
Read Far From… Messina Series 5: Jill Tracey Jacobs, Gregorio Prestopino
Texts: Philip Cucinotta
Overview, layout and images: Giampiero Neri