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Fascist Spectacle http://content.cdlib.org/xtf/view?docId=ft18700444&chunk.id=0&doc.v... 39. Plinio Ciani, Graffiti del ventennio (Milan: Sugarco, 1975), p. 79. 40. Gentile, Il culto del Littorio , op. cit., p. 89. 41. On fascist uniforms see Ugo Pericoli, Le divise del Duce (Milan: Rizzoli, 1983). 42. Spring was the equivalent of youth, as the fascist hymn went: "Youth, Youth, Spring of Beauty" (Giovinezza, Giovinezza, Primavera di Bellezza). 43. Royal decree-law of October 21, 1923, no. 2451. 44. See Zeri, op. cit. Also, the 1 lira stamp designed by Balla featured an horizontal fascio . 45. Royal decree-law of December 12, 1926, no. 2061. 46. Royal decree-law of March 27, 1927, no. 1048. 47. Royal decree-law of April 11, 1929, no. 504. 48. Royal decree-law of August 9, 1929, no. 1517. 49. The same lack of originality and the same omnipresence of the fascio littorio characterized another iconographic inheritance of the Roman past that fascism adopted in its imperial days: the Roman eagle. The eagle, which in ancient Rome used to precede the legionnaires, is actually one of the most common political symbols both across time and across nations. The royal eagle characterizes monarchical governments, and it also appears in traditionally republican systems such as the United States. For a history of the eagle's symbolism, see Alain Boureau, L'Aigle: Chronique politique d'un emblème (Paris: Editions du Cerf, 1985); and, for the United States, Loretta Valtz Mannucci, "Aquile e tacchini: iconografie di stato," op. cit. During the fascist regime the eagle, although already present in the iconography of the Italian state, enjoyed great prominence, especially in the second half of the 1930s in connection with the conquest of the empire. Small and giant eagles, ephemeral or iron cast, filled the regime's symbolic world, a representation of the imperial force and power of fascism. 50. De Felice considers fascism's reference to the new man the element that distinguishes Italian fascism from National Socialism. Whereas the Nazis' ideal man was the old Aryan who needed to be resuscitated, Mussolini strove to create a really new type (Renzo De Felice, Intervista sul fascismo [Rome-Bari: Laterza, 1982]). However, according to Mosse, the new fascist man both in Germany and Italy represented a stereotype that originated in nineteenth-century nationalism. It was part of an antibourgeois rhetoric against the unproductive and talkative intellectuals and tended to establish other bourgeois values, such as order, respectability, honest work, cleanliness, and productivity. Although the vast majority of Nazis believed the ideal German was the ancient Aryan type, the new German man in fact represented the ideal bourgeois, and National Socialism annexed every middle-class virtue that was under siege in modern times. Certainly, Mosse admits, Italian fascism's new man presented features that were more forward-looking than the German ideal type. But references to the past also characterized Mussolini's vision of the new man and made of it a more ambiguous and ambivalent model of renewal (George Mosse, Nazism: A Historical and Comparative Analysis of National Socialism. An Interview with Michael A. Ledeen [New Brunswick: Transaction Books, 1978]). 51. Scritti e discorsi , vol. VIII, p. 21. 52. Fascist associations included people of all ages and professions. There were fascist associations of schools; public employees; state employees; railroad and postal services; professionals and artists; and agricultural, commercial, and industrial businesses. Other associations included the Fascist Fallen, Disabled, and Wounded; the National Forest Committee; the National Union of Officers on Leave; the Naval League; the Association of Sailors on Leave; the Nautical Union; the Union of Aeronautics; the National Institute of Fascist Culture; several youth organizations; women fasces, which in 1934 also began to include "rural home-makers"; the Olympics committee; and the Opera Nazionale Dopolavoro (OND, the leisure time association). Academies and colleges for youth were also included. 53. Fascism apparently inherited the black shirt from the Arditi, the special army corp that "daringly" fought during World War I and later joined D'Annunzio in the Fiume enterprise. Ugo Pericoli claims there is no certainty about the color of the Arditi's shirts. According to him, black was a dominant color in Italy, especially in the South (op. cit., p. 4). Black shirts were, however, visible in Fiume, according to Giuseppe Antonio Borgese. See his Goliath: The March of Fascism (New York: Viking, 1937), p. 160. 54. In 1926 the basic elements of the official fascist outfit were adopted, and they remained the same until 1943. The uniform included a fez, a black shirt, a black tie, black pants, and a black belt. See Pericoli, op. cit., p. 6. 55. Women changed the color of the shirt to white around 1932 (ibid., p. 15). 54. In 1926 the basic elements of the official fascist outfit were adopted, and they remained the same until 1943. The uniform included a fez, a black shirt, a black tie, black pants, and a black belt. See Pericoli, op. cit., p. 6. 55. Women changed the color of the shirt to white around 1932 (ibid., p. 15). 56. "[T]he 'black shirt' is not for everyday use and for every occasion. I positively ordered the competent authorities to unfailingly arrest all individuals (isolated or in groups) who improperly wear the black shirt" ( Scritti e discorsi , vol. IV, p. 352). 57. Scritti e discorsi , vol. V, pp. 110-111. 58. See George Seldes, Sawdust Caesar: The Untold History of Mussolini and Fascism (New York: Harper, 1935), Appendix 10, p. 408. The commandments were issued by the party secretary, Giovanni Giuriati, in October 1931. 59. See article 3 of the Statute in Mario Missori, Gerarchie e statuti del P.N.F.: Gran Consiglio, Direttorio Nazionale, Federazioni provinciali: Quadri e biografie (Rome: Bonacci, 1986), p. 379. 60. Archivio Centrale dello Stato, Partito Nazionale Fascista, Direttorio (Uff. Stralcio), 369. 61. Asvero Gravelli, ed., Vademecum dello stile fascista (Rome: Nuova Europa, n.d. but circa 1940), pp. 68, 99. Gravelli compiled the injunctions sent by Starace regarding questions of style. The injunctions I cite from Gravelli's book are the ones missing from the Archivio Centrale dello Stato. See also Archivo Centrale dello Stato, Partito Nazionale Fascista, Direttorio (Uff. Stralcio), 371, Disposizione No. 868. 62. Archivio Centrale dello Stato, Partito Nazionale Fascista, Direttorio (Uff. Stralcio), 371, Disposizione no. 757 of March 4. 63. Archivio Centrale dello Stato, Partito Nazionale Fascista, Foglio di Disposizioni no. 1240 (January 13, 1939). For the gala uniform, see Pericoli, op. cit., p. 9. 64. Archivio Centrale dello Stato, Partito Nazionale Fascista, Foglio di Disposizioni no. 1285 (March 12, 1939). 65. See for instance Disposizione no. 309 of October 29, 1934, on badges for party members (all those enrolled in fascist organizations were party members but for the youth). Instructions were given on who, how, and where to wear a badge. Archivio Centrale dello Stato, Partito Nazionale Fascista, Direttorio (Uff. Stralcio), 370. 66. Archivio Centrale dello Stato, Agenzia Stefani, B 70, July 17, 1938 (communication of the Ministry of Popular Culture). Also 138 of 199 7/11/2006 12:54 AM
Fascist Spectacle http://content.cdlib.org/xtf/view?docId=ft18700444&chunk.id=0&doc.v... see Giuseppe Bottai, Diario , entry of August 19, 1938, which reports Mussolini's comments on this event: "The employees' uniform is the reform of the bureaucracy. Remember: The cowl does make the monk." Cited in Renzo De Felice, Mussolini il duce , vol. II (Turin: Einaudi, 1981), p. 102. 67. Borgese, op. cit., p. 304. 68. Tracy H. Koon, Believe, Obey, Fight: Political Socialization of Youth in Fascist Italy, 1922-1943 (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1985), p. 66. 69. Ibid., p. 65. 70. Archivio Centrale dello Stato, Agenzia Stefani, B. 70, July 5 (communication of the Ministry of Popular Culture). 71. Archivio Centrale dello Stato, Partito Nazionale Fascista, Direttorio (Uff. Stralcio), 370, no. 577. 72. Archivio Centrale dello Stato, Partito Nazionale Fascista, Direttorio (Uff. Stralcio), 369, no. 34. 73. Disposizione of February 27, 1932. See Asvero Gravelli, ed., op. cit., p. 23. 74. Archivio Centrale dello Stato, Partito Nazionale Fascista, Direttorio (Uff. Stralcio), 369, no. 34. 75. Archivio Centrale dello Stato, Partito Nazionale Fascista, Direttorio (Uff. Stralcio), 369, no. 1183. 76. Curiously, only in 1934 did the calendar produced by the party present the new time division beginning from October. 77. A month later, on December 20, 1938, Starace reiterated his ideas about the old New Year celebrations. But he admitted that people who work hard need to have this "traditional recreation." Perhaps Starace received an order from above. Or maybe he realized that since some habits die hard, it was more convenient to show tolerance by patronizing them. Thus, he ordered that "comrade (camerateschi) entertainments" be organized in fascist clubs of leisure time (Archivio Centrale dello Stato, Partito Nazionale Fascista, Foglio di Disposizioni , no. 1219). 78. Francesco Flora, ed., Stampa dell'era fascista: Le note di servizio (Rome: Mondadori, 1945), p. 81. 79. Archivio Centrale dello Stato, Partito Nazionale Fascista, Foglio di Disposizioni , no. 1200. 80. See Gravelli, op. cit., for the caricatures and drawings presented to the exhibit. 81. Ibid., p. 93. 82. Ibid., p. 112. 83. Ibid., p. 183. 84. Archivio Centrale dello Stato, Partito Nazionale Fascista, Direttorio (Uff. Stralcio), 371, no. 828. 85. Most of the drawings for the Anti-Bourgeois Exhibit portrayed the bourgeois as fat. 86. Gravelli, op. cit., p. 236. 87. This rule only applied to men. 88. Archivio Centrale dello Stato, Partito Nazionale Fascista, Direttorio (Uff. Stralcio), 371, no. 840 (July 15, 1937). 89. Archivio Centrale dello Stato, Partito Nazionale Fascista, Direttorio (Uff. Stralcio), 371, no. 1039. 90. Archivio Centrale dello Stato, Partito Nazionale Fascista, Foglio di Disposizioni , no. 1155 (September 24, 1938). 91. Between members of women groups and fascists the voi was recommended. 92. Archivio Centrale dello Stato, Partito Nazionale Fascista, Foglio di Disposizioni , no. 983 (February 14, 1938). 93. GIL, Gioventu' Italiana del Littorio, was an umbrella organization of young fascists. In 1939,7,891,547 youth were enrolled in the several groups headed by GIL. See Pericoli, op. cit., p. 18. Enrollment in the organization was voluntary; however, it was supposed to take place at the same time as a youth's school enrollment. 94. Archivio Centrale dello Stato, Partito Nazionale Fascista, Direttorio (Uff. Stralcio), 371, no. 1046 (April 20, 1938). 95. Oreste Del Buono, ed., Eja, Eja, Eja, Alalà! La stampa Italiana sotto il fascismo 1919-1943 (Milan: Feltrinelli, 1971), p. 363. 96. Flora, op. cit., pp. 100-101. 97. Del Buono, op. cit., p. 388. 98. Gravelli, op. cit., pp. 286-287. 99. Gentile, Il culto del Littorio , op. cit., p. 67. 100. Archivio Centrale dello Stato, Presidenza del Consiglio dei Ministri, 1934-1936, 1.7.6024. 101. Archivio Centrale dello Stato, Partito Nazionale Fascista, Direttorio (Uff. Stralcio), 369, no. 50 (November 20, 1932). 102. Emil Ludwig, Colloqui con Mussolini (Milan: Mondadori, 1932), p. 110. 103. According to Borgese, the ancient Romans did not use that gesture as an ordinary salute. He argues instead that the Roman salute was obligatory for slaves (op. cit., p. 159). 104. Gravelli, op. cit., p. 33. 105. Ibid., p. 53. 106. Ibid., p. 80. 107. Archivio Centrale dello Stato, Presidenza del Consiglio dei Ministri, 1934-1936, 1.7.6024. 108. Wasserman's observations were accompanied by visual material: a photographic example of a perfect salute in which the exact trajectory was showed by a straight arrow that followed the straightened arm. The exemplary figure in the photo was Mussolini. 109. Archivio Centrale dello Stato, Partito Nazionale Fascista, Direttorio (Uff. Stralcio), 370, no. 706 (January 2, 1937). 110. Biondi, op. cit., p. 311. 111. See special issue of Il Ponte , vol. VIII, no. 10 (October 1952), p. 1397. 112. Flora, op. cit., p. 20. 113. Ibid., p. 19. 114. Archivio Centrale dello Stato, Partito Nazionale Fascista, Foglio di Disposizioni , February 4, 1938, Disposizione no. 973. The passo was adopted on March 1, 1938. 115. Scritti e discorsi , vol. II, p. 163. 116. Ibid., pp. 163-164. 139 of 199 7/11/2006 12:54 AM
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