Enzo Tortoraborn in Genoa on November 30, 1928 and died in Milan on May 18, 1988, was a popular TV presenter active from the 1950s until death. Led successful transmissions, including Sports Sunday And Portobelloand is considered one of the fathers of Italian TV. In the 1980s he was involved in a famous judicial case: unjustly accused of the Camorra Association by some repentant like Giovanni Melluso, he was arrested in 1983 by spending Seven months in prison and a period in home detention. Only after three years, on June 17, 1987, the Court of Cassation of Rome recognized its complete innocence, the conductor returned briefly on television, but In the 1988 died of a tumor.
Birth and television career
Enzo Tortora was born in Genoa on November 30, 1928 to a family of Neapolitan origins, approached the world of entertainment As a young man, playing as a percussionist in an orchestra and working on some theatrical performances together with Paolo Villaggio.
In 1953 it was assumed by Rai And three years later it appeared for the first time in a television broadcast. At the time, television had just been born, the broadcasts were regulated by rigid moral principles, and subjected to a severe political control. Tortora led several programs, including the edition of the Sanremo Festival of 1959, for this reason it is considered one of the fathers of Italian television together with Mike Bongiorno, Corrado and Pippo Baudo.
However, his career in Rai was also characterized by forced removals: The first took place in 1962, after he had hosted in the broadcast “Ophthalmology“The comedian Alighiero Noschese, who proposed an imitation of Amaintore Fanfani, an important exponent of the Christian Democracy. For the time, he was an unacceptable act of irreverence and Tortora was removed from Rai. He returned three years later, taking on the conduct of “Sports Sunday”. Despite the success of the transmission, in 1969 it was again removed Because in an interview given to the weekly “Oggi” he had hardly criticized Rai managers.
Portobello and success
For a few years Tortora worked for private broadcasters and printed paper. He returned to Rai in 1977, After the reform that had allowed the birth of the second channel and “diversified” the control of politics: it began to conduct the transmission “Portobello” (from the name of the London road where he is based on a famous market), by himself conceived. The program staged a sort of marketin which they were present Objects of all kindssent by the spectators. In the study bizarre characters were wandering, as inventors who presented them. The spectators could participate in the auction by calling live. In the study there was also a parot And a cash prize was assigned to the spectators who managed to make him pronounce the word “portobello” (it happened only once in 1982).
Portobello, which was aired on Friday evening on Rete 2 (today Raidue), had a extraordinary success, Because it was particularly innovative, some elements of the program, such as live calls, were then taken up by subsequent broadcasts.
The Tortora case: an example of malagiustizia
In 1983, while he was at the height of success, Enzo Tortora was arrested. Involved in Maxiblitz of June 17, 1983during which more than 800 people were arrested, he was picked up in his home in Rome by the carabinieri at four in the morning and taken to prison. There his photo in handcuffs It was published by all the newspapers. The arrest took place because some repentant had accused Tortora of being part of the Camorra and of being involved in drug trafficking.
The conductor remained in prison for seven months, although there were no objective elements in support of the accusations. The only alleged material test, the telephone address book of a Camorraist, proved unfounded (reported the name Tortona, not toilet). After seven months of detention in prison, the conductor was placed at house arrest. In 1984 he was a candidate for European Parliament for the radical party and was elected, but after a few months resignedrenouncing immunity: the first instance trial was sentenced to 10 years of imprisonment, but on appeal was acquittedthe Court ascertained that all the declarations of the repentant against him were false and had been made with the purpose acquire merits towards the judicial system, making a well -known person condemned. The Cassation confirmed acquittal on June 13, 1987.
The return to television and death
After the acquittal on appeal, Tortora could resume the conduction of Portobello. On February 20, 1987 the broadcast aired again. The conductor, visibly moved, turned to the spectators with the sentence “So, where were we stayed?”remained famous. The transmission, however, was not the same success as the previous editions and at the end of the television season it was definitively suspended. Tortora continued to the military in the Radical Partyalso taking on the presidency, and in the autumn of 1987 he began to conduct his last broadcast, entitled “Yellow”. However, he was hit by a tumor and he left television. On May 18, 1988 he died in Milan.
