The couple would invite only the crème of the emerging fascist elite: the quadrumvirs (who had led the March on Rome), Milanese businessmen, illustrious prefects, and wheeler- dealer lawyers. The prenuptial reception, for four or maybe five hundred guests at the Hotel Palace on Via Veneto, would be exquisitely bon ton, with a string quintet, cocktails, and masses of flowers. The bride would have as her witnesses the American ambassador and her mentor, Tullio Serafin, formerly of La Scala and now the Metropolitan Opera’s lead conductor.

The groom had asked Mussolini to act as his witness at the civil ceremony, together with his own immediate superior, the minister of the interior. The wedding would be a true affair of state, with cabinet ministers and the whole Fascist G rand Council in attendance. He would pay for everything, settle a rich allowance on his d aughter, and 1Įven outfit the groom’s family-all good and humble people. The dollar was strong, and the bride’s father’s elastic-webbing factory on Manhattan’s Lower East Side was booming. With Lilliana’s notions of staging and celebrity, and Teruzzi’s instinct for ritual and rank, they decided they would have to fashion the event themselves. They wanted their union to express Mussolini’s latest dictum: “All within the state, nothing outside of the state, nothing against the state.” But there was no protocol for a fascist wedding. But as the late June wedding date approached, Teruzzi and Lilliana were faced with a predicament. One of the most visible and vigorous New Men of the Fascist Revolution was marrying a powerful specimen of America’s New Woman. When they made their engagement official, word quickly spread. The couple was in love, idealistic, and e ager to promote Teruzzi’s political career. His fiancée, Lilliana Weinman, a rising opera diva known by her stage name Lilliana Lorma, had left her calling to marry. At the time, Teruzzi, a one-time c areer military officer, was undersecretary at the Interior Ministry and a rising star in the fascist establishment. There are also a few dollars there, which d oesn’t hurt.”1 In sum, he heartily approved. “En glish w omen are ugly, French women perverse, Spanish w omen bring us bad luck, and we get along with America. “I am happy that you are marrying an American,” he told Teruzzi. This was the first time that Mussolini, in his double capacity as president of the Council of Ministers and duce of fascism, had been asked to bless a marriage. Hen Benito Mussolini welcomed Attilio Teruzzi into his office at Palazzo Venezia on March 17, 1926, hugged him, teased him about his upcoming marriage, and flirted with his attractive American fiancée, it was a private moment with a public purpose. A ren’t they too sweet?” Benghazi, summer 1927 Lilliana Weinman Teruzzi Estate “Attilio sent me this snap photo of himself, Foxy and Liù a fter he had them shaved for the summer. Italian-Ethiopian War, 1935-1936 Addis Ababa For my dearest father, who was always at war.Ībbreviations for Notes 429 Notes 433 Acknowledgments 497 Index 501 Classification: LCC DG575.T38 D4 2020 | DDC 945.091092 -dc23 LC record available at įor my beloved brothers, who died on the home front. | Includes bibliographical references and index. Description: Cambridge, Massachusetts : The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2020. Title: The perfect fascist : a story of love, power, and morality in Mussolini’s Italy / Victoria de Grazia. THE BELKNAP PRESS OF H A RVA R D U N I V ER SI T Y PR ESSĬambridge, Massachusetts and London, England 2020Ĭopyright © 2020 Victoria de Grazia all rights reserved Printed in the United States of America First printing Cover design: Jill Breitbarth Jacket photos: (top) Bettmann/Getty Images (bottom) Bettmann/Getty Images 9780674245266 (EPUB) 9780674245440 (MOBI) 9780674245471 (PDF) The Library of Congress has cataloged the printed edition as follows: Names: De Grazia, Victoria, author. PERFECT FASCIST A Story of Love, Power, and Morality in Mussolini’s Italy

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