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Show i it' ! x I ' , i h '' O One of the chief motivations I y - Marshall plan aid to Europe I ' . t J ' ' I ' was t'le ear '1at conr'nue(l f , " t adequate food supplies to the f 1 f " " I i I peoples of the war-torn conti- , '"'J 5,s ' f nent would bring about a frame v " 'v f t ' I of mind that would lend ,tself ? i' A f J ? ' readily to the acceptance of . 4"' r'h jH jfl f ... communism. American officials f f ) t n J f Jl ' jL theorized that many of the Corn- . I , ""fl " """" v " munist elements in those cojn- f t , T f V i ' ' ) r'es were not because of j ' .f'1 j' j , T 'J political convictions, but merely t ' , t' from hunger. This series of pho- t, I " I -" - v s tos shows what might be called I T ' ilfi '? -Isn.i flBI ; the rise-fall-rescue of Maggior- f I I tU ,VlTTORl ani. Atleft,Maggioran,,whnsky- ilFlliW?,M rocketed from foundry worker to ' J f P film star in "The Bicycle Thief" t'. looks at himself on a billboard A ' M " advertising the film. i .'.''! REE) FftOftl HUNGER? After the sensational success suc-cess of the film in which he starred, Maggiorani could find no more work. Day by day the going got tougher and, ironically ironi-cally enough, the man who was a few weeks before a world-renowned screen star was hardly getting enough to eat. Finally, he came to the point of accepting accept-ing any kind of menial job (as shown at right) when he and his family were without food. So, he accepted odd jobs as a stone and brick mason on a day-to-day basis. How bitter must have been his thoughts as he remembered his only-recent past glory and wondered why Hollywood or some European Euro-pean film studio had no place for him. -. -nn O. I i X ' I y Iff y . - ' H .- . i ' (',' i ic n ' y . h f i ; -J O As time went on, with his position unimproved, Maggiorani Maggior-ani began to nibble cautiously at Communist bait. In the photo pho-to at left he is shown distributing distribut-ing gift packages to young Reds as top Communist Gian- carlo Pajetta looks on. But when an offer from an American Ameri-can radio station in Rome came, Maggiorani issued a vigorous vig-orous denial of his Communist affiliations, asked for withdrawal with-drawal from publication of pictures pic-tures showing him distributing gifts on January 6, the Day of Epiphany, when Italian Communists Com-munists took occasion to launch their own gift-distribution day. Apparently, Maggiorani left nothing undone to attest his cure of the Communist virus. As final proof of his abandonment of Soviet principles, princi-ples, he joined the ranks of Catholic pilgrims in visits to the Basilicas to earn indulgences indul-gences of t h e jubilee year. The picture at right purports to show Maggiorani at the entrance to one of the holy doors, along with other pilgrims. pil-grims. A Communist membership member-ship card which he had allegedly alleg-edly held for one year was said to have been the lure that drew him within the Soviet Sov-iet orbit. But now that card, like his open allegiance to communism, was gone and Maggiorani's redemption appeared ap-peared complete. i -i i 4 - i ; . M " i ' 1 i Vt , . ! i j I - t - 1 fe.(X. v.. . ...-.v.. . v " 1 ; . t It i A') 0i 1 vVv . ' T.tZS ' V' ' - r , . - V t - mx -""!2v t i ' '-:'! 0 It was the offer of a job from the American radio station which seemingly provided the prescription for Maggiorani's return re-turn from communism. With his young son joining him in the daily task of scanning the want ads of Italian newspapers, (photo (pho-to at left) he read of the radio job offer. The prescription worked. Maggiorani forgot his alleged communism allegiance and went to the Rome bureau of the station in quest of the job. He got it, and another Communist Commu-nist disappeared. |