CAROSELLO, A MILESTONE IN THE HISTORY OF COMMUNICATION
Carosello, broadcast from 1957 to 1977, was a regular evening event for Italian families and it is still a strong reference in popular imagination today, a successful example of television programme that was able to associate advertising intent with real forms of theater and cinema.
Carosello means tournament, parade of knights, or spectacular clash, but the origin of the programme’s name derives from the 1954 film Carosello Napoletano, the first “film-magazine” focused on the activity of storytelling: as in the film, the idea was to tell, sing and entertain in a very short time.
The debut of Carosello, scheduled for January 1st, 1957, took place on February 3rd the same year. The opening theme showed a series of curtains that opened in sequence and the soundtrack was a tarantella from the Neapolitan repertoire of the nineteenth century.
GLOSSARY
to air: mandare in onda
clash: scontro
curtains: sipario
knight: cavaliere
to schedule: programmare
soundtrack: colonna sonora
tournament: torneo