Sanremo – The history of the Ariston of Sanremo, inaugurated on the evening of 31 May 1963, is first and foremost a family history. A narrative that actually spans one hundred and eighteen years, those inhabited by a dynasty of entrepreneurs who, after having anticipated their times by investing – in the early years of the twentieth century – in the entertainment industryto please a public that is starting to dream of a life different from everyday life and fatigue, then made the dream come true by creating, with the courage and risk of big businesses, “a magic box”, Ariston, where everything seems to be possible .
And where it all happened. Behind those glass doors the owner of the house is still one of the family, a Vacchino. Walter was six years old when his father Aristide laid the first brick of the theatre: today he manages it together with his sister Carla, their children are there and there will be grandchildren. Together they tell the stages of a family epic that has become a national myth. A story lived behind the scenes, in contact with the artists, the workers, among the excited noise of footsteps, the voices in the dressing rooms, the instruments tuning. The curtain opens, spanning six decades. It is the theater where, since 1977, the most loved event has been celebrated, the one that wrote the history of music and customs in Italy: the Sanremo Festival.
But the Vacchino family's fairy tale begins in the early years of the twentieth century thanks to the intuition of the entrepreneur Carlo Vacchino who opened the first cinema in 1907 in Sanremo, capital of the Belle Époque. And then there is his son, the visionary Aristide, born with cinema in his blood, who in the 1950s designed an unprecedented structure – a multiplex capable of hosting every kind of show – to restore joy and entertainment to his fellow citizens. A jewel inaugurated in 1963. And “Ariston, the magic box of Sanremo” (published by Salani), the book that tells of its genesis and successful evolution, signed by Walter Vacchino with the writer Luca Ammirati, in bookstores from tomorrow and presented today by the authors with interventions by Stefano Izzo at 6pm in the Roof room of the Sanremo theater, it becomes the tool, the access key to arrive at the wonder.
Vacchino, why this book?
«All the publications we have created over the years, the Ariston Notebooks, are not for sale but were published to be given as gifts to various artists, they represent testimonies of our work. This book, written with Luca Ammirati, represents the challenge of bringing the history of my family, the history of a “brand” to the bookstore, a bit like what happened – making due proportions – with the biography of Michele Ferrero, symbol of 'Italian excellence in the world'
A volume full of memories, a very “true” and unfiltered story…
«It is the history of our family, but also the history of the city of Sanremo which goes hand in hand. My sister and I recorded our memories, integrating them, a memory operation of what happened on that very international stage. Known episodes and many never reached viewers' homes. But in the pages of this volume we discover how the passion for cinema, for theater and for magazines was born in a city that was at the center of international tourism in the early twentieth century. The Central cinema, purchased by my father Aristide in 1933, with the dome frescoed by Galileo Chini, had an “opening sky” a source of wonder for many Sanremo residents, among whom a teenager Italo Calvino stands out who almost every day secretly left home , Villa Meridiana, to take refuge in this world populated by English and French films.”
The Ariston became the temple of music when, in 1977, it began hosting the Festival.
«The Ariston began its life as a theater which is indeed a place of art but, in a certain sense, also of the soul. From the start you can feel a particular atmosphere. From the first performances of Carlo Daiuto's company, to big names like Dario Fo and Franca Rame, the jazz legend Duke Ellington, Walter Chiari, the big names of the Festival which still takes place at the Casino, just five hundred meters away, the first steps of the song with the review of the Club Tenco by Amilcare Rambaldi. I am pleased to remember the randomness and luck that must always be a component of life, both of activities and of people. It happens that in 1977 the historic venue of the Festival, the Casino, the one where he was born and raised, is not available and the first evening is just around the corner. The event arrived suddenly in the life of our family, everything was decided in a couple of days. On Sunday at the Ariston a film was shown as always, on Monday the scenography was assembled, rehearsals on Tuesday and Wednesday, Festival on Thursday, Festival on Friday, Festival on Saturday, dismantling on Sunday morning and in the afternoon the Ariston had become a cinema again. That year was also the first color festival.”
The Festival also experienced moments of crisis.
«It certainly wasn't all sunshine and roses. I had doubts at some moments, but no worries. There is fire, ash, but there is embers thanks to which the flame restarts. The Festival has gone through difficult moments and protests, but the public has never turned its back on Sanremo. The change of pace occurred with the management of Rai, the closer relationship with the Municipality, the editions of Baudo, the era of Fazio, Carlo Conti, to arrive today at Amadeus which has the great merit of having brought young people at Ariston and having been able to use all the means of communication, social media, to multiply the affection. It's not just TV shows and evenings. Everything, in those days, revolved around Sanremo.”
In the book we find many stories, curiosities, anecdotes…
«I remember the crowd going crazy for Duran Duran, Roberto Benigni's dramatic entrances at the Festival, the whims of the stars, Madonna's absurd requests, the blueberry juice expressly requested by Elton John, the year in which the English baronet then decided to turn around in Sanremo, Barry White, in 1977, who asked our operator Gino Capponi for six cases of whisky. Concern about Saxon's performance. But there is an episode that made me particularly proud: having managed, in 1982, to create the combination of Liza Minnelli's concert and, 24 hours later, the world boxing championship with Marvin Hagler and the live broadcast at midnight” .
Which page, however, would you not have wanted to write?
«Certainly the strongest emotion we felt was faced with the absence of the public, in 2021: the Bubble Festival, with the challenge to an invisible enemy. An event held in very difficult conditions, I remember the balloons in the audience, consigned to history, the masks, the swabs, the unreal atmosphere. However, it was also, as a sort of compensation and a reward for courage, the edition of Måneskin, who then triumphed at the Eurovision Song Contest, bringing the name of Sanremo and the Festival around the world. In a certain sense, a link reconnected with the beginnings, as it had been at the time of “Volare”».
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