Blue Jeans and short skirts

From 1945 to 1954 it was not clear whether Trieste would fall under the influence of Tito's Yugoslavia or become part of De Gasperi's Italian Republic. Battalions of American Military Police and Marines remained in the city to oversee the transition, and with them their Jeeps, their tanks and their battle cruisers. They are the years of Philip Morris cigarettes, the first blue jeans seen in Europe, neon signs, nylon stockings, and skirts growing shorter by the year, of nights full of martinis and boogie-woogie, of the first Hollywood films. These were the seeds of what we now call globalisation.

It is the story of one of the most unusual, and at the same time less well known, situations in Europe in the immediate post-War period. It is a story of uncertainty, fear, futures cut short, and terrible civil strife. But also of light-heartedness, fun and thumbing one's nose at fate.

We follow the lives of two people, James D. Herring and his wife Claudia who met in Trieste during this period. He was an American soldier in the TRUST (TRieste United States Troops), and she a young Trieste woman who was good at sewing.
Through them, and using never before seen archive footage and dramatic reconstructions, we tell the story of those times, of concerts by Frank Sinatra and Louis Armstrong, who often came to the city to play for the American soldiers; of the exploits of the Tiberio Mitri, the rising star of European boxing and already European champion at the age of twenty, who went the New York to challenge the world champion Jack La Motta, the 'Bronx Bull"; and of Fulvia Franco, who was crowned Miss Italia and was invited to Hollywood for auditions.

Category:

Film & Animation

Tags:

• Trieste
• blue
• jeans
• short
• skirts
• italian
• documentary

[17syankeegirl]

GREAT!!

[17syankeegirl]

What a fantastic video!! i expecially loved the interview with the first handsome american!

[giacojim]

great video.