Sophia Loren Archives - Chronicles 1968

"Motherhood is the most complete feeling for a woman." – Sophia Loren

Lufthansa Revue (W. Germany)
06/68

Geneva Airport
Photo: Du Perron

Ahrens + Sieberz
West German Publicity

Questi fantasmi
German poster

Sophia!
ABC press release
Photo: Tazio Secchiaroli

Garbo (Spain)
18/05/68

PSI Electoral Campaign with Pietro Nenni
Rome
23/04/68

PSI Electoral Campaign
Rome
23/04/68

Sports Field
Marino
02/68

Sophia!
Photo: Tazio Secchiaroli

MOVIE PREMIERES

WEST GERMANY
Questi fantasmi
November 29 (Die Über-Sinnelich)

FRANCE
C'era una volta
Paris, May 31 (La belle et le cavalier)

FILM PROJECTS

Five Pieces of Maria
Film project to be produced with co-star Danny Kaye is finally aborted, almost a decade after it was announced, when a Paris court rejects a suit brought against Sophia on November 9 by a Swiss-registered company, Quadrangle Films. Sophia had withdrew from her engagement because she felt that they gave a disparaging picture of Italy.

AWARDS & ACCOLADES

Bambi Award (West Germany)
Most Popular Foreign Actress, Munich, January 19
Received in Geneva on February 17, 1968.

Award in Salsomaggiore (Italy)
Salsomaggiore, March 12, 1968.

Birmingham Ophthalmic Information Council (UK)
Top girl who wears glasses "for enhancing her undoubted charm by wearing finely designed modern spectacles", March

Marco Aurelio award (Italy)
Award accepted in absentia by Vittorio De Sica in Rome.

Ten Best Coiffured Women (USA)
Selected by Helen Curtis Guild of Professional Beauticians, December

ENDORSEMENTS

Alitalia Airlines
Official hostess of the 1967-1968 "In-Season" hospitality program.
September 1967 - May 1968

American Cancer Society

PUBLIC APPEARANCES

Christiaan Barnard - January 31
Sophia flies from Paris to Rome in order to meet world famous surgeon Christiaan Barnard at her villa in Marino. The South African surgeon is in Rome, at Sophia's request, to examine and possibly operate a group of Italian children suffering form heart defects whose cases have been pleaded by Sophia in a letter to the South African surgeon. Both children from Ponti's first marriage - Guendalina and Alex - are present and meet with Sophia for the first time.

Ponti-Loren vs. Gente - March 12
Sophia and Carlo are present at Milan's court house for the hearing their libel suit against Gente's journalists Edilio Rusconi and Gilberto Forti who had published a forged interview in 1967 following Sophia's miscarriage. Sophia and Carlo drop the charges.

PSI Electoral Campaign - April 17
After turning down an offer by the Republican Party to become a candidate in Naples for the elections in May, Sophia is seen at the opening of the PSI PSI (Italian Socialist Party) presided by Pietro Nenni, at the Teatro Quirino, in Rome. Several movie personalities were on hand, including Sophia, Mario Soldati and Vittorio De Sica.

A Mussolini Funeral - April 26
The funeral of Anna Maria Mussolini, Romano's sister, on April 26, is made even sadder by the appearance of members of the surviving Fascist youth organization who act as pallbearers, and by followers of the late dictator, who give the Fascist salute as the coffin passes. Sophia is seen at the funeral dressed in black and wearing dark glasses.

MAGAZINE COVERS

Italy
Gente, Novella 2000, Oggi, Sorrisi e Canzoni TV, Stop, Tempo, Tribuna Illustrata, Zoom
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West Germany
Bunte Illustrierte, Constanze, Frau im Spiegel, Lufthansa Revue, Das Neue Blatt, Neue Post, Praline, Sonne
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France
Cinémonde, Spar Magazine, Vedettes Incognito

Spain
Ama, Los Domingos de ABC, Garbo, Hola, Lecturas, Semana
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UK
Titbits, Weekend, Woman's Home Journal
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USA
HairDo, McCall's, The National Police Gazette, TV Showtime, TV Week
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LATIN AMERICA
Coletãnea, Fatos e Fotos, Siete Días Ilustrados

TV SHOWS

Sophia! (USA)
TV special, ABC network, October 23

EDITOR'S NOTES

Salsomaggiore Terme - March
Sophia, accompanied by her sister Maria, spends two weeks in a thermal springs resort in Salsomaggiore before going back on March 11 to her villa. The iodine water treatment, a local remedy, is supposed to increase her chances of becoming a mother. "I have reached that terrible point", Sophia says, "where I am willing to try almost anything."

Pregnancy - April
Sophia has pregnancy tests performed in a Rome clinic upon her return from Salsomaggiore. Dr. Hubert de Watteville asked her to permanently move to Geneva, near his clinic. Sophia stays at the Intercontinental Hotel for a period of eight months.

600 Roses for Sophia
Carlo orders 600 roses from German flower growers Ahrens + Sieberz for the Marino villa, which brings the new German company in the news with a sudden strong demand for their roses.

Pontis Cleared of Bigamy - July 24
Dismissal of bigamy charges by a criminal court in Rome puts a final end to an 11-year legal battle between Carlo and Sophia against Italian justice.

Cooking Book

In her room on the eighteenth floor of Hotel Intercontinental, Sophia starts writing her first recipes which will appear in her 1971 cooking book In cucina con amore.

Birth of Carlo, Jr. - December 29
After years of yearning and three miscarriages, Sophia gives birth by caesarean section to her first son, Carlo Uberto Leoni, in the Cantonal Hospital of Geneva at 8:43 a.m. Sophia's first words to Dr. Watteville when she recovers consciousness are, "Thank you, Doctor, for the baby".

From Sophia, with Many Thanks - December 29
To show their appreciation Carlo and Sophia offer to establish an obstetrical center in Geneva in order to help women who, like Sophia, have difficulty in bearing children and who require close medical attention. The project is not materialized but among the buildings bought at a cost of $1.4 million in 1968 the Pontis will keep a house on Charles-Bonnet Street which remains Sophia's main residence today.

Second Highest Income in Rome
Rome tax assessors list a combined taxable income for the Sophia and Carlo of $l million and say they will have to pay $147,000 in taxes. Their income was listed as $560,000 for Sophia and $450,000 for Carlo. Sophia's income ranks second in Rome, according to municipal tax office, after Prince Alessandro Torlonia.