The story of Sordi's unpublished subjects: the only survivor of the battle of Lille Bighorn against the Indians, Custer's trumpeter, was Italian. The actor wanted to make a film out of it, like "America" about the legendary Meniconi
Corriere Della Serra
By Walter Veltroni
February 5, 2023
Alberto Sordi was greatly amused by the story of John Martin, General Custer's trumpeter. Giovanni Martini, as he was really called, born in Sala Consilina, was fascinated by his chutzpah, the one that is said to have led him to be hit by a punch from Garibaldi because he had sold his white horse, the one that had pushed him to emigrate to America pursued by the relatives of a girl who had become pregnant. the one that had led him to enlist with General Custer, to fight against the Indians, to be captured and then released because he had entered the good graces of one of Sitting Bull's wives.
John, John, was, not coincidentally, the only survivor of the Battle of Lille Bighorn where the seventh Cavalry was razed to the ground by the Indians. John was tasked with carrying a message to the rear in the heat of battle. Not knowing the language well, Martini jumps on his horse, bends over the animal's side, responds to the Indians' attack, and hands the paper to Colonel Benteen. He returns to Custer and there, mysteriously, manages to save himself. Only he and a horse survive the extermination of the Seventh Cavalryman. There are those who say, but perhaps they are just bad tongues, that, given the bad parade, Martini told Custer that he was going to look for reinforcements and vanished. To confirm this thesis, the gossips report that Martini camped for two years with a memory deficit that unfortunately prevented him from answering questions about Little Bighorn.
Alberto Sordi was greatly amused by the story of John Martin, General Custer's trumpeter. Giovanni Martini, as he was really called, born in Sala Consilina, was fascinated by his chutzpah, the one that is said to have led him to be hit by a punch from Garibaldi because he had sold his white horse, the one that had pushed him to emigrate to America pursued by the relatives of a girl who had become pregnant. the one that had led him to enlist with General Custer, to fight against the Indians, to be captured and then released because he had entered the good graces of one of Sitting Bull's wives.
John, John, was, not coincidentally, the only survivor of the Battle of Lille Bighorn where the seventh Cavalry was razed to the ground by the Indians. John was tasked with carrying a message to the rear in the heat of battle. Not knowing the language well, Martini jumps on his horse, bends over the animal's side, responds to the Indians' attack, and hands the paper to Colonel Benteen. He returns to Custer and there, mysteriously, manages to save himself. Only he and a horse survive the extermination of the Seventh Cavalryman. There are those who say, but perhaps they are just bad tongues, that, given the bad parade, Martini told Custer that he was going to look for reinforcements and vanished. To confirm this thesis, the gossips report that Martini camped for two years with a memory deficit that unfortunately prevented him from answering questions about Little Bighorn.
We also publish another unpublished subject. What in the archives of the Sordi Foundation, which takes care of and classifies Alberto's immense heritage, is simply called America. The story, written in 1964, is centered on the figure of Nando Meniconi, the American in Rome in the magnificent film by that genius Steno. We know Sordi's love for the American myth, the idea that this was the land of the future and of promises, his desire to know it and tell it. That's what this subject is about. With a resounding curiosity. In 1964 Sordi had imagined the scene of slaps to travelers looking out of the windows of the train that was about to leave. A sequence that will be the backbone of the first magnificent episode of Amici miei. But it is not certain that Germi, Benvenuti, De Bernardi and Pinelli knew about Sordi's idea and copied it. Having had the good fortune to know many of that generation, genius and cheerfulness, I do not doubt that, among them, it was a discipline really practiced.
[Submitted by Michael Ferguson]
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