Once a month, The duty challenges history enthusiasts to decipher a current theme based on a comparison with a historical event or character.
1er July 1933, a squadron of 25 seaplanes took off from Orbetello, Italy, bound for the Chicago World’s Fair. Led by the Air Minister of the fascist government, General Italo Balbo, it crossed the Atlantic in several stages. The airmen passed through Longueuil on July 14, where more than 50,000 people welcomed them. The next day, after meeting dignitaries and a number of Italian-Canadians in Montreal, Italo Balbo left for the American metropolis.
Balbo’s expedition is representative of propaganda strategies in a world of constant communication between those in authority and the citizenry. The conquest is not only that of the air: it becomes that of spirits.
To capture an audience invited to participate in the show, it mobilizes symbols exalting superiority and promoting domination: those of technology over space and time, those of the virile and resolute leader over the masses, those of the fascist regime over the parliamentary democracies. This strategy of conquest nevertheless encounters resistance which is expressed in multiple ways.
The era of speed
The First World War proved it: the world became more cramped with the shrinking of borders and the upheaval of the political order. The interwar period constitutes the era of speed, this movement which increases space and decreases time.
Speed manifests itself everywhere. It favors the temporary resumption of major international migration movements, thanks to liners and locomotives. It becomes accessible to as many people as possible with the democratization of the automobile. Above all, aviation represents the technology of speed.
A recent invention, the plane showed its potential during the world conflict. In the following years, numerous airborne expeditions captured the imagination: Charles Lindbergh crossing the Atlantic; Jean Mermoz, the Andes mountain range; Amelia Earhart, The Pacific, from Hawaii to California.
At the head of a squadron of 14 seaplanes in the winter of 1930-1931, Italo Balbo flew across the South Atlantic to Rio de Janeiro. At the time, these undertakings were rare and perilous; they are a heroic exploit and mechanical prowess.
The speed is also that of communications. Thanks to multiple innovations, the media is experiencing phenomenal growth. That of print is obvious: the mass press is widespread, reports rely on extensive use of photography, modern advertising and marketing techniques make it possible to target segments of the public to hammer home the message.
The saga of the seaplane flight gave rise to a vast promotional enterprise, which began with intensive coverage of the event — from 1er July to August 12, 1933, Franco-Quebec newspapers referred to it 458 times – and to the subsequent publication of books of memories, including those lyrical by Italo Balbo.
The same is true with another popular medium, radio, which creates immediate intimacy between transmitter and receivers. Provided by CFCF, live coverage of the event nevertheless causes some oddities. Faced with the imprudence of a boater landing seaplanes on the St. Lawrence River, Balbo burst into “unparliamentary” insults… which were broadcast by a radio employee who had raised the microphone to better capture the speech.
Finally, like those of British Pathé and Universal Studios, the publicists of LUCE, a film company founded by Benito Mussolini in 1924, filmed the major moments of the expedition, which were then projected on the big screen. Flying technology and Balbo are the big stars at the heart of these current affairs films.
The smiling face of fascism
The symbol of the leader is at the center of the scene. That of Italo Balbo intersects two imaginaries: young and adventurous masculinity, Italian fascism. Photogenic and affable, with a certain presence and a finely trimmed beard, Italo Balbo evokes the model of the modern adventurer, who grabs attention and charms crowds.
“Always smiling”, underlines the journalist won over from Canada, “the Italian minister and aviator spoke only in French” to the press gathered at the barbershop of the Mont-Royal hotel. However, “from the brash tone” of his voice, “everyone guessed that it was the master”. Macho, Balbo thus plays with his virility.
To another journalist speaking to him about his penchant for women, he retorted ironically: “You want me to like men? » In the pages of Bugle, a swooning Bianca exclaims: “How much I admired this man for his courage and energy! His calm and at the same time energetic face suggested the confidence he must inspire in his subordinates. »
The aviator’s kind face is also that of a true fascist. Journalist, Italo Balbo is resolutely committed to the Duce, Benito Mussolini. At 26, he is the youngest quadrumviri who led the march on Rome in 1922. Violent and voluntary, the Ras of Ferrara led the thugs who struck out against socialist sympathizers: he was suspected of having plotted the murder of Father Giovanni Minzoni, an anti-fascist priest. His organizational talents are recognized; better, they are exhibited for all to see, in press reports or in news films, where he coordinates the smallest details of the expedition.
Beyond the black shirt, Balbo reveals himself to be an effective ambassador of the Mussolini regime, a regime in search of recognition and legitimacy inside and outside Italy.
In his memories, the Italian aviator does not hide his propagandist intention: “We are in America and we must indulge in the innocent advertising madness. » According to historian Michel Pratt, “Balbo’s theft is one of marketing”, that of the success of Italian fascism. There Crociera Aerea del Decennalethe air cruise of the decade, aims to commemorate the 10 years since Mussolini took power.
Like the Mussolini ceremonies, the Montreal event is part of a theatrical liturgy, where each stopover on the crossing constitutes a step towards the final apotheosis, that of the Chicago World’s Fair celebrating “ The Century of Progress “.
The 25 Savoia-Marchetti S.55A seaplanes with silver fuselage land with the 100 members of the squadron. Welcomed by a cordon of 500 black shirts with outstretched arms, Balbo descends nimbly in the lead. He met notable people, including the Federal Minister of the Navy, Alfred Duranleau, and conveyed the wishes of the mayors of 19 Italian cities.
Balbo then addresses the audience and members of the media. In front of them, standing at attention, he speaks by telephone with the Duce. To the journalist of The Press, he concludes with a tirade: “In Italy, we have two great loves: God and Mussolini. » Acting as stage manager, consul Massimo Zanotti-Bianco ensures that the play runs smoothly. The political spectacle translates the typical aesthetics of Italian futurism harnessed by fascism, with its symbols exalting vitality, energy, virility, movement, brutality.
An ambiguous feeling
To succeed, a propaganda strategy must garner unanimous support. Certainly, on this summer Saturday, a crowd of 50,000 people is there on the banks of the St. Lawrence. The onlookers are joined by fascist sympathizers, including Gentile Dieni, for whom the event “is a great celebration” widely spreading “patriotic feeling”. Press coverage is generally sympathetic. At the end of the expedition, Gulf Progress exclaims, emphatically: “Here is a masterpiece of audacity and virtuosity combined with cold method and rigid discipline, finished with complete success. »
If the technical exploit of the squadron garners consensus, the promotion of the Mussolini regime arouses more lukewarm reactions. If his New Brunswick counterpart, Samuel Leonard Tilley, welcomed Italo Balbo to Shediac with great fanfare, Prime Minister Louis-Alexandre Taschereau did not deign to introduce himself, contenting himself with a brief welcome message in Italian.
Preferring the beaches of Old Orchard, the mayor of Montreal, Fernand Rinfret, is absent. Other citizens are showing active resistance. In a speech at the Auditorium on June 27, reports The homeland, Terzo Boschi mobilizes worker activists against fascist propaganda in Canada. Considering him “trash”, Antonino Spada goes out of his way to prevent Balbo from signing the City’s guestbook.
The Matteoti Circle distributes 15,000 photos of Father Minzoni. In front of the Popular University, at the corner of Sainte-Catherine and Montcalm streets, a constable arrests an unemployed man, Joseph-Antonio Desrosiers, who is distributing these hostile leaflets to Ras de Ferrara. All in all, fascist propaganda is not fully convincing. As historian Jean-François Nadeau notes, French Canadians had an “ambiguous feeling” about Balbo.
Power strikes down those who, like Icarus approaching the sun, frequent it too closely. Near Tobruk, on June 28, 1940, friendly fire shot down Italo Balbo’s plane in mid-flight. Looking up at the fresco in the Montreal church of the Madonna della Difensa, we see the aviator rubbing shoulders with the Duce. Propaganda now fixes it in the skies of memory.
To suggest a text or to make comments and suggestions, write to Dave Noël at [email protected].