L’America in casa. Sogni e sviluppo nell’Italia del “miracolo”

When you think of the Italian “economic miracle”, i.e., the intense development that Italy has experienced since the end of the war until roughly the mid-sixties, hardly the thoughts turn to the cultural industry. Still, if you think of the cultural industry properly, including in it, besides publishing, the production and consumption of radio programs and television, as well as the music industry, there is no doubt that it has known a growth level comparable to that of other industrial fields. In the Twenties, the idea is developed of broadcasting, i.e. the transmission of a message not to an individual recipient, but to a plurality of recipients provided with equipment capable of receiving it. This system – which is immediately used for its political propaganda potential – mainly has in its inception an entertainment purpose. In addition, the convergences made possible by technological developments in the second half of the Twenties, and the integration between the technologies of cable and wireless transmissions, quickly extends from the written word to the voice and to the fixed and moving images. This favors the shift of attention from the method of transmission to the content of the message, giving rise to a new concept of telecommunications, which will become the post-war standard. In this field, an important role is held in Italy by the State-owned industrial holding IRI. After the War, there is a widespread doubt that Italy, in the difficult economic post-war situation, may afford the resources to rebuild and modernize its telecommunication system, in order to catch up with other countries. This perspective is opposed by the managers of the Stet (IRI’s financial holding in the field). They gain the support of Luigi Einaudi, minister of the Treasury, who generally dislikes the economic intervention of the State, but gives credit to Stet. Already in 1947, in fact, the urban telephone service covers a wider number of clients than in the period before the war, while the long-distance network is spreading to all municipalities. Stet is based in Turin, which in the years between the two World Wars had become the capital of Italian telecommunications: Eiar, the old Fascist radio institution, is also based there, and is controlled by IRI as well. After the war, Eiar is transformed into a new concessionaire: RAI – Radio Audizioni Italiane. It plays a significant driving function for the technological modernization of the whole Italian system of telecommunications, with the renovation and development of broadcasting infrastructure, and with important consequences in related industries. In addition, between 1948 and 1952 RAI turns into a large cultural company, based on production standards of high qualification, with technical services considered at that time among the best in Europe. The radio audience will rise by 243 %, to just under 5 million, in 1953. Italy thus achieves a radio density comparable to that of other European countries, although still at some distance from the most developed markets. In 1954, television is started, and RAI, while keeping unchanged the acronym, changes its name to Rai – Radiotelevisione Italiana. In the same years, furthermore, the Italian recording industry, until then controlled by British, American and French companies, sees the birth and the strong development of new initiatives by Italian entrepreneurs. While in other European countries, the State controlled broadcasting companies proceed gradually and with caution in spreading the television network, in Italy the strategy adopted by Rai is to extend the service as quickly as possible. Within a few years, the television reaches a number of subscribers equal to that of radio. Imported television sets have high prices, and Italian companies bet on the production of good quality equipment of original design and affordable price. Before the end of the Fifties, the Italian market will absorb, as well as tape recorders and record players, as many as 6 million radio and 4 million television sets, mostly of Italian production, creating a unique opportunity for the development of consumer electronics industry, and offering small companies the opportunity of a leap into a new productive dimension. After the most difficult phase of reconstruction, the Italian economic growth is apparent in 1948–1953 with the diffusion of sewing machines, motor scooters and liquid gas stoves. Scooters replace, in the middle-class and working-class families, the bicycle: in 1948 they circulate in the number of 161,000; in 1951, 517,000; in 1954, they will reach 1,243,000. Even more impressive is the diffusion of liquid gas stoves, which will also trigger the development of household appliances: in the period 1949–1954 the market absorbs more than 4,000,000 units. Most of them are produced by small Italian companies. Since the early Fifties, the Italian families buy new appliances, going from liquid gas stoves to refrigerators, washing machines, and later on dishwashers. These devices are mostly produced by Italian companies, moving from an early phase of imitation of foreign products to the design of equipment of original concept and affordable price. It is worth remembering, that the invention of the rectangular shell fridge with polyurethane insulation is Italian. It will become the European standard product, because its design and price are more suitable for the houses of the Old Continent, than the paunchy standard model coming from the United States.The success is huge: only in the field of refrigerators Italians will produce every year millions of pieces, sold in the internal market, which supports its development, but soon also exported throughout Europe: in fact the most reputable brands (French and German ) buy them from Italian companies and resell under their own brands. Italy becomes the factory of household appliances in Europe. From 1951 to 1961, according to general censuses, the population in Italy rises from about 47 million to nearly 50 million, an increase of 5.8 %. However, the population of the provincial capital towns undergoes an overall increase of 21.3 %; if one analyses the top five most populous municipalities (Rome, Milan, Naples, Turin and Genoa), the increase is as much as 27.3 %. A large part of the working population abandons rural areas. A strong economic growth rate allows for the absorption of this workforce: the increase of consumer spending is both a consequence and a causal factor of this development, in other words to a certain extent it feeds on itself. This internal emigration is characterized not only by the refusal of previous social conditions (peasants, rural craftsmen, etc.), as in the earlier waves of immigration, but by a total rejection of traditional society and of rural lifestyle. In this perspective, the spread of radio, television and pop music not only contributes to the “miracle” by encouraging the development of transmission infrastructure and creating a market for equipment. In addition to directly supporting the development of an industrial field such as electronics (which in Italy already had a certain tradition, though it never enjoyed such a wide market), they promote new lifestyles. The country reveals an unprecedented desire for change: a radical change of political leadership, the shift from Monarchy to Republic, and the adoption of a new constitution. In addition, the Cold War becomes an incentive for new lifestyles: the challenge to social conservatism is indeed facilitated by the need, supported with particular strength from the American ally, to antagonize the spread of the Communist movement through rapid economic development, and with the propaganda, at every level, of the American model (and the American Dream). Under the stimulus of modern communication and advertising (radio, television, cinema, newspapers, posters, etc.) Italians acquire the patterns of consumer spending of the most developed capitalist countries. These lifestyle models, already established in major urban centers during World War II and immediately after the war, gradually spread to small towns and rural areas, with a significant demonstration effect. The spread of home appliances is the expression of both adhesion to the urban social system typical of industrialized society, and rejection of the traditional social order. Having a new stove, a refrigerator and a washing machine is more than a statement of status in the old social order, it is rather the expression of a sense of superiority in respect to that order, and the introduction of new categories of value. As highlighted by the results of recent research in culture sociology, the diffusion of new media actually favors the growth of demand for traditional publishing. In fact, in this period Italy shows an unprecedented growth of existing major companies in the field, as well as the birth of new initiatives for both books and periodicals, targeting all audiences. It is not an exaggeration, perhaps, to say that the cultural industry is the main factor for the greatest period of development enjoyed by Italy in one hundred and fifty years from its unification