An Interview with Giovanna Scaglione

Franco Scaglione, “My Father” His Life in the Words of His Daughter Giovanna

As told to Robert Little, Renzo Carbonaro, Vladimir Pajevic and Ulrich Zensen
Copyright: 8 November 2017 All World Rights Reserved
Republished with permissions with changes to suit the format of VeloceToday

Introduction

Our following story has been pieced together through a series of private interviews conducted over a period of five months with Giovanna Scaglione, and reveals her personal story of her dearly beloved father Franco Scaglione, the world famous Italian automobile designer of the 1950s through the 1970s.

Since the passing of Mr. Scaglione on June 19th, 1993, Giovanna, the only child of Franco Scaglione and Maria Luisa Benvenuti, had politely declined most interview requests, preferring to remain quiet and private in much the same manner as her father preferred to live his life.

This explains in part why there are dozens of stories based upon repetitive Wikipedia accounts of his life history and photographic features about his many design achievements. But all such articles are remarkably devoid of personal references to the man who stood at one time at the very height of automotive design.

Finally Giovanna Scaglione has chosen to use our historical writing team to reveal the stories of his personal achievements, his struggles, agonies and above all his triumphs, first hand, in English, for the world outside of Italy.

As Giovanna told us:

“… I will try to explain my father’s character, not only as a designer but especially as a man and as a wonderful father.

“Over the years there has been very, very little information conveyed about my Babbo from his personal standpoint… until now!”

Our series of intimate interviews began in May 2017 in her comfortable living room along the Mediterranean coast of Italy where the long story of the life of Franco Scaglione began to unfold. There, Giovanna Scaglione, Renzo Carbonaro and Robert Little…with Ulrich Zensen holding the camera began to record her story.

But how did we get there in the first place?

The team at www.AutodeltaGoldenYears.com, formed in the early part of 2014, began to research and reveal the untold and unexplored stories of the Alfa Romeo factory racing experiences of the post WWII period.

New chapters were opened from time to time and soon we started looking in closer detail at one of the most fascinating motorcars the world has ever seen, the Alfa Romeo 33 Stradale. Not only was the engine fascinating but the design of the car was just stunning.

We all knew the name Franco Scaglione was somehow connected with the birth of this car but the complete story was somehow unclear. Certainly the man himself seemed to be a mystery figure to many in the western world outside of Italy.

We learned a lot through our Senior Correspondent in Roma, Vladimir Pajevic and drew closer and closer to the car and to the designer. Before we knew it, in May 2017, the three editors of AutodeltaGoldenYears.com were driving through Tuscany on their way from Pistoia through the middle of Italy along the Mediterranean coastline to meet Giovanna Scaglione.

Renzo Carbonaro, our Italian Corresponding Editor and promotional mastermind, had made contact with Giovanna a month prior and received an invitation to conduct the first interview with Giovanna for the English-speaking market outside of her homeland in over 24 years.

We had already encountered moving personal experiences that day as we visited Signore Carrara and his historic Alfa Romeo T-33/2 Spider and interviewed its famous driver Aldo Bardelli, visited the gravesite of Ing. Carlo Chiti and now were a bit anxious about meeting Giovanna – the only child of the great designer Scaglione.

Having done as much of our “homework” as we could to learn about her father and some tragic aspects in his life – and also knowing the sometimes difficult relationship between Franco Scaglione and Carlo Chiti – we really did not know what to expect or how some sensitive questions would be received by her.

All fears were immediately erased when Giovanna opened her door and warmly welcomed us – three total strangers – invading her living room!

Giovanna appreciated our objective to learn and write about the personal aspects of her great father. Soon it became perfectly clear that she had one life goal in mind, to keep the memory of her father alive.

For over three hours we talked very openly about matters such as the Chiti – Scaglione relationship, the creation the 33 Stradale.

We learned about the warm family man Franco Scaglione had been, and were overwhelmed by all the facts Giovanna chose to share with us. Giovanna proudly displayed for us loads of her father’s memorabilia; books, family pictures paintings, drawings as her father’s life came alive before our eyes. Our conversations with Giovanna continued over the succeeding five months…and now we arrive at the beginning of the story.

A Famous or Unsung Italian Designer?

Franco Scaglione held tremendous influence over all other great automobile designers across the globe because of his unique and creative knowledge of the fluidity of aerodynamics.

Dozens of designers, especially those working for the Detroit automobile manufacturers, travelled long distances to view his work and to, in a polite sense, appropriate many of his conceptual lines and shapes to their own design products. Despite all of his accomplishments and recognition earned within a closely-knit circle of his peers, Franco Scaglione still did not achieve in his lifetime the worldly recognition he had richly deserved.

This feature is dedicated to his memory and to further your own knowledge…to reacquaint yourself with his work…and also to develop a closer awareness of his personal struggles, characteristics, his personality, skills and some of his more obscure achievements.

Now, his three-decades of design influence and styling leadership has long since passed. And sadly, the rest of the world has remained in ignorance of his innate genius and the masterworks of his automobile art. Journalists’ writings about Mr. Scaglione have drawn only scant historical attention even in recent years.

Generally, the name “Scaglione” has only risen to the surface when one of his many masterpieces… an Alfa Romeo 33 Stradale or one or more of the three Berlinetta Aerodinamica Tecnica series cars… had been shown or discussed.

Perhaps this occurred because only a relatively few books written in Italian of his achievements remain available and none feature the first hand involvement or contribution from Mr. Scaglione himself.

Few journalists outside of Italy had made the effort to translate those few volumes and even fewer had contact with anybody who really knew or had worked with Scaglione…or even knew where he lived or where his offices had been located. Most articles were simply Wikipedia retreads.

The true life-long student of the life of Franco Scaglione remains the professor of automotive design at the University of Florence… noted international writer and historian Dott. Massimo Grandi. Dr. Grandi had come across our manuscript and graciously offered to our readers the beauty of his water color illustrations of important Scaglione achievements.

The preeminent record of Franco Vittorio Scaglione’s life can be found in Dott. Grandi’s compendium “Il Paradigna Scaglione”…from which our beautiful illustrations are derived.

Next week Part 2 “Getting to know Franco Scaglione“