Anna Carolina Viana
In 1964, everything suggested to Rio residents that Carnival would be unforgettable. “Seven ocean liners full of tourists [...] are expected to arrive in Guanabara by Carnival,” reported the newspaper
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The reason? By February 4th, Italian actress Elsa Martinelli, who debuted in Hollywood cinema in the mid-1950s and rose to fame with performances in films such as
Hatari!
(1962) and
The V.I.P.s
(1963), an international success. Martinelli arrived accompanied by her fiancé, the Italian photographer Willy Rizzo. Also aboard the Guanabara were the Dominican playboy Porfírio Rubirosa, a diplomat and race car driver known for his luxurious lifestyle, and his wife, actress Odile Rubirosa, who shared the screen with the French Brigitte Bardot in the film
The Most Beautiful Vedette
(1955). It was a true Carnival of stars – and it didn't stop there: the actor Alberto Sordi, who rose to international fame starring in a series of Italian productions, would also arrive in Rio. The group would take part in the gala ball at the Copacabana Palace, and Elsa, Porfírio, and Alberto would also serve on the panel of judges for the hotel's costume contest.
Indeed, there were no disappointments: the Copacabana Palace offered “one of the liveliest balls in the city,” with at least 4,000 revelers and a total of 180 musicians. The revelry was long, lasting from 10 p.m. on Saturday night until the early hours of Sunday morning. The party frustrated the expectations of Governor Carlos Lacerda's Secretary of Security, the retired colonel Gustavo Borges, who had ordered policing for the occasion with one very specific goal: to ban kissing on the mouth. But the
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foliões venceram a polícia do Rio: beijo foi na boca
Image description: This is a black-and-white photograph of a group of people dancing in a nighttime setting. On the left side, we see a person with their back to the camera, wearing black clothes, who appears to be watching the dance. In front of them, there is a figure covered in a large amount of snowflakes, moving animatedly. In the background, several other people are also dancing, their bodies partially covered in snowflakes. The lighting is low, suggesting the scene takes place at night.Contagiado pelas escolas de samba, Alberto Sordi entrou no meio do desfile e foi vaiado pela multidão, mas não perdeu o bom-humor e seguiu acenando e sorrindo.
Rio de Janeiro, fevereiro de 1964, Autor desconhecido. Revista Intervalo/Fundação Biblioteca Nacional.