Corrado Mantoni (2 August 1924 – 8 June 1999), known simply as Corrado, was an Italian television and radio presenter, producer, and television writer.

Biography

He was born in

Rome Rome (Italian language, Italian and , ) is the capital city and most populated (municipality) of Italy. It is also the administrative centre of the Lazio Regions of Italy, region and of the Metropolitan City of Rome. A special named with 2, ...

, where he followed classic studies and in jurisprudence; before finishing university studies he started to work as radio speaker with

EIAR Ente Italiano per le Audizioni Radiofoniche (EIAR, "Italian Body for Radio Broadcasting") was the public service broadcaster in Fascist Italy and the only entity permitted to broadcast by the government. History In spite of the fact that the ra ...

, predecessor of

RAI (), commercially styled as since 2000 and known until 1954 as (RAI), is the national public broadcasting company of Italy, owned by the Ministry of Economy and Finance. RAI operates many terrestrial and subscription television channels a ...

, Italian State Television. He was the first to announce to the Italian public events such as the end of

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, the birth of the

Italian Republic Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

or the death of

Trilussa Carlo Alberto Camillo Mariano SalustriSome biographers as Claudio Rendina report ''Marianum'' as his fourth name (Rendina, p.19) (26 October 1871 – 21 December 1950), known by the pseudonym Trilussa (an anagram of his last name), was an Italia ...

. He also worked as dubber for foreign actors including

Jerry Lewis Jerry Lewis (born Joseph Levitch; March 16, 1926 – August 20, 2017) was an American comedian, actor, singer, filmmaker and humanitarian, with a career spanning seven decades in film, stage, television and radio. Famously nicknamed as "Th ...

. In 1949, he was chosen by RAI as their first TV host for the Italian first experimental TV broadcasting. In the 1950s he was the foremost radio host in the country, and also took part in numerous movies as himself. Corrado began to work for TV in the 1960s as the host of popular shows such as '' Canzonissima'', '' Miss Italia'', the

Sanremo Festival The Sanremo Music Festival ( ), officially the Italian Song Festival (), is the most popular Italian song contest and awards ceremony, held annually in the city of Sanremo, Liguria, organized and broadcast by (RAI). It is the longest-running ...

(1974) and '' Domenica In'', which he inaugurated in 1976. Another show for which he was the first host was '' Fantastico''. He also worked for the TSI, the Italian-speaking Swiss television. In 1978, together with his collaborator Dora Moroni, had a car accident which obliged her to have several operations.(8 June 1999)
La morte di Corrado, la voce della tv
''

La Repubblica (; English: "the Republic") is an Italian daily general-interest newspaper with an average circulation of 151,309 copies in May 2023. It was founded in 1976 in Rome by Gruppo Editoriale L'Espresso (now known as GEDI Gruppo Editoriale) and l ...

'' In 1982 Corrado moved to the private-owner

Silvio Berlusconi Silvio Berlusconi ( ; ; 29 September 193612 June 2023) was an Italian Media proprietor, media tycoon and politician who served as the prime minister of Italy in three governments from 1994 to 1995, 2001 to 2006 and 2008 to 2011. He was a mem ...

's network. His shows included '' Il pranzo è servito'' and, perhaps his most popular, '' La corrida'', in which is an Italian version of

The Gong Show ''The Gong Show'' is an American amateur talent contest franchised by Sony Pictures Television to many countries. It was broadcast on NBC's daytime schedule from June 14, 1976, through July 21, 1978, and in first-run syndication from 1976 to ...

. He was also a singer, mainly of children songs. His 1981 song "Carletto" topped the Italian hit parade for 11 weeks. Corrado was author nearly of all his shows with the pseudonym of ''Corima'', often in collaboration with his brother Riccardo. He died of

lung cancer Lung cancer, also known as lung carcinoma, is a malignant tumor that begins in the lung. Lung cancer is caused by genetic damage to the DNA of cells in the airways, often caused by cigarette smoking or inhaling damaging chemicals. Damaged ...

in Rome in 1999.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mantoni, Corrado 1924 births 1999 deaths Male actors from Rome Italian television presenters Deaths from lung cancer in Lazio Italian radio presenters Italian radio personalities 20th-century Italian male actors Burials at the Cimitero Flaminio