PHENOMENOLOGY OF MIKE BONGIORNO 
He died on the night between 7 and '8 September, in Monaco, the Italian-American popular presenter Michael Nicholas Salvatore Bongiorno.
Mike, as he liked to call himself by his audience, was born in New York in 1924, the grandson of immigrants. He moved to Italy young, he was almost immediately engaged in the Resistance. As it was rolling back and forth, with its clandestine messages, between Turin and Milan. Apprehended by the Gestapo, was imprisoned in S. Victor (where he met Indro Montanelli) and subsequently transferred to various Nazi camps in Bolzano, in Mauthausen in Austria and Spithal, Germany.
on the matter of his release was never made completely light. He was exchanged, through the intercession of the Red Cross, with some German soldiers detained by the Americans. A procedure anomalous when one considers that this type of transition of prisoners is usually realized by categories is subject very specific, as the seriously ill and the maimed.
In 1953 he was back in Italy beginning his experience with radio and television presenter Arrivals and Departures (first transmission "official" of the RAI). The next entertainment programs, as Lascia and Rischiatutto are given in the manuals of science communication as a socio-cultural phenomena of great value. The Eighties, with the advent of commercial television, was a land of conquest for shows such as Superflash, pentathlon and Telemike , to name a few, which sanctioned the final consecration of the TV quiz with prizes.
politician close to Prime Minister Berlusconi, who provided a epigone the first time, Mike had recently suffered from the non-renewal of his contract with Mediaset.
Another cause for regret in a career studded with successes, it's probably been the failure to appoint to the position of "Senator for Life", which claims to be the current prime minister was the most important testiomonial.
By Mike Bongiorno, as often happens in these cases, we are spending a lot of words. Most of them, given the tragic nature of the circumstance, are late and praise.
emotions However, each of us derives from experience, rarely allow us to express a warm, realistic assessments.
What made Mike so popular? Perhaps it was his gaffe? The quality and innovation of television? Or he was just ten years his career that made him, through different generations, a character familiar?
One answer he gave, many years ago, Umberto Eco.
semiologist In 1961 the well-known essayist and published an article entitled "Phenomenology By Mike "(from DIARY MINIMUM , ECO, Ed, Simon and Schuster, 1991) which summarized the career of the presenter:
''The most 'glaring reduction ''Superman'' to 'everyman''' 'we have in Italy and in the shape of Mike Bongiorno in the history of his fortune . idolized by millions of people, this man owes its success to the fact that in every action and every word from which the character 'life before the cameras reveal a mediocrity' absolute together (this and 'the only virtue' of which he is able excess) to an immediate appeal and explained by the fact that spontaneous he did not feel any construction or stage fiction.''
What was the nature of the relationship between the presenter and their audience, Umberto Eco, therefore do you explain this:
"(...) Mike Bongiorno then convince the public, a living example and triumphant, the value of mediocrity '. not cause inferiority complexes' while offering himself as an idol, and the public pays him back, grateful, loving . He represents an ideal that no one should strive for because' everyone is already 'at this level. No religion' never been so 'lenient with his faithful. In him is undo the tension between be and ought to be. He tells his worshipers: you are God, remained motionless. "
It occurs to me that if it had not existed, Emilio Fede, the direction of TG4 would not give them removed ... no
