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The Civic Museum and the Frank Capra Hall

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🏛️ CAPTION 6
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THE CIVIC MUSEUM AND FRANK CAPRA ROOM.

Close your eyes, become a child again and imagine that you are on the ship Germania about to set sail from the port of Naples to New York, you are about to experience a long journey, so long that once you open your eyes again you are in the middle of the ocean, in the middle of the Blue, and at that very moment you think that your life is starting again right there…

It was 1861 when “the greatest exodus in modern history” began. :Italian emigration to the United States, which recorded more than twenty-four million departures. Substantial quotas of Sicilian emigrants headed for the Americas in search of fortune and a better life…

This fate also befell a little six-year-old boy , the last of seven siblings and his family, who in 1903 was forced to leave for a journey of which , probably, even he did not know the destination .

It may be hard to believe that , even the origins of a man who made American film history, so highly regarded in Hollywood circles, are to be found in a small inland Sicilian town, Bisacquino.

Well yes , Frank Capra, that much-acclaimed director in his lifetime, known for directing several films, seemingly light-hearted in tone, but dealing with themes of a social character, winning 3 Oscars, was born in our hamlet on May 18, 1897.

Other awards include.

  • 1947 – Golden Globe best director for Life is Wonderful.
  • 1982 the Golden Lion Award for Lifetime Achievement from the Venice Film Festival.

The municipality of Bisacquino, to pay tribute to its fellow citizen, has dedicated to Frank Capra one of the main streets of the town, a plaque in front of his birth house, and a large area of the town’s Civic Museum ( one of the most important in Sicily for the archaeological heritage present ).

The Frank Capra room of the civic museum displays blow-ups taken from the sets of major films, made in his honor for the centenary of his birth in 1997. There are period photos, historical documents such as his birth certificate dating, precisely, to May 18, 1897, and a copy of the passport that enabled the Capra family to arrive in America.