Francesca Braggiotti

Francesca Braggiotti (October 17, 1902 – February 25, 1998) was an Italian dancer, actress, dubber, and first lady of Connecticut.

Francesca Braggiotti
Braggiotti with her husband
John Davis Lodge (1938)
First Lady of Connecticut
In office
January 3, 1951 – January 5, 1955
GovernorJohn Davis Lodge
Preceded byDorothy Stebbens
Succeeded byRuth Siegel
Personal details
Born(1902-10-17)October 17, 1902
Florence, Italy
DiedFebruary 25, 1998(1998-02-25) (aged 95)
Spouse(s)
​
(
m. 1929; died 1985)
RelativesBerthe Braggiotti (sister), Gloria Braggiotti Etting (sister), Mario Braggiotti (brother), Chadwick Braggiotti (brother)
OccupationDancer, actress, and dubber

Biography
Francesca and Bertha Braggiotti

Francesca Braggiotti was born in Florence, her father was an Italian tenor, born in Smyrna; her mother was an American mezzo-soprano from Boston. Both her parents were converted to Buddhism; she was the second of eight brothers and sisters, all destined for success in the arts.

She began her career as a dancer, forming the Braggiotti Sisters, a duo with her sister Berthe. The duo was an overwhelming success in Boston after World War I. Writer Alden Hatch wrote: "Two polyglot strikingly attractive and talented sisters, call Berthe and Francesca Braggiotti, were the biggest event of the Bostonian Society since Jack Gardner smoked a cigarette in public and built Fenway Court ".[1]

Francesca and her sister Berthe opened a dance studio above the barracks of the Brookline Fire Department. For a public performance sponsored by the exclusive Vincent Club, the Mayor was asked about the limits of public decency, as he had authorized their costumes for some artistic purposes, although too small to be admitted to a public beach.

The poet Amy Lowell was so enchanted that she composed an ode in honor of Francesca. Isabella Stewart Gardner asked them to a private performance at Fenway Court.[2] The dance school of Braggiotti Sisters, as well as being the most expensive and requested, first introduced dance Expressionist movement in Boston and a new vision of health and beauty.

After the untimely death of her elder sister (1928) Francesca went to work in cinema and began dubbing in Italy. She starred in Rasputin and the Empress (1932), Little Women (1933), Scipio Africanus: The Defeat of Hannibal (1937), and Tonight at Eleven (1938).

She was the first Italian voice of Greta Garbo[3] and talk the first bar dubbed in Italian film history: "Give me a cigarette!" in the movie Mata Hari by George Fitzmaurice. She also dubbed the Swedish actress in: Inspiration (Yvonne), Susan Lenox (Her Fall and Rise), Grand Hotel (Grusinskaya), As You Desire Me (Zadar / Countess Maria Varelli).

Francesca married John Davis Lodge in 1929, and worked with him on the set of Tonight at Eleven. After her husband's entry into politics, she withdrew from artistic life; he was a Republican politician, governor of Connecticut from 1951 to 1955 and diplomatic ambassador to Spain, Argentina and Switzerland.

Notes
  1. Alden Hatch, The Lodges of Massachusetts, Hawthorn Books, 1973
  2. Stephen Hess, America's Political Dynasties, Garden City, N.Y., Doubleday & Company Inc., 1966
  3. "Famous Grave search by location - Find A Grave". www.findagrave.com. Retrieved 1 May 2018.

Filmography

Bibliography
  • Gloria Braggiotti, Born in a crowd, Crowell, New York City, 1957.
  • Salvatore John LaGumina, The Italian American experience: an encyclopedia, Garland Pub.2000, page 169.
  • Jody Marie Weber, The Evolution of Aesthetic and Expressive Dance in Boston, Cambria Press, 2009.
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