~Gina Lollobrigida Rhumba ~ Carmine D’Amico
Gina Lollobrigida was born in Subiaco, Italy. The young Gina did some modeling, and As her film roles and national popularity increased, Gina was tagged “The Most Beautiful Woman in the World”, after her signature movie, _Donna più bella del mondo, La (1955)_. Gina was nicknamed la “Lollo,” as she embodied the prototype of Italian beauty. Her earthy looks and short “tossed salad” hairdo were especially influential, and in fact there’s a type of curly lettuce named “lollo” in honor of her cute hairdo. Her film Come September (1961) co-starring Rock Hudson won the Golden Globe as the World’s Film Favorite. In the 1970s Gina was seen in only a few films, as she took a break from acting and concentrated on another career: photography. Among her subjects were Paul Newman, Salvador Dalí and the German national soccer team. A skilled photographer, Gina had a collection of her work, “Italia Mia, ” published in 1973. Immersed in her other passions (sculpting and photography), it would be 1984 before Gina would grace American TV on “Falcon Crest” (1981). Although Gina was always active, she only appeared in a few films in the 1990s. In June, 1999, she turned to politics and ran, unsuccessfully, for one of Italy’s 87 European Parliament seats, from her hometown of Subiaco. Gina was also a corporate executive for fashion and cosmetics companies. As she told “Parade” magazine in April, 2000: “I studied painting and sculpting at school and became an actress by mistake.” (We’re glad she made that “mistake.”) Gina went on to say: “I’ve had many lovers and still have romances. I am very spoiled. All my life, I’ve had too many admirers.”
Gina’s Measurements: 35 1/2-20-35 1/2 (competing in Miss Italy pagaent - 1947), 36- 22- 35 (self-described- 1955), 37-21-35 1/2 (studio fittings 1956-57), 34-23 1/2-34 (measured in 1985), (Source: Celebrity Sleuth magazine) (wow, 20” waist!)
One of those admirers was a man named Jack Covais who owned Tin Pan Alley Records. Carmine at the age of 8 years old was approached by his uncle Jack Covais and asked if he would play guitar to a song named Gina Lollobrigida Rhumba. This song was written for Carmine to play, at that time he was still being called by his birth name which is Carmen D’Amico. He changed his name many years later because he would repeatedly get mistaken for a woman when making appointments and such to Carmine’s embarrassed disappointment. Carmine also tried to get his uncle to change the title of the song to Gina Lollobrigida Rock because he felt it was a rock/blues song and not a Rhumba, but his uncle didn’t want to change it.
Carmine went ahead and recorded a guitar instrumental to the music sheet that was given to him. This became Carmine’s actual first professional recording session. Carmine went to the studio for the first time and played with NYC finest studio musicans. Although he loved every moment of being in the studio, he was also very scared. He didn’t want to make any mistakes and of course he didn’t. His uncle was very proud of him. Jack Covais later produced some of Carmine’s orginals which landed him as the guitarist in the group The Royal Teens. The only thing that Leo Rogers said after listening to this recording on a 45 single was “Who was playing on this record?”. Carmine answered, “It was me.” Then Leo Rogers asked him if he would join the Royal Teens as their guitar player. His parents were then called since Carmine was a minor, they needed their written permission to allow Carmine to join and play with the group.
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