The long black limousine pulled up in front of the home at 127 S. Hyde Park Ave. in Scranton. The uniformed chauffeur had driven from New York City. It was a Sunday afternoon, Aug. 10, 1958, and Sophia Loren had come to West Side to visit her family.
The actress traveled alone on a family visit that she had promised, two years earlier. Her busy life kept her hopping the globe. One thing or another interfered with her plans, but she had stayed in touch by telephone. Three days before, she called from New York to arrange the visit. Mr. and Mrs. Joseph Villani lived at 127 S. Hyde Park Ave., but the extended family occupied three residences in the block. Some of them, Ms. Loren was meeting for the first time.
The elder Mrs. Villani, the former Gilda Zotti, was a sister of Ms. Loren's grandmother. The sisters had married brothers. In Scranton for the visit were relatives from Brooklyn and from Olean, N.Y., including Antonio Villani. He had been young Sophia's babysitter in their native Bozzubli, near Naples, Italy. Ms. Loren smiled affectionately as she told how close they had been in Italy when life was not "so easy" as it now was.
Although the visit was a private family affair, Ms. Loren's presence attracted attention. Neighbors gathered, the young people crowding the street, almost blocking the limousine from view, while the elders watched from their porches. No one pushed or shoved, even when Ms. Loren agreed to step into the yard so the young people could take pictures. This was a neighborhood that respected a family gathering.
News traveled to the press, and The Scranton Times sent a reporter. Ms. Loren agreed to an interview. He described her as surprisingly tall and curvaceous. "But," he wrote, "her overwhelming quality is in her face: Eyes of a startling depth, a faultless complexion heightened by dark, curly hair, high cheekbones and lips which smile broadly." Ms. Loren delighted in speaking her native Italian with her family and, the reporter said, she "radiated happiness" during her entire visit.
After four hours, it was time to leave, but Ms. Loren's cousins promised to visit her the following week in New York at her Fifth Avenue apartment.
Almost 27 years later, the local press caught up with Ms. Loren again, this time at a reception at the Sheraton Crossgates hotel in Wilkes-Barre. Hosted by Boscov's Department Store owner Al Boscov, the visit was one of a six-city promotional tour by Ms. Loren for Coty to promote its Sophia fragrance collection.
There were family there, too. Among the relatives from the Scranton area were Helen Harrington, Victor and Americus Villani and Anne Rinaldi. Mrs. Harrington told The Times that she and some of the other relatives had last seen Ms. Loren in New York the previous October.
She also admitted - although hesitantly - that Ms. Loren had been to Scranton more than once. "I'm not going to say how many times," Mrs. Harrington said. "But she has been here on some occasions when she didn't want any publicity."
Antonio Villani was there to see his cousin again. "Antonio used to hold me on his knee," Ms. Loren told The Times. "I was only 10 years old when he left Italy." The meeting was emotional for both of them. "He cried and I, too, had tears," the actress said.
Ms. Loren also worked the room, posing for pictures and signing autographs. "I would not change a thing in my life," she told the crowd. "Not a thing." Wilkes-Barre Mayor Thomas V. McLaughlin presented her with a key to the city. Then, after little more than an hour, it was time for her to leave. Where was she going? To a private hotel room to spend more time with her family.
CHERYL A. KASHUBA is a freelance writer specializing in local history. Visit scrantonhistory.com.
Contact the writer: localhistory@timesshamrock.com.