ANITA EKBERG |
The furore caused by Anita Ekberg in
the 1950s is understood only
by those who lived through it, and today Anita is a minor figure with few
memorable films to her credit. The most remarkable feature of her career is that
her personal appearance changed continuously from her late teens to her late
thirties, so that at any time she was physically different from what she had
been two years earlier. By 1964 she was unrecognisable from the young woman
of 1950.
Anita was born in 1931 in Malmo, Sweden into a very large family. In her teens she was quite slim, working for a time as a fashion model, and only her hips gave a hint as to how she would later develop.
In 1950 Anita was urged by her mother to enter the Miss Malmo competition which in turn would lead to the Miss Sweden contest. Anita won both competitions and consequently went to America to try for Miss Universe, not speaking any English, not knowing a single person in the States.
Newsreel footage from this period
shows Anita to be tall, with an elegant
face, more pretty than beautiful, a
normal sized bust and slightly wide
hips. She does not resemble the super-structured sex-bomb she so quickly became.
In America Anita met Howard Hughes who wanted to change her name, her nose and her teeth. Anita refused point blank but, as a contestant in Miss Universe, she won a starlet's contract with Universal Studios, who in those days gave contracts every year to the six finalists.
At Universal the starlets received lessons in drama, elocution, dancing, horse-riding and fencing. Anita regarded the whole system as a paid vacation and did not attend many of the lessons, restricting herself to horse riding in the Hollywood hills. In his excellent autobiography "Did They Mention The Music?", Henry Mancini gives an account of Anita refusing to rehearse a song because she had no intention of going to Alaska and singing it. Anita now admits that she was spoiled by the studio, by directors and producers.
At first Universal gave Anita bit parts in their movies - often without screen credit - and there is no evidence that she clamoured for bigger roles.
While at Universal Anita bloomed physically and her bust became especially full, to the
delight of photographers. Anita also delighted the gossip columnists with her social life. Her
name was linked to many famous men, but Anita was given the nickname "The Iceberg" because of her
plain speaking and her insistence on choosing for herself which people she would socialise with.
Anita now says that she regarded the nickname as a compliment.
The combination of Anita's colourful private life and now awesome physique, frequently specified as 39.22.37, made her ideal material both for gossip magazines like "Confidential" and for the new type of men's magazine that proliferated in the 1950's. Quickly she became a major '50s pin-up. In addition Anita participated in publicity stunts. Famously, she has admitted that her dress bursting open in the lobby of London's Berkeley Hotel was pre-arranged with a photographer.
Contrary to her "Iceberg" image, after marrying the English actor Anthony Steel, Anita talked to journalists about how marriage had changed her. (She did not tell journalists, as she now does, that Anthony Steel had a severe drink problem or that the marriage was soon in trouble).
The impression gained during this period was that Anita would do anything for publicity, and in some quarters there was considerable hostility towards her. However, an examination today of the photographs taken then uncovers a curious contradiction. Although Anita posed endlessly in bikinis and revealing dresses, in many of the pictures her face suggests that she resented the experience. Frequently she looks embarrassed and sometimes antagonistic. Nevertheless, Anita's lack of ambition made her careless about her photographs. Most film stars carefully vet all publicity pictures before authorising their release, but Anita allowed the distribution of unflattering photographs, often showing her in ungraceful postures. Many of these pictures are still in circulation.
However the sustained publicity
did achieve results because in the mid-50s other studios offered Anita work.
Paramount cast her in two of the Dean Martin/Jerry Lewis comedies, and John
Wayne borrowed her for a small role in "Blood Alley". Then
RKO gave Anita the female lead in "Back From Eternity". The opening
sequence in the film introduces her to the audience - no other character in
the movie receives a similar build-up - and RKO's publicity for the movie
concentrated on Anita, ("Ooh - That Ekberg!") not Robert Ryan or
Rod Steiger, her two co-stars. Anita was perfectly adequate in her cardboard
role, and suggested that with a good director and a worthwhile part, she might
have something to offer.
Further substantial parts were provided by Warwick Films in London. In the 1950s, Albert R. ("Cubby") Broccoli and Irwin Allen were making films in England, with Hollywood middle-rankers like Victor Mature and Alan Ladd. Anita Ekberg was now firmly established, and three times she made films for the American ex-patriots. (When "Cubby" Broccoli co-produced "From Russia With Love", the film star in the movie poster through which the Bulgarian assassin Krilencu escapes, was changed from Marilyn Monroe, as in Ian Fleming's novel, to Anita Ekberg.)
In 1956 Anita went to Rome to make "War And Peace", directed by distinguished Hollywood veteran King Vidor. In Hollywood itself, Anita made few worthwhile movies, being confined to potboilers like "Screaming Mimi". She was in Italy again, her career treading water with "Nel Segno Di Roma" (a.k.a. "Sign Of The Gladiator"), when, in 1960, she was offered a part in "La Dolce Vita".
"La Dolce Vita" was a sensational success, and Anita Ekberg's uninhibited voluptuousness remains one of the most celebrated images in movie history. By now she had grown even more and was perhaps the most extravagantly feminine star in movies. Had Anita stayed as she was, permanent Goddess status would have been hers.
Unfortunately Anita continued to
expand. Show business journalists
began, cautiously and politely, to
comment on her increasing size, often
describing her euphemistically as a
picture of health. Soon it
became difficult for
costume designers and cinematographers to hide the
truth. In "Call Me Bwana" Anita
dwarfed Bob Hope, and in "Four For
Texas" her growing size was obvious
despite carefully chosen camera
angles.
As Anita's career had been based on her physical appeal, she was soon unsuitable for the kind of parts she normally played, and quickly she became a marginal figure in the movie world.
Anita has continued working in small parts and today she lives near Lazio in Italy, still impatient, still brutally honest, still good humoured. She admits that she has received offers for her memoirs but has refused, because she is aware that all that is wanted is intimate details of her love life.