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Baby Pignatari Profile
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| (Francisco R. Pignatari) |
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| February 16 | is born in Naples, Italy. His father is a doctor; his mother is Countess of Matarazzo, a member of Brazil's top industrial family. |
| ? | goes to Brazil with his family when only few months old. An English governess calls him "Baby," which remains his nickname throughout his life. |
| ? | his father enters the metal business in São Paolo and "Baby" starts working in his father's mill at age 17 |
| ? | inherits the business at age 20 when his father dies |
| ? | stands 6’-3" |
| ? | marries Marina Parodi Delfino |
| February 47 | is the 29-year-old president of Laminação Nacional, which in addition to the parent plant owns subsidiaries that produce everything from slippers to light airplanes |
| May 47 | sends a 155-piece set of dinner service to crooner Andy Russell. It arrives by plane with two guards and is said to have been insured for over $20,000. The pieces are of silver, dipped in 24-carat gold. On his recent trip to Hollywood, "Baby" dubbed Russell "the most popular Yankee singer in South America." Leaving, he told Andy: "You'll be getting a present from me." |
| is seen with Swedish beauty Inga Lindgren at Cavanaugh's |
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| ? | divorces Delfino |
| March 50 | sends actress Dolores De Rio planeloads of posies |
| June 51 | is the new romancer of starlet Selene Walters |
| ? | marries heiress Nelita Alves de Lima in Switzerland |
| 57 | divorces his second wife, Alves de Lima |
| c. November 57 | spots 33-year-old actress Linda Christian, the ex of actor Tyrone Power, at a Rome restaurant; he is in Rome to celebrate the divorce from his second wife. A few days after he meets Linda, the two are on an around-the-world trip with stopovers in Hong Kong, Bangkok, Cairo, Tokyo, Honolulu, Panama City, and Mexico City. |
| 31 January 58 | poses with Linda for one picture after they arrive in Los Angeles on their round-the-word "togetherness" tour, and then he breaks away. Linda explains that he is very camera-shy. |
| 14 February 58 | Linda informs reporters that she and Pignatari are planning an April wedding. He presents her with a “friendship ring.” |
| the press claims that Linda Christian ought to be warned that he's a fickle friend. One afternoon he summoned his second wife from the powder room and said: "I want to speak to you. I am tired of you and I am now going to the office. When I come back at 7 o'clock you will have left and taken all your things. Be sure you aren't here." She wasn't. |
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| Early March 58 | Linda hears that "Baby" has a secret gal stashed in Rio. She plans to force a showdown and maybe call off the marriage. |
| March 58 | his romance with Linda Christian fizzles out in Brazil |
| 22 March 58 | pickets Linda Christian's Rio de Janeiro hotel with fireworks and blunt signs saying "Linda Go Home." |
| March 58 | busts up with Linda Christian, who joins her old standby, George DeWitt, in Cuba. Linda didn't get any fabulous jewelry from him as had been reported; he didn't even see her the last time she visited Rio. |
| 2 April 58 | Linda Christian returns from Rio de Janeiro sporting an olive-sized diamond ring, but indicates that her international romance with "Baby" is finished |
| Early April 58 | is off to Germany to woo Soraya, ex-Queen of Iran. They met in Rome, Italy, and he renews their acquaintance by sending his usual three dozen roses. |
| April 58 | is met at the Los Angeles airport by starlet Vikki Dougan |
| in Brazil, he gives a big rush to MGM contract beauty Tracey Morgan, who's there to ballyhoo Les Girls. He sends her orchids encrusted with pearls. |
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| c. April 58 | enjoys cheek-to-cheeking at El Morocco with model Melissa Weston while making the local scene |
| April 58 | he and Jorginho Guinle, fellow Brazilian playboy who is headed for Hollywood and Zsa Zsa Gabor, plan to keep in touch by phone with their favorite New York companions, blonde sisters Helen and Ann Merrill. |
| 29 April 58 | is seen with Linda at New York's El Morocco. "Baby" says he would have liked to have staged a parade of "Welcome Home" sign carriers. He and Linda were chronicled as having had a serious rift in Rio de Janeiro. They were brought together by Linda's former beau, George DeWitt. In the meantime George dates "Baby's" girl, Melissa Weston. |
| among the hundreds of girls bedded by "Baby," Linda’s voted “the best lay of all time.” |
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| May 58 | Linda claims: "He was to marry Zsa Zsa Gabor, and I was about to punish him by letting him." Zsa Zsa answers: "Pignatari is a dear friend of mine - he called me three times yesterday - but there never was anything romantic between us. Why, I arranged for him to meet Joanna Moore when he was out here." |
| heads for Cannes, France |
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| not many Brazilians believe his scheduled marriage to Bahia's beauty queen will ever come off. The happy couple hasn't received many wedding presents. |
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| June 58 | his new interest in Rome is Anita Ekberg's one-time stand-in, Karen von Unge. On the street there, they run into his ex, Linda Christian. The columnist notes that "suddenly a dark cloud covered the sun and icicles began to form on nearby buildings." |
| September 58 | Zsa Zsa Gabor will give a gay party for him at Luchow's when he returns from Europe |
| Richard Gully, Jack Warner's confidant and "Baby's" social secretary, confirms: "One of Baby's best approaches is to send a surprising gift to an attractive woman. If, for example, someone is selling flowers in a restaurant, Baby may buy the whole tray and tell the waiter ‘Send these flowers over to that lady with my compliments as a tribute to her beauty.’ Or he may send out for a large bottle of perfume. He is never fresh. And Baby never puts anything in writing. He's the only person I know who gives a girl a diamond bracelet without a card. And he only gets about four hours' sleep a night." |
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| October 58 | is seen at El Morocco with top Balmain model Barbara Cailleux |
| November 58 | his long-distance calls are to Mary Vegh, a long-stemmed show beauty at the Bal Tabarin |
| ? | becomes inseparable with British starlet Jackie Lane. They relax together on a beach near Rome, Italy. |
| January 59 | he and stunning TV actress Lucinda Sherill do their smooching out loud in a Left Bank spot |
| February 59 | is signed as technical director for the upcoming The Billionaire. He will have a small part in the movie playing a billionaire, says producer Jerry Wald. |
| his romance with Barbara Cailleux is finished. He is in São Paulo, and she returned to France. |
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| March 59 | his niece, Arletta Pignatari, is taken by West Side Story's Jaime Sanchez to the Stage Delly for Lox-and-Bagels |
| May 59 | names an ulcer for a girl he didn't marry |
| October 59 | is back on the local scene. His girl at El Morocco is actress Susan Cabot. |
| is seen at the Colony with Japanese actress Miiko Taka |
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| attends a party thrown by the Horace Schmidlapps at the Columns celebrating the first anniversary of their daughter Trish's engagement to hotel heir Nicky Hilton. He leaves early to go winging with the daughter of director Mervyn LeRoy. |
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| November 59 | declares "When I stop being interested in beautiful women, I'll be dead." |
| December 59 | actress Tina Louise helps him spend his time and money in Rome |
| is off to famous ski resort Cortina d' Ampezzo, Italy, for the Christmas holidays. He looks for Soraya, but finds Princess Ira Von Fuerstenberg. She's 19, the daughter of Prince Tassilo Fuerstenberg and Clara Agnelli and married to 43-year-old Spanish-born Prince Alfonso von und zu Hohenlohe-Langenburg. |
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| March 60 | his new baby is actress Kathy Bonn |
| is off to Rio with actress Kim Novak, Jorginho Guinle, and Joan Cohn, the widow of Columbia's Harry Cohn |
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| 60 | travels with Ira to Florence, Italy. When her husband, Hohenlohe, learns about Ira’s infidelity, a custody battle starts. |
| 8 August 60 | before dawn, 22 Mexican policemen break into his Mexico City hotel suite, seeking him on adultery charges filed by Hohenlohe. Hohenlohe, is suing his wife, Ira, for a divorce and custody of their two sons, Cristobal, 4, and Alfonso, 16 months. "Baby" is found in trousers and shirt, but the Princess doesn't appear. He and the six-man guard that he hired to protect Ira and her sons put up a fight. "Baby" is 45; she's 20. |
| 9 August 60 | is released from jail for lack of proof of adultery with Ira. Drawn and red-eyed after 36 hours behind bars, he says of Ira's estranged husband: "I do not even wish to mention that guy's name; it simply makes me sick. I may not have a title, but at least I have honor." "Baby" describes himself as an old friend of the princess' family - she is in fact an old friend of his mother's - and says he is in Mexico to watch out for her financial interests. The princess claims the prince is after the fortune their sons may inherit from her family, which has a substantial interest in Italy's vast Fiat motor industry. |
| 1 October 60 | he and Ira are free on bail pending trial on charges of adultery brought by her husband in Mexico City. Both post a $2,400 bond to escape going to jail until the case comes to court and deny the adultery charges. "Baby" charges Hohenlohe took snapshots of Ira almost in the nude and sold them to European publications. |
| October 60 | Hohenlohe drops the adultery charges in return for custody of the two boys |
| 12 January 61 | marries Ira in Reno, Nevada, in a ceremony performed by a justice of the peace in the home of Reno attorney Richard Blakey. They honeymoon at an undisclosed location, later to be revealed to be Miami. |
| February 61 | he and his bride are in the happy dancing mob at the Carnival of Rio de Janeiro |
| May 61 | gets Hollywood attorney Greg Bautzer to help him line up "a bunch of new lawyers" to fight for his wife Ira's children in Spain |
| Early 62 | the press claims that comparing Ira to Linda Christian is as "insipid as weak tea after a choice Napoleon Brandy," their marriage can’t last |
| 15 January 64 | divorces Ira in Las Vegas, Nevada, on grounds of mental cruelty. He's 46; she's 22. No property settlement is announced. "Baby" makes a payment of $25,000 and will pay $2,000 a month in alimony until 1966. |
| 16 January 64 | leads a blaring 25-piece orchestra playing "Anchors Aweigh" through the Riviera, Las Vegas, casino and up to the ninth floor to celebrate his divorce and to pay tribute to the departure of casino legend Shecky Greene |
| 67 | is sued by Ira for $2,000 a month in alimony and to restore his payments |
| 71 | announces he will leave a large part of his holdings to the government and to his employees. An outspoken nationalist, "Baby" says it would be a crime against the country to desert or let the industries fall into the hands of foreign businessmen. Pignatari Industries has extensive holdings in metals and ore mining, including copper and zinc, throughout Brazil. |
| 26 February 71 | marries Maria Regina Fernandes in a civil ceremony in Las Vegas, Nevada |
| March 75 | spends a week in Miami to avoid the Carnival in Rio de Janeiro. He says it has lost all of its charm nowadays due to the influx of third-rate tourists. "Last time I was in Rio during Carnival Week, it had slowed down some because of television and the banning of sprayed ether. It still beats Barstow on a Saturday night." |
| 5 December 75 | Ira's suit is rejected by the Brazilian Supreme Court in Brasilia. "Baby's" lawyers argue that the princess "is a very rich person," noting that the family of her mother, Clara Agnelli, controls an Italian industrial complex that includes the Fiat auto company. |
| c. 76 | undergoes surgery for three hours and nearly dies |
| February 77 | calls his old friend Richard Gully to announce that he is definitely getting a divorce from his fourth wife. He plans to return to Beverly Hills. |
| 7 October 77 | divorces Fernandes in Las Vegas |
| 27 October 77 | dies at age 61 in a São Paulo, Brazil, hospital |
| Sources: Paula Silva, Uncensored, Confidential, The Palladium-Times, Oakland Tribune, Wisconsin Rapids Daily Tribune, The Era, Pottstown Mercury, Syracuse Herald-Journal, Nevada State Journal, Mansfield News-Journal, Indiana Evening Gazette, The Lima News, The Holland Evening Sentinel, The Odessa American, The Vidette-Messenger, Lancaster Eagle-Gazette, The Daily Intelligencer, The Coshocton Tribune, The Herald-Press, The Times Recorder, The News, Stevens Point Daily Journal, The New York Times, "The Man Hollywood Trusted" by Amy Fine Collins in Vanity Fair, www.Ancestry.com | |
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