Tomorrow (which is only a couple of hours or so away from this bit of the globe) is the centenary of the birth of the man from Galliate, a tragic hero of dramatic (in the truest sense) proportions.
Had Shakespeare been born three and half centuries later than he was, and written a tragedy about motor racing instead of royalty, Varzi's story would rival Lear, Hamlet or the Scottish Play.
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Achille Varzi
Started by
Alan Lewis
, Aug 07 2004 20:41
16 replies to this topic
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#2
Ray Bell
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Posted 08 August 2004 - 21:20
Which only serves to show that he died all too soon...
#3
1920sracing
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Posted 09 August 2004 - 01:23
Is there a biography of Varzi that is any good? I know he is in other books and there seems to be a servicable summary of his life and career in Nixon's Racing the Silver Arrows. If there is nothing I would think a major opportunity to add to the literature. I am not familiar with any Italian titles so it may be simply a translation effort.
1920sracing
1920sracing
#4
D-Type
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Posted 09 August 2004 - 12:00
I always feel that Varzi is the forgotten man of prewar racing. I think I'm probably typical in that if asked to name prewar drivers, I'll say Nuvolari, Caracciola, Chiron and ummm ..... Varzi.
He was more of a cool calculating driver who drove with his head unlike Nuvolari who drove with his heart, which is maybe why we all love him and remember him.
He was more of a cool calculating driver who drove with his head unlike Nuvolari who drove with his heart, which is maybe why we all love him and remember him.
#5
Vitesse2
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Posted 09 August 2004 - 12:16
Originally posted by 1920sracing
Is there a biography of Varzi that is any good? I know he is in other books and there seems to be a servicable summary of his life and career in Nixon's Racing the Silver Arrows. If there is nothing I would think a major opportunity to add to the literature. I am not familiar with any Italian titles so it may be simply a translation effort.
1920sracing
There's a good biography in Italian called "Una Curva Cieca", which was announced in an English translation. The publication was later cancelled and rights reverted to the Italian publisher :
http://forums.atlasf...&threadid=40601
D-Type: I'd agree he's the forgotten man. Probably because his top-line career was interrupted during the "Golden Era" by his (shall we say) health problems. To his great credit, he managed to rebuild his career by stepping down to Voiturettes. Then, post-war, he was back on top form, having conquered his demons ....
#6
paulhooft
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Posted 09 August 2004 - 17:31
another Varzi question?
Una Curva Cieca is still not translated in English
may be:
Next year...
Paul
Una Curva Cieca is still not translated in English
may be:
Next year...
Paul
#8
paulhooft
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Posted 09 August 2004 - 18:37
Lady MacBeth?
in scotland
she sure had become:
The holy ghost of the highlands??
in scotland
she sure had become:
The holy ghost of the highlands??
#9
Alan Lewis
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Posted 14 August 2004 - 16:03
Typical Lewis, starts a thread and then buggers off for five days... Sorry about that.
Paul - intriguing about the English translation, what do you know? Certainly my main introduction to his life was the chapter in Nigel Roebuck's Grand Prix Greats , plus, of course, Chris Nixon.
Apropos of nothing particularly on-thread, today happens to be the 964th anniversary of the accession to the Scottish throne of MacBeth, by killing King Duncan I, and tomorrow will be the 947th anniversary of his defeat and death at the hands of Malcolm III Canmore, after a reign of seventeen years and one day.
Unfortunately for lovers of the Bard, Duncan died in battle near Elgin, not by murder in Glamis Castle, and MacBeth died in battle near Lumphanan, Aberdeenshire. I'm afraid that MacBeth is, like many of Shakespeare's Histories, a magnificent drama but not particularly historical.
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Paul - intriguing about the English translation, what do you know? Certainly my main introduction to his life was the chapter in Nigel Roebuck's Grand Prix Greats , plus, of course, Chris Nixon.
Apropos of nothing particularly on-thread, today happens to be the 964th anniversary of the accession to the Scottish throne of MacBeth, by killing King Duncan I, and tomorrow will be the 947th anniversary of his defeat and death at the hands of Malcolm III Canmore, after a reign of seventeen years and one day.
Unfortunately for lovers of the Bard, Duncan died in battle near Elgin, not by murder in Glamis Castle, and MacBeth died in battle near Lumphanan, Aberdeenshire. I'm afraid that MacBeth is, like many of Shakespeare's Histories, a magnificent drama but not particularly historical.
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#10
aldo
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Posted 18 August 2004 - 20:21
Originally posted by KJJ
Lady MacBeth?
"Lady": are you 100% sure?
#11
Paul Parker
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Posted 18 August 2004 - 21:01
The posts from Aldo describing Ilse Pietsch as Lady Macbeth and the 'Lady': are you 100% sure comment from KJJ are unworthy and too judgemental especially from a distance of nearly 70 years. Nobody forced Varzi to take morphia or indeed even to smoke but he did.
Varzi must have known what she was like and he should have had the sense not to submit even if he was, according to Chris Nixon (and others), desperately upset about the apparently stage managed 1936 Tripoli GP that allowed him to win instead of Hans Stuck. According to Paul Pietsch Ilse had been given morphia in hospital, a frequently used common pain killer of the period and perhaps this led to her addiction. (It is common knowledge that many became addicted to it in this way, one famous example being Hermann Goering who used to alleviate pain from a WW1 injury).
She was I believe already divorced by the time of her affair with AV and the photograph depicts a very attractive woman by the standards of the day. THere have been other racing drivers addicted to chemical substances as we all know and Varzi's decline was entirely his own fault and absolutely avoidable. Sad yes and a dreadful waste of his life and talent but nevertheless his own doing.
Varzi must have known what she was like and he should have had the sense not to submit even if he was, according to Chris Nixon (and others), desperately upset about the apparently stage managed 1936 Tripoli GP that allowed him to win instead of Hans Stuck. According to Paul Pietsch Ilse had been given morphia in hospital, a frequently used common pain killer of the period and perhaps this led to her addiction. (It is common knowledge that many became addicted to it in this way, one famous example being Hermann Goering who used to alleviate pain from a WW1 injury).
She was I believe already divorced by the time of her affair with AV and the photograph depicts a very attractive woman by the standards of the day. THere have been other racing drivers addicted to chemical substances as we all know and Varzi's decline was entirely his own fault and absolutely avoidable. Sad yes and a dreadful waste of his life and talent but nevertheless his own doing.
#12
KJJ
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Posted 18 August 2004 - 22:11
I'm sorry Paul but if you had read the thread a little more carefully before posting you would see that I did not make the comment you ascribe to me.
The thread started by stating that Varzi's story would have been a fitting subject for a Shakespearean tragedy, the Scottish play was cited hence my comment "Lady MacBeth?"
The thread started by stating that Varzi's story would have been a fitting subject for a Shakespearean tragedy, the Scottish play was cited hence my comment "Lady MacBeth?"
#13
hans stuck
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Posted 19 August 2004 - 13:30
Does anyone have anymore pics of Ilse Pietsch? They are hard to come by. Please post if you do.
#14
GIGLEUX
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Posted 19 August 2004 - 16:56
Originally posted by hans stuck
Does anyone have anymore pics of Ilse Pietsch? They are hard to come by. Please post if you do.
Hans, here she is with Paula...Stuck, but I think you know that...
From Una curva cieca
#15
Alan Lewis
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Posted 19 August 2004 - 18:34
Originally posted by KJJ
I'm sorry Paul but if you had read the thread a little more carefully before posting you would see that I did not make the comment you ascribe to me.
The thread started by stating that Varzi's story would have been a fitting subject for a Shakespearean tragedy, the Scottish play was cited hence my comment "Lady MacBeth?"
Quite correct.
I also take issue with Paul's assertion that "he must have known what she was like". The idea that drug addicts are easy to spot is a myth. In Grand Prix Greats , Nigel Roebuck states that the night of the Tripoli race was the first time that Achille had known of Ilse's addiction.
Now, I don't know where he got this snippet from, maybe he's just plain wrong. But the point is, we don't know, any more than Varzi "must have".
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#16
aldo
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Posted 20 August 2004 - 21:18
Plain talk is fun and opinions are fascinating.
On my part, I'd like to add some facts I came through in my extensive research on Varzi, made it easier by living in Milano (some 25 miles from his hometown Galliate). Some results of the researches are in the exhibit on Varzi currently open in the Galliate Castle (exhibit which I did together with my friend and designer Marzo Zannoni), in my article published in the Ruoteclassiche magazine and in some speeches I delivered on the subject.
Just a few proven facts:
1. Ilse was not at Tripoli 1936 GP.
2. Pietsch biography calls her Ilse Engel, born 1911 in Wiesbaden, then married to a Herr Hubach in Frankfurt before marrying him. We also know that, after Pietsch, she got married again with a Herr Franz Feininger, an opera singer living in Berlin. Pietsch also confirms that she died in Berlin after the war. I called Public Registrar Offices in Wiesbaden, Berlin, Freiburg i/B, Stuttgart: I learned that, while in Italy data recorded in such an Office are public (by definition) and open to everybody, Germany applies the Privacy Law even to the birth date and name of a person, both living or dead: personal data, apparently, could only be asked for by the relevant person, his/her wife/husband, sons. Nevertheless, I got answers from Berlin and Wiesbaden: no person with such a name was ever born in Wiesbaden, no person with such a name was dead in Berlin after 1945. So, where is the point for Pietsch to allow the writing of apparently false information, and why does he still refuse to speak on the subject, after 68 years and at his grand age?
3. No one of the rather distant relatives of Achille Varzi, still living in Milano, wants to talk about him.
4. In the Chemnitz State Archives, the file on Varzi is under privacy cover for at least a couple of decades.
5. Drugs were very common within elitarian environments: its presence in the motor race world should haven't been taken as a deadly sin at all.
6. To steal someone else's wife/girlfriend was, again, not so uncommon within racing fraternity: let's think about Rudi Caracciola and Alice Trobeck.
7. When I met Elly Beinhorn (and also in a long, taped interview dating back to 1986) she talked freely about all women of her motor racing word, but refused to say a word on Ilse.
8. Varzi was canceled from Italian social life and motor world with such a brutality, which seems rather unjustified.
Therefore, beyond the usual words taken/written by someone else's talk or script, there should be something more behind Ilse.
I built an unproven theory, which could be either destroyed or strenghtened by comments of people of different culture and approaches. Please, have a careful look at those photos of Ilse, already posted here. Ask women and girls you trust to describe how do they feel looking at that creature and how would they depict the sex-appeal.
Maybe, now my comment with that "Lady" into brackets could appear less enigmatic: apologise for that.
Many thanks for any contribution.
On my part, I'd like to add some facts I came through in my extensive research on Varzi, made it easier by living in Milano (some 25 miles from his hometown Galliate). Some results of the researches are in the exhibit on Varzi currently open in the Galliate Castle (exhibit which I did together with my friend and designer Marzo Zannoni), in my article published in the Ruoteclassiche magazine and in some speeches I delivered on the subject.
Just a few proven facts:
1. Ilse was not at Tripoli 1936 GP.
2. Pietsch biography calls her Ilse Engel, born 1911 in Wiesbaden, then married to a Herr Hubach in Frankfurt before marrying him. We also know that, after Pietsch, she got married again with a Herr Franz Feininger, an opera singer living in Berlin. Pietsch also confirms that she died in Berlin after the war. I called Public Registrar Offices in Wiesbaden, Berlin, Freiburg i/B, Stuttgart: I learned that, while in Italy data recorded in such an Office are public (by definition) and open to everybody, Germany applies the Privacy Law even to the birth date and name of a person, both living or dead: personal data, apparently, could only be asked for by the relevant person, his/her wife/husband, sons. Nevertheless, I got answers from Berlin and Wiesbaden: no person with such a name was ever born in Wiesbaden, no person with such a name was dead in Berlin after 1945. So, where is the point for Pietsch to allow the writing of apparently false information, and why does he still refuse to speak on the subject, after 68 years and at his grand age?
3. No one of the rather distant relatives of Achille Varzi, still living in Milano, wants to talk about him.
4. In the Chemnitz State Archives, the file on Varzi is under privacy cover for at least a couple of decades.
5. Drugs were very common within elitarian environments: its presence in the motor race world should haven't been taken as a deadly sin at all.
6. To steal someone else's wife/girlfriend was, again, not so uncommon within racing fraternity: let's think about Rudi Caracciola and Alice Trobeck.
7. When I met Elly Beinhorn (and also in a long, taped interview dating back to 1986) she talked freely about all women of her motor racing word, but refused to say a word on Ilse.
8. Varzi was canceled from Italian social life and motor world with such a brutality, which seems rather unjustified.
Therefore, beyond the usual words taken/written by someone else's talk or script, there should be something more behind Ilse.
I built an unproven theory, which could be either destroyed or strenghtened by comments of people of different culture and approaches. Please, have a careful look at those photos of Ilse, already posted here. Ask women and girls you trust to describe how do they feel looking at that creature and how would they depict the sex-appeal.
Maybe, now my comment with that "Lady" into brackets could appear less enigmatic: apologise for that.
Many thanks for any contribution.
#17
D-Type
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Posted 20 August 2004 - 23:00
Interesting!
does Una Curva Cieca cast any light on the question?
The two photos posted here were clearly taken on the same day. Does anybody have any other pictures?
A colleague who spent some time in the far east says that the size of hands and feet is the biggest giveaway.
does Una Curva Cieca cast any light on the question?
The two photos posted here were clearly taken on the same day. Does anybody have any other pictures?
A colleague who spent some time in the far east says that the size of hands and feet is the biggest giveaway.
