Art work by Franco Picchioni

Ivo Blom found this series of postcards with portraits of Italian singers, who were popular in the mid-1960s. Quite a few of them had also careers in cinema, some even extensive ones. All portraits were designed by Franco Picchioni.


Italian postcard by E.N.P., Roma. Art work by F. Picchioni.

One of Italy's best-loved artists, Adriano Celentano (1938) has been equally successful in film and music. Since starting his career as a rock ‘n roll singer in 1957, Adriano Celentano has released 40 albums. This superstar of Italian pop music is also active as a songwriter, comedian, film director, and TV host.


Italian postcard by E.N.P., Roma. Art work by F. Picchioni.

Italian singer Mina (1940) dominated the Italian charts for fifteen years and reached an unsurpassed level of popularity in Italy. The ‘Queen of Screamers’ was a staple of Musicarellos (the popular Italian musical comedies of the early 1960s) and Italian television variety shows. During five decades, she had more than 70 singles on the Italian charts.


Italian postcard by E.N.P., Roma. Art work by F. Picchioni.

Italian-Belgian composer and singer Salvatore Adamo (1943) was a teen idol in the first half of the 1960s. Occasionally he also starred in films.


Italian postcard by E.N.P., Roma. Art work by F. Picchioni.

Caterina Caselli (1946) is an Italian record producer, music executive, singer, bass player and actress.


Italian postcard by E.N.P., Roma. Art work by F. Picchioni.

Claudio Villa (1926-1987) was an Italian singer and actor. He possessed a particularly high tenor voice and was considered the "little king" (reuccio) of melodious, popular song in 1950s Italy. Villa participated in the Sanremo Festival a full 13 times (including four victories), and twice also represented his country in the Eurovision Song Contest.

Franco Picchioni

After finishing art school Franco Picchioni (1942-2002) attended the Istituto Don Orione in Rome, where he studied the subject of film posters. His early works, both painted covers and half-tone illustrations, were published by the magazine Giallo Selezione in the early 1960s.

At first, he signed his works as 'Picchioni' or simply 'Franco', before he found his trademark signature: P. Franco. In 1965 he started working for Edizioni COFEDIT, and from then on, all magazines of the Roman printing house wore the characteristics of Picchioni's modern and effective covers.

Picchioni had a very wide range as an artist, with good knowledge of the works of Italian painters such as Averardo Ciriello and American artists like Frank Frazzetta. In 1966 he began an intense collaboration with Edizioni Ma.Ga. He made the covers of their novel series 'Gialli del Cerchio Rosso' and 'F.B.I. Story', novels that were collected more for the beautiful girls pictured on the covers than for the narrative content.

Franco also painted almost all of the covers of 'Joe Sub' and 'Lucy Melson'. At the same time, he was active as a cover artist and did important artwork in the field of film posters. He worked closely with the Studio Paradiso but had also direct contacts with film studios that commissioned a number of flyers and posters.

In 1968 he painted several covers for Ed. Fratelli Spada, where he met one of his admirers, Romano Felmang, regular cover designer of the 'Mandrake' comics. Picchioni thus in 1970 did a series of covers for the 'Mandrake' series.

Later Felmang, by putting Franco in direct contact with publishers, often asked him to paint the cover for various comic books. Thus Picchioni provided the covers for comic books such as 'Zorro', 'Il Santo'(The Saint), 'Sylvie', 'Loana', 'Sgt Clem', 'I Diavoli', and many others. When the recession of comic books with painted covers and film posters came about, Picchioni began to paint posters for the circus, mainly tigers, lions, and lion tamers.


Italian postcard by E.N.P., Roma. Art work by F. Picchioni.

Italian Rock ‘n roll artist Little Tony (1941) achieved success in Great Britain during the late 1950s and early 1960s, as the lead singer of Little Tony & His Brothers. Little Tony & His Brothers first revisited Italy in 1961 to appear at the San Remo Festival, where they reached second place with '24 mila baci' (24 thousand kisses). In 1962, he returned to Italy where he continued a successful career as a singer and film actor in many Musicarellos, the typical Italian youth musical of the 1960s.


Italian postcard by E.N.P., Roma. Art work by F. Picchioni.

Domenico Modugno (1928-1994) was an Italian singer and actor. He became best known for his song 'Nel blu dipinto di blu' better known as 'Volare'.


Italian postcard by E.N.P., Roma. Art work by F. Picchioni.

Italian pop singer and entertainer Gianni Morandi (1944) reportedly sold more than 30 million recordings and appeared in 18 films. In 1970, he represented Italy at the Eurovision Song Contest with Occhi di ragazza. His career went into a decline in the late 1970s but underwent a revival in the 1980s. He won the San Remo Festival in 1987, placed second in 1995, and third in 2000. Having enjoyed four decades of unmatched success, Gianni Morandi is among Italy's greatest performers of all time.


Italian postcard by E.N.P., Roma. Art work by F. Picchioni.

Aurelio Fierro (1923-2005) was an Italian singer and actor, famous for songs like 'Lazzarella', 'Guaglione', and 'Á pizza'. In the late 1950s, he acted in a dozen of film comedies.


Italian postcard by E.N.P., Roma. Art work by F. Picchioni.

At the age of 16, Italian singer Gigliola Cinquetti (1947) won Festival di Sanremo with Non ho l'età, and with the same song, she won the Eurovision Song Contest 1964 and scored her first international hit. During her long career, she also worked as a TV journalist and appeared in a dozen of films.


Italian postcard by E.N.P., Roma. Art work by F. Picchioni.

Gino Paoli (1934) is one of Italy's most famous singers and songwriters.


Italian postcard by E.N.P., Roma. Art work by F. Picchioni.

Lucio Dalla (1943-2012) was an Italian singer-songwriter, musician, and actor. Between 1965 and 1975 Dalla acted in various (musical) comedies such as Little Rita nel West (Ferdinando Baldi, 1967) with Rita Pavone, and Il santo patrono (Bitto Albertini, 1972), but he also had one of the leads in the drama I sovversivi (Paolo & Vittorio Taviani, 1967).


Italian postcard by E.N.P., Roma. Art work by F. Picchioni.

Rita Pavone (1945) was one of the biggest teenage stars in Europe during the 1960s, and one of the few Italian pop stars to gain a foothold in the American market. Pavone also starred in several 'Musicarellos'.

Source: Mandrakewiki