Renzo Cesana

Cesana was the grandson of Luigi Cesana, publisher of one of Rome's largest daily newspapers, Il Messaggero.^[3] He emigrated to America as a screenwriter in 1929, to adapt Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer "talkies" for Italian audiences.^[4][5] After a failed attempt at becoming a film star, he appeared on radio in San Francisco, then became the U.S. advertising director for a prominent Italian wine, eventually opening his own advertising agency.^[6] He returned to Italy to co-write and appear in childhood friend Roberto Rossellini's film Stromboli (1950), then returned to America in 1949 to begin a film and television acting career in Hollywood.^[7]

In an era when advertisers and advertising agencies played major roles in program creation and sponsorship, Cesana created The Continental as a radio program that he produced, wrote, and starred in for a Los Angeles station in 1951, where it directly followed The Lonesome Gal, in which a female disk jockey talked soothingly to male listeners. After a brief and unsuccessful run, Cesana convinced a local television station to broadcast a video version of The Continental, which was picked up by the CBS television network in 1952.

The program led to a recording contract with Capitol Records, in which the non-singer Cesana would recite the lyrics of romantic songs to a musical accompaniment. For instance, "Walk The Lonesome Night" was a big hit in which Cesana recited the lyrics along with a piano and a theater organ. It was released on the "Ultra-Lounge Vol. 7: The Crime Scene" as an extra track; but it received massive success when it was originally released.

In 1967, he appeared in That Girl, as Dr. Cessna – an "ink blot" interpreting personality analyst. On September 20, 1967, Cesana appeared in Bewitched, "Business Italian Style" (Season 4, Episode 3). He played an entrepreneur hoping to have Tate & Stephens Advertising Agency introduce Chef Romani Italian Foods to the American market.

• "Renzo Cesana", Biography Index. Volume 2. New York: H.W. Wilson Co., 1953.
• "Renzo Cesana", The ASCAP Biographical Dictionary. Third edition. New York: American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers, 1966.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Renzo Cesana.

• "Latin Lover", Time magazine, 1951.
• Renzo Cesana at IMDb.