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VINCE MINELLI CELEBRIT Y SPO TLIGHT:


who was forced to f lee Sici ly ;


his life was in danger due to the abrupt collapse of the Sicilian government. Vincenzo was a key player in the successful revolution against Bourbon rule and the rule of Ferdinand II.


Minnelli ’s family was one of travelling performers. After high school, he ventured to the big city of Chicago and landed a job as a window dresser at Marshall Field’s department store, which eventually


Oscar-winner Vincente Minelli (1903-1986) may be famous to some as having been the husband of Judy Garland and father of Liza Minelli (both Oscar winners as well). However, his brilliant career as the director of musicals, comedies, and melodramas should be something of legends.


Unlike other famous people who stutter covered in Celebrity Corner artic les, the fact that Vincent Minelli was a person who stuttered was not well known. However, his obituaries in major newspapers all made reference to his speech.


In the New York Times obituary “Vincente Minelli Dies; Famed Director was 76”, there was a quote from Judy Garland shortly before their marriage, “Vincente is such a wonderful director, but he just gets excited and stutters and doesn’t finish his sentences – he just says, ‘Well, you know what I mean.’”


He was a Chicago native, born and raised as Lester Anthony Minnelli. As a young adult, he adopted the artistic-sounding name “Vincente”. His paternal grandfather, Vincenzo Minnelli, was a major Sicilian revolutionary


led him to designing sets for shows in New York, including Radio City Music Hall. After directing a few Broadway shows, such as Very Warm for May and The Show Is On, he made the jump to film, landing a lucrative offer from MGM.


Ironically, Minnelli’s third wife, Denise, was also a person who stuttered. An article in the May 9, 2007, edition of the New York Social Diary said this about Denise, who was labelled “a renowned socialite:”


Vincent and Liza Minelli with Judy Garland


“Mrs. Minnelli was a very exciting figure. Although no beauty and equipped with a most charming stutter and a way of looking at a man that telegraphs flattery in a way that only a man can be flattered, she had already been credited with reviving the waning career of the sweet and almost diffident and stuttering film director Vincente Minelli.”


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