Brait, Carla

[Emiliano]

Carla Brait in the early Seventies

Carla Brait was born in Rome, in the year 1947. She was a professional dancer and an actress[1], mostly active in the Italian show business of the seventies.

Biographical note

Daughter of an american black father of the Fifth Army and italian mother (Brait is the mother's surname, very common in the Veneto region), she began her artistic career in a classical ballet school at the age of eight, and obtained her diploma when sixteen[1]. Hired at once by Italian television from the the mid sixties, she appeared in various broadcasts of RAI, as a dancer.

In the same time she debuts on the silver screen, both in ballets and roles in which she can exploit her sensuality. Two movies for which she is still most remembered are the “thrillings” Perché quelle strane gocce di sangue sul corpo di Jennifer? (1972) by Giuliano Carmineo, and I corpi presentano tracce di violenza carnale (1973) by Sergio Martino, in wich she manages to impress a great erotic charge.

After these parts, a few years later, she obtains the lead role in the modest erotic comedy La cameriera nera (1976) by Mario Bianchi. In the 1975, together with Gianni Nazzaro, Pippo Baudo, Lino Banfi and Solvi Stubing, she toured the cities of Italy with a marquee, in a traveling show called "Alle nove sottocasa", achieving great success of public.

After the movie Fuga dal Bronx (1983) by Enzo G. Castellari, she moves away from the entertainment world, but later made one final acting appearance in some episodes of the third season of the TV-series Linda e il brigadiere (2000) with Nino Manfredi.

1. Italian weekly "Tempo", N. 48 (November 28, 1971).

Filmography

1968

1. T'ammazzo!... Raccomandati a Dio .... Betty (credited)
   
   1971
2. Blindman .... Black maid (credited)
3. Ma che musica maestro .... Dancer at singing festival (uncredited)
   
   1972
4. E si salvò solo l'aretino Pietro con una mano avanti e l'altra dietro .... Olimpia (credited)
5. L'etrusco uccide ancora .... Stage dancer (uncredited)
6. Perché quelle strane gocce di sangue sul corpo di Jennifer? .... Mizar Harrington (credited)
   
   1973
7. I corpi presentano tracce di violenza carnale .... Ursula (credited)
   
   1974
8. L'erotomane .... Black dancer in the dream (credited)
9. Nucleo centrale investigativo (TV mini-series) - ep. 6: "Casella postale 323" .... Myriam (credited)
   
   1975
10. Colpo in canna .... Carmen, the hostess (credited)
11. Yuppi du .... Waitress (credited)
    
    1976
12. La cameriera nera .... Aminta (credited)
    
    1982
13. 1990 - I guerrieri del Bronx .... Chief of the dancing gang (uncredited)
    
    2000
14. Linda e il brigadiere (TV series) - season 3, ep. 1: "Il destino del brigadiere" .... Aunt Adrina (credited)
15. Linda e il brigadiere (TV series) - season 3, ep. 4: "Una trappola per Linda" .... Aunt Adrina (credited)

Television

• Io, Gigliola (TV musical variety, 15.1.1966 - uncredited) - ep. 2 .... Ballet member
• Canzonissima (TV musical variety, 1970 - uncredited) - 13 eps. .... Ballet member
• Canzonissima (TV musical variety, 1971 - uncredited) - 13 eps. .... Ballet member
• Su di giri (TV musical variety, 5-19 september 1971) .... Ballet member
• Felicibumbà (Comedy-musical variety, 1977) .... Ballet member
• Applause (Comedy-musical variety, 1983) .... Ballet member

[Emiliano]

With Gino Bramieri in the TV comedy-musical Felicibumtà (1977)

Dressed in orange in the TV comedy-musical Applause (1983), starring Rossella Falk

[Emiliano]

Uncredited in Ma che musica maestro (1971) as Dancer at singing festival

I discovered this role at the end of the 2000s with extreme surprise, when no even list it. I also found Rachela Pamenti with her. This is because they were both part of Canzonissima's ballet, of the same year, in which they performed the same song and ballet, that was used for the opening and closing theme of the broadcast.

[Emiliano]

One of her biggest roles in I corpi presentano tracce di violenza carnale (1973) as Ursula, a friend of the protagonists.

[Emiliano]

In a newsreel of the time ("Cinegiornale") to promoting the theatrical show Alle nove sottocasa (1975).

[Emiliano]

In Colpo in canna (1975) as Carmen, the hostess.
A small role, with a few lines with Ursula Andress, in the first minutes.

And in one way or another she is always dancing!

A photo from the set with Maurizio Arena.

[themefi]

With Gino Milli in E si salvò solo l'aretino Pietro con una mano avanti e l'altra dietro (1972) as Olimpia.

[Emiliano]

Article from the spanish magazine "Personas" (1972)

The "revolution" of color invades the scene

Carla Brait, twenty years old, was born in Rome, of American father and black mother. We have been able to admire her on television in "Canzonissima". She is a tall, cheerful, well-made girl, and who recently debuted in the cinema in "Un strano fiore con cinque gocce di sangue" ("Perchè quelle strane gocce..." e.d.). Soon we will see her again in a television program entitled "Euro Show", in which she will dance, sing and act. She has also recorded her first album, because she likes singing a lot, and she is convinced that she will also be successful in this field.

Carla Brait began her artistic career in a classical ballet school at the age of eight, and obtained her diploma at sixteen. She was hired at once by Italian television. Today he still studies dramatic art and singing to perfect himself. He has started dancing because he has it in his blood. She is very well considered in the artistic environments for her seriousness and professional sense. All the choreographers with whom she has worked augur an insurance to come.

She has a boyfriend, a young man who works in buying and selling cars, and who is not at all jealous, fortunately. She does not think about getting married yet, because she is a girl who wants to succeed in her professional life. He also wants to give satisfaction to his mother, but from his father he has not known anything for some years.

From this article, her age is approximate. The origins of her father (an American - most likely who came to Italy as soldier in the Second World War, considering the coincident period) are very likely, but the origins of her mother (negress) do not seem true. Especially because Carla has clear connotations of racial mixture and her mother was probably a white Italian. In this article it is said also that she has not dealt with his father for a while. And this could be true if the father (as has often happened in similar situations, of children born from American soldiers in Italy) has returned to United States.

[Emiliano]

Original brochure for the show Alle nove sottocasa (1975), distributed in Rome.

This small booklet includes the photos of the six protagonists of the show, together with a small poem in rhyme, which obviously is not maintained by translating it. For Carla, the meaning is this:
A simple smile which illuminates a beautiful face a blink of an eye a lip that whispers a "Yes".

[Emiliano]

Interview by Giampaolo Sodano in the weekly "Tempo", N. 48 (November 28, 1971).

Dance with grit but only on TV

Rome, November.

At the "Teatro delle Vittorie", where "Canzonissima" is recorded every Saturday, there is a great confusion. It is certainly not the best place to interview someone. But there is nothing else to do: Carla Brait works every day, without a pause. The music is deafening: a great beat of heels and hands organized by the ten splendid girls of the ballet by Gino Landi. In the middle there is Carla Brait, the most beautiful mulatto of Roman origin that the televiewer have ever seen. This bit of cheap exoticism, as high as the leader of the Buckingham Royal Guards, is this year's national "lottery dish". The ballet ends early, the girls sit in the seats of the audience. It's time for the interview.

«I am Carla Brait and do not believe that mine is a stage name. Brait is my mother's surname (at that time in Italy the wife took the surname of her husband, after she got married - Ed). I was born 24 years ago in Rome and my father is an American», she says as soon as she finds the microphone of the recorder under her nose. For a moment there is to think that on TV even the interviews are prepared in play-back. «At the age of eight I started attending a dance school and at sixteen I graduated. I made the first television broadcast in '66, it was called "Io Gigliola". Now I go to singing and acting school because I want to complete my professional training. I'm engaged, but I don't want to get married. My boyfriend is jealous but not too much. He sells cars, he knows nothing about the world of entertainment, but he trusts me. He knows that I'm most interested in work: I want to get there, I want to succeed».

In one breath. When she stops it is to breathe: it is the only moment when you realize that you are not talking to a female robot. She is what is called a determined girl, who knows what she wants. She is a dancer who puts into work the same commitment with which, if she had a degree in medicine, she would put in a surgical operation.

Her father, a military man of the American army, fell in love with Carla's mother in 1945. He met her in Livorno, where she was displaced from Pordenone to the home of some of her relatives. In the beginning it was a life of hell; his parents did not want him to marry him and so when Charles, soldier of the Fifth Army, had to return to his old paternal home in New Jersey, she could not follow him. He moved to Rome, where he rented a small house in a popular neighborhood, the Ostiense, near the station. He looked for a job and dedicated the rest of his life to little Carla.

She would like to do everything, even singing and acting, but always dancing.

«I chose to dance because, as my mother always says, I have it in my blood, even though I know very well that in Italy it is a very difficult job. But I'll be able to break through, my mother made many sacrifices to let me study. The school cost 6 thousand lire (about 100 euro of today - Ed) a month and my father only sent the money until I was 10 years old. Then, nothing more was known about him. Perhaps he will have made another family. I don't know, my mother never wanted to talk about him».

«She is a girl like many others, simple, friendly, but with a bad temper," says Gino Landi, 39, from Milan, choreographer of "Canzonissima"; - is intolerant of the discipline». Carla Brait is a very precise, careful dancer. When she makes a mistake, and this happens very rarely, she is so annoyed with herself that, if someone points out the error to her, she goes on a rampage. «I remember that once I could not make the "porteur", that is to fly from the arms of a dancer to those of another. It's a question of exercise, yet I just couldn't. I remember escaping into a dressing room, I cried I don't know how much; then I got up, went back to the rehearsal room and went back to my place. I've done it».

Five years ago she presented himself to a television selection for the show "Johnny 7". She was a very shy little girl. «Now his only limitation is to still be convinced that it is enough to work on TV, between Via Teulada and the Theater of Victories, to be a good and well-known dancer - continues Gino Landi; - so will always remain a Roman dancer: I have them offered various opportunities to be known abroad, but she did not want to know about traveling».

Carla answers: «I'm afraid, I'm afraid of finding myself alone». And yet for Carla Brait dancing is everything: «When I'm not working, I go to the cinema with my boyfriend, or I ask him to take me to dance». And dancing she hopes to enter the world of cinema, to act, to be an actress. Now he also studies singing, he says he does it to perfect his musical preparation, in reality he would also like to be a singer. «Yes, I'd like to do everything, but always dancing». The usual cry: «Outside the ballet!», and Carla Brait runs away.

This article confirms my hypotheses on the origins of Carla, American and Italian. Since the article is signed by a journalist and was published in a major weekly magazine at the time, I believe it may be the most reliable source currently available for personal information on Carla. The article in the "Personas" magazine, previously posted, and published the year later, copy slavishly some data from this article, but with some inaccuracies, perhaps due to carelessness or translation errors.

Carla, therefore, was a girl who fought hard to get that little place of glory in the entertainment world, relying only on her talent and her ambition. I hope that with this little research to have done a little justice to this artist, still much loved by us fans of genre cinema.