Prince Vittorio Massimo at the Cork Telephone Exchange

Prince Vittorio Massimo at the Cork Telephone Exchange

Cork Film Festival, Prince Vittorio Massimo, Cork Telephone Exchange, Dawn Addams, Metropole Hotel

This is a black and white photo of Prince Vittorio Emanuele Massimo from Rome, the husband of the English actor Dawn Addams, taken at the Cork Telephone Exchange. Massimo is shown, wearing a light-coloured suit, laughing whilst bent over speaking into the microphone of the switchboard operator's headset. He is surrounded by an animated group of switchboard exchange operators, each with a headset hanging from around their necks.

At the back of the photo, a caption note is attached stating that the image depicts the Prince telling the world about Dawn's request for a milk bath. His wife, the actor Dawn Addams, achieved notoriety in Cork that year for requesting a bath filled with milk at the Metropole Hotel; the request caused consternation and was turned down by the-then hotel manager, Douglas Vance. She went on to later admit that it was a publicity stunt dreamt up by her publicist. (We can date this photo as 1957 based on this incident.) The couple were separated by the end of the 1950s and the Italian courts granted them a divorce in 1971.

University College Cork, Cork Film Festival, Ambrose O'Mullane

Cork Film Festival Collection

University College Cork

1957

Ambrose O'Mullane

Photo
TIFF
JPEG

English, eng

1957
Cork, Ireland

Photo

218 x 170mm