Andre Luotto was a native of Lu Monferrato, and was orphaned at a young age. He was the son of Professor Paolo Luotto, a theologian, Dante scholar, and one of the foremost experts on Girolamo Savonarola. Paolo was a colleague of Gaetano Salvemini at the Torricelli High School in Faenza. In the United States, Andre became known as the owner of a radio advertising agency (assisted by his brother Stefano Andrea Luotto in Chicago), and as a radio host for the station WOV, where he became General Director in 1942. The following year, he co-founded Divagando, rivista settimanale in lingua italiana, with Frank V. Liotta and Frank Gatti.
Before working on Divagando, Luotto's editorial experiences included being a contributor to Il Carroccio, president of the Dante Alighieri Society, chief editor of Il Corriere d’America from 1923 to 1925, and co-founder, with Fiorello La Guardia, of the weekly magazine L’Americolo, which lasted just under a year. He also ventured into writing a memoir, Anima Italiana—Luci ed Ombre, in which he shared his experiences (or lackthere of) in the Italian Navy during World War I with Italian migrants in the United States.
Following his editorial work with Divagando, Luotto continued to play a central role in promoting contemporary Italian culture for the Italian American audience through his radio hosting until shortly before his death in 1980. Throughout his career, his radio show hosted notable figures in the Italian and Italian American communities such as Enrico Caruso, Arturo Toscanini, and Luigi Pirandello.
Related Vectors
Divagando
Weekly magazine