The Golden Voice of Mussolini and Roosevelt : Radio Journalist Lisa Sergio Sandro Gerbi Ambitious, large black flamboyant eyes, radio journalist Lisa Sergio – so far unknown to the wide public – did anything she could to build a personal myth, boasting nonexistent beaux gestes against fascism and Mata Hari plots.” (Simonetta Fiori, il Venerdì di Repubblica, Rome, Italy) On the evening of May 9, 1936, a slim, elegant woman stood in Rome’s Piazza Venezia and – in perfect English – broadcast Mussolini’s famous speech on the conquest of Ethiopia. Her name was Lisa Sergio (1905–1989), her nickname “the golden voice” of Mussolini. A Florentine journalist, with American parents, she was fired from her job at the Propaganda Ministry the following summer, most likely for gossiping about a brief affair with her boss, Mussolini’s son in law, Galeazzo Ciano. Aided by Nobel-winning Guglielmo Marconi, she established herself in the US and resumed broadcasting, now as a liberal commentator, surrounding herself with a network of luminaries, including Eleanor Roosevelt. Women's History Month