Frank Capra, a well known Italo-American film director, the greatest in Hollywood history, was born on May 18^th 1897 in Via S. Cono, in Bisacquino, from Saridda Nicolosi and Turiddu Capra; he was the sixth of their children. His family, like others in that period in Sicily and in Bisacquino, emigrated to the USA  to escape a needy way of life and try a bit of luck in the new world, where Ben, the eldest son, had already emigrated and now asked his family to reach him there.

After landing in New York and after another journey lasted eight days, Capra's family reached Los Angeles and settled there. In a short time almost all the members of the family found a job which let them earn their living with dignity. Frank, aged six, was sent to school and, when his father died for an accident, he carried on his studies as long as he got his science degree, earning his living by doing different jobs.

Capra started his movie career by chance. He read an advertising on a local newspaper and, thanks to it, he made his first film, which lasted only ten minutes: "Fultah Fisher's boarding house". Then he continued to work in Hollywood movie business getting different jobs: he was a supernumerary, a stage-manager, a film cutter till when he became a gag writer and a film editor. In 1929 he was engaged by Columbia Pictures and made his first all-talking picture: "The "Donovan affair". From that time on he improved his technique  as a film maker and a story teller more and more. In 1931 he got the nomination for the Oscar Award with his film: "Platinum Blonde".

The real success arrived suddenly. "It happened one night"(1934) won five Oscar Prizes (direction, scenario, best actor , actress, and film); "You can't take It with you"(1938) got two Oscar Prizes (best direction and film); "Mr. Smith goes to Washington" gained an Oscar for the best subject; "It's a wonderful life"(1946) didn't win any prize but it is the most successful and best known of Capra's films. Capra  wasn't only a film director, but he also made TV science documentaries and a war documentary: "Why we fight"(1942) about the Second World War. His last film was "A pocketful of miracles"(1961).

Setting and themes of Capra's films never concern his native country, but they deal with the American society and its values. They are famous for their message of optimism and for the values they communicate: friendship, solidarity, democracy, liberty, the importance of life and of being a common man. "In the typical Frank Capra's film, the hero is a man of people who faces a tremendous challenge and finds the optimism, faith and courage to emerge triumphant. Capra's films are idealistic, patriotic, full of human comedy and often sentimentally - so much so that sceptics have called them "Capracorn". Movie goers often assumed that his own life was like one of his movie fairy tales [...] This immigrant from Sicily is an inspiration to those who believe in the "American Dream" in the words of  John Ford".(quoted from the cover flap of the book "Frank Capra, the Catastrophe of Success", by Joseph McBride - Simon and Schuster  - New York 1992).

Emigrated at the age of six to the USA, Frank Capra seldom kept in touch with his relatives from Bisacquino and he never went there but in April 1977. He remained in the town just for a few hours, but enough to feel the warmth of his fellow citizens' and relatives' reception. Yet it is striking that his autobiography -"The Name above the Title"- starts and ends dealing with Bisacquino. It seems that despite any appearance, Capra wants to underline how much his roots meant in his life as a man and as a film maker.

Frank Capra died at the age of 94 in September 1991 in his house in La Quinta, while he was sleeping. With his work he crossed the American cinema history from the silent movie to the talking one, from the black and white film to the colour one and the birth of television. He left a message of faith in the man and his resources. With his personal life, moreover, he embodied the American Dream of those people who, like his family, left their mother country and emigrated to look for a better way of life.

Capra's parents

Ignazia, the sister who never emigrated , but remained in Bisacquino

Capra visiting the house where he was born

Capra with  the mayor at the Town Hall