At 80, the legendary Hollywood publicist Kathie Berlin recalls one of her most memorable adventures: accompanying the Italian actress and photographer to meet Cuba’s Comandante in 1974.
I’m 80 years old and this is my 60th year in the entertainment business. It’s hard to believe even as I write it. Most of my career was in public relations, working with the biggest stars of the day. There were too many secrets in Hollywood back then, but I sometimes miss the mystery of icons like Paul Newman, Robert Mitchum, Ali MacGraw, Diahann Carroll, Charlton Heston and so many others. They spoke to the audience mainly through their work and carefully controlled press to promote their latest film. That mystery allowed me to pull off one of my most unusual achievements for a client when I accompanied actress and photojournalist Gina Lollobrigida to Cuba in 1974 for an exclusive photo essay and interview with Fidel Castro. As I watched Castro playing 5 on 5 basketball in an empty arena, I asked myself how a girl from a small town in Virginia ended up here.
I drove to New York in the summer of 1964 after graduating from Emerson College and landed my first job at WNEW–TV for Wonderama, the children’s television show hosted by Sonny Fox. I did everything, from talent booking to audience wrangling to climbing in the attic to get the day’s prizes. I learned that I enjoyed working with the celebrity guests and thought that might be the direction I wanted to go.
Kathie Berlin and Paul Newman.
Courtesy of Kathie Berlin
In 1968, I landed my first job in PR as a radio and television publicist for United Artists. It was a dream job, and I had amazing opportunities as one of the few women in the office. I was brought in on screenings and focus groups to give my opinion as the “female audience.” I worked with incredible directors and producers on movies like Midnight Cowboy, Women in Love, Yellow Submarine, Fellini’s Satyricon and countless others. I moved to MGM in 1972 for two years in a time that wasn’t our creative peak, but there were some great moments with movies like Westworld and Soylent Green.
I moved to Rogers & Cowen in 1974 where I would eventually rise to President, running the New York office. There aren’t enough superlatives to describe my time there. We represented the biggest stars in the business and handled some of the best movies of the seventies and eighties. One day might be walking up those famous steps in Philadelphia with Sylvester Stallone for the Rocky premiere, working with Paul Newman to launch Newman’s Own and the incredible impact raising money for camps for children with cancer or with the incomparable Bette Midler on the Oscar campaign for The Rose.
Nothing prepared me for my trip to Cuba with my lifelong friend Gina Lollobrigida. I met Gina in 1968 while starting out at United Artists. We worked together on Buona Sera, Mrs. Campbell and became fast friends. She’s also the reason I met my husband, journalist Richard Valeriani. We were at dinner in DC with journalists and power players and Richard kept speaking Italian with Gina. She wanted to practice her English, so we changed seats, and there he was. We were married for 38 years before his passing in 2018.
Dubbed “the most beautiful woman in the world,” Gina knew she was aging out of the ingénue and had many artistic pursuits, including being a fabulous photographer. In 1974, I worked with her to pitch a series of articles called “The Ten Most Fascinating Men in the World” to Ladies Home Journal. It was unfortunately still many years before a list of fascinating women would become the norm. Gina would photograph and interview the subjects, and I would write copy for the monthly feature. The first issue featured Neil Armstrong and the second Henry Kissinger. They were well-received, and Gina decided she wanted to photograph Fidel Castro in Cuba.
I reached out to a contact in DC who connected me with the Cuban ambassador. I presented the idea, and it was surprisingly (or perhaps unsurprisingly) a quick yes from Castro to be photographed by Gina. She would travel from Italy directly to Cuba, but I went through Mexico City as no American citizen could officially travel there.
I met Gina and her crew of a cameraman and sound guy in Havana. They took us to a beautiful home outside the city. As we walked in, I couldn’t help thinking this home was most likely seized by the government. During our week there, meals were brought in, and we only left the house on trips led by Castro or his people.
Kathie Berlin and Fidel Castro. Photograph by Gina Lollobrigida.
Courtesy of Gina Lollobrigida
Castro came to the house the next morning, and you could tell he was nervous around Gina. She had her camera and sound guy filming everything and placed the microphone in her push-up bra. Once he saw it, he quickly looked away, embarrassed. I don’t think her positioning of the microphone was in any way an accident. He loved Hollywood movies, and obviously knew who she was, which confirmed the reason for the quick yes for our visit. Castro admitted he took all the big movies from Miami and particularly loved Groucho Marx. He kept our first visit short and would return each day, always in uniform and never stayed past six PM. As he left, I used the opportunity to ask for the pool to be filled, as it was incredibly hot. He pretended not to understand, but it was filled the next day.
They took us on carefully staged excursions around the city. Our driver Pepe was very helpful, telling us details about Havana when Castro didn’t accompany us. They showed us beautiful museums, art galleries, clean public transportation, ballet schools and took us to the Tropicana, Havana’s most famous night club. The people were friendly and greeted us wherever we went, but it was all too orderly and felt staged just for us. One day, Castro took us to a school with a new soft-serve ice cream machine. It served chocolate and vanilla, and he said he had to eat both, or the children would never eat the flavor that he passed on again. He told them that I was a Yankee, and they looked frightened until he said I was safe to be around.
At the end of our fourth day, Gina interviewed Castro. He utilized a translator but seemed to understand much more English than he wanted to admit. At the end of the interview, I told him I heard he liked to play basketball. He nodded but didn’t answer.
Later that night, there was a loud knock on the front door. It was almost ten o’clock, and we were all already asleep. We didn’t know if we should answer, but they knocked louder and louder. We were relieved it was Pepe, and he told us he was to take us to Castro. Gina and I were scared that we had done something wrong and might face serious consequences.
Pepe drove us to a huge indoor arena where Castro was dressed in a track suit along with four other players in the same uniform. All the guys were taller than Castro, who was a tall man, and they looked like they could play in the NBA. The opposing team was much shorter and in t-shirts and white gym shorts. They were older men and possibly members of his cabinet. The game consisted mostly of Castro’s team passing him the ball and waiting until he got it in the basket.
I loved basketball and went to many Knicks games. They weren’t allowed to guard Castro, but he played rough defense on them. At one point, he made an egregious foul, knocking the guy across the floor. I forgot where I was and yelled “foul” at the top of my lungs like any good Knicks fan. Everyone froze, and I wondered if I was in trouble. He looked up at me and said, “Yankee is right. He gets two foul shots.” I was quiet for the rest of the game.
When the week was up, we left Cuba on separate flights. Nothing broke in the press until the pictures and story were on the stands in Ladies Home Journal. It was a huge get that cemented Gina’s reputation as a photojournalist. I passed on my contacts to Barbara Walters, which led to her famous interview with Castro in 1977. She never even sent me flowers. The life of a publicist, which still rings true today. I wouldn’t change a day.