Aug 16, 2026 · 7 min · 7 segments
This is an audio version of post 44 (Book Nine. Wallonia. Elephant Blanc. Part Three. Striptease. La Dolce Vita) narrated by the author. Illustration by Danny Hellman. Get full access to Turfwall at…
La Dolce Vita, Federico Fellini's film that came to define the liberated era that inspired it, began with an impromptu striptease in a Roman trattoria 51 years ago.
November 1958, Peter Howard Vanderbilt threw the 24th birthday party for his friend, Venetian Countess Ogina de Robelin at Rugantino.
The party was uneventful.
until an Armenian dancer, an assumedly uninvited, Aichi Nana, ran to the dance floor, started dancing by herself, pulling down her suspenders and stripping.
The police commissar attending the party ordered his men to throw her out and made the photographers hand over their film.
However, one of the photographers, Tadzio Secchiaroli, held on to his photos of the striptease, and next morning Rome woke to the headlines about Roman orgy at Frugantino's.
Thus was born the famous orgy sequence of La Dolce Vita, when Nadia Gray celebrated her divorce with a striptease scene.
La Dolce Vita, Federico Fellini's film that came to define the liberated era that inspired it, began with an impromptu striptease in a Roman trattoria 51 years ago.
November 1958, Peter Howard Vanderbilt threw the 24th birthday party for his friend, Venetian Countess Ogina de Robelin at Rugantino.
The party was uneventful.
until an Armenian dancer, an assumedly uninvited, Aichi Nana, ran to the dance floor, started dancing by herself, pulling down her suspenders and stripping.
The police commissar attending the party ordered his men to throw her out and made the photographers hand over their film.
However, one of the photographers, Tadzio Secchiaroli, held on to his photos of the striptease, and next morning Rome woke to the headlines about Roman orgy at Frugantino's.
Thus was born the famous orgy sequence of La Dolce Vita, when Nadia Gray celebrated her divorce with a striptease scene.
The rest of this transcript — segmented and speaker-labeled, so you land on the exact moment something was said
Search every transcript — by keyword, by phrase, or by meaning, across every show Radar indexes
Trends — what is surging across podcasts, measured against its own baseline
Alerts — when a name you follow appears in a newly indexed episode
No account is needed to search Radar.
