| Editor: | Alberto Cianca |
| Editor Title: | Editor-in-chief |
| Frequency: | Weekly |
| Category: | Satirical magazine |
| Firstdate: | 13 January 1924 |
| Finaldate: | 1926 |
| Country: | Italy |
| Based: | Rome |
| Language: | Italian |
| Founder: | Alberto Giannini |
Il Becco Giallo (English: "The Yellow Beak") was an antifascist satirical magazine in the 1920s in Italy.[1] The magazine existed between 1924 and 1926.
Il Becco Giallo was founded by Alberto Giannini in 1924,[2] and the first issue appeared on 13 January that year. The editorial column of the first issue sided clearly against fascism:[1]
Il Becco Giallo was based in Rome.[3] The editor-in-chief of the magazine which was published on a weekly basis was Alberto Cianca.[4] Contributors included Gabriele Galantara, founder and editor of L'Asino,[5] and Stefano Siglienti.[6] Luigi Pirandello, for his devotion to Benito Mussolini, was one of Il Becco Giallo's satirical targets, and used to be called P.Randello (randello in Italian means 'club (weapon)').[7] In 1926 the fascist regime forced Giannini to close it and emigrate to France.[2] [8] Editor-in-chief Alberto Cianca also fled to Paris where he managed to continue to publish Il Becco Giallo.[4]
On 1 August 1927 the new clandestine series of the magazine appeared in Paris, with co-editor Alberto Cianca, thanks to financial subsidies collected in Concentrazione Antifascista Italiana (Italian Anti-Fascist Concentration) circles through the intervention of Filippo Turati and the Italo-Argentine industrialist Torquato Di Tella,[9] and later also with the contribution of the Giustizia e Libertà movement.[10] The publications of the clandestine journal continued until August 1931 (77 issues in all), when the journal closed due to disagreements that arose between Carlo Rosselli, who guaranteed funding, and Giannini, who edited the journal.
In the same period, two magazines emerged in Italy that were characterized for developing an innovative surreal humour, the Bertoldo and the Marc'Aurelio; the authors of these magazines were reactionaries that avoided political satire to comply with the regime.[1] [11]