- Yes
- Maybe
- No
History.
“The Caliph’s Hunchback” is the title of a one-act play first staged in 1929 in Rome: the story is based on a tale from ‘The Thousand and One Nights’ and tells of the Caliph’s hunchbacked buffoon who is invited to dinner by a young couple in their Baghdad home and is believed to be dead after he is apparently suffocated during the meal. Out of fear of the Caliph’s reaction, the fake dead man is transported from one place to another in the neighborhood until the jester breathes again.
The author of the opera’s music is a certain Francesco Casavola, a staunch fascist who in time was also appreciated in Italy and abroad, even achieving some success.
During the Italian military campaign in Ethiopia an OM company truck was portrayed in a series of photographs by a crew of a private transport company, and the said vehicle was customized probably because someone in the crew (or in the upper echelons of the company) was an admirer of Casavola’s work. The end of the vehicle and crew is not known, but this nevertheless remains an interesting example of vehicle customization.
The original photographs are kept in the photo archive of a private citizen.
The decal.
The decal depicts a hunchback (the protagonist of Casavola’s work) in European dress, bowler hat on his head and pipe in his mouth. The whole is contained within a white rhombus. In addition to this, the front bumper of the vehicle bears the inscription “IL GOBBO del CALIFFO” in white.
Pictures and drawnings.
Sources.
Spoiler
GB Modelli - [email protected]: Kit 72100 - Set Ruote per Camion Fiat 634.......................€. 7,00
Camion "Il gobbo del califfo" - Mezzi militari Italiani e Stranieri
Il Gobbo del Califfo. Libretto di Arturo Rossato. Musica di Franco Casavola – L'Arengario Studio Bibliografico
Il Gobbo del Califfo 1928-29 | Archivio Storico del Teatro dell'Opera di Roma