ROME, Dec. 20 (UPI) -- The first songs recorded by the beloved Italian comedic actor, Toto, who has been compared to Chaplin and Keaton, have been found 40 years after his death.
The recordings are on a rare 78-rpm record produced by the Columbia record label in 1940 and were discovered by a music collector in Rome, Italy's ANSA news service said Wednesday.
The rare songs, ANSA said, were taken from Toto's third film, "San Giovanni decollate" and feature comic lyrics set to dance tunes.
Film aficionados have compared Toto's comedic antics with the American silent-film icons such as Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton, although he was not well known outside of Italy during his lifetime. He was a master at facial expressions and he used his body as his signature ruse to get laughs.
And laughs he got. He tickled enthusiastic audiences time after time in his more than 100 films.
Until now, it had been thought that he only recorded two songs in 1942.
