Cino Tortorella, born June 27, 1932, is a former Italian television

Television

Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...

 presenter, best known for creating and conducting the Zecchino d'Oro

Zecchino d'Oro

Zecchino d'Oro is an international children's song festival that has taken place every year since 1959.It was started by Cino Tortorella, and the first two festivals were held in Milan...

 festival of children's songs.

Topo Gigio

Born in Ventimiglia

Ventimiglia

Ventimiglia is a city and comune in Liguria, northern Italy, in the province of Imperia. It is located southwest of Genoa by rail, and 7 km from the French-Italian border, on the Gulf of Genoa, having a small harbour at the mouth of the Roia River, which divides the town into two parts...

, Italy

Italy

Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...

, Tortorella began his career in the 1950s with a comedy entitled Zurlì, mago Lipperlì ("Zurlì, the Magician of There", 1956). Three years later, he inaugurated the Zecchino d'Oro, in which he played the role of Mago Zurlì until 1972. He also created several other shows on RAI TV and private Italian networks.

With Tortorella as the voice of Topo Gigio

Topo Gigio

Topo Gigio was the lead character of a children's puppet show on Italian and Spanish television in the early 1960s. The character, created by artist Maria Perego, debuted on Italian television in 1959 and has been customarily voiced by actor Giuseppe Mazzullo...

, he became a regular on The Ed Sullivan Show

The Ed Sullivan Show

The Ed Sullivan Show is an American TV variety show that originally ran on CBS from Sunday June 20, 1948 to Sunday June 6, 1971, and was hosted by New York entertainment columnist Ed Sullivan....

. While a popular attraction in Italy, exposure via The Ed Sullivan Show made them famous around the world.

Legacy

In December 2006, Tortorella's name was written into the Guiness book as of the person having been conducting the same program (Zecchino d'Oro) for the longest ever time in the world.