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Rosita Sokou
Rosita Sokou (Greek: Ζωή Μαρία (Ροζίτα) Σώκου, Zoi Maria (Rozita) Sokou; 9 September 1923 – 14 December 2021) was a Greek journalist, author, playwright and translator.
Sokou was one of the first women journalists in Greece and started her career as a film critic in 1946. She moved to Rome, Italy after marrying an Italian journalist and author, Manlio Maradei. Having difficulty adjusting to life and career in Italy, she moved back to Greece with her daughter to resume her work. From 1977–1983 she became a celebrity as part of a panel in the TV Show Na I Efkeria. In 1992–1993 she went on to host her own TV show at New Channel called Visitors at Night.
She translated work for many authors. She was also very involved with theatre and wrote plays, adaptations and more. She also wrote books, and won awards from the French government and from Greece for her Greek journalism.
Her father, Georgios Sokos, was a journalist, editor and playwright from Aitoliko who died at the age of 44, just before World War II. Her mother Titika Michailidou came from Smyrna. Sokou was born in Plaka, Athens, Greece, on 9 September 1923, growing up in Psychiko. Her maternal grandfather, Fotis Michailidis, was a cinema and theatre fan and made her see all films and plays available every week, and Rosita started writing reviews of what she saw while in high school. Fotis Michailidis was also the co-founder of Greek pasta manufacturer MISKO in 1927. Rosita Sokou graduated from the Arsakeio School in Psychiko. During the war and the Axis occupation she perfected her French at the Institut Français under Roger Milliex and English at the British Council (Cambridge Diploma of English Studies). She attended the State School of Fine Arts which she left to study with painter Yannis Tsarouchis – who later discouraged her from becoming a painter – and also attended the Vassilis Rotas Drama School for the purpose of general knowledge, while working from a tender age as a translator and a foreign language teacher. After the end of the Axis occupation and the Civil War, in 1947, she attended a summer course on 20th century literature at Lady Margaret Hall College of the University of Oxford.
One of the first women journalists in Greece, she started her career as a film critic. From 1946 she wrote in newspapers such as Vradini, Kathimerini, Mesimvrini, Ethnos, Acropolis, Apoghevmatini and the English-language Athens News, as well as for numerous magazines and regularly attended film festivals in Cannes, Venice, Berlin, Moscow, Taormina, Houston (Texas), Thessaloniki, as well as the “Festival dei Due Mondi” in Spoleto, Italy. From the 70s, she expanded to theatre criticism and various other columns.
After her marriage to Italian journalist and author Manlio Maradei, she lived in Rome, Italy, from 1957 to 1961, but had difficulties with the life of a housewife. Her attempts to start a new career in Italian newspapers and magazines, writing in the Italian language, and to adapt to the bourgeois mentality of Italian society of the times were only moderately successful; she then decided to come back to live in Greece with her daughter, resuming her job in "Kathimerini" (morning paper) as well as the new "Mesimvrini" (evening paper) and "Eikones" (weekly magazine) of editor Eleni Vlachos (sometimes also spelled Vlakhos).
In 1967, after the onset of the military dictatorship, Eleni Vlachou closed her media, in protest against the suppressed freedom of the press, and flew to London where she stayed for the whole duration of the dictatorship. Rosita was left jobless, and with a small child to provide for. Nevertheless, she was one of the only two people (the other one was Freddie Germanos) who refused to sue Vlachou and ask for damages asking for a financial compensation – for this she faced the disciplinary board of the Journalists' Union and was threatened to be expelled from the Union. She held fast: accepting to sign the lawsuit meant to recognize that Vlachou's claim (that it was impossible to have press worthy of its name in the current situation) was unsubstantial. These were difficult years, in which she worked editing encyclopaedias, translating, collaborating with magazines and finally ended up, in 1969, working for the Botsis newspapers, Acropolis and (from 1970) Apoghevmatini. There, she expanded to other subjects, also writing theatre, ballet and TV reviews. On the next decade, after becoming a well-known TV persona, she had her own full page where, every Sunday, she wrote on whatever stuck her fancy. At the end of the 7-year dictatorship, Eleni Vlachou came back to Greece and opened "Kathimerini" again, and Rosita collaborated sporadically under the pseudonym of Irene Stavrou until 1987 when the newspaper was sold to the Koskotas group. Apogevmatini eventually turned her out in 2005, after 35 years, as part of the newspaper's policy to prefer young newbie (and low-paid) journalists.
During the period 1977–1983 she became a celebrity as part of the panel in the TV show "Na I Efkeria" ("Here's your chance", a Greek version of "Opportunity knocks"). These were the early days of TV, and the audience response was unprecedented. In 1992–93 she hosted her own TV show at New Channel, "Visitors at Night". She welcomed the guests in her own living room, and chatted with them in an informal way, something unprecedented in the history of Greek TV.
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Rosita Sokou
Rosita Sokou (Greek: Ζωή Μαρία (Ροζίτα) Σώκου, Zoi Maria (Rozita) Sokou; 9 September 1923 – 14 December 2021) was a Greek journalist, author, playwright and translator.
Sokou was one of the first women journalists in Greece and started her career as a film critic in 1946. She moved to Rome, Italy after marrying an Italian journalist and author, Manlio Maradei. Having difficulty adjusting to life and career in Italy, she moved back to Greece with her daughter to resume her work. From 1977–1983 she became a celebrity as part of a panel in the TV Show Na I Efkeria. In 1992–1993 she went on to host her own TV show at New Channel called Visitors at Night.
She translated work for many authors. She was also very involved with theatre and wrote plays, adaptations and more. She also wrote books, and won awards from the French government and from Greece for her Greek journalism.
Her father, Georgios Sokos, was a journalist, editor and playwright from Aitoliko who died at the age of 44, just before World War II. Her mother Titika Michailidou came from Smyrna. Sokou was born in Plaka, Athens, Greece, on 9 September 1923, growing up in Psychiko. Her maternal grandfather, Fotis Michailidis, was a cinema and theatre fan and made her see all films and plays available every week, and Rosita started writing reviews of what she saw while in high school. Fotis Michailidis was also the co-founder of Greek pasta manufacturer MISKO in 1927. Rosita Sokou graduated from the Arsakeio School in Psychiko. During the war and the Axis occupation she perfected her French at the Institut Français under Roger Milliex and English at the British Council (Cambridge Diploma of English Studies). She attended the State School of Fine Arts which she left to study with painter Yannis Tsarouchis – who later discouraged her from becoming a painter – and also attended the Vassilis Rotas Drama School for the purpose of general knowledge, while working from a tender age as a translator and a foreign language teacher. After the end of the Axis occupation and the Civil War, in 1947, she attended a summer course on 20th century literature at Lady Margaret Hall College of the University of Oxford.
One of the first women journalists in Greece, she started her career as a film critic. From 1946 she wrote in newspapers such as Vradini, Kathimerini, Mesimvrini, Ethnos, Acropolis, Apoghevmatini and the English-language Athens News, as well as for numerous magazines and regularly attended film festivals in Cannes, Venice, Berlin, Moscow, Taormina, Houston (Texas), Thessaloniki, as well as the “Festival dei Due Mondi” in Spoleto, Italy. From the 70s, she expanded to theatre criticism and various other columns.
After her marriage to Italian journalist and author Manlio Maradei, she lived in Rome, Italy, from 1957 to 1961, but had difficulties with the life of a housewife. Her attempts to start a new career in Italian newspapers and magazines, writing in the Italian language, and to adapt to the bourgeois mentality of Italian society of the times were only moderately successful; she then decided to come back to live in Greece with her daughter, resuming her job in "Kathimerini" (morning paper) as well as the new "Mesimvrini" (evening paper) and "Eikones" (weekly magazine) of editor Eleni Vlachos (sometimes also spelled Vlakhos).
In 1967, after the onset of the military dictatorship, Eleni Vlachou closed her media, in protest against the suppressed freedom of the press, and flew to London where she stayed for the whole duration of the dictatorship. Rosita was left jobless, and with a small child to provide for. Nevertheless, she was one of the only two people (the other one was Freddie Germanos) who refused to sue Vlachou and ask for damages asking for a financial compensation – for this she faced the disciplinary board of the Journalists' Union and was threatened to be expelled from the Union. She held fast: accepting to sign the lawsuit meant to recognize that Vlachou's claim (that it was impossible to have press worthy of its name in the current situation) was unsubstantial. These were difficult years, in which she worked editing encyclopaedias, translating, collaborating with magazines and finally ended up, in 1969, working for the Botsis newspapers, Acropolis and (from 1970) Apoghevmatini. There, she expanded to other subjects, also writing theatre, ballet and TV reviews. On the next decade, after becoming a well-known TV persona, she had her own full page where, every Sunday, she wrote on whatever stuck her fancy. At the end of the 7-year dictatorship, Eleni Vlachou came back to Greece and opened "Kathimerini" again, and Rosita collaborated sporadically under the pseudonym of Irene Stavrou until 1987 when the newspaper was sold to the Koskotas group. Apogevmatini eventually turned her out in 2005, after 35 years, as part of the newspaper's policy to prefer young newbie (and low-paid) journalists.
During the period 1977–1983 she became a celebrity as part of the panel in the TV show "Na I Efkeria" ("Here's your chance", a Greek version of "Opportunity knocks"). These were the early days of TV, and the audience response was unprecedented. In 1992–93 she hosted her own TV show at New Channel, "Visitors at Night". She welcomed the guests in her own living room, and chatted with them in an informal way, something unprecedented in the history of Greek TV.