In the 1920s, the Caffè Paszkowski in Florence was the first large establishment to present a café-concert with an all- female orchestra, a very rare thing at the time, as we see in a period photograph. Then came the Pasticceria Cucchi, which brought the café-concert to Milan in the 1930s, tormenting the Fascist Ministry of Popular Culture, or “Minculpop”, because the orchestra of just beautiful girls played the first American foxtrots – with incredible success – at a time when overseas culture was banned in Italy.