From furniture seller to Melbourne icon. The documentary Palazza di Cozzo (2021) charts the life of Franco Cozzo, a Sicilian migrant who became a cult figure during the 1970s and ‘80s, principally for his trilingual TV commercials (in English, Greek, and Italian). Often spruiking a ‘grand sale’, they promoted his stores selling baroque furniture in Footscray, Brunswick and North Melbourne.

This clip from the documentary is notable for including extracts of two of Cozzo’s TV ads. The entrepreneur wastes no money on actors, fancy locations, gimmicks or special effects. Cozzo is the star; his voice and charisma fill the screen. A pan across his showroom reveals opulent chairs, bedheads and lounges that wouldn’t be out of place in an 18th-century Italian palace (or at least a TV re-creation of one). The sumptuous – or gaudy, according to taste –stylings signified upward mobility to Cozzo’s customers, many of them new migrants like himself who were aspiring to financial success in a new country.