Actress Gina Lollobrigida as a photographer, before she came looking for Armstrong at UC.

Although most UC engineering students in 1974 knew the name Gina Lollobrigida, none of them would have recognized the Italian actress on the street, much less in Baldwin Hall. But around 5 p.m. on March 25, students, who were getting a bit bleary eyed at the end of the day, snapped to when a stunning woman glided through the doorway, armed with camera gear and asking to take photos of their professor, Neil Armstrong.



“We didn’t know who she was, but she sure looked special,” recalls Ralph Spitzen, Eng ’74, MBA ’76. “We looked at Neil’s face, and he gave no indication of anything. We looked back at her, and she was still looking special.



“As we looked back and forth, Neil still had a blank face. Finally, he said, ‘Gentlemen, this is Gina Lollobrigida.’ We did recognize her name.”



It turned out that Armstrong had joined a large party at Gina’s home in Italy while he was on a worldwide first-man-on-the-moon tour. Five years later, she was a Ladies’ Home Journal photographer who wanted a photo shoot with Armstrong.

