Better not meet this woman in the dark.
The distinctive presentation is deceptive.
There is nothing in the expression on her face that indicates a joke.
It wasn't either.
She aimed, she shot, she hit.
That was very painful, the targets reported later.
The incident occurred in Rome in the early morning hours of October 20, 1960.
Even then it was unusual for a woman to wear a bow and arrow with a cocktail dress.
She may have felt harassed or threatened.
But wouldn't it have been better to have a blank gun in your handbag?
The lady in the black dress is the actress Anita Ekberg.
She was previously traveling with a companion on Via Veneto, Rome's promenade with numerous bars and restaurants.
On their tour of the clubs, they chased four photographers looking for celebrities.
They had followed the couple to Ekberg's villa.
That was obviously too much for the beautiful Swede, she got into a rage.
"We took photos of them walking into the house," photographer Felice Quinto later told the AP news agency.
They had already got back on their motorcycles, "when Anit ran out of the house with a bow and arrow in her hand."
Armistice against film reel
It was a cool night, Ekberg had taken off his shoes and was walking on stockings.
"A little tipsy," said Quinto, and screamed, "Give me these pictures!" Then arrows flew.
One hit him on the left forearm, two other photographers got arrows in the back.
The clothing prevented entry, but it still hurt.
The photographers fled.
Photos of that night appeared in the US magazine "Life" a few days later.
They show that the argument was even more violent: When a photographer tried to disarm the actress, she dropped the bow and attacked the man, the magazine wrote.
When she noticed that she was being photographed, she grabbed the bow again and aimed again.
Several people involved threatened the police, reported "Life".
Ekberg's companion then tried to calm the situation down.
He promised a truce when the photographers handed over their films.
Photographer Marcello Geppetti presented him with a roll of film.
However, he kept the exposed film blank.
Otherwise the motif of the Ekberg with a bow and arrow would never have become known.
Nor what happened afterwards.
The police were actually called that night - by the house servant in Ekberg's villa.
When the officers arrived, however, the photographers had already disappeared.
Neither she nor Ekberg wanted to file a complaint later.
Keep your eyes open when choosing a career
What was remarkable about this incident was not only that the actress picked up a bow and arrow - a film fantasy also became reality: At the beginning of the year, the filmmaker Federico Fellini had his work »La Dolce Vita« (German: »The sweet life «), With Anita Ekberg in one of the leading roles.
The scene in which she climbs into the Roman Trevi Fountain in a black evening dress made the blonde, nicknamed "the Swedish iceberg", world-famous.
In the film, Ekberg played a film star who was besieged by reporters.
One of the photographers is called Paparazzo.
The plural name should be used to designate an entire profession that uses sometimes unscrupulous methods to catch recordings of celebrities in supposedly unobserved moments.
This trade is as old as the early press photography: like big game hunters, picture reporters go on the hunt, stalk celebrities, lurk behind bushes and use monstrous telephoto lenses.
They always hope for unique and exclusive snapshots that they can sell for dearly.
Some penetrate deeply into the privacy of celebrities who try to shake off their pursuers - and often vigorously defend themselves against this affliction.
Fist blows from stars or bodyguards, broken bones, knocked out teeth: these are part of the professional risk of all too pushy tabloid photographers.
Felice Quinto, who clashed with Ekberg on the morning of October 20, 1960, was later nicknamed "King of the Paparazzi" - and wore it with pride.
Again and again he claimed to have been a model for the role of "paparazzo".
However, this cannot be clearly proven.
Fellini knew Quinto, but so did several other celebrity photographers.
A whole group had founded their business in Rome in the 1950s, at a time when numerous Hollywood stars were filming in the Roman Cinecittà studios.
Never mess with Genghis Khan's daughter-in-law
In addition to Quinto and Geppetti, this also included Tazio Secchiaroli.
It was probably Quinto and Secchiaroli, who died in 1998, who inspired Fellini to create the figure of the »paparazzo«, wrote the Italian newspaper »La Stampa« in a 2010 obituary for Quinto.
Accordingly, Quinto claimed at the time that Fellini had originally offered him the role of "paparazzo" with a fee of 10,000 lire per day.
Which Quinto rejected because he made a lot more money with celebrity photos.
And so, months later, Quinto chased the now real film star Ekberg in Rome.
She should be a particularly worthwhile goal that evening: He caught Ekberg when she kissed the married film producer Guido Giambartolomei.
But Quinto's colleague Geppetti had the more spectacular pictures of the evening in the can: Ekberg with a bow and arrow, as well as Ekberg with Quinto, how she pulls his hair and rams his knee into his groin.
A little later in the cinema, the photographer must have realized what dangerous opponent they had gotten themselves into.
In 1961 the film "I mongoli" (German: "Raubzüge der Mongolen") started.
Producer: Guido Giambartolomei.
In one of the main roles: Anita Ekberg as the bloodthirsty daughter-in-law of Genghis Khan.
Apparently she had practiced shooting with a bow and arrow for the shoot in Rome - and therefore the gun in the house.
Icon: The mirror