  The history of the debates on the foundational implications of the Bell
non-locality theorem displayed very soon a tendency to put the theorem in a
perspective that was not entirely motivated by its very assumptions, in
particular in term of a 'local-realistic' narrative, according to which a major
target of the theorem would be the very possibility to conceive quantum theory
as a theory concerning 'real' stuff in the world out-there. I present here a
historico-critical analysis of the stages, between 1963 and 1978, through which
the locality condition of the original Bell theorem almost undiscernibly turned
into a 'local realism' condition, a circumstance which too often has affected
the analysis of how serious the consequences of the Bell theorem turn out to
be. In particular, the analysis puts into focus the interpretive oscillations
and inconsistencies that emerge in the very descriptions that many leading
figures provided themselves of the deep work they devoted to the theorem and
its consequences.
