Tango Time Machine — Tango Decoder

"Loca" Talks!

We've all seen that terrific video of Juan D'Arienzo's orchestra performing an instrumental version of "Loca" for Uruguayan TV in the 60s. It's top-notch, high-energy tango music and a priceless documentation of one of tango's greatest orchestras.

But what about the song itself? It had lyrics once upon a time, when it was composed in 1922 and recorded by Carlos Gardel, and they're powerful. They tell the sad tale of a young woman from the provinces who runs away to Buenos Aires and gets trapped in the sex trade.

The song was also performed by Libertad Lamarque in Luis Buñuel's 1947 film, Gran Casino. (Not to be confused with La Loca, another Lamarque vehicle directed by Miguel Zacarías in '52.) Lamarque's performance is seen below, with subtitles by Tango Decoder and our side-by-side full-text Spanish-English translation. I think you'll agree, the song has a strong emotional punch and Lamarque makes the most of it. The performance could easily have lapsed into melodrama, but I don't think it does. It's strong stuff, though.

(NOTE: If you do not see the subtitles at the start of the video, please click the "CC" button on the control strip at the bottom of the YouTube screen to toggles subtitles "on.")

By the way, the word loca means an emotionally unbalanced female, a crazy woman, but it's also a slightly less blunt way of saying "prostitute" or "whore," which is clearly what is meant here. I chose the word "tramp" as a translation because, like the Spanish word loca, it's a word with a double meaning. It could have been "trollop," "harlot," or "slut," but "tramp" seemed closest in feel to the original. See if you don't agree.

LOCA (Tramp)
Tango, 1922
Words: Manuel Jovés
Music: Antonio Vergol

Spanish-English translation by Tango Decoder:

Loca, me llaman mis amigos, que sólo son testigos de mi liviano amor. Loca... ¿Qué saben lo que siento, ni qué remordimiento se oculta en mi interior? Yo tengo, con alegrías, que disfrazar mi tristeza, y que hacer de mi cabeza las pesadillas huir. Yo tengo que ahogar en copas la pena que me devora... Cuando mi corazón llora, mis labios deben reír. Yo, si a un hombre lo desprecio, tengo que fingirle amores; y admiración, cuando es necio; y si es cobarde, temores. Yo que no he pertenecido al ambiente en que ahora estoy, he de olvidar lo que he sido y he de olvidar lo que soy. Loca, me dicen mis amigos, que sólo son testigos de mi liviano amor. Loca, ¿Qué saben lo que siento, ni qué remordimiento se oculta en mi interior? Allá muy lejos, muy lejos, donde el sol cae cada día, un tranquilo hogar había y en el hogar unos viejos. La vida y su encanto era una muchacha que huyó sin decirles dónde fuera... y esa muchacha soy yo. Ya no existe más la casa, ya no existen más los viejos y una muchacha muy lejos, sufriendo la vida pasa. Y al caer todos los días en aquella tierra el sol, caen con él mis alegrías y muere mi corazón.

Tramp, they call me, my friends, they who see only my easy virtue. Tramp... What do they know of what I feel Or what terrible remorse Is hidden inside of me. I have to disguise my sadness with gaiety and make my worries flee from my mind. I have to drown in drink the sorrow that devours me.... When my heart weeps My lips have to laugh. Though I despise a man, I have to pretend to love him; to admire him if he’s a fool; and to fear him if he’s a coward. I wasn’t always part of this scene I’m in now, so I have to forget what I have been and forget what I am. Tramp, they call me, my friends, they who see only my easy virtue. Tramp... How can they know who I am Or what remorse Is hidden inside of me? There, far, far away Where the sun sets each day, There was a peaceful home And in that home, some old folks. Their life and their darling was a girl who ran away Without saying where she was going... And that girl was me. Today that house no longer exists. Today those old folks no longer exist Today the girl, far away, Passes her life in suffering. And as the sun sinks each day In that land, My happiness sinks with it And my heart dies.

The Great Orlando Goñi Ripoff...!

Early June

At the beginning of June this year, when I was just starting to collect the source material for Tango Time Machine, I made a quick survey of the El Mundo newspaper just to get oriented. First I checked some issues from January, June, and December of 1940 and '41, satisfying myself that there was only sporadic tango/dance advertising during those years. I figured I'd come back to those issues at some later date, and collect what few ads there were.

Next I checked I checked in '42, and I found that there was a steady progression over the course of the year. The El Mundo "Dance Guides" seem to have originated at some point in late 1941 or early '42, although I'm not yet sure of the precise date, and increased in density throughout the course of 1943. (In a June '42 issue, I found the charming display ad for Juan D'Arienzo, the Chanteceler Cabaret, and various brands of booze, as seen at the right.)

As the weeks and months of '43 went by, little clusters of two, four, or six small, smudgy tango ads gradually expanded to fill half of one page, then half of two facing pages. By December, there were one or two full pages of ads on Saturdays and Sundays, and smaller numbers during the week, too. The "Dance Guide" was in full flower.

During that first reconnaissance of the material, I noticed something odd about the Wednesday, December 1, 1943 edition of the paper. On the radio page, below the Trik y Trake cartoon strip, below the schedule of the day's programming on Radio El Mundo, a space which might typically have been the location for two or three mid-week tango ads, the bottom third of the page was torn out of the book. Above the tear, I could see the upper portion of a three-column display ad announcing an appearance by seminal bandoneonist and bandleader Ciriaco Ortiz. It was the first time I'd noticed any torn pages like that. It made me sad, first of all because it seemed that someone had defaced this valuable primary source material, and second because Ciriaco Ortiz is an important figure in tango history. The ad had a big photo of him opposite a photo of a trumpet or a cornet, probably an emblem of the accompanying jazz act, and I would have liked to see it. At the time, I didn't think more of it than that. I snapped a picture with my phone, and I moved on. For all I knew, there could be many torn pages like that.

Late August

Over the last couple of days, I've been collecting material about Orlando Goñi, the "evolutionary" pianist who left his indelible signature on the Troilo orchestra from its beginnings until September 1943. After being fired by Troilo, Goñi formed his own orchestra; it debuted at the legendary Cafe El Nacional on December 1 of that same year. (Michael Lavocah gives an excellent account of the Trolio-Goñi partnership and subsequent parting in his indispensable book, Tango Masters: Aníbal Troilo.) 

As I followed Goñi's solo career via in the pages of the El Mundo Dance Guide, I was struck by how much publicity Goñi's new band had received. I saw an ad trumpeting the famous assertion that 25,000 people had come to hear Goñi's band in the first two weeks at El Nacional. And I saw many subsequent ads for gigs he'd played (or perhaps in some cases not played...) with a succession of singers during the year 1944: Rodriguez Lesende, Aldao and Cabrera, Alfredo Castell, Fiorentino himself, and lastly, Raúl Berón. Some of those ads were relatively small, but many, many of them were "anchor" ads, that is, over-sized, five-column ads spanning the full width of El Mundo's "Dance Guide," at the very bottom of the page where no one could possibly miss them. Here's an example:

Here's the page with the upper slice of the Ciriaco Ortiz ad, the torn edge below. I've pasted in a large Goñi ad,  placed in the probable position of the announcement of Goñi's debut at El Nacional. December 1, 1943.

There were ads for gigs at El Nacional, the Palermo Palace, the Empire cabaret, the Prince George Hall, Flores Que Surgen, Barracas Central, Club Sol de America, Club S. y Sp. Buenos Aires and others--culminating on 14 December '44 with a show held at the headquarters of the Chacarita Juniors football club: vocals by Berón; supporting act, El Rey del Swing, jazz guitarist Oscar Alemán. After that, the trail goes cold, and so, I'm afraid, does Orlando Goñi. He died in Montevideo on 5 February 1945, aged 31. A very sad end to a brilliant career....

I tracked Goñi's movements right up to the last, but the one thing I could not find, alas, was the announcement of the Goñi band's premier at the El Nacional. Certainly, judging by the countless pesos spent on subsequent advertising of the orchestra, there ought to have been some notice on the day of its very first gig. Let's see, when would that have been? (Consults Michael Lavocah's book once again...) Oh, yes, the first day of December, 1943.

Then I remembered that tantalizing Ciriaco Ortiz ad on the radio page, also from December 1, 1943, its placement on the page, and the big rip where something had been torn out. There was room for something else below it, something big and wide. It could even have been one of those five-column "anchor" ads...

Now that I've given it some thought, I'm quite certain: that's where the announcement of Goñi's debut would have been. I'm also quite certain that someone tore it out. Who? Why? When? I've no idea. It might have happened early on, on the day of the performance itself, or while the newspaper was still on open shelves. Or it might have happened more recently, since the time the old papers were bound in monthly volumes. On thing I definitely plan to check is whether the microfilm version of this page is complete, or not.

There the story ends, rather anticlimactically, I'm afraid. But it's been my experience that stories like this, simply by virtue of being told, have a way of revealing their own endings if one waits long enough. So let's just sit on this one for a while, and see what emerges.... Who knows, maybe one of our readers already knows the answer!

 

 

 

At Troilo's Elbow: Oscar Aleman

The orquestas típicas of tango's Golden Age usually shared the stage with an accompanying act, more often than not a jazzband, in alternating sets lasting about half an hour. A complete list of Argentine jazzbands of the period would be a very long one, but the short list must certainly include Washington-Bertolín, Barry Moral, Eduardo Muratore, Al Black, Joe Starr, Joe Rispoli, Fredy Caló, and Adolfo Veneziani.

[Photo: "Radio "El Mundo" has just made a valuable acquisition by adding to its cast the jazz guitarist and bandleader Oscar Alemán, who will appear at our microphones for the month of March." 27 January 1944.]

Of those Argentine jazz players whose music is known to us, the finest is the Afro-Argentine guitarist Oscar Alemán. He held the unique distinction of being not merely a homegrown Argentine talent, but also a direct participant in American and European avant-garde jazz. During a ten-year residence in Paris (1930-40), he played with Duke Ellington's band, jammed with fellow guitar wizard Django Reinhardt, and was a much-favored soloist, dancer, and master of ceremonies with Josephine Baker's orchestra. Other Argentine jazz players learned jazz by listening to records. Oscar Alemán learned it at the source.

No stranger to tango, Oscar had given his first mature performances as half of Les Loups, a duo with Brazilian Hawaiian-guitar exponent, Gastón Buen Lobo. Their first recordings were a "tango-milonga" titled Hawayanita and a vals, Criollito, both 1928. Soon after, Les Loups were contracted by Adolfo Carabelli, director of the Orquesta Típica Victor, to form the Trio Victor with tango's greatest violinist, Elvino Vardaro. Oscar's Buenos Aires circle of friends included Augustín Magaldi, Enrique Santos Discépolo, and the left-wing journalist Dante A. Linyera, editor of La Canción Moderna.

An Oscar Alemán playlist on YouTube.

Returning to Buenos Aires from Nazi-occupied Paris in 1940 with his French wife Malou, a gifted jazz singer in her own right--the couple arrived with 85 pesos to their name--Oscar found work in Buenos Aires's jazz clubs, on Radio El Mundo, and in the dance halls where tango was king and jazz, a visiting dignitary. While his appearances in the tango scene were not an everyday occurrence like those of Washington-Bertolín or Barry Moral, he shared the stage at one time or another with just about every major tango orchestra. Though he played in a variety of clubs, Oscar seems to have been especially popular with the organizers of the Club Santa Fe and the Círculo General Urquiza. For those of us who have danced at the present-day Palermo tango club "Villa Malcolm," it's great fun to imagine Oscar trading sets with Rodolfo Biagi in that very room!

We hope you enjoy this gallery of Oscar Alemán sightings from the El Mundo newspaper Dance Guide. Photo source: Tango Time Machine.

Dates, top down, are: 5 May 1944 (w/ Troilo); 15 January 1944 (w/ Laurenz); 12 October 1944 (w/ Troilo, Lagna Fietta, and Di Sarli); 8 July 1943 (w/D'Agostino); 14 May 1944 (w/ Biagi); 10 September 1933 (solo at Floresta Juniors).

[Biographical data in this article is from Oscar Alemán: Guitarra Embrujada by Sergio Pujol, Editorial Planeta, Buenos Aires 2015. Highly recommended!]

 

 

Bookend not included....

El Mundo, Buenos Aires, 10 January 1944

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Saturday Night in Buenos Aires, 1943: What more could one ask?

By mid-1943 the El Mundo "Dance Guide" had expanded quite a bit. Where our 1942 example had but six entries, this page from Sunday 17 April 1943 features no less than sixteen live appearances by tango orchestras. There are listings for the well known típicas of Caló, D'Arienzo, Troilo, Tanturi (twice), Laurenz, D'Agostino, Demare, Biagi, and Di Sarli, as well as several lesser known acts.

Some especially notable features:

PUBLICITY AGENCIES

• A small entry at the top of the left column, just below the "Vitoquin" ad, identifies a publicity agency Baylex as the compiler of the group of ads below it, which are all in  the same "black bar" style. The ads on the right side of the page vary considerably in design, and include three with the distinctive hand-drawn type of the competing Santa Cruz agency.

Over time, several publicity agencies (others were Argañaraz, Chacabuco, Vicmar, Falcón, etc.) would vie for domination of the El Mundo "Dance Guide" pages, although no single agency ever came to prevail. It seems likely that efforts of these agencies to market their services was one of the forces that drove the expansion of tango advertising in this period. By 1944, individual ads usually bore a small signature identifying the agency that had placed them.

BAILES CON GRABACIONES: Dances with recordings

• The entry just below the Baylex panel is for a BCG (baile con grabaciones, a dance with recorded music) at the Atlanta football club. A BCG was a place for those who wished to dance in a more focused atmosphere, minus the hoopla of a live show. BCGs charged one peso or less for men, as opposed to the two- or three-peso entry charge for most live concerts. (A peso was worth about $3 in today's US dollars.) Women were admitted free, or for 30-50 centavos. These two factors made the BCG an economical solution for serious dancers who were short of cash, who danced frequently, or both. Ads for BCGs, generally much smaller than those announcing live shows, would appear in much greater numbers from this point on.

TANTURI DOUBLES UP

• There were two listings on this day for the Tanturi orchestra (which still featured singer Alberto Castillo at this juncture). Tanturi's regular gig at the Tribu ("Tribe") Social Club was scheduled for "Today and every Saturday at 17:30," while his second appearance, a Gran Velada ("Grand Soiree") at the Círculo General Urquiza sports club, went from 22:30 to 4:00. The phrase pistas cubiertas assured the reader that the dance floor, which probably occupied the space of the club's football field, was covered, so the event was protected from the elements and would not be cancelled in the event of rain.

THE MOST TYPICALLY ARGENTINE DANCE HALL

• The Salon Bompland "Arte Nativo" was an interesting dance venue advertising itself as the El Salón Más Criollo, that is, the most typically Argentine dance hall. Rather than big names, the Bompland emphasized variety and authenticity. On this night it featured four orchestras, each offering a different musical genre: tango, jazz, nativa (Argentine folk music), and polka. Admission: Gentlemen 1 peso, ladies free. The event lasted seven hours, from nine in the evening until 4 a.m. Good deal!

A "BIG GOAL" FOR PEDRO LAURENZ

• The page shown above features an ad for the Pedro Laurenz orchestra with singer Alberto Podestá, who would doubtless have been performing some of those fantastic songs they recorded in '43 and '44 like Garua, Todo, and Alma De Bohemio, Que Nunca Me Falte, and others. As any real tango fan would have known, that was going to be an unforgettable show. But the Ocean Dancing club wasn't taking any chances. They put a large and rather crudely drawn display ad on the page following this one, letting us know that Laurenz and Podestá were about to score El Golazo del Año, "The Big Goal of the Year." Here it is:

It's not tango advertising's finest moment, but it does have some historical interest, if only to demonstrate the tango-football affinity....

 

 

 

Esta Noche De Zorros...

From our "Tango Time Machine" collection of dance and music advertising from the 1940s.

Odeon Records offers "TWO GREAT CREATIONS" by José Garcia and his tango orchestra Los Zorros Grises (The Grey Foxes) with vocals by Alfredo Rojas. [El Mundo, Buenos Aires, 25 June 1944]

A video of Garcia/Rojas's Esta Noche De Luna is below the pic.

(PS: I didn't do any post processing on the photo, so you're seeing the old newsprint in all its yellowed glory....)

 

Troilo Radio Dance 1942

From El Mundo, Buenos Aires, Sunday, 11 January 1942:

News Brief

Dancing Starts at 5 p.m.

Those fond of dancing can count on an excellent program of danceable music this afternoon starting at 5 on the "Tea Dance" of Radio El Mundo. The program will feature the rhythms of Aníbal Troilo's tango group; the orguesta característica of Don Pepe; the Hawaiian Serenaders; and the tango orchestra Los Medocinos [led by "El Tano" Francisco Lauro--TD]. Listeners will thus be able to enjoy three consecutive hours of lively dancing at their happy Sunday gatherings until 8 p.m.

Sounds like fun, no? Keep in mind that recorded music was out of reach for most people, while radio was a free source of music! If you wanted to have a dance party in your own home, this Sunday evening radio concert would have been a good way to go. The performances were live, by the way. Aníbal Troilo live on the radio? We can only dream of it!

 

 

Men's Shoe (1942)

[El Mundo, 1 January 1942]

"Make Sure! It's not an OSCARIA shoe without the Registered Trademark."

"For use with light colored suits."

Twenty-four pesos is around $72 USD in today's money.

"Charol" Candombe-Milonga by Mandarino at Marzotto

Amadeo Mandarino was a gifted singer whose long, illustrious career included stints with Pulgiese, Troilo, and many others.

Marzotto was a fancy bar and restaurant near the Obelisco that, according to my information, did not have a dance floor. People went there to eat and drink and "listen" to live music. Fancy that.

The ad below announces Mandarino fronting an orchestra directed by A. Fanuele "playing one of his big hits, the candombe-milonga Charol." The song had been recorded a few months earlier by Alberto Castillo before an orchestra directed by Emiliano Balcarce. (I'm guessing that Mandarino had performed it on the radio, hence the "big hit" status.)

[El Mundo "Dance Guide," 16 September 1944]

Here's Castillo's recording of Charol:

Tric Y Trake: A seat on the streetcar....

[Tric Y Trake, El Mundo newspaper, Buenos Aires, 6 June 1944. Click to see larger image.]

A minor side benefit of my research into the El Mundo "Dance Guides" of the 40s was that I got to read Tric Y Trake, a cartoon strip that appeared daily on El Mundo's radio page (which was the page where most of the dance ads appeared, until 1944). They're not wildly funny, and they sometimes resort to crude slapstick, but they're well drawn and, taken as a whole, they reveal a lot about the times. At the same time, they're universal; comic strips today deal with the same themes.

In this strip, from 6 June 1944, one of the boys, the short, runty one, runs for the streetcar. (I still don't know which one it Tric and which one is Trake...) In the second frame, he looks very uncomfortable as he's buffeted by a crowd of much taller male riders. Third frame, he's startled to find an empty seat. "Oh! what do I see? A seat!" he cries. In the last frame, he lies unconscious in a hospital bed as an orderly tells his buddy, the tall, skinny one, "Yes, he's getting better now -- he got so emotional that he passed out."

We might run some other Tric Y Trake strips from time to time, just to give you the flavor of the times. Unless anyone objects....