Carlos Di Sarli Spins "The Wheel of Tango" (Pt. 2)

"Fans fight their way toward the entrance to attend the sensational debut of singer Roberto Rufino with his grand orchestra, an incident that clearly confirms the success that was expected from the very beginning." 6 May 1944.

"Round and round it goes and where it stops, nobody knows!"—The Amateur Hour radio show, 1934

[View Part 1 of this article.]

Carlos Di Sarli's music is inimitable, but "The Wheel of Tango" and its surrounding publicity were not. On 3 May, 1944, Roberto Rufino, "The Actor of Tango," appeared in a remarkably Di Sarlian ad (second photo, right) speaking directly to his audience, thanking them for their "show of sympathy" during his debut at the Palermo Palace, referring to it as La Cita del Tango, Tango's Big Event: "For that is what we may call this important event that remains like a memory that cannot be erased." Rufino, who had until recently been the voice of the Di Sarli orchestra, was attempting to usurp the voice of the maestro himself.

In his master's voice. Rufino's "Di Sarlian" ad describes his debut a "Tango's Big Event." 3 May 1944.

And that clever strategy of picturing the Di Sarli fans who had been turned away from the sold-out shows at the Marabú? The Palermo Palace took a similar, but much more upbeat approach. The ad depicts Rufino's excited followers mobbing the club's entrance, eager to buy tickets for opening night. Seen from a high angle, they look upward, into the camera, expressing their gleeful anticipation of the musical triumph they are about to experience. To our eye, it seems that Rufino and the Palace had bested Di Sarli at his own game. We leave it to the reader to form his or her own judgment.

(Note: As in the Marabú photo, we see few if any women in the Palermo Palace crowd. One may speculate that since women were admitted free at the Palace, they were also spared the inconvenience of waiting on the ticket-buyers' line.) 

"Osvaldo Pugliese and his orchestra thank the public who came the Bar Argentino last Wednesday and must present their excuses to all those who, on finding the gates shut for having exceeded the capacity of the hall, had to remain outside the bar. They also offer their profound apologies to their colleagues and friends Demare, Troilo, Rodríguez, Washington Bertolín, Tanturi, Salgán, Fiorentino, Marino, F. Sassone, F. Pinto, Clauso, etc., to whom they were not able to attend with the deference that they would have liked given the crush of the crowd."
[View closeup of the guests.]

On May 14, the management of the Bar Argentino ran a similar ad to publicize the debut of Osvaldo Pugliese and his orchestra. There, we see what purports to be an interior view of the venue. Seated in the foreground are a group of Don Osvaldo's invited guests, his colleagues and friends Demare, Tanturi, Troilo, Salgán, and several others; behind them is ranked the mass of the audience. The tone of the ad is apologetic, not only to those members of the public who couldn't gain entry, but to Don Osvaldo's famous friends, whom, the ad says, he couldn't entertain as he would have liked because of the huge crowds.

Di Sarli's competitors did not stop at copying his advertising strategies, however; they also copied "The Wheel of Tango" itself. In mid-June, two months after the first spin of The Wheel, a copycat contest entitled "My Best Tangos" began to appear on Radio El Mundo on Tuesday and Thursday evenings at 10:35 p.m. The orchestras of Angel D'Agostino, Juan D'Arienzo, and Ricardo Tanturi were the initial participants. Followup ads in the El Mundo Dance Guide featured a ranked tally of listeners' votes just like those in earlier ads for The Wheel. ("My Best Tangos" was sponsored by the Mejoral cigarette company, which had been Di Sarli's sponsor for The Wheel of Tango when it premiered in May....)

The Wheel of Tango on Radio El Mundo. "Today at 7 p.m. Carlos Di Sarli and his orchestra return to Radio El Mundo to play the most Argentine music in the land. And at 8:30 you'll hear news of the sensation that is sweeping Buenos Aires: The Wheel of Tango."
2 May 1944.

Undaunted by these obvious imitators, Di Sarli and his Wheel kept on rolling. On 2 May it was presented on Radio El Mundo, and on 17 June it appeared at the Inclán social club in the staunchly working-class southern barrio of Parque Patricios. Additional rounds of The Wheel were held at Marabú, too, with new songs and new winners.

Rufino continued to hold court at the Palermo Palace for eight successful weeks, to be replaced by his fellow singer-soloist Alberto Castillo on July 1. The pages of the El Mundo Dance Guide don't tell us how long Osvaldo Pugliese kept up his overcrowded appearances at the Bar Argentino, but he and his orchestra remained very active on the sports-and-social-club dance circuit for the rest of the winter and beyond.

Inclan Social Club, Parque Patricios. Di Sarli presents The Wheel of Tango "with the powerful and inimitable voice of Alberto Podestá." 17 June 1944.

The Wheel of Tango kept on turning, turning, not for Di Sarli alone, but for all the Actors of Tango... Viewed through the lens of the El Mundo Dance Guide, the autumn of 1944 truly was a Big Event in the history of tango.

TO BE CONTINUED...