1939, August 11 – PUGLIESE DEBUTS AT CAFE NACIONAL
The mythical “Cafe Nacional”, the cathedral of tango, until 1916 was known as “Cafe LLoveras” where famed Argentine chess master Maximo Abramhson held court…it is here that Osvaldo Pugliese debuted with singer Amadeo Mandarino, his first orchestra on August 11, 1939…because of his communist sympathies, he was persecuted by the Juan Peron regime…during his periodic incarcerations his orchestra would continue performing but would place a red rose on top of his unmanned piano…He was born in the neighborhood of Villa Crespo, Buenos Aires, a traditionally jewish neighborhood, to an Italian immigrant father who was a shoe repairman but who loved music…it was he who gave young Osvaldo his first violin lesson; Osvaldo would later switch to piano..at the age of 16 he was hired by Paquita Bernardo, the first professional female bandoneonist in Argentina, to play in her sextet…
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Osvaldso Pugliese was a highly principled man with a strong sense of social justice…among his activities, he was an organizer of workers’ strikes and even looked after the welfare of the terribly exploited prostitutes…he set up his orchestra as a cooperative in which everyone including himself was paid the same amount of money…there were numerous great hits among his hundreds of recording but perhaps non greater than “Recuerdo” which he composed at the age of 19…during one of his numerous world tours at a stopover in Japan, he had a conversation with Dr. Daisaku Ikeda, a renown Buddhist who said of Osvaldo “I have met with emperors,
kings, philosophers, great personalities from around the world, but I never found as much spiritual affinity with such a person as with Osvaldo.”
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- CLICK HERE – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rcYYlk3FwE8 to hear the Osvaldo Pugliese Orchestra play “Desde El Alma”, a walz tango composed by 14 year old Rosita Melo
1954, May 13 – OPENING OF “THE PAJAMA GAME”
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The Pajama Game is based on the novel “7 1/2 Cents” by Richard Bissel…in the story, workers in a pajama factory are demanding a seven and a half cent raise but they are being ignored…in the midst of the ordeal an unlikely love blossoms between “Babe” the head of the grievance committee and “Sid” the new factory superintendent…directed by George Abott and choreographed by Bob Fosse, it was a hit enduring 1063 performances and winning many awards including a Tony for Best Musical…Bob Fosse would direct “Chicago” which had another great tango hit “Cell Block Tango”…The Pajama Game was composed by Richard Adler
and written by Jerry Ross; they were also the team which created “Damn Yankees” which featured another hit tango, “Whatever Lola Wants, Lola Gets”…a bright future was predicted for the duo but Jerry Ross died of a respiratory disease at the age of twenty-nine years old; he was however, extremely productive in his short life writing or co-writing over 250 songs
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Debuts
Jewish
Tango In Film