Afro-Cuban Dance Music in Hollywood and Mexican Movies
• January 28, 2023 • 1 CommentPosted in 1920s, 1930s, 1940s, 1950s, acquisitions, bars, collectors, Cuba, curator, donations, Francis Xavier Luca, gifts, graphic arts, graphic designers, museums, posters, promotional materials, Puerto Rico, slums, The Wolfsonian Library, Vicki Gold Levi, Wolfsonian staff
Tags: "Cherry Pink (and Apple Blossom White)" (song), "El Manisero" [The Peanut Vendor] (song), "Patricia" (song), A Century of Progress International Exposition (Chicago: 1933-1934), Abakuá, actresses, Afro-Cuban jazz, Afro-Cuban polyrhythms, Andrea Queeley, Another Thin Man (film: 1939), ballroom dancing, big bands, cabaret dancing, Carole Lombard, cha cha cha, Cha-Cha-Cha Boom! (film: 1956), Chano Pozo, Chicago World's Fair (1933/34), conga drums, conga line dancing, Cuba, Cuban exiles, Cuban expatriates, Cuban Revolution of 1933, Cuban Revolution of 1959, dancers, danzón, Desi Arnaz (1917-1986), Desiderio Alberto Arnaz II, Dizzy Gillespie, Dominicans, Don Azpiazú and his Havana Casino Orchestra, El Bar de Hilda, ephemera, Eva Silot-Bravo, film-noirs, Francis Xavier Luca, George Raft, Harlem, Havana (Cuba), Havana-Madrid (nightclub), Holiday in Havana (film : 1949), Hollywood movies, I Love Lucy (television series), Jane Powell, Justo Ángel Azpiazú (1893–1943), La Dolce Vita (film : 1960), Latin jazz, Lawrence Tibbett, Lupe Velez, Luxury Liner (film : 1948), Margo, Matanzas (Cuba), melodramas, Mexican movies, Mexico, music, New York City, Nuyoricans, Pérez Prado, Perez Prado, Puerto Ricans, race, Racial prejudice, racism, Ramona Ajón, reggaeton, René and Estela, René Rivero Guillén, rhumba, Robin Moore, Rock & Roll, Rock Around the Clock (film), rumba, Rumba (film : 1935), rumba dancers, rumberas films, rumberos, salsa, Santiago de Cuba, Sheet music covers, Silvano “Chori” Shueg, singers, slums, solares, soneros, swing, The Beat Goes On (Panel discussion), The Cuban Love Song (film: 1931), Tierra Brava (film : 1938), timbalero, timbaleros, Too Many Girls (film: 1940), Turn the Beat Around (Wolfsonian exhibition : Oct. 2022-April 2023), Un Extraño en la Escalera [A Stranger on the Stairs] (film : 1955), Underwater! (film : 1954), Xavier Cugat (1900-1990)
Turning the Beat Around: Spotlight on Chano Pozo
• November 9, 2022 • 1 CommentPosted in 1940s, 1950s, collectors, Cuba, dance, donations, exhibitions, Florida International University, Francis Xavier Luca, gifts, graphic arts, interns, library donors, museums, photography, The Wolfsonian Library, Vicki Gold Levi, Wolfsonian staff
Tags: "Bang Que Choque" (song), "Blen Blen Blen" (song), "Manteca" (song), "Nague" (song), "Sono el Clarin" (song), Abakuá, Afro-Cuban dance culture, Afro-Cuban jazz, Afro-Cuban music, afrocubanismo, album covers, Amado Trinidad Velazco, Anselmo Sacasas (Cuban pianist and arranger), Arsenio Rodríguez, “Ariñáñara" (song), “Conga de Los Dandys" (song), “Parampampin" (song), Bal Nègre (dance revue), Carnegie Hall, carnival parades, Carteles (magazine), Chano Pozo, Chano Pozo y su Orquesta, Chico y Rita (animated film : 2010), Coda Records, Colon Cemetery (Havana), comparsas, conga, conga drummers, conga drums, Conjunto Azul, Cuba, Cuban bebop, Cuban composers, Cuban musicians, Cuban singers, Cubop, descargas (jam sessions), Dizzy Gillespie, drummers, El Ataúd, El África, Entertainers, Ernesto Roca, ethnomusicology, exhibitions, Félix Chappottin Lage, Francis Xavier Luca, Harlem, Hotel Nacional Orquesta, Hotel Presidente (Havana), installations, Jack Harris' La Conga (nightclub), Jazz, Joe Loco Quintet, Jovenes del Cayo septet, jukeboxes, Leonardo Timor, Leonardo Timor (band leader), Los Dandy de Belén (comparsa), Los Melodicos (band), Luciano (“Chano”) Pozo González, Machito, Machito and His Afro-Cubans, Mario Bauza, Miguelito Valdés, musicians, Musicraft (record company), New York City, orisha, Orquesta Casino de la Playa, Pan-Art (record label), percussionists, photographs, religious Afro-Cuban music, RHC Cadena Azul radio, Roxy Theatre, royalty disputes, rumba, rumba dancers, rumbero, Santería, Santo Ramírez (Cuban percussionist), secular Afro-Cuban music, segregation, singers, slums, solares, tenements, Tito Rodríguez, Tropicana (Nightclub), Turn the Beat Around (Wolfsonian exhibition : Oct. 2022-April 2023), Vicki Gold Levi, Victor (record company), vocalists, Xavier Cugat (1900-1990), Yoruba religion
Some Much Needed Theatrical Distraction
• March 28, 2020 • 1 CommentPosted in 1930s, Artists, Christopher DeNoon, circuses, Civilian Conservation Corps, donations, Fascism, FDR, Federal One, Federal Theatre Project (U.S.), FIU, FIU students, Florida International University, Florida International University students, Francis Xavier Luca, FTP, gifts, graphic arts, graphic designers, Great Depression, Haiti, History Department, leftist artists, library donors, Living Newspaper, Macbeth, Mitchell Wolfson Jr., museums, New Deal, New Deal (1933-1939), New Deal era, persuasive arts, playbills, political art, posters, propaganda, racism, rare books and special collections library, slums, The Wolfsonian Library, theatre, theatrical producers, Wolfsonian, Wolfsonian staff, WPA
Tags: Albert Carman, America & Movies: Great Depression & New Deal Era in Film and History, Benito Mussolini (1883-1945), Broadway, bureaucracy, bureaucrats, Cartoonists, cartoons, CCC camps, Cinema, coronavirus, costume designers, covid 19, Democrats, Department of Amusements, directors, Dixiecrats, Elmer Rice, equal pay, escapism, Ethiopia, federal funding of the arts, Federal Theatre Project (FTP), film courses, Fontana Dam, foreshadowing, Great Depression, Haile Selassie, Hallie Flanagan (1890-1969), Harry Hopkins (1890-1946), Herb Kruckman, Hollywood, Hydroelectric dams, Integration, John Houseman, Laurence Cromwell (fictitious character), Living Newspaper, Macbeth, Moscow Art Theatre, Nat Karson, Negro unit (Federal Theatre Project), Orson Welles, Power (Federal Theatre Play), remote teaching, RUR (marionette theatre), Shakespeare, slums, stagehands, Stand Up and Cheer (film : 1934), syphilis, Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA), theatre, theatre companies, theatrical performers, unions, Voodoo Macbeth (Federal Theatre Project), Works Progress Administration (WPA), WPA, YouTube Parties, Zoom