Brazilian show business 50s, 60s & 70s: RAUL MORENO

Raul Moreno nee Tufic Lauar was born on 23 July 1923, in Carangola-MG, a town 150 km away from Cachoeiro do Itapemirim-ES.

He worked as a typesetters at at a newspaper in his hometown. Tufic then moved to Rio de Janeiro. It was while working as a typesetter that Raul met samba song-writers and soon he was writing sambas too instead of composing pages.

Odete Amaral recorded Moreno’s ‘Tudo é ilusão’ in 1946. He had other sambas recorded by other singers until 1950, when he decided to record his own songs and paid for it. When Todamerica’s director Antonio de Almeida heard the paid-for-single he decided it was too good and released it as a regular record.

Raul Moreno at 'Carioca' 1951.

Revista do Radio asks whether people liked what righ-wing politician Carlos Lacerda had been doing lately. Lacerda was elected for City Council in 1945; was a Congressman from 1947 to 1955 and ended his infamous career as governor of Guanabara state from 1960-1965. Carlos Lacerda was a major conspirator in the 1964 Military Putsch that ended Brazilian Democracy on 1st April 1964. Ten years earlier - 1954 - Lacerda helped to oust President Getulio Vargas who shot himself in the chest rather then leave office which he had been elected in 1950.

People who worked in Radio & TV usually had their political views too. The ones for Lacerda could be said to lean right... Raul Moreno was absolutely left-leaning.

'Correio da Manhã' 2nd January 1955.

This long article about Raul Moreno was published at 'Correio da Manhã' on 2nd January 1955, in which the daily tells his story since he left Carangola-MG and settled in Rio de Janeiro-DF. According to the paper, Raul started singing professionally in 1945.

Circa 1947, Raul Moreno was a regular crooner at the Elite Club, a working class dance hall on top of a funeral home in Praça da Republica in central Rio de Janeiro, attended mostly by domestic servants and factory workers. He received a 100 cruzeiros per function and fronted the local orchestra 3 times a week.

Gafieira is the sort of dance hall for the working classes set up mostly in Rio de Janeiro a few years after the end of slavery in 1888. Its meaning comes from the French word 'gaffe' due to the inexperience of those people who had just recently been released from thralldom and didn't know much about ball-room-dancing and consequently made a lot of 'gaffes'.

Well, Moreno was touted as the King of Gafieira by 'Correio da Manhã' which may have been a form a veiled racism but that was really common then. Disdain for the working class was grist to the mill in the mainstream media then.

Finally, in late 1952, things started changing when Raul was chosen by Império Serrano song-writer Monsueto Menezes to record 'A fonte secou' which was not only the best 1953 Carnaval song but kept on playing at the radio waves long after those festivities were over soon becoming a 'standard'.

Moreno was signed by Radio Transmissora and performed with Ruy Rey & his orchestra plus Paulo da Portela.

For Carnaval 1955, Raul Moreno teamed up with Elizeth Cardoso and recorded 'O seresteiro' written by Renato Lima and himself. But Moreno's great hope is for 'Timidez', written by Wilson Baptista & Marcléo, a modern-samba (which would be called 'sambalanço' in the 1960s) that he recorded for Todamerica in May 1954.

2nd January 1955 - 'Correio da Manhã' - Raul Moreno started 1955 all fine... later on he would enter a bad phase of his life when he was accused of statutory rape by a woman.

How the mainstream media could be racist or demeaning to the working class:

'doméstica' is meant by those women who work full-time as servants at white middle-class households and usually have one day-off a week. They're mostly Black women.

'Correio da Manhã' columnist writes: 'We should point out that Raul Moreno is more 'adequate' to gafieiras'. Which really means: Moreno is good enough to perform for those servants and factory hands... and 'who else happened to be lounging there'... (e quem mais andasse por ali)...

Further on the columnist comes up with this pearl of racism and contempt: 'Raul Moreno foi um sábado ao Elite. Combinou com a orquestra o ritmo. Acertou tudo direitinho. E largou para a mulatada: '

The columnist calls the Elite audience 'mulatada', that is: those of mixed blood; those half-negroes! That comes close to call them 'macacada' - a bunch of monkeys!

8 February 1955 - Raul Moreno's presence at Correio da Manhã's 'Caravana Musical' on Saturday night is highlighted in the article published on Tuesday in the newspaper. See future star Alaide Costa in the photo with Moreno.

4 November 1957 - Yolandino Maia's 'Gangerê' featured Raul Moreno in a musical number.

Raul Moreno discography

TA-5162-A - Destino traiçoeiro (Raymundo Olavo-Djalma Mafra) recorded on 11 March 1951.

TA-5162-B - Meu drama (Helio Nascimento-Orlando Trindade)

TA-5387-A - A fonte secou (Monsueto-Tufic Lauar-Mario Luiz Marcléo) - 8 October 1953.

TA-5387-A - Mulher de mau pensar (Monsueto Menezes-Elói Marques) - December 1953.

TA-5417-A - Timidez (Wilson Baptista-Marcléo) - May 1954.
TA-5501-A - Inocente (Wilson Baptista-Brazinha-Marcléo) - recorded on 30 September 1954.
TA-5573-A - Me empresta teu lenço (Monsueto-Elano de Paula-N.Durso) - rec, 4 August 1955.
TA-5586-A - Marcha do golpe (Antonio Almeida-Zé Tinoco) - rec. 27 October 1955.
TA-5680-A - A flor e o espinho (Nelson Cavaquinho-Guilherme Brito-Alcides Caminha) - 14 Feb 1957

Raul Moreno is accused of statutory rape by Etelvina de Oliveira. She said she had met Moreno at Radio Mundial and they started a romance. Moreno whose real name is Tufic Lauar told the Judge they went to the movies on 29 September 1955 at Cinema Odeon and as Etelvina lived in the suburbs they decided to stay at Hotel Estrada de Ferro overnight. Etelvina said it was a lie. She had been seduced and raped by the musician. 'Correio da Manhã' 19 October 1955; 'Correio da Manhã' 17 November 1955.