Brazilian show business 50s, 60s & 70s: Rodolfo Valentino / Velhinhos Transviados/ Laerte, cartoonist

Tuesday, 4 September 2018

Rodolfo Valentino / Velhinhos Transviados/ Laerte, cartoonist

When I was a kid, I used to read any illustrated magazine that fell on my hands. I paid special attention to anything related to show business: cinema, radio or TV. One used to read about his favourite singers or actors and their wives or husbands too.

When it came to Angela Maria, who was a great beauty in the late 50s & early 60s, I was specially piqued because her husband was called Rodolfo Valentino, but somehow he was not the one who had been world-famous in the 1920s and died in 1928. He was someone else. But who was Rodolfo Valentino?

Well, when I found this article at an old Revista do Radio, I finally had a chance to know a little bit more about this mysterious character.

Revista do Radio n.681.

Revista do Radio, 6 October 1962. Egyptian born Rodolfo Valentino runs for public office for the National Labour Party - PTN (Partido Trabalhista Nacional).

Rodolfo Valentino, born in Egypt in 1928, arrived in Brazil in 1946 when he was 18 years old. Nine years later, in 1955, Valentino became a Brazilian Citizen. He was a businessman supplying stores with fittings and decoration.

After getting the Brazilian citizenship he decided to run for public office as a Deputado Estadual (Member of Parliament) for the new state of Guanabara - that was formed out of the City of Rio de Janeiro and its metropolitan area - that lost its status as the Capital City of Brazil to the newly-built Brasilia on 21st April 1960. The elections would take place on 7 October 1962. Unfortunately we do not know whether Rodolfo Valentino got himself elected or not.

Know more about Partido Trabalhista Nacional at:

http://www.fgv.br/cpdoc/acervo/dicionarios/verbete-tematico/partido-trabalhista-nacional-ptn

Rodolfo Valentino & Angela Maria visit the headquaters of Cestas de Natal Amaral in the late 1950s. See the state-of-the-art electric typewriter the clerk is proudly handling...

Valentino & his famous wife on the cover of Revista do Radio (August 1959); Rodolfo Valentino wasn't the 'real' one but also had his charms. They say Angela was crazy about him...

VELHINHOS TRANSVIADOS

Velhinhos Transviados first album.

Claribalte Passos writes about José Menezes at 'Correio da Manhã' 5 August 1962. Little did Claribalte or anyone else know that 'Os Velhinhos Transviados - Sensacionais' would be the 1st of many albums of Menezes's studio band that sold like hot cakes during the remainder of the 1960s.

José Menezes de França was born on 6 September 1921, in Jardim-CE; he died on 31st July 2014, in Teresópolis-RJ, two months short of being 93 years old.

Music rag 'Melodias' # 125, February 1968, publishes a rare article about Velhinhos Transviados (Unruly Little Old Men) who were then touring Brazil. They were mostly young to middle-aged men (there was at least one lady, Valéria, among them) who disguised their young age by wearing grey hair wigs and grey beards. José Menezes was supported by Valéria, Mozart, Abel Ferreira, Edinho do Acordeon, Armando, Carlinhos, Pereirinha, Sucupira, Julinho, Zênio and comedian Waldyr Maia.

Velhinhos Transviados 'Sensacionais' (1962) the very first album BBL 1201 mirrors the Hit Parade of mid-1962: 'Ya ya' (Johnny Restivo); 'Perdoa-me pelo bem que te quero' (Orlando Dias); Quem eu quero não me quer' (Raul Sampaio); 'A still guitar and a glass of wine' (Paul Anka); 'Garôta solitária' (Angela Maria).