Vivien Leigh in São Paulo on 7 May 1962.
18 March 1962 - great British actress Vivien Leigh on the stage of Theatro Municipal with the Old Vic Company. Miss Leigh was 49 years old and played opposite Robert Helpmann in 'Twelfth Night' and 'The Lady of Camellias'; at TBC was Arthur Miller's 'Death of a salesman' (A morte do caxeiro viajante) with Dionisio de Azevedo, Cleyde Iaconis e Leonardo Vilar; at Teatro Cacilda Becker was Andrew Rosenthal's 'Third person' (A terceira pessoa) with Miss Becker herself plus Sergio Cardoso, Celia Biar and Walmor Chagas; at Teatro de Arena was Bertold Brecht's 'Die Gewehre der Frau Carrar' (Os fuzis da senhora Carrar) with Dina Lisboa, Lima Duarte, Paulo José and Arnaldo Weiss; at Teatro Oficina was Clifford Odets's 'Die Leben guedruckt in Dollar' (A vida impressa em dolar) with Eugenio Kusnet.
Burlesque theatre was still strong circa 1962. Top show-girl Angelita Martinez could sell out huge houses like Theatro Paramount with non-senses like ‘Me segura que vou ter um troço’; at Teatro das Bandeiras they didn’t even bother to title their shows; it was simply called ‘Only for males’ (Só para homens) and the ad was filled with double entendres like ‘tudo no peito’ (meaning: female breasts), ‘uma revista que levanta o moral’ (suggesting a penile erection) or ‘women, women, women’; at Teatro Natal (Blue Hall) on Avenida São João, Cole introduced ‘Pelés e Peladas’ (a pun made from the famous footballer’s name plus ‘pelada’ which means ‘naked woman’) with Lilian Fernandes, arguably the most beautiful show-girl around; at Teatro Natal (Red Hall) ‘Toda nua na espuma’ (Stark naked in the suds) with Silvana Lopes plus lots of semi-naked girls; Teatro Record’s next attraction was ‘Oba’ a musical by Carlos Machado, surely Florenz Ziegfeld’s Brazilian counterpart.
In the meantime serious actress Dulcina de Morais was expected to premiere ‘Tia Mame’ at Teatro Bela Vista; believe it or not, São Paulo in 1962 still had a Yiddish theatre season with Pinie Goldstein & Anna Rappel in ‘A quinta rodada’ at TAIB; at Teatro Oficina, Maria Fernanda played the main part in Tennesse Williams’s ‘A streetcar named Desire’ (Um bonde chamado desejo).
Maria Fernanda plays Blanche DuBois in 'A streetcar named desire' as seen by OESP cartoonist.
Before the night fell at 5:00 PM Teatro Oficina's personnel organized a cocktail in honour of British actress Vivien Leigh who was given a gold plate; Maria Fernanda played a segment of 'A streetcar named desire' in Portuguese to honour the great actress who played it on the stage and in Elia Kazan's film which brought Miss Leigh her second Academy Award. Actress Henriette Morineau, who was the first actress in Brazil to play Blanche DuBois came all the way from Rio de Janeiro to pay homage to Vivien.
São Paulo fell in love with Vivien Leigh - 10 May 1962 & 13 May 1962.
Vivien Leigh's visa for entry into Brazil while on tour with the Old Vic, issued in April 1962. Check out her birth year... I wonder if Vivien noticed they made her a year older.
13 June 1962 - At Theatro Municipal one could see Jerome Kilty's 'Cher Menteur' translated in French by Jean Cocteau played by French actors in French. One could also see Federico Garcia Lorca's 'Yerma' directed by Antunes Filho at TBC or Gianfrancesco Guarnieri's 'Eles não usam black-tie' at Teatro de Arena. On Rua da Consolação, 1992, at Teatro Record you could see Italian rock'n'roller Peppino di Capri in person and 2 blocks away at Teatro Tupi, # 2403, you could hear the Orquestra Sinfonica Associada.
13 July 1962 – At Teatro Leopoldo Froes on Rua General Jardim, Pequeno Teatro Popular played Garson Kanin’s ‘Born yesterday’ (Nascida ontem) with Dorothy Leiner; at Teatro Record, Cacilda Becker presented Friedrich Dürrenmatt’s ‘Der Besuch der alten Dame’ (A visita da velha senhora) written in 1956 by the Swiss playwright; at the Burlesque Theatre it was business as usual: Dercy Gonçalves sputtered her usual string of obscenities in ‘Escandalos Romanos’ (Roman scandals); at Teatro Natal was a musical revue called ‘A olho nu’ (Naked eye)… they had a preference for words relating to nudity even if it was only a naked eye; next attraction at Theatro Paramount would be famous nudist and naturalist Luz del Fuego with her colony of snakes in ‘Vai quebrar’, a political revue.
On a Friday on TV Paulista, Channel 5 was DJ Antonio Aguillar's 'Ritmos para a juventude' from from 6:25 to 7:10 PM; PRK 30 at 9:00 and Hebe Camargo's 'O mundo é das mulheres' at 9:35; at TV Record, Channel 7 was 'Capitão 7' at 7:05; 'Bat Masterson' at 8:00; 'Show 713' at 8:30; at TV Excelsior, Channel 9 from 8:30 to 9:30 band leader Enrico Simonetti and his Orchestra had show of their own; at 11:00 PM one could watch 1954's 'La principessa delle Canarie' (A princesa das Canarias) with Silvana Pampanini & Marcello Mastroianni.
12 August 1962 - full-page ad paid by the New York government advertising their 1964 World Fair two years before it was supposed to start.
9 September 1962 - popular samba & balad singer Leila Silva performs the 1st show at Boite Oasis, reputedly the best night club in town. Cherry was a Japanese-style night club on Rua Americo de Campos, 84 - next to Praça João Mendes where Kiochi Hisa & his combo played modern jazz having Kamimura at the accordeon. Yoko Abe did the singing along with Nelson Luis; feme fatale Rosana Toledo sang at La Vie en Rose; spetacular jam session at Teatro de Arena every Monday night with Hector Costita at the flute, Luiz Chaves (future Zimbo Trio) at the double-bass, Luiz Mello at the piano & Rubinho, future Zimbo Trio drummer at... the drums. At Teatro Record one of the most lavishly produced Brazilian musical comedy 'Tio Sam...ba' with a bi-lingual cast made out of Chocolate, Regina Celia, Bob Barran. Aloysio de Oliveira produced on the same lines of 1961's 'Skindô'.
29 September 1962 - 'Dama por um dia' (A pocketful of miracles) with an older Bette Davis was definitely a crowd pleaser with 96% of excellent and good of those polled after watching the film.
12 August 1962 - full-page ad paid by the New York government advertising their 1964 World Fair two years before it was supposed to start.
29 September 1962 - Chubby Checker the King of Twist could be seen live on the stage of Teatro Record on rua da Consolação at 3:00 PM or 10:00 PM or just across the street at Cine Trianon with 'Don't knock the twist' (Ao ritmo do twist); Nabakov's 'Lolita' with teen sensation Sue Lyon was playing at Cine Metro and Cine Jardim. at Cine Normandie Rolf Thiele's 1957's 'El Hakin' (O medico do deserto) with O.W.Fischer & Nadja Tiller.
Inauguration of Cine Europa, a small movie house at the corner of Praça da Republica with Rua Joaquim Gustavo. It was supposed to show only the best European movies starting with a Russian love story - Isidore Annensky’s 1958’s ‘O marinheiro do cometa’ with Gleb Romanov, Nikolai Kryuchkov & Nikolai Svobodin.
At TV programmes: on Channel 9, Bibi Ferreira production of ‘Um soldado em Nova York’; at ‘Cinema em casa': 1940's comedy 'Turnabout' (Adão de saias) with Carole Landis & John Hubbard; at Channel 7 is ‘Fury’ at 7:00, ‘Manda-chuva’ (Top Cat) at 7:30 and ‘Astros do Disco’ at 9:00 PM.
People who worked at the musical-revue 'Tio Sam...ba': from left to right clockwise: not-identified man, choreographer Sonia Shaw, not-identified man, producer & arranger Bill Hitchcock; Brazilian choreographer & dancer Ruth Rachou & N.I.M. Ruth Rachou went on to dance at 'Boa noite, Bettina' too.
At TV programmes: on Channel 9, Bibi Ferreira production of ‘Um soldado em Nova York’; at ‘Cinema em casa': 1940's comedy 'Turnabout' (Adão de saias) with Carole Landis & John Hubbard; at Channel 7 is ‘Fury’ at 7:00, ‘Manda-chuva’ (Top Cat) at 7:30 and ‘Astros do Disco’ at 9:00 PM.
18 November 1962 - at Teatro Record another Brazilian musical comedy 'Boa noite, Betina', with Zeloni, Anilza Leone, Procópio Ferreira & a great cast. It seemed for a while that Brazilian show business was catching up with Broadway after expensive shows like 'Skindô' (1961) and 'Mr. Sam...ba' (1962) were produced at Teatro Record.
Actually, Zuza Homem de Mello in 'Era dos festivas', a book about the time he worked at Teatro Record doing sound-checks at the console during their golden era:
As of 1962 foreign acts signed by TV Record started to dwindle due to the exchange rate being very uncompetitive. Contracts were signed well in advance and in the meantime the Brazilian currency would devaluate in relation to the US dollar and we ended up paying double or triple when the act finally arrived and did his/her week's work. I remember Les Brown and his Orchestra in March 1962 being one of the last foreign acts.
TV Record started letting its theatre at Rua da Consolação to theatrical companies doing musical revues like 'Skindô' (1961), Carlos Machado's 'Oba' (May 1962) with Luis Delfino, 'Tio Sam...ba' (September 1962) and Giovannini-Garinei-Kramer's 'Boa noite, Betina' (Buona notte, Bettina) with Zeloni and a great cast in November 1962.
Even though these productions were successful with good receipts at the box-office they didn't translate into good TV shows. That's when TV Excelsior got in the game turning it around and got to be the top TV station in the country.
As atrações internacionais começaram a escassear devido à rápida valorização do dollar. O patrocínio dos artistas contratados em dollar, tinha que ser negociados em cruzeiros, com meses de antecedência - mas quem poderia assegurar a quanto estaria o dollar quando o artista chegasse ao Brasil? Uma das ultimas temporadas dessa fase áurea foi a da orquestra de Les Brown, em março de 1962, pois em setembro já havia uma retração na contratação de grandes cartazes internacionais.
A programação do Teatro Record enveredou-se por outro caminho, concentrando-se em temporadas mais longas de espetáculos brasileiros dentro do conceito de teatro-de-revista luxuoso. 'Skindô', montado originalmente no Rio por Abrahão Medina, 'Tio Sam...ba' (com a mesma equipe de Skindô: a coreógrafa Sonia Shaw e seu marido, o arranjador Bill Hitchcock, e o produtor e autor de textos Aloyisio de Oliveira) e ‘Oba’ de Carlos Machado foram algumas das produções de 1961 e 1962, inadequadas para a programação do Canal 7. Atrações que atraíam publico pagante ao Teatro Record, não obtinham o mesmo resultado, em termos de audiência, quando na TV. Não conseguiam sustentar a grade da programação. Essa foi uma das brechas que permitiu à TV Excelsior disputar a liderança.
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