Part 4 - Valentino and 'El Vasco': The Final Meeting
Francisco Canaro (far right) and members of the Orquestra Tipica Canaro as they appeared in Paris. Local labor laws demanded that they present themselves as a folklore act, hence the pseudo-gaucho costumes.
Casimiro Aín and Rudolph Valentino would cross paths one last time, nearly twelve years since both men had arrived in New York. El Vasco had experienced his own Gethsemane during the intervening period. He appears to have remained in North America during the war years, but the wartime decline of the tango left him scrambling for work. After working on the crew of a South American troop ship in 1917, he registered for the draft in 1918 along with his bandmates, all of whom were currently unable to make a living from music and had taken menial jobs in New York.
Intriguingly, Aín initially listed his profession on his draft card as 'actor', before crossing it out and writing 'clerk'. Given that he later claimed to have appeared in several silent films, and to have known Valentino when he was 'an extra,' could Aín have renewed his acquaintance with Valentino during the war years, similarly appearing in the background of New York-filmed productions such as Patria (1917)? It is certainly possible; it seems noteworthy that Patria starred dancer Irene Castle, while the now lost The Quest of Life (1916) starred Maurice Mouvet and Florence Walton - all dancers; all performers who moved in the same circles as both Valentino and Aín. The latter even featured a dance sequence which, according to Valentino's friend Dickie Warner, took place atop a New York hotel and featured 'a number of celebrities, friends of the stars ... [and] one or two foreigners.' We can only speculate.
After the war and the influenza epidemic of 1918-1919, work for tango dancers and musicians gradually picked up, and El Vasco resumed his travels. He returned to Paris in 1920, where he won a world championship in modern dance, and spent several years in Europe, in one famous case reputedly dancing tango before the Pope. By 1926, he was firmly ensconced at Paris's El Florida nightclub, tango's new Francophone headquarters, where he and the great Argentinian bandleader Francisco Canaro and his orquestra tipica were the star attractions.
Intriguingly, Aín initially listed his profession on his draft card as 'actor', before crossing it out and writing 'clerk'. Given that he later claimed to have appeared in several silent films, and to have known Valentino when he was 'an extra,' could Aín have renewed his acquaintance with Valentino during the war years, similarly appearing in the background of New York-filmed productions such as Patria (1917)? It is certainly possible; it seems noteworthy that Patria starred dancer Irene Castle, while the now lost The Quest of Life (1916) starred Maurice Mouvet and Florence Walton - all dancers; all performers who moved in the same circles as both Valentino and Aín. The latter even featured a dance sequence which, according to Valentino's friend Dickie Warner, took place atop a New York hotel and featured 'a number of celebrities, friends of the stars ... [and] one or two foreigners.' We can only speculate.
After the war and the influenza epidemic of 1918-1919, work for tango dancers and musicians gradually picked up, and El Vasco resumed his travels. He returned to Paris in 1920, where he won a world championship in modern dance, and spent several years in Europe, in one famous case reputedly dancing tango before the Pope. By 1926, he was firmly ensconced at Paris's El Florida nightclub, tango's new Francophone headquarters, where he and the great Argentinian bandleader Francisco Canaro and his orquestra tipica were the star attractions.
The Valentinos in costume for their Mineralava tour of 1923.
Valentino had, of course, become a superstar, married twice, done his own extensive dance tour, and was now undergoing something of a career renaissance. Bruised by his recent divorce from Natacha Rambova and exhausted by promotional duties for his latest film, The Eagle (1925), he took to the nightclubs of Paris for solace. Valentino valued the rare opportunity to dance tango to an authentic Argentinian orquestra tipica at El Florida, where 'El Vasco' met 'El Tano' one last time.
Much as he had in his earliest years in New York, Valentino seemed to feel most at home with fellow emigrés. According to Francisco Canaro, Valentino 'established a narrow, cordial friendship with us [Canaro and his company]', and pledged to exert his influence to bring Canaro, and the tango, into greater prominence in the United States. Perhaps he might even consider an American tour?
This time, Valentino was playing the part of the wealthy American patron - but could the Argentine tango rise a second time? Encouraged by his enthusiasm, Canaro ultimately took up Valentino's suggestion, signing a contract with American impresario E. Ray Goetz to transfer his show to Goetz's Club Mirador in Manhattan. The engagement was due to begin in September 1926.
Much as he had in his earliest years in New York, Valentino seemed to feel most at home with fellow emigrés. According to Francisco Canaro, Valentino 'established a narrow, cordial friendship with us [Canaro and his company]', and pledged to exert his influence to bring Canaro, and the tango, into greater prominence in the United States. Perhaps he might even consider an American tour?
This time, Valentino was playing the part of the wealthy American patron - but could the Argentine tango rise a second time? Encouraged by his enthusiasm, Canaro ultimately took up Valentino's suggestion, signing a contract with American impresario E. Ray Goetz to transfer his show to Goetz's Club Mirador in Manhattan. The engagement was due to begin in September 1926.
Advertisement in the New York Sun, 18 October 1926
Fate had other ideas for all of those involved. On 23 August, Valentino died of a perforated ulcer, aged only 31. This tragedy sent shockwaves around the world - and it also left Francisco Canaro without his champion in America. Still yet to complete his contract at El Florida, he sent Casimiro Aín and several members of his orquestra ahead of him. They embarked just a week after Valentino's passing, on 30 August.
Mlle. Jasmine and Casimiro Aín, shortly after winning the World Championship in Modern Dance at Maringy, France in 1920.
Canaro himself arrived a month later to find a company wracked by division. Aín was aghast to discover that Goetz had lured Maurice Mouvet from retirement to perform the tango alongside Canaro's orchestra, and the two were at one anothers' throats - the culmination of a long-running enmity, no doubt, as both men had claimed to have popularised the tango in Paris and then to have brought it to New York. Though he is remembered to have taught patrons, it is not clear whether El Vasco performed as part of the engagement, as he is not mentioned in advertisements.
The company's stint in New York was seen as a disappointment to all involved. Audience members sat respectfully and listened, but were reluctant to dance. Though he did some further work in America, Canaro ultimately elected to return to Paris. Mouvet also retreated to Europe, where he was shortly to die of tuberculosis. Their collective ambition to spark a new wave of tango fever in North America remained unfulfilled until the 1980s, when the smash Broadway show Forever Tango sent a new generation seeking to learn the 'authentic' Argentinian dance.
Casimiro Aín outlived Rudolph Valentino by only fourteen years. Alongside his new partner (and reputed second wife), the German dancer Edith Peggy, he made his only confirmed film appearance in G.W. Pabst's Berlin-made film Abwege (1928). By now, there remained only the slightest vestige of La Boca in his style, which was self-consciously dramatic and theatrical, an ancestor of the modern day tango fantasia.
The company's stint in New York was seen as a disappointment to all involved. Audience members sat respectfully and listened, but were reluctant to dance. Though he did some further work in America, Canaro ultimately elected to return to Paris. Mouvet also retreated to Europe, where he was shortly to die of tuberculosis. Their collective ambition to spark a new wave of tango fever in North America remained unfulfilled until the 1980s, when the smash Broadway show Forever Tango sent a new generation seeking to learn the 'authentic' Argentinian dance.
Casimiro Aín outlived Rudolph Valentino by only fourteen years. Alongside his new partner (and reputed second wife), the German dancer Edith Peggy, he made his only confirmed film appearance in G.W. Pabst's Berlin-made film Abwege (1928). By now, there remained only the slightest vestige of La Boca in his style, which was self-consciously dramatic and theatrical, an ancestor of the modern day tango fantasia.
Aín is said to have made a permanent return to Buenos Aires in 1930. As the so-called 'Golden Age of Tango' dawned, and the guarda nueva took over from the guarda vieja, El Cachafaz was more famous than ever, but El Vasco seemed left behind - still teaching, still performing, still telling the tales of his adventures, but a figure of the past. It is sadly appropriate that his last major performance was a retrospective of the development of the tango in 1936, part of celebrations for the 400th anniversary of the founding of Buenos Aires. In 1940, he underwent an operation to amputate a leg, dying of complications a few weeks later at the age of 58.
Aside from a few seconds of footage from the Mineralava tour and stills from the lost A Sainted Devil (1924) - his dance in Blood and Sand (1922), sometimes erroneously described as a tango, is actually a paso doblé - 4 Horsemen of the Apocalypse remains our only glimpse of how Rudolph Valentino danced the tango. Is it an authentic 'Argentinian' tango? Almost certainly not, if there even is such a thing. Is it authentic to a talented dancer with a working awareness of both the Parisian and Argentinian styles? Most definitely. I would argue - and I hope I have - that Valentino's tango must be taken more seriously: as an early record of Argentinian tango; as a record of tango in general. To dance 'a la Valentino' should be considered no insult.
On the basis of current evidence, there is something to support the eloquent contention of dance historian Carlos G. Groppa: 'Instead of being a European count, who would dance the tango by ear, the person who taught tango to Valentino could well have been [Casimiro] Aín, who had the tango in his soul.'
The author has been a student of Argentine Tango for over twenty years, studying in New York under the legendary Danel and Maria Bastone (Dance Tango); in Sydney, Australia under Peter Waller and Lisa de Lazzari (Club de Tango), and in Buenos Aires with a range of teachers, of whom her favourites include Corina de la Rosa and the late Julio Balmaceda, Rodrigo Palacios and Agustina Berenstein, Cecilia González, and the late Orlando Paiva. She is a past participant of CITA (Congreso Internacional de Tango Argentino) and the Sydney Tango Salon Festival.
With thanks to Donna L. Hill for reading an early version of this essay, and granting permission for the use of her presentation on the Mineralava Tour.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
ARAQUE, José Manuel - 'Tango in New York 1923-1933', Osvaldo Fresedo - su viva Musica y los tiempos de la Guardia Nueva, 4 July 2021 - https://www.fresedo.de/2021/06/the-tango-scene-in-new-york-1923-1933.html
ARNOLD, Alan - Rudolph Valentino, Library Publishers, USA, 1954
BAIN, Jo - Tango: Creation of a Cultural Icon, Indiana University Press, USA, 2007
BARRIERO, Javier - 'El Vasco Casimir Ain, Campeon Mundial de Bailes Modernos' - Historia y Vida No. 329, 1995 (also available online at https://javierbarreiro.wordpress.com/2012/03/14/el-vasco-ain-campeon-mundial-de-bailes-modernos/)
CHAPMAN, David L. - Jazz Italiano: A History of Italian Syncopated Music 1904-1946, Cambridge Scholars, UK, 2019
COLLIER, Simon & COOPER, Artemis (et al) - Tango! The Dance, The Song, The Story, Thames & Hudson, USA, 1997
GONZALEZ, Mike & YANES, Marianella - Tango: Sex and Rhythm of the City, Reaktion Books, USA, 2013
GROPPA, Carlos S. - The Tango in the United States, McFarland, USA, 2010
LEIDER, Emily - Dark Lover: The Life and Death of Rudolph Valentino, Faber & Faber, USA, 2004
MARIÑO, Cecilia Gill - El Mercado del Deseo: Tango, Cine y Cultura de Masas en la Argentina de los ' 30, Teseo, Argentina, 2015
MOUVET, Maurice - Maurice's Art of Dancing, Merz Press, USA, 1915
OBERFIRST, Robert - Rudolph Valentino: The Man Behind the Myth, Citadel Press, UK, 1962
O'LEARY, Liam - Rex Ingram, Master of Silent Cinema, BFI Publishers, UK, 1993
SWEPSTONE, Eileen - How to Dance The Tango, Hesitation Waltz and Other Popular Dances, J. H. Welch, USA, 1914
THOMPSON, Robert Farris - Tango: The Art History of Love, Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, USA, 2010
ULLMAN, S. George - Valentino As I Knew Him, A. L. Burt Publishing, USA, 1926
VALENTINO, Rudolph - My Private Diary, Occult Publishing Company, USA, 1929
WALKER, Alexander - Rudolph Valentino, Elm Tree Books, UK, 1976
Todotango.com - Various articles.
A version of this article with footnotes is available upon request.
On the basis of current evidence, there is something to support the eloquent contention of dance historian Carlos G. Groppa: 'Instead of being a European count, who would dance the tango by ear, the person who taught tango to Valentino could well have been [Casimiro] Aín, who had the tango in his soul.'
The author has been a student of Argentine Tango for over twenty years, studying in New York under the legendary Danel and Maria Bastone (Dance Tango); in Sydney, Australia under Peter Waller and Lisa de Lazzari (Club de Tango), and in Buenos Aires with a range of teachers, of whom her favourites include Corina de la Rosa and the late Julio Balmaceda, Rodrigo Palacios and Agustina Berenstein, Cecilia González, and the late Orlando Paiva. She is a past participant of CITA (Congreso Internacional de Tango Argentino) and the Sydney Tango Salon Festival.
With thanks to Donna L. Hill for reading an early version of this essay, and granting permission for the use of her presentation on the Mineralava Tour.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
ARAQUE, José Manuel - 'Tango in New York 1923-1933', Osvaldo Fresedo - su viva Musica y los tiempos de la Guardia Nueva, 4 July 2021 - https://www.fresedo.de/2021/06/the-tango-scene-in-new-york-1923-1933.html
ARNOLD, Alan - Rudolph Valentino, Library Publishers, USA, 1954
BAIN, Jo - Tango: Creation of a Cultural Icon, Indiana University Press, USA, 2007
BARRIERO, Javier - 'El Vasco Casimir Ain, Campeon Mundial de Bailes Modernos' - Historia y Vida No. 329, 1995 (also available online at https://javierbarreiro.wordpress.com/2012/03/14/el-vasco-ain-campeon-mundial-de-bailes-modernos/)
CHAPMAN, David L. - Jazz Italiano: A History of Italian Syncopated Music 1904-1946, Cambridge Scholars, UK, 2019
COLLIER, Simon & COOPER, Artemis (et al) - Tango! The Dance, The Song, The Story, Thames & Hudson, USA, 1997
GONZALEZ, Mike & YANES, Marianella - Tango: Sex and Rhythm of the City, Reaktion Books, USA, 2013
GROPPA, Carlos S. - The Tango in the United States, McFarland, USA, 2010
LEIDER, Emily - Dark Lover: The Life and Death of Rudolph Valentino, Faber & Faber, USA, 2004
MARIÑO, Cecilia Gill - El Mercado del Deseo: Tango, Cine y Cultura de Masas en la Argentina de los ' 30, Teseo, Argentina, 2015
MOUVET, Maurice - Maurice's Art of Dancing, Merz Press, USA, 1915
OBERFIRST, Robert - Rudolph Valentino: The Man Behind the Myth, Citadel Press, UK, 1962
O'LEARY, Liam - Rex Ingram, Master of Silent Cinema, BFI Publishers, UK, 1993
SWEPSTONE, Eileen - How to Dance The Tango, Hesitation Waltz and Other Popular Dances, J. H. Welch, USA, 1914
THOMPSON, Robert Farris - Tango: The Art History of Love, Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, USA, 2010
ULLMAN, S. George - Valentino As I Knew Him, A. L. Burt Publishing, USA, 1926
VALENTINO, Rudolph - My Private Diary, Occult Publishing Company, USA, 1929
WALKER, Alexander - Rudolph Valentino, Elm Tree Books, UK, 1976
Todotango.com - Various articles.
A version of this article with footnotes is available upon request.
