Monday 16 December 2019

1 9 6 1 Julie London, Eartha Kitt & Caterina Valente

Julie London          June 1960  TV Tupi 
Caterina Valente     April 1961  TV Record 
Eartha Kitt               June 1961 TV Tupi 

Weekly illustrated magazine 'O Cruzeiro' splashes Julie London on its cover on 17 June 1961, feturing a 6-page article about foreign-acts who visited Brazil from 1957 through 1961.
Julie London & Ella Fitzgerald with Leonard Feather, the author of 'The Encyclopedia of Jazz'  in 1960
Charles Aznavour, Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughn, Nat King Cole, Louis Armstrong & Sammy Davis Jr. were probably the best acts to visit Brazil from 1957 through to 1961.
'O Cruzeiro', 17 June 1961.

GAC (General Artists Corporation) and National Artists were two big agencies located in New York City where South American managers & impresarios would go and tried and sign International acts to tour Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, Peru and other countries. 

Some US acts like Elvis Presley and Frank Sinatra were 'untouchables' (or unreachable) for Latin American agents. Their price was too steep for Latin dollars. Elvis would never cross the Rio Grande border except to star in 'Fun in Acapulco' a Paramount movie shot in mid-1963 and released on 27 November 1963, where he surrounds himself with Mariachi bands and sings 'Bossa Nova baby'.

The Beatles visited Germany, Italy, Australia and New Zealand, Japan and even the Philippines where they got into trouble with Mrs Marcos but they never crossed south of the Rio Grande either.  


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