The USA movie¨ "The Jazz Singer" starring Al Jolson influenced Carlos Gardel to star in movies. Carl:
music.yahoo.com/ar-315653-bio--Carlos-GardelBiography of Carlos Gardel:
Carlos Gardel was tango's first superstar and still one
of its most enduring performers. Revered as an icon in
Argentina ever since his tragic death in 1935, Gardel --
nicknamed "El Zorzal Criollo" ("The Creole Thrush") --
was the first singer to adopt the tango as a form of
popular song. Previously, it had been entirely
instrumental dance music, looked down upon by the
cultural elite for its common origins and earthy
sensuality. Gardel didn't change those qualities, but
his advocacy certainly popularized the genre beyond all
expectations. Thanks to extensive touring and a budding
movie career, Gardel was able to become a star
throughout Latin America and Western Europe; in fact,
tango's international acceptance legitimized it in the
eyes of Argentine skeptics. Blessed with an expressive,
sobbing baritone, Gardel's flair for mournful heartbreak
ballads helped establish an important part of tango's
emotional language. Moreover, his charismatic personal
style -- sharp clothes, urbane refinement, and a zest
for the finer things in life -- made him a folk hero to
countless fans with origins as humble as his own. His
meteoric rise symbolically paralleled tango's path to
legitimacy and international fame; in Gardel the common
folk of Buenos Aires saw themselves and their culture
validated on a massive scale. The plane crash that
claimed his life at the height of his fame set off shock
waves across the Spanish-speaking world, and even today,
he is treated with near-religious reverence in
Argentina; fans often say that he sings better every
day. Gardel rivals Astor Piazzolla as the most important
single figure in tango history; if Piazzolla was roughly
tango's equivalent of Duke Ellington, then Gardel was
certainly its Frank Sinatra -- a towering giant of a
vocalist, macho yet sensitive, with an unequaled
affinity for the popular song of his homeland.
Gardel was born Charles Romuald Gardйs in Toulouse,
France, on December 11, 1890. His mother, Berthe, was
poor and unmarried, and his father never took any
responsibility for the boy's upbringing. An alternate
version of his story claims that he was born in
Uruguay, but this likely originated from
Gardel himself, who was always vague about his origins;
a French birth certificate has been discovered, and
Gardel seems to have falsified Uruguayan papers to avoid
raising questions about his obligations to the French
military when he re-entered that country on tour. In any
case, Berthe Gardel emigrated to the Argentine capital
of Buenos Aires in 1893. She and her son lived in cheap
tenement housing, and as a youth, Carlos spent much of
his time on the streets and in the nearby Mercado de
Abasto marketplace. He dropped out of school in 1906 and
started to concentrate on singing, with guidance from
folksinger Josй Betinotti. He was soon performing
professionally at cafйs and restaurants around the area,
and also found engagements at parties and political
gatherings. In 1910, he became a regular at the
O'Rondemann cafй, and around the same time he officially
adopted the Spanish name Carlos Gardel. At this point,
his repertoire consisted of folk songs and Creole
milongas…