I Sold My Cadillac to Diana Dors: the Edmundo Ros Story


I Sold My Cadillac to Diana Dors: the Edmundo Ros Story

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Transcript


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So...I can honestly say that from, let's say, 1953, '54, to 1995

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I did not give a single moment's thought to Edmundo Ros.

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'Like the rest of the world, nobody knew that Edmundo Ros still existed.'

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< Oh, hello!

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-It's Edmundo Ros!

-Hello, my dear.

-Hello, how are you?

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-Nice to see you.

-Nice to see YOU! I used to listen you on the radio.

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-Nice to see that you're still alive!

-Thank you very much.

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-Most people thing I am dead.

-It must be dreadful.

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-Thank you so much.

-Thank you.

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Nice. Nice old girl.

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But we have many like that. I still love them.

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But I tell them not to stop listening. Keep dancing.

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The legendary Latin bandleader Edmundo Ros

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is alive and well, living in retirement in Spain.

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Housewives' heart-throb,

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darling of the dancefloor, high society, the Decca record company and the BBC,

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Ros awakened post-war Britain to his unique samba beat.

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In the summer of 1995,

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Edmundo found himself being awarded the fellowship of the Royal Academy of Music,

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where he had been a student.

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Edmundo didn't receive the only fellowship that day.

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Next to him on the platform was the composer Michael Nyman.

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I was so shocked to be sitting next to him.

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I hadn't really thought about his music since I watched it on black and white TV in 1951, '52.

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In the first place, everyone was surprised he was still alive.

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He's 90 this year and still going strong.

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And equally surprised that he is an ex-Academy student.

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It was a very big day for me. I'll never forget that.

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And of course, what we had in common, as we discovered,

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was not merely the fact of being students of the Royal Academy,

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but we were both bandleaders. We had to deal with musicians.

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MUSIC CONTINUES OVER SPEECH

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'And we became good friends and this friendship lead to my pitching up at his house in Spain.

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'And this documentary is the result of our many and various conversations.'

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His is an amazing story, a story that our parents participated in

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and that I participated in as a kid.

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My mum would have thought working on a documentary with Edmundo

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was possibly the best thing I would have done as a musician!

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And it's the one thing that - as she would have said - she would have given her eye teeth to be part of.

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So...

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When I first started watching TV,

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the image that I have coming out of my television set

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is the image of you starting some event with your back to the camera,

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turning round, shaking your maracas, big smile on your face.

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APPLAUSE

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Thank you, and welcome to our show.

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We are having a lot of fun and we sincerely hope you are going to enjoy yourself too.

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SLOW LATIN PIECE PLAYS

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Edmundo Ros was born on the Caribbean island of Trinidad in 1910.

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The family moved to nearby Venezuela in 1924.

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From 14, I remembered myself in the Spanish speaking world,

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and Venezuela was that.

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And I stayed there until I was 27.

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Edmundo's father was a Scottish telephone engineer. His mother was from Trinidad.

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My father played in the village band.

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So I always liked music from the start.

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I used to play on the dustbins the rhythms of the drums.

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So I had a taste for music, but wasn't exposed to it

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until I was thrown into my military service.

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My parents thought I was going down the drain

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and decided I should have some discipline taught to me.

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Edmundo soon found himself playing in the military band.

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The band didn't play Latin American music.

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They played overtures and serenatas.

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All kinds of wonderful events, you'd be asked to play at -

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concerts, birthdays of the local governor and the president.

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When he left the army, Edmundo raised his musical status

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by becoming a timpanist in the Venezuela Symphony Orchestra.

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I wanted to be a conductor and to conduct an orchestra playing classical music.

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Here is a picture of the Venezuela Symphony Orchestra.

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I suppose you can see me somewhere here.

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And these are some of our programmes.

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Why did you want to be a conductor?

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I suppose it was because I was ambitious, aiming high.

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But the stage there was not, at that time, big enough for me, I thought.

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I decided I would come to England.

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Inspired to study at the Royal Academy by his army band master,

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Edmundo set sail in May 1937. During the voyage, he received his first lesson in British etiquette.

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I was travelling second class.

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There was an English lady travelling first class

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who was allowed to take her constitutionals on both the decks.

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I got talking to her and she gave me a bit of advice.

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"In England, young man, vulgarity is despised."

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She said to me that,

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"You will find out that coloured people are considered inferior."

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And the moment I arrived in England, I discovered this lady was right.

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I wanted to be considered equal.

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In order to do that, you had to be able

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to command the respect of the person giving you it.

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I tried to learn how to do that

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and I think I did it.

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His plan to become an orchestral conductor was thrown off course on his first night in London.

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A woman he met in a dance invited him to a nightclub called The Nest.

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We are now entering the street, number 23. Not as it used to be.

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It used to be THE nightclub of that particular time.

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And this is where I appeared the very first night I landed in this country.

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The very first night.

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The fourth of June 1937.

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I was brought to this place,

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and there I met one of my colleagues to come - Barretto.

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Barretto started the first Latin American orchestra

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or rumba orchestra at that time.

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We played, Barretto and myself, I on drums and he on piano,

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and we all sang the Latin American songs. It went on all night.

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It was a fabulous place.

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But it was considered a place where people went slumming

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after coming from the nicer places in Mayfair.

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Over the next few years, Edmundo became Barretto's indispensable partner in the band.

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His talents did not go unnoticed.

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The jazz pianist Fats Waller chose him as drummer on his visits to London.

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Since arriving in England, Edmundo had been torn between the discipline of classical music

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and the fun of playing in Barretto's Latin band.

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You came to the Academy to be a classical musician and conductor,

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and then suddenly you weren't playing Mozart.

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You might say that I was leading a double life.

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In the day, I was studying one thing and at the night, doing another.

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I was on a losing wicket.

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Look at me and try and think of a classical conductor.

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A - I didn't have a fancy name.

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B - I didn't have a funny moustache.

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C - Didn't come from Vienna or Prague or one of these places.

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-Looking like me.

-Didn't have a white skin.

-Exactly. Get it?

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Have you seen one? I haven't.

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I had been in England two years and the war started.

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I hate to say it but I had a damned good time during the war.

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But Edmundo's collaboration with Don Marino Barretto was not to last.

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They fell out because Edmundo felt that his talents were not sufficiently recognised.

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For a while, Ros drove ambulances. But the pull of music was too much.

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In August 1940, he formed Edmundo Ros And His Rumba Band.

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It was an overnight success in the wartime West End.

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Edmundo's first record with Parlophone was an instant hit.

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RUMBA TUNE PLAYS

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SIREN WAILS

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NEWSREEL: The nightly siege of London has begun.

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We were offered an engagement at the St Regis Hotel.

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In that hotel, we had a direct hit.

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The tune we were playing was called Taboo.

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And I've always associated that with the direct hit.

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Happily for all concerned, it did not explode - the bomb.

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But everybody ran out of the hotel

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and we then ran into the nearest air-raid shelter

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which was the club the Coconut Grove.

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The club was one of the most fashionable night spots in London,

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the venue that would put Edmundo into the limelight.

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Once again, it was a chance encounter with a young woman that helped him get what he wanted.

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While standing there, a young lady came up to me and said,

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"Why don't we have a smile on that face of yours?"

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And this lady turned out to be the owner of the Coconut Grove.

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Her name was Diana Ward.

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And I told her I would do anything on Earth to have somewhere to play.

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Diana Ward then made Edmundo an offer he couldn't refuse.

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If he'd play for less than she paid her band, he could take their place.

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So we started at the Coconut Grove and went from strength to strength.

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It was while he was playing at the Coconut Grove

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that Diana Ward introduced him to Cecil Madden,

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a powerful impresario from the BBC.

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This meeting was to change the course of Edmundo's life.

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Mr Madden was the first producer of television in England,

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which started in 1936.

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During the war, when it stopped, he took over the Overseas Service

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which was called London Calling.

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­ Ulrich is a navigator in a bomber.

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'It was a recruiting effort.'

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HE SPEAKS IN SPANISH

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'The BBC Overseas studios, which operated at night,

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'were in the Criterion Theatre in Piccadilly.'

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Every time an artist couldn't come here because of incendiary bombs,

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we took the place of that artist.

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At the drop of a hat, or the drop of a telephone call,

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we would run down from there, six of us, and run right into the studio there.

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That is where we started broadcasting to Latin America on behalf of the BBC.

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The programme was called London Calling.

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Edmundo's broadcasts for the BBC Overseas Service

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marked the beginning of his long association with Cecil Madden.

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Quite soon, Edmundo had become a regular fixture on BBC radio.

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The BBC in a way created an audience in the '30s and '40s for dance music.

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Night after night, there would be Jack Payne, Joe Loss, whatever.

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So in a way, your music gained from the fact that

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there was a deliberate policy within the BBC to make a social engineering

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that it was good to sit around the radio and be entertained by dance music.

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That is why I regard myself a product of the BBC.

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By the end of the war, Edmundo's career had really begun to take off.

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With radio broadcasts, booming record sales,

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club appearances and a stint at the London Palladium,

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he found himself well on the way to celebrity status.

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I started becoming Edmundo Ros in 1946.

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Before that, I was just a little rumba band leader.

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But gradually, I became Edmundo Ros from the Bagatelle.

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The Bagatelle restaurant was more prestigious than the Coconut Grove.

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It was situated in central Mayfair, rather than on the edges of disreputable Soho

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and it boasted the high-class clientele that Edmundo thought he was cut out for.

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And this was our entrance.

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-That used to be the Bagatelle.

-Really?

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Yes. We had the best people on the face of the Earth then here,

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starting with our present Queen.

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She danced here for the first, first time in her life in public.

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Very nice. I wish I could have invited you to come but too late!

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The future Queen, however, very nearly didn't show up.

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Edmundo had been caught out in an adulterous affair with the wife of a diplomat.

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I got involved in a society scandal

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that did me no harm at all!

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In fact, I came out as being a "good sort", you know,

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and "inside the pale" - that sort of nice remarks that you chaps use.

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I was involved in divorce proceedings with a society lady.

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Her husband found her with somebody else

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but unfortunately he had heard of her being friendly with me before.

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He did not only sue this particular gentleman, but also your humble servant.

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Although I was not culprit number one, I was fined £1,000,

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which was an awful lot of money.

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After this, people came to the Bagatelle and I used to see them pointing at me.

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And then one night, a lady said to me, "Are you the fellow who was mixed up in this case?"

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I said, "Yes, madame."

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"Did you no harm at all, did it?"

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I said, "Not at all because you know why?

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"I feel that if ever you are going to be run over by a motor car,

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"let it be a Rolls Royce."

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And she thought that was very clever. So did I, at the time!

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That started me off by being a gentleman.

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That's what people used to call me - a gentleman.

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You stop being a bandleader and you become a personality,

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a gentleman. That's the greatest satisfaction you can get in England.

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At the end of this case, which lasted 11 days,

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the Palace booked a table

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for Princess Elizabeth.

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And the people at the Bagatelle were very concerned that the mother

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would allow her daughter

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to come into a room with this dreadful, gravel-voiced man.

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And, of course, the Bagatelle tried to get rid of me before she came.

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Yes?

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Having booked the table,

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had she not come for any reason or other, Edmundo Ros would have died a natural death.

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But she came, danced and actually spoke to me,

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and with all these hundreds of people watching.

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And from there on, Edmundo was a personal friend of the Queen.

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Edmundo's charmed seduction of the establishment continued

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when, in 1948, he met his future wife Britt.

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This wife came to me

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at the right time in my life.

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This girl was a Swedish aristocrat.

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And when she chose to marry me,

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she brought me up,

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not only in Scandinavia,

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but everywhere...in the world.

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She was...a very good business deal.

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-MUSIC PLAYS

-This is the Wedding Samba!

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As Edmundo was becoming more and more acceptable to high society,

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he was also developing a huge popular audience.

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# In the land of the Rio Grande

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# When people get married, they always have a dance... #

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'The Wedding Samba became one of my best sellers ever.'

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# Ole, ole... #

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In 1949, the Wedding Samba sold three million copies worldwide

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and it got people dancing.

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# And when they play the Wedding Samba... #

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'The samba creates a rhythm and a movement

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'that British people appreciate.

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'The essence of it is to abandon yourself, so to speak.'

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# Everyone knows in fiesta time... #

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British chaps, ladies and gentlemen,

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were shy to do anything that could cause them to be in ridicule.

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Music is sex from the start, however you play it.

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But the average person who doesn't want to make a fool of themselves

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is cautious about how it's done.

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Edmundo used to invite the audience on the floor and say,

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"Don't be shy," because he could pull people on the floor.

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And he did it and they danced!

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A string of record hits now enabled Edmundo to fulfil his dream of buying a club.

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In 1951, he made a triumphant return to the Coconut Grove, but this time he was the owner.

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We are now at Mitre House, 177 Regent Street,

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which used to be MY club.

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I owned this place for years and years and years.

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We had a porter all dressed up in green and... Oh, yes.

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And the moment you got here, you could hear the music.

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Edmundo called his new venture the Edmundo Ros Supper Club.

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It was a high-class establishment

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that sophisticated people could drop into after a show.

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My club was an unusual sort of place

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because normally, naturally,

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nightclubs are referred to in your dictionaries

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as dens of iniquity.

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Like running a brothel, if you get what I mean.

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That is what nightclubs used to be for.

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I didn't do that. It was absolutely the reverse.

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I didn't let people in unless they were properly dressed.

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If anyone breached the canon of decent behaviour, old boy,

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whether it was dress code or whatever,

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he was absolutely horrified.

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He wanted people to come and enjoy themselves. When Edmundo came on,

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dressed to the hilt, with the band,

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everyone was anticipating this wonderful personality and music,

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and everyone started to dance.

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I considered myself as an orchestra leader, owner and conductor,

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who had a nightclub in which it played.

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# ..Have a go, don't be slow... #

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Any orchestra has to have somebody in front of it.

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They loved him because he was unique.

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There wasn't another man with that kind of presence.

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'Remember, he was six foot three.'

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# The Mayfair Mambo

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# Tally-ho, tally-ho, tally-ho... #

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He was a disciplinarian. You couldn't get away with anything.

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If I said the show starts at four o'clock, it starts at four, because I am there.

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He had eyes in the back of his head. While he was on the bandstand,

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he used to watch the waiter that didn't serve properly,

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and if the serviette wasn't properly on the table, it was noticed.

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Quite often, he'd be singing a song with the band

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and he'd stop singing in the middle of it and just point.

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Just like that. And all the staff would run where he was pointing. They didn't know what for.

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That's cos he was always watching his clientele.

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Whenever he saw anybody who needed attention or service, they just went to where he was pointing.

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He would also be extremely strict about who came to his club.

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I did my best to divide the right people from the not-so-right people -

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what you might refer to as the "cor blimeys".

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They were paying for these people over here,

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who often had things complimentary, because they were there.

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The records were available to anybody. The popular tunes made them popular with the "cor blimeys".

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It's an awful word. The "cor blimeys" paid the money for the records more than the royals did.

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Society didn't buy my records. They danced to the tunes, and I made them presents of my records.

0:25:370:25:44

But the people who kept me in bread and butter were the people who I didn't want to go to bed with.

0:25:440:25:52

But you have to accept it.

0:25:520:25:54

MAN: Ouch!

0:25:540:25:57

It was these people who fuelled the passion for ballroom dancing

0:25:570:26:02

that swept Britain in the 1950s.

0:26:020:26:05

ARCHIVE: It takes all sorts to fill a dance hall. You can take the dance floor with the weekly half million.

0:26:050:26:12

The mass popularity of ballroom dancing helped sell records.

0:26:120:26:17

Records became important because you couldn't go to a ballroom every five minutes

0:26:170:26:24

to find what you wanted to dance to.

0:26:240:26:26

Nor could you afford to go to Edmundo Ros' club every night. That was a Saturday night special.

0:26:260:26:33

ARCHIVE: Do-it-yourself has spread to teaching dancing.

0:26:330:26:37

All ready? With gramophone records by Victor Silvester.

0:26:370:26:42

-GRAMOPHONE:

-'Ready? Now. Back, back...'

0:26:420:26:46

The king of ballroom dancing was without a doubt Victor Silvester.

0:26:460:26:51

30 years ago, people would go to a ballroom and dance more or less what they liked.

0:26:510:26:58

Edmundo followed the sort of things that he did, and became friendly with him.

0:26:580:27:04

When it came to ordinary dance music for ballrooms, Victor was the king.

0:27:040:27:10

When it came to adding a little Latin rhythm, they'd invite Edmundo.

0:27:100:27:16

The great piece of advice which Victor Silvester gave to me,

0:27:160:27:21

is, let them hear the melody, let them hear the melody.

0:27:210:27:26

The rhythm is fine, but our people want to hear the melody.

0:27:260:27:30

I always thanked him for that.

0:27:300:27:34

Colonel Bogey, you see. Colonel Bogey fitted beautifully as a samba,

0:27:340:27:40

but it also fitted beautifully as another Latin American rhythm called the merengue.

0:27:400:27:47

That also fitted beautifully as a merengue - Colonel Bogey.

0:27:470:27:53

HE HUMS A MERENGUE RHYTHM

0:27:550:27:59

HE HUMS: "Colonel Bogey"

0:27:590:28:02

It fits. The background rhythm was the rhythm of the merengue.

0:28:020:28:07

Until the early '50s, most people only knew Edmundo Ros by the distinctive sound of his music.

0:28:080:28:16

But in 1953, the BBC started televising live shows from his club, and he gained a face.

0:28:160:28:22

Overnight, he became a national personality.

0:28:220:28:26

Records brought me into your home, but television let you see me.

0:28:260:28:31

You either turned it off or put it on brighter.

0:28:310:28:35

I didn't think much of it at the time.

0:28:350:28:38

But I grew to appreciate that it was the number one thing.

0:28:380:28:43

You are looking at a film entitled Television Tea Party.

0:28:450:28:50

This is a tea party that was given to mark the change of location

0:28:500:28:56

of British television

0:28:560:28:58

from Alexandra Palace to Lime Grove, or White City.

0:28:580:29:04

I am pleased to tell you that I was nominated the host of this party.

0:29:040:29:10

They invited 800 guests.

0:29:130:29:17

Everybody in the entertainment industry of any importance was there.

0:29:170:29:23

Mr Madden was in charge of the whole thing.

0:29:230:29:27

ARCHIVE: 'Cecil Madden greets the Beverly Sisters affectionately.

0:29:270:29:32

'Cecil Madden discovered them.'

0:29:320:29:35

Most of the artists you'd see performing at this were discovered by Cecil Madden.

0:29:350:29:41

The Beverly Sisters.

0:29:410:29:44

# I feel ever so

0:29:440:29:48

# Blue. #

0:29:480:29:52

'Cecil Madden gave me every possible help

0:29:520:29:57

'and virtually made Edmundo Ross.'

0:29:570:30:00

Darlings, I should say - all three of you.

0:30:000:30:04

WIRELESS: 'The time is nine o'clock. Time for Housewives' Choice.'

0:30:040:30:09

THEME MUSIC

0:30:090:30:12

At one time, I was a permanent presenter of a BBC programme called Housewives' Choice.

0:30:160:30:23

I used to spend nights on end

0:30:230:30:25

going straight from the club into the BBC studio,

0:30:250:30:30

sleeping there until Housewives' Choice to play these programmes

0:30:300:30:34

to people all over the country asking for songs and records,

0:30:340:30:40

and having their name mentioned by me.

0:30:400:30:43

Occasionally, they'd ask for one of mine, which pleased me.

0:30:430:30:48

In order to convey what I wanted to say to people, say, in Scunthorpe,

0:30:480:30:52

or Worcester, I had to learn how to say it properly.

0:30:520:30:57

You sought out an individual.

0:30:570:31:01

When I spoke to the microphone, it was to a nice-looking girl.

0:31:010:31:07

The more you looked at the microphone, the more you saw her.

0:31:070:31:11

You spoke to her as nicely as possible, in order to impress her.

0:31:110:31:16

That's how I did Housewives' Choice,

0:31:160:31:19

particularly as I knew that every request came from a female.

0:31:190:31:23

Now, Mrs Jones, who lives at number 14 Ebury Street in "Scumpton-on-Sea",

0:31:230:31:30

this is for you.

0:31:300:31:33

Edmundo's celebrity had brought him an affluent lifestyle, and he was proud of it.

0:31:330:31:39

# I cannot complain

0:31:390:31:41

# Of the time that I have spent

0:31:410:31:43

# Because my life in London is really magnificent

0:31:430:31:46

# I have every comfort and every thrill

0:31:460:31:48

# And I have a hell of a big house up in Mill Hill

0:31:480:31:51

# This is the place for me. #

0:31:510:31:54

EDMUNDO LAUGHS

0:31:540:31:57

In 1955, Edmundo and his wife commissioned an architect to design them a luxurious house

0:31:570:32:04

on an empty site in north London.

0:32:040:32:07

We had 19 rooms. We had a television room, a little office,

0:32:070:32:11

a sitting room, dining room, rooms for the children, guest rooms,

0:32:110:32:17

and also rooms for the staff.

0:32:170:32:20

In those days, I could afford staff. I had living-in staff.

0:32:200:32:24

I had a char woman and I had a driver.

0:32:240:32:29

I had all the best of everything.

0:32:290:32:33

I had the best clothes, the best food. I had everything.

0:32:350:32:39

I had a Cadillac and I had a number, my own -

0:32:390:32:44

EWR1.

0:32:440:32:47

I was very proud of it. A big Cadillac El Dorado.

0:32:470:32:52

Every time I stopped next to a bus at the red light,

0:32:520:32:56

the driver would say, "Hello, Curly, what the hell have you got there?"

0:32:560:33:02

That was enough. I thought, if they don't like it, I'll get rid of it.

0:33:020:33:07

I got rid of it.

0:33:070:33:09

I sold it to Diana Dors.

0:33:090:33:12

With class,

0:33:120:33:14

you can command respect.

0:33:140:33:18

With colour, you have no choice.

0:33:180:33:21

The colour, you have that whether you like it or not,

0:33:210:33:25

which I am pleased to be.

0:33:250:33:28

I am pleased to be, but I wish I had had the other birth arrangement, you know.

0:33:280:33:35

I'm not black, if you know what I mean. But I'm not white.

0:33:350:33:39

I can see them thinking, "Who does he think he is?"

0:33:390:33:43

But the advantage is that most of them never said it.

0:33:430:33:48

-ARCHIVE:

-'The clouds disappeared.

0:33:510:33:55

'We'd arrived.

0:33:550:33:57

'Monaco - minks, diamonds, Cadillacs.

0:33:570:34:01

'The millionaires' playground - Monte Carlo.

0:34:010:34:04

'This is a gala night. This was the atmosphere every evening.'

0:34:040:34:09

We played there every summer for nine consecutive summers -

0:34:090:34:15

the sporting club in Monte Carlo.

0:34:150:34:17

That man you see standing next to me is Mr Onassis.

0:34:170:34:21

That party was a party at which I was made to feel more uncomfortable than at any other time in my life.

0:34:210:34:29

Onassis is a Greek. His wife is a Greek.

0:34:290:34:33

A Greek composer wrote a song for her,

0:34:330:34:39

about her.

0:34:390:34:41

Onassis sent this song to me

0:34:410:34:44

and asked me to arrange it, record it,

0:34:440:34:48

and present it to her from him.

0:34:480:34:51

-ARCHIVE:

-'The day after I arrived, I had a special job to do.

0:34:510:34:55

'We hired a speedboat to take us to the Onassis yacht.

0:34:550:35:00

'Hold on tight!

0:35:000:35:03

'The captain welcomed us aboard and showed us the way forward...'

0:35:030:35:08

The captain tells me,

0:35:080:35:10

"Mr Onassis asked me to extend to you his most humble apologies and regrets he had to dash off,

0:35:100:35:17

"to a business meeting, and he's not here to receive you."

0:35:170:35:22

There were certain people he admired. Onassis being up there,

0:35:220:35:29

and Edmundo being on his motor boat,

0:35:290:35:33

visiting the Onassis yacht, I don't think he'd have been prepared for what is rank bad behaviour.

0:35:330:35:40

We went to the club that night with the record.

0:35:400:35:44

He came over to the bandstand and said, "Have you got it?"

0:35:440:35:48

I said, "Yes, sir." "Well, bring it to the table."

0:35:480:35:52

He was a rough fellow. "Bring it to the table."

0:35:520:35:55

When I came off, I took it to the table.

0:35:550:35:59

"This is the record for your wife." "Give it to her. There she is."

0:35:590:36:04

So I took it to the wife.

0:36:040:36:07

While she was about to accept it, he stood behind me and shouted,

0:36:070:36:13

"Go on! Get up and kiss him! You know you've always wanted to!"

0:36:130:36:18

I nearly died, honestly.

0:36:180:36:21

But I handed her the record, bowed in the usual way,

0:36:210:36:26

and came away feeling most uncomfortable, I might tell you.

0:36:260:36:31

By the late 1950s, the years of relentless and single-minded hard work

0:36:340:36:39

were putting Edmundo's marriage under severe strain.

0:36:390:36:44

I had to give all my time and attention to my work,

0:36:460:36:51

which didn't stop only with the orchestra.

0:36:510:36:55

It went on with the records and broadcasts

0:36:550:36:59

and the club, of course, took the night time.

0:36:590:37:04

# Play, play, play... #

0:37:040:37:05

My wife took umbrage

0:37:050:37:10

at the fact that I loved my orchestra, loved my work.

0:37:100:37:14

# By relaxing anywhere

0:37:140:37:17

# Outdoors, in the open air

0:37:170:37:18

# You'll find again that two can share

0:37:180:37:20

# And play, play, play... #

0:37:200:37:22

I introduced her to someone who came to the club.

0:37:220:37:25

# Guaranteed to make you need a doctor every day

0:37:250:37:29

# Don't be that way... #

0:37:290:37:32

He was a very good dancer. She was a very good dancer.

0:37:320:37:37

It became quite a thing at the club for people to see them dancing.

0:37:370:37:41

One morning, quite casually, at breakfast,

0:37:410:37:45

she said to me, just as I'm talking to you,

0:37:450:37:49

"I would like you to know that one of your friends

0:37:490:37:53

"has asked me to marry him."

0:37:530:37:57

I said, "Really?" I said, "Give me one guess and I will tell you who it is.

0:37:570:38:03

I told her who it was. She was pleased I'd recognised the fact that it was happening.

0:38:030:38:10

I put it down to the fact that he danced her out of my life.

0:38:100:38:15

I was hurt because I felt that if anybody was going to leave anybody,

0:38:150:38:21

I should have left her,

0:38:210:38:24

not her me.

0:38:240:38:26

Terrible. And coupled with the fact that while this was going on

0:38:270:38:33

I was doing broadcasts,

0:38:330:38:37

having to sing these silly love songs.

0:38:370:38:41

Get it?

0:38:410:38:43

Fancy trying to sing a song like Come Closer To Me when your wife has left you. Not funny!

0:38:430:38:49

# Will you sit, sit upon my knee?

0:38:490:38:52

# Si, senor, si, senor

0:38:520:38:54

# Give a little kiss to me?

0:38:540:38:56

# No, senor, no, senor

0:38:560:38:58

# For I never kiss a man

0:38:580:39:00

# Till my mother says I can

0:39:010:39:04

-# May I hold, hold you very tight?

-Si, senor, si, senor... #

0:39:050:39:09

I accepted it.

0:39:090:39:12

I accepted it for three years before everything else happened.

0:39:120:39:17

She left me in '63,

0:39:170:39:21

and I did not meet Susan until '66 - three years later.

0:39:210:39:26

Mind you, I had fun between those.

0:39:260:39:29

I enjoyed myself like mad. I did everything.

0:39:290:39:33

# Just what my momma told me of... #

0:39:330:39:36

When the 55-year-old Edmundo first met his 21-year-old wife to be, Susan, in the mid-sixties,

0:39:360:39:44

she didn't know who he was - she was part of the Beatles generation.

0:39:440:39:48

# Si, si, senor. #

0:39:480:39:51

Just as in the 1950s Decca had encouraged Edmundo to Latinise music familiar to his audience,

0:39:510:39:58

they pressed him to give the Ros treatment to pop music.

0:39:580:40:04

Here we have New Sounds On Broadway.

0:40:040:40:08

These are all Broadway melodies from Broadway shows.

0:40:080:40:14

This sold very well indeed in the United States.

0:40:140:40:18

Beatles songs. Hey Jude - that's another one that I did very well indeed.

0:40:180:40:25

I realised there'd be some lucre, so I did it.

0:40:250:40:30

I survived because I made myself adaptable to all the changes that came and went.

0:40:300:40:37

Decca knew they had a milch cow on their hands.

0:40:390:40:43

They realised here was a man who could make massive amounts of money,

0:40:430:40:48

for himself and the record company.

0:40:480:40:51

Instead of giving him his freedom, they restricted his freedom.

0:40:510:40:57

I was told what to do, so I had to do it. I didn't enjoy everything.

0:40:570:41:02

Some of my records I don't like at all because the words are babble.

0:41:020:41:08

But it suited the market. As they sold, they asked me to do more.

0:41:080:41:13

One of the craziest albums we did was Japanese military marches.

0:41:130:41:19

We did it because the Japanese public

0:41:190:41:24

liked the Edmundo Ros Orchestra.

0:41:240:41:27

He went to Japan seven times on tour.

0:41:270:41:31

He had tremendous success, huge concerts -

0:41:310:41:35

so packed that they couldn't get people in.

0:41:350:41:38

INSTRUMENTAL: SWINGING JAPANESE MILITARY MARCH

0:41:380:41:43

The welcome was tremendous. It was another world.

0:41:520:42:00

I filmed the whole thing, cos I thought we'd never go back.

0:42:000:42:05

One town every day, until the day we left.

0:42:050:42:09

We did that for seven years.

0:42:090:42:12

Ironically, the very success of these tours incubated a problem.

0:42:120:42:18

By the time we finished the last tour,

0:42:180:42:21

my conditions were that good

0:42:210:42:24

that we did not travel on our rest day.

0:42:240:42:29

Our promoter wanted us to go back to play again on that day.

0:42:300:42:36

He suggested that I offered my musicians more money, and they'd go.

0:42:360:42:41

I thought, no. Didn't go.

0:42:430:42:45

Wouldn't go. No, sir!

0:42:450:42:48

I wouldn't break my contract. We were all tired, on our way home.

0:42:480:42:54

But Edmundo's promoter was negotiating with someone else in the band.

0:42:540:43:00

Unfortunately for me, he spoke to the musicians

0:43:000:43:06

through our steward.

0:43:060:43:08

They all agreed to go for additional money.

0:43:080:43:13

When he realises this monster he's created is turning against him,

0:43:130:43:18

in the form of Musicians' Union stewards

0:43:180:43:22

and musicians not wanting to avail themselves

0:43:220:43:29

of the very protections,

0:43:290:43:32

in terms of rest and travel days,

0:43:320:43:34

that Edmundo had got for them,

0:43:340:43:37

characteristically for Edmundo, he said, "That's it."

0:43:370:43:42

The moment my musicians told me that that was the condition,

0:43:420:43:47

I said that is the end of the Edmundo Ros Orchestra.

0:43:470:43:52

Finished.

0:43:520:43:54

When we got back to London, we did a concert at Fairfields Hall.

0:43:550:44:00

I got Susan to ring all the people that I wanted to come to my final concert.

0:44:000:44:06

I should be very sad, but I'm not.

0:44:060:44:09

Two, three, four...

0:44:090:44:11

Fairfields Hall was packed,

0:44:160:44:19

with people almost in tears.

0:44:190:44:21

I made it clear at the concert to the orchestra

0:44:220:44:28

that they and their wives would be invited to join me for dinner.

0:44:280:44:32

Although I realised that they suspected something,

0:44:360:44:41

they did not know what was really going to happen.

0:44:410:44:45

I explained it to them in my speech of thanks.

0:44:450:44:49

I should change that song's name to "No, Senor".

0:44:490:44:53

If something disturbs you, get rid of it. Bang!

0:44:530:44:58

That was the end of the Edmundo Ros Orchestra,

0:44:580:45:02

after 35 years in existence.

0:45:020:45:06

# Goodbye

0:45:060:45:07

# Companeros, senoritas, caballeros

0:45:070:45:10

# Maybe sometime I'll come for a holiday... #

0:45:100:45:14

Then comes the music. What should we do with the music?

0:45:140:45:18

# To your beautiful land of sunshine... #

0:45:180:45:21

I decided to have it shredded.

0:45:210:45:24

Everything I did smelt of me. If you borrowed it, it wouldn't work.

0:45:240:45:29

It was a "dog in the manger" thing. I don't need it but you can't have it.

0:45:290:45:35

They were all shredded. All I could see was the bill.

0:45:350:45:40

I'll never forget it - £747 to shred my music.

0:45:400:45:45

OK, from the top. Three, four...

0:45:460:45:51

BRASS INTRO

0:45:510:45:54

Two years ago, I took him back in the studio, at the request of the Japanese company, to make an album

0:46:000:46:07

of the recordings that were most popular in Japan.

0:46:070:46:11

I said, "They want these tunes. He said, "I don't have the arrangements."

0:46:110:46:16

I said, "We'll lift them from the records and pay a fortune to have them redone."

0:46:160:46:22

He said, "I shouldn't have destroyed the library."

0:46:220:46:26

OK?

0:46:260:46:28

'There's still a market for Edmundo's music.

0:46:280:46:32

'Two or three years ago, he was conducting these session musicians.

0:46:320:46:37

'They played with utmost passion and utmost respect.'

0:46:370:46:44

He hasn't lost his vision, his sound.

0:46:450:46:48

He hasn't lost his control, and he hasn't lost his discipline.

0:46:480:46:54

OK?

0:46:540:46:56

Brazil, from the top. Three, four, and one...

0:46:560:47:00

BRASS INTRO

0:47:000:47:03

And he hasn't lost his love and passion for that music

0:47:130:47:17

that he, regretfully, now, I think, realises he shouldn't have given up

0:47:170:47:22

when he 65 in 1975.

0:47:220:47:26

EDMUNDO SINGS ALONG

0:47:260:47:29

Two or three weeks after his 90th birthday, at the end of 2000,

0:47:390:47:44

he will be introducing on Radio 2 a programme on Latin American music.

0:47:440:47:49

He's the oldest DJ in the business.

0:47:490:47:52

I mean, that's quite remarkable.

0:47:520:47:55

HE SINGS ALONG TO "Brazil"

0:48:000:48:03

For the last 25 years, Edmundo Ros has been living with his second wife, Susan, in Spain.

0:48:320:48:39

Their house is called El Escondite De Eros - The Refuge Of Love.

0:48:390:48:45

But also, of course, The Refuge Of E Ros.

0:48:450:48:49

E-mail [email protected]

0:49:110:49:15

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