Artist: Eduardo DavidsonLP: Le Chien—El Perro/The Dog
I have Sñr. Mexicant and his terrific [Mexicovers] blog to thank for turning me onto this incredible and unusual record. My only complaint is that a mental image of Olympia Dukakis pops into my head whenever I look at the LP. I did a quick Google search this morning to see if I could figure out why this was happening... and the mystery was solved:
I wasn't able to find any info on Eduardo Davidson (his place of birth, his discography, his makeup artist) during my brief morning web search, so if somebody out there can fill me in, it would be much appreciated. "Le Chien" is from 1968 though, so I'm assuming Mr. Davidson is probably related to "The Man From U.N.C.L.E." and that all information about him is highly classified.
6 comments:
In that last picture he looks like Clay Aiken.
Eduardo Davidson is Cuban. In the sixties, while living in exile, he became a popular and much talked about phenomenon. People where astonished by his daring and open gayness at a time when everyone was much more discreet.
Interesting—thanks Ray!
Okay, I've been doing searches on Eduardo Davidson and I'm piecing the puzzle together. According to information that I unearthed, unfortunately the extraordinary Eduardo Davidson died in 1994. He was born in 1929, so that would have made him 65 upon his death. Anyway, back in 1968 [which seems to have been his definitive year], he made a Mexican comedy, called, Soñar no cuesta nada "joven," and as expected, he played the role of a flamboyant gay. I'm copying and pasting some info from the link below as well as the URL, since there's a picture of Davidson in a scene of the movie in the link as well as some additional information:
"Speaking of the cast, in addition to the aforementioned Áviles Herrera, the film features various musical performers (Ray, Cruz, Joseíto Mateo--in a completely extraneous song number--and Carmen Iraida) as well as the eccentric Eduardo Davidson. Davidson (real name, Claudio Cuza) was born in Cuba in 1929. After working as a radionovela writer for some time, Davidson became somewhat famous in 1959 as the creator of the pachanga style of music. He defected to the USA in 1961, and continued to produce music, dying in 1994. In addition to Soñar no cuesta nada, "joven", Davidson contributed additional dialogue to Glauco del Mar's Toño Bicicleta. In Soñar..., Davidson has a very long comic sequence as a flamboyantly gay character in a record store, in addition to a "straight" role in the framing story."
http://terpconnect.umd.edu/~dwilt/Sonar1.htm
This is wonderful! I've just ordered the "Soñar No Cuesta Nada, 'Joven'" DVD from Amazon, I'll write again w/ my review. Thanks for the additional info on the eccentric and elusive Sñr. Davidson and for all your terrific sleuthing efforts, Ray.
Alex, I'm glad that I could shed a little bit of light on Davidson, and I'm glad that you mentioned that the DVD is available from Amazon. I didn't know that. I'm going to order the DVD too! By the way, I will look forward to your review. I don't know if you ever saw Davidson perform. I saw him on TV when I was a little kid back in the 60's. He was performing his hit Le Chien on various Spanish TV shows. He was nothing short of amazing. He was a Latin Quentin Crisp. He was openly gay before Stonewall. He was unbelievable.
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