For the municipality of Charo, Michoacán, in Mexico see
CharoMaría del Rosario Pilar Martínez Molina Baeza de Rasten (born March 13,
1941 or 1951) better known in the Spanish-language and
Hollywood show business as Charo, is a singer, dancer, comedian, actress and classical guitarist. She is known for her flamboyant stage presence and provocative outfits. Her trademark phrase is "Cuchi-Cuchi."
Date of birth
Charo was born in Murcia, Spain. Official documents
in Spain and the United States indicate she was born in 1941, but Charo insists she actually was
born in 1951. Charo has said in past interviews that her parents consented for her to falsify her
age to appear to be older after marrying 66-year-old band leader Xavier Cugat when she was
15.[1] Further complicating the question is the
fact that contemporary press reports gave her age at marriage as 21,[2][3] an April
1966 column on the wedding plans stated she was 20 and Cugat was 60,[4] and columns less than two years before the marriage refer to her as "Coogie's 18-year-old
protegée."[5] In October,
1977[6] — the
same year in which Charo filed for divorce from Cugat and became an American citizen — a United States court upheld the 1951
birth year as official, with the performer providing a sworn statement from her parents in support of her claim.[7] Commenting on the disputes over her age,
Charo has said that the public's disbelief could prove advantageous: "But if people really believe I'm older, that's fine. Don't
be surprised if I come out with my own cosmetics, a new energy bar and maybe some vitamins."[1]
Biography
Charo is the daughter of a lawyer, who reportedly fled from Casablanca during
Francisco Franco's dictatorship while her homemaker mother stayed behind in Murcia
raising their children. She studied classical and flamenco guitar while residing in Murcia, and can claim Andrés Segovia as her guitar teacher (Segovia taught general music classes as community service in
schools around Murcia). She took guitar lessons from him and other teachers from the age of nine on. As a result of her training
and skill she has been named "Best Flamenco Guitarist" in Guitar Player Magazine's
readers' poll twice. One of Charo's regrets is that because of her flamboyant stage presence, she has been overlooked as a
serious guitar player.
When Charo was quite young, she was "discovered" by famous bandleader Xavier Cugat, whom she later wed on August 7, 1966. Cugat was 66 and had married four times before then, though contemporary reports sometimes listed fewer
marriages; an April 1966 column by Earl Wilson on the couple's wedding plans announced, "Sixty-year-old Xavier Cugat and his
20-year-old Spanish girl friend and singing star Charo hope to get married in San Cugat, Spain, in a few days -- if Cugat can
convince church authorities his two divorces should not be counted against him since he wasn't married in church."[4] The couple were the first to have their
nuptials in Caesars Palace in Las Vegas.
Some fan magazines say that she learned English from Buddy Hackett.
In a February 2005 interview with the Los Angeles-based Spanish-language
newspaper La Opinión, Charo claimed that her marriage to Cugat had been merely a
"business contract," a way for him to legally bring her over to the United States, where he was based.[8] She moved to 257th street in New York City along with her mother and aunt, and was regularly featured in shows with Cugat's orchestra
in New York and Las Vegas, as well as in overseas engagements in Latin America and Europe. She claims he was confident in her
eventual success from early on, and that she gave him a Rolls-Royce as a parting gift
once she came of legal age.
Discovery on Rowan and Martin's Laugh-in
Charo was first exposed to a national audience on Laugh-in in
1968. She would appear on short chatfests of a few minutes near the end of the show with
Dan Rowan and Dick Martin Her almost complete lack of
fluency in the English language was played as a comic focus, and she would have the two hosts practically on the floor laughing
at her mangled English. This is also the time that the Cuchi Cuchi line passed into the public arena.
The 1970s
She was headlining Vegas shows by 1971, and reportedly being paid as much as Frank
Sinatra, Ray Charles or Dean Martin. In
1977, she became a naturalized citizen of the United
States; that same year, she filed for divorce from Cugat, a petition that was granted April 14, 1978.[9] On August 11, 1978 she re-married, this time to her manager Kjell Rasten, in South Lake Tahoe,
California, in a civil ceremony attended by 30 guests.[10]
Throughout the 1970s, she was a highly visible personality, appearing 21 times on The Love
Boat, as well as on variety and talk shows such as Donny &
Marie,[11] Tony Orlando and Dawn,[12] The Captain and Tennille,[13] The John
Davidson Show, The Mike Douglas Show, which she guest-hosted at least
once,[14] and even the infamously short-lived
Brady Bunch variety spinoff.[15]
In 1975, Dallas Morning News critic Harry Bowman wrote that the ABC network
had "penciled in ... a half-hour comedy starring the uninhibited wife of Xavier Cugat" and commented, "This is probably the worst
idea of the season."[16] By October
of that year, the performer was promoting a special slated for November,[17] but the special did not actually appear until May, 1976.[18][19] A TV listing for August 24, 1976, shows what appears to be an unsold pilot
airing on ABC at 8:30 pm CST: "Charo and the Sergeant - Situation comedy
starring Charo Cugat. Charo's first U.S. job is to be a dancer at an off-limits night club, and her conservative Marine Corps
husband finds out."[20]
By the late 1970s, Charo was being mentioned as an example of how overexposure could damage a celebrity; one such article
quoted Steve Levitt's "Q score" research to show the performer's popularity declined slightly
even as her familiarity increased:
| “ |
Before she gained national fame on talk shows in 1975, bosomy Latin starlet Charo was
'recognized' by 57 per cent of Levitt's national television sample - and had a 'popularity quotient' of 9 per cent. Today, known
by 80 per cent, a figure as high as Clint Eastwood's 80 per cent, Charo's popularity is 8 per cent. 'If she was known by 100 per
cent of the world, chances are her popularity might go down to 7 or 6 per cent,' Levitt says coolly. That paradox makes some
performers think twice when invitations to talk shows come in. |
” |
|
—"The TV Talk Shows,"
Washington Post, July 14, 1977 (Style, B1)
|
Post-1970s
During much of the late 1980s to late 1990s Charo had limited visibility as she moved to Hawaii, and opened and performed at
her own dinner theater while she and Rasten raised their son. In the mid-2000s, she returned to television in commercials for
Sprint wireless phone service and GEICO insurance, as well
as a season-three stint on the Celebreality series The Surreal Life and appearances in VH1's "I Love the '70s" retrospectives.
She now has a regular touring show in addition to appearances in Branson, Missouri,
and Las Vegas (which at one time were choreographed by Comedy Central actor/dancer Jade Esteban Estrada). She also
donates her talents to Jerry Lewis's annual MDA telethon.
Discography
The album cover of "Guitar Passion", first released
January 1,
1994
- Cuchi-Cuchi (1977)
- Olé Olé (1978)
- Mamacita, ¿dónde está Santa Claus? (Mommy, Where's Santa Claus?, 1978,
single)
- Bailando con Charo (Dancing with Charo, 1981)
- Guitar Passion (1994)
- Blame It on the Macarena (1996)
- Gusto (Pleasure, 1997)
- Charo and Guitar (2005)
Her first four albums were made with the Salsoul Orchestra.
Filmography
TV Work
References
- ^ a b John Beck. "Ageless persona: Vegas headliner Charo thrills fans at Sonoma County
Fair: Cuchi-cuchi time at the fair," The Press Democrat (Santa Rosa, CA), August 1, 2002, page B1.
- ^ Francis Raffetto. "Las Vegas Opens Caesar's Palace,"
After Dark column, The Dallas Morning News, August 8, 1966, page A14.
- ^ Paul Steiner. "Jackie followed trend of May-December," The
Dallas Morning News, October 27, 1968, page E9.
- ^ a b Earl Wilson. "It happened last night" (column), The Dallas Morning
News, April 18, 1966, page D18.
- ^ Earl Wilson. "It happened last night" (column),
The Dallas Morning News, September 16, 1964, section 4, page 16.
- ^ Jura Koncius. "Personalities" (column), The Washington
Post, August 16, 1978, page D2.
- ^ Larry Powell (column). "Exact age for Charo leaves
plenty of wiggle room," The Dallas Morning News, February 7, 1999, page 38A.
- ^ "Fin del ‘cuchi cuchi’,
principio del arte," La Opinión Digital, 17 February 2005 (Spanish)
- ^ Roger Piantadosi. "Personalities" (column), The Washington
Post, April 15, 1978, page C3.
- ^ Ellen Goldman and Joseph P. Mastrangelo. "Personalities"
(column), The Washington Post, August 15, 1978, page C1.
- ^ Donny & Marie broadcast listings, "Channel
Choices," The Dallas Morning News, 1976-02-27, C7 (with George Gobel); 12-03-1976,
B11 (with Carl Reiner); 1977-12-02, A16 (with Milton
Berle and the Sylvers)
- ^ Tony Orlando and Dawn broadcast listings, "Channel
Choices," The Dallas Morning News, 1974-07-10, page C7 (with Lloyd Bridges);
1975-03-05, page D4 (with Tony Randall); 1976-01-28, page C9 (with Freddy Fender).
- ^ The Captain and Tennille broadcast listings,
"Channel Choices," The Dallas Morning News, 1977-03-07, page B7 (with John Byner,
Ben Vereen, Manfred Mann and the Earth Band, and
LeVar Burton).
- ^ Rena Pederson (column), The Dallas Morning News,
December 3, 1976, page B11; refers to Charo as "the dizzy Spanish sexpot-songstress."
- ^ The Brady Bunch Hour broadcast listing, "Channel Choices," The
Dallas Morning News, March 21, 1977, page A18 (with the Hudson Brothers,
Alice B. Davis, and Rip Taylor
- ^ Harry Bowman. "New season guessing" ("Broadcast Beat"
column), The Dallas Morning News, April 22, 1975, page A12.
- ^ Earl Wilson. "Hackett 'Teaching' Charo" (column),
The Dallas Morning News, October 13, 1975, page D5.
- ^ Harry Bowman. The Dallas Morning News, April 27, 1976,
page C5.
- ^ UPI. "Charo special looms as family sizzler," The Dallas
Morning News, May 24, 1976, page B7.
- ^ "Channel Choices," The Dallas Morning News, August
24, 1976, page B5.
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