Xavier Cugat

Xavier Cugat was a catalan musician and bandleader born in Spain Girona 1 January 1900 Barcelona 27 October 1990 who spent his formative years in Havana Cuba A trained violinist and arranger he was a leading figure in the spread of Latin music In New York City he was the leader of the resident orchestra at the WaldorfAstoria before and after World War II He was also a cartoonist and a restaurateur The personal papers of Xavier Cugat are preserved in the Biblioteca de Catalunya Barcelona His family emigrated to Cuba when he was three years old He studied classical violin and worked as a violinist at the age of nine in a silent movie theater to help pay for his education He was first chair violinist for the Teatro Nacional Symphonic Orchestra When he was not performing he started drawing caricatures On 6 July 1915 he and his family arrived in New York City on the SS Havana Cugat appeared in recitals with Enrico Caruso playing violin solos In the 1920s he led a band that played often at the Coconut Grove a club in Los Angeles Cugats friend Charlie Chaplin visited the club to dance the tango so Cugat added tangos to the bands performances5 Seeing how popular the dance was becoming Cugat convinced the owner to hire South American dancers to give tango lessons This too became popular and Cugat made the dancers part of his orchestra In 1928 he turned his act into the film Xavier Cugat and His Gigolos He worked for the Los Angeles Times as a cartoonist His caricatures were nationally syndicated They appeared in Photoplay magazine beginning with the November 1927 issue under the byline de Bru His older brother Francis was an artist of some note having painted cover art for F Scott Fitzgeralds novel The Great Gatsby In 1931 Cugat took his band to New York for the 1931 opening of the WaldorfAstoria hotel He replaced Jack Denny as leader of the hotels resident band For sixteen years he led the WaldorfAstoria Orchestra 19331949 shuttling between New York and Los Angeles for most of the next 30 years89 One of his trademark gestures was to hold a Chihuahua while he waved his baton with the other arm His music career led to appearing in the films In Gay Madrid 1930 You Were Never Lovelier 1942 Bathing Beauty 1944 WeekEnd at the Waldorf 1945 Holiday in Mexico 1946 A Date with Judy 1948 On an Island with You 1948 and Chicago Syndicate 1955 Cugat owned and operated the Mexican restaurant Casa Cugat in West Hollywood The restaurant was frequented by Hollywood celebrities and featured two singing guitarists who would visit each table and play diners favorite songs upon request The restaurant began operations in the 1940s and closed in 1986 The restaurants exterior and a fanciful depiction of its interior can be found in scenes in the 1949 film Neptunes Daughter in which Cugat has a substantial role playing himself A brief scene revolving around the restaurant can also be seen in the earlier 1943 film The Heats On also starring Cugat as himself Cugat spent his last years in Barcelona living in a suite at Hotel Ritz He died of heart failure at age 90 in Barcelona and was buried in his native Girona He was posthumously inducted into the International Latin Music Hall of Fame in 2001