I was recently rummaging through some old boxes I was unpacking during my recent move to a different city, when I came across this old caricature I did in 1989:
This guy happens to be my late uncle, Salvador Lomelí, who was my mother's older brother. And it brought back some very nice memories of my earlier life, when I was recently married and he would frequently drop by to visit! My uncle was a huge movie fan and he knew almost everything about films, as far back as the early silents up to the late 80s and beyond. We spent many evenings listening to soundtracks and reminiscing about our favorite movies. He was quite knowledgeable about filmmaking although his chosen profession was as a librarian. I learned quite a lot from him, not only about films but also about classical music, painting (he had been an art student at the Academy of San Carlos, a very prominent and renowned art school in Mexico) and many other subjects, including cooking recipes!
I remember we would sit in the living room, near my stereo system and browse through my movie book collection while listening to some appropriate music. He would stop on certain pictures from the books and tell me very interesting stories about the film in question or he would just describe the scenes to me.
Eleanor Powell Lucille Bremer
His prefered genre was musicals and he knew everything about them. He loved Judy Garland, Fred Astaire, Eleanor Powell, Lucille Bremer, Gene Kelly, Alice Faye and most of the other great stars of the musical scene of yesteryear.
Judy Garland Alice Faye
Of course, we both had different tastes in some aspects and that was the ingredient that made our conversations even more interesting. I liked stars like Humphrey Bogart, Errol Flynn, Ann Sheridan, Marilyn Monroe and Lauren Bacall while he was more partial to Tyrone Power, Douglas Fairbanks Sr., Bette Davis, Betty Grable and Greta Garbo. We both agreed on Cary Grant although he loved Chaplin and wasn't so big on Laurel & Hardy, which I was. He liked Walt Disney cartoons and prefered them over Bugs Bunny and the other WB characters, but nevertheless, he was willing to watch anything with me...and he laughed and enjoyed all those films immensely. Furthermore, he knew a lot about classical music, movie soundtracks and just as much about the great art painters or how to prepare a tasty paella.
To this day, I have never had a conversation with anyone else like the ones I used to have with him! I do miss my uncle a lot. He never married, had no children and passed away in 1998 under strange circumstances. I deeply felt his departure. However, I frequently think about him whenever I glance at my movie book collection, admire great paintings at a museum or when I see an old musical on the TV screen. Rest in Peace, dear uncle Salvador!
Celebrated Mexican painter Juan O'Gorman (1902-1982), dedicated this lithograph to my uncle in 1963:
(As a footnote, I should mention my uncle was gay. He knew I knew this but we never addressed the issue because it was never, in any way, relevant to us. I just mention the fact in case some of you were wondering.)
Somewhere in the Mexican town of San Miguel Allende you could find this painting, which was donated by Mario Moreno Foundation to the National Association of Actors in 1993. The painting by Antonio Navarrete was created many years before and it features Buster Keaton playing the harp, Red Skelton, guitar, Danny Kaye, violin, Bob Hope, guitar, Charles Chaplin, conductor, Cantinflas, guitar, Fernandel, trumpet, Luis Sandrini, french horn and Stan Laurel & Oliver Hardy at the vibraphone.
