by José Manuel Araque
José Ramón Reachi Fayad was born in Mexico on March 5, 1903, the son of Antonio Reachi and María Fayad. The Reachis were a family of Syrian origin that settled in the area of Chilpancingo, in the state of Guerrero, in the mountains of the Sierra Madre del Sur. José Ramón had at least 11 brothers and sisters. Don Antonio had a store in the center of town, and also traded silver from the mining area.
José Ramón's older brothers were Manuel (b. 1896) and Santiago (b. 1898). As their father was keenly interested in their Education he sent them to the Evangelical School, where they learned English and French at an early age. But José Ramón was different, he had some throat affliction and his parents we told by the doctors that he was going to die young, so they did not send him to School at all.
The Mexican Revolution started in late 1910, and the country entered a decade of wars and political instability. Santiago joined the Maderista campaign under General Juan Almazán in its takeover of the town of Iguala. Then the Federal Army killed Don Antonio. Mexico was in chaos and their lives were in danger. Around 1912 Manuel and Santiago escaped to San Francisco, and reached out for help from their uncle who lived in Scranton, PA.
Since 1908 Rev. Thomas Fayad had established a ministry among the miners in the Poconos Coal Region. Rev. Fayad was a hard working man, he built the St. Joseph Melkite Greek Catholic Church with his own hands, his congregation was poor. He lived with his mother.
On March 21, 1913, María Fayad embarked for New York from Veracruz on the Morro Castle. José Ramón and 4 of his younger siblings came. José Ramón was 10 years old, and he stayed in the US since.
The Reachis were destitute, it was the hardest times. They moved with their grandmother in a modest house a short block from the Church. Rev. Fayad had to rebuild the Church several times too, either because of fire, or because the foundations were caving, the terrain was very unstable as a side-effect of coal-mining. The kids worked during the day, shoe-shining, delivering newspapers, and attended School at night, except José Ramón. Once a year Rev. Fayad knew how to put together a big event at Scranton's Town Hall, to collect money for his impoverished parish.
Manuel and Santiago moved to New York after 1914. Manuel was a sympathizer of Venustiano Carranza, and worked for Roberto V. Pesqueira, Carranza's representative in the US. While World War I was raging in Europe, Manuel met then unknown taxi-dancer Rudolph Valentino in New York, and they became best friends, they both danced Tango in Rector's in Times Square. The War ended in late 1918, but then the Influenza Pandemic hit, and life did not quite return to normal until Summer 1920. Since July 1920, Manuel worked in the US as a diplomatic liaison for the Mexican governments of Adolfo de la Huerta and Álvaro Obregón, promoting American investments in Mexico. He moved to Los Angeles.
Valentino moved to Hollywood, and in 1921 his performance in The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse turned him into the biggest Tango dancing star in the US, his iconic full-body dancing scene became a model to follow. Even his Gaucho clothes were thought to be de rigueur for performers, specially those angling for authenticity. To make up for his lack of schooling, José Ramón started taking dance classes in Scranton, and participating in local dance contests, a move that likely was encouraged by his brother Manuel. In 1922 and early 1923 he danced the fox trot with one Blanche Kelley.
By
1923 Valentino was touring the country with his own "Argentine
Orchestra", said to be the same that played for him in the production of
the silent movie. On April 13, 1923, Valentino and his Orchestra came to Scranton on the Mineralava Tour. Having declared himself on strike against the movie studios, Valentino and his wife Natacha Rambova danced the Tango in 88 locations across the US, helping revive interest for a form that was popular before the Great War. Natacha personally supervised the costumes, the Valentinos were mobbed by adoring fans. José Ramón must have gone to the show in Scranton, and the dance contest that followed.
The same month José Ramón danced in two Tango exhibitions, at the Town Hall and at Saxon's. A few days later, Anton F. Scibilia's revue Land of Tango opened for a whole week at the local Capitol Theater. The revue featured Peruvian Tango dancer Alberto de Lima, Matilde Carpos and Heriberta Martínez, and its own "Argentine players". José Ramón must have seen them.
One full year later, on May 27, 1924, "Reachi and Bordino" went on stage at the Town Hall in Scranton. The note posted before the show claimed that he already had successes in the Big City. He was 21 years old and he wore Gaucho clothes. That weekend, Reachi and Bordino also danced at the Cinderella Ballroom in Wilkes-Barre, a city next to Scranton.
Curiously, José came back to Scranton with his own "Argentine Orchestra" (Juan Carlos Cobian?). And curiously too, just a few days before these shows, the Land of Tango revue returned to Scranton after one full year on the Vaudeville circuits. Anton Scibilia was very busy producing shows in 1924, he was capitalizing on the renewed interest for Argentine Tango in the US. Scibilia had a second revue called Dreamy Spain ramping up, as Land of Tango was winding down. By June, Alberto de Lima and Petite Marita were gone.
In March 1923 Manuel Reachi, at the time General Consul in Los Angeles, helped director Marshall Neilan shoot scenes for the movie The Eternal Three inside Obregón's Chapultepec Castle. Sadly, the film is lost. In time Manuel would find a new career in cinema with his friend Valentino.
On July 13, 1924, Manuel secretly married Agnes Ayres in Mexico. Ayres was Valentino’s co-star in The Sheik. President Obregón's personal physician was the best man. José was at the wedding, and returned to New York on August 11 on the steamship Dagfin from Tampico. José had the right connections, and he was ready to jump start his dancing career.
Huge forces were transforming the entertainment industry. Since the early 1900s theaters were splitting time between live performances and movies, and the tradition of the wandering Vaudevillians was already starting to wane.
From July 21 through July 26, 1924, Anton Scibilia premiered his new revue, Land of Joy, at the Orpheum in Allentown, PA. The revue consisted mostly of Spanish song and dance numbers, which were accented by Bill Adams, a comedian that joked about his difficulties trying to communicate with the many beautiful “señoritas”.
Scibilia’s revue was not really new. From Land of Tango Scibilia brought Matilde Carpos and cuban Heriberta Martínez. From Dreamy Spain he drew Fidel Irazábal and Mlle Emilia Delirio, who danced the Apache and the Tango, and Señorita Albertini, a Spanish soprano. Even the plot and the comedian were inherited from Land of Tango.
Land of Joy was larger than its predecessors, more than 20 people were part of the troupe. That first week, Scibilia presented a second revue called “Cubanola” alongside Land of Joy, the show was still evolving. In August, they were at the Majestic in Harrisburg, PA; at the Rajah in Reading, PA; and at the Poli in Bridgeport, CT.
Notes
1. After Valentino's death Manuel Reachi embraced his movie career. He was instrumental in connecting Enrico Caruso Jr., the son of the legendary tenor, with ex-President Adolfo de la Huerta, who was also a tenor and taught Enrico Jr. to sing. Manuel then co-wrote the movie El cantante de Nápoles for Caruso Jr. Manuel went on to direct his own movies in Mexico, and worked with Luis Buñuel.
2. Santiago Reachi went to Mexico to help Pancho Villa escape prison in Christmas 1912, and then returned to the US in 1915. He became a very successful salesman, and later, as a publicist, he helped launch the career of Cantinflas, the legendary Mexican comic actor. Santiago became one of the most powerful men in the Mexican film business in the 1940s with his POSA Films. He later wrote a book about his life stories, in which he claimed that his brother Manuel taught Valentino to dance.
Bibliography
1. Agnes-Ayres.net
http://www.noelledewinterdesign.com/agnesayresweb/agnesrudolphtango.htm
http://www.noelledewinterdesign.com/agnesayresweb/agnesrudolphtango.htm
2. Santiago Reachi's Villa and the Revolutionist
Exposition Press, Hicksville, NY 1976
3. The fascinating blog "The American Menu" by Henry Voigt
https://www.theamericanmenu.com/2015/08/rectors.html
