Radio theater and soap operas, a national passion with hits like The Two Covers and Rolando Rivas, Taxi Driver

Radio theater was a fundamental genre in the development of Argentine culture. It reflected our past and promoted national theater throughout the country.

Deliveries like Sparks of traditionwritten by the Spanish Andrés González Pulido, and broadcast by Radio Belgrano, from Monday to Friday at 6:30 p.m., paralyzed the country in the 1930s, The trams filled up to arrive in time to sit in front of the “chapels” radios. to listen to the broadcast.

The cast of the program, sponsored by Condal cigarettes, They toured the country and brought their radio seasons to the stages provoking illusions and disappointments when the faces of the protagonists are revealed.

The actors and actresses who played the bad guys suffered attacks and “the good guys” were showered with praise.

In 1942, one of the greatest hits in the history of the genre began to be broadcast on Radio El Mundo, from Monday to Friday at 8:15 p.m.: The Pérez Garcíawhat recreated stories of a classic urban middle class familywhich had many problems and also joys and emotions.

The cast was made up of Martín Zabalúa, in the role of Don Pedro, the father; Sara Prósperi, Doña Clara, the mother; and the children, Perla Black, as Luisa, and Jorge Norton, as Raúl.

Already in the 50s, at snack time, girls and boys listened to Splendid on the radio The Adventures of Tarzanwhich had Toddy chocolate as a sponsor.

It was a successful local adaptation of the famous character created by Edgar Rice Burroughs, written by Jorge Rey and starring César Llanos (Tarzán), Mabel Landó (Juana), Oscar Rovito (Tarzanito) and Juan Carlos Dusó (the Indian Wali).

On Sunday nights, the date with the classics of the national theater was with The two coverswhich began to be broadcast on July 9, 1950 on Radio del Estado and remained on the air on its successor, Radio Nacional, until 2024.

The appearance of television in the early 1950s did not seriously affect radio plays because the receiving devices were very expensive and the national production of programs was incipient.

That “mamarrachito mine” from Oscar Casco still resonated with Hilda Bernard in the Palmolive del Aire Theatrewith librettos by Nené Cascallar and Alberto Migré.

At the beginning of the sixties, the massification of televisions and The appearance of private television introduced teletheaterheir to radio theater but very marked by North American influence, which distanced it from those gaucho or historical dramas.

Its theme was mostly urban and its middle-class protagonists, whose emblematic example was Love has the face of a woman by Nené Cascallar, broadcast between 1964 and 1970, on Channel 13.

In those years novels of maids deceived and pregnant before the first sexual contact will proliferate and of rich women who were presented as “bad” but natural candidates to occupy the heart of the gallant, to whom everything is forgiven.

The breakup appeared with Rolando Rivas, taxi driverby Alberto Migré, with Claudio García Satur (Rolando), Soledad Silveyra (Mónica Higuera Paz) and Nora Cárpena (Soledad Riglos Arana), broadcast on Channel 13 on Tuesdays at 10:00 p.m. since March 7, 1972.

It was a memorable strip marked by original details such as the protagonist’s profession.the reflection of the climate of the time that broke the classic timelessness of soap operas, and the celebrities who got into the taxi every week.

The novel became a resounding success, which It reached more than 40 rating pointsalso attracting the attention of the men in the family.