Public Pools project – 1930s

Inauguration of Tijuca Tennis Club pool (Revista da Semana, 1931)

I really enjoy tracking down small but interesting aspects of Rio’s past, such as with the Carnival song, the Arpoador house, or the Flamengo wall, I came across yet another “lost memory”, as it were, and have tried for the last week to track down a photo and more information but it was proving very difficult, despite using all my resources. The lost memory in question, regarding public pools on the beaches (a curious thing to imagine), is below:

In the 1930s, Ipanema finally got an urbanistic project that proposed the leveling of the sand and the greening of the area closest to the street, with the planting of coconut tree seedlings. At this time, two public pools were also built. One on Arpoador and the other at the start of Avenida Niemeyer, in Leblon, and as they never were successful they ended up being demolished. (source, PT)

I did find another short reference to the same thing, but it doesn’t differ much from the source above:

Arpoador, on the other hand, had a public pool at the end of 1937, which was inaugurated by Mayor Dodsworth (who inaugurated another in Leblon, at the start of Avenida Niemeyer), which existed for little time. (source, PT)

C. R. Guanabara pool (Careta, 1936)

C. R. Guanabara pool (Careta, 1935)

As for why Mayor Henrique Dodsworth might have built public pools, it seems he used his term in office to transform the city in several ways:

His government was marked by major construction and redevelopment of regions in the center of the city. The opening of Avenida Presidente Vargas […], the beginning of construction on Maracanã and the Grajaú-Jacarepaguá Highway were also started by the politician. (source, PT)

More specifically, the number of public pools in the city at the time was quite limited:

The Federal District has four pools: Guanabara; Fluminense; Tijuca and Clube de Regatas Botafogo, excluding the private ones. There are others in the project phase, and with the possibilities of being built: C.R. Flamengo, C.R. Vasco da Gama, and Botafogo F.C.

( Correio da Manhã, pg 9, 05-23-1937)

Urca pool (Careta, 1922)

Urca pool (Careta, 1930)

In an article from around 10 years earlier, an author critisizes the city’s lack of pools and provides reasons why:

Public Swimming Pools

It seems absurd at the first moment to hear that in Rio, its inhabitants have almost no places where they can safely and comfortably practice the so healthy and beautiful sport of swimming, but this is true. We are really surrounded by the sea, but with the criterion adopted of destroying the beaches for the construction of the seafront avenues, our capital currently has relatively few beaches in its most populous and busiest part.

In addition, not on all beaches the inhabitants of the city can count on the means of security; for the practice of swimming, nor with the necessary comfort, such as changing rooms and cabins for changing clothes, and for that reason, our beaches are almost only accessible to people living in their vicinity.

The swimming pools built in various areas of the city would greatly benefit its population, especially the large part of them, who cannot enjoy the baths in Copacabana and who have to resort in summer to the small and dirty beaches of the city.

In the United States and other countries, even in cities that have beaches, their City Halls set up public swimming pools, for whose use the public is charged a small amount. The main purpose of the swimming pools is to increase the taste for swimming, undoubtedly one of the best and most beautiful sports, and to free those who wish to practice it from the treacherous dangers of the sea.

Our City Hall could use the sea water, where possible, and build some swimming pools in certain areas of the city, charging the public for their use a small amount, which would serve to cover the expenses with the conservation and care of those. Ponta do Calabouço, for example. close to the site where the majestic headquarters of four veteran nautical centers of the city will emerge, it would be an excellent place for a public swimming pool which would render a lot of service to the population of the city that lives in its central part. The sea there, today without a beach, is treacherous and has often sacrificed the lives of those who, recklessly, risk swimming there.

In the Urca district there is already a swimming pool, which is now sadly abandoned. Why doesn’t our City Hall begin what we asked for with the reconstruction and cleaning of this swimming pool that was once so frequented by swimmers in Botafogo and where the Rowing Federation had its official [new?] contests?

(Jornal do Brasil, pg 5, 08-06-1926)

Fluminense Football Club pool (Careta, 1932)

Fluminense Football Club pool (Careta, 1931)

Newspaper archives reference several public pool initiatives from the years between 1937 and 1939, during Dodsworth’s term, including a request by an Olympic swimmer:

Piedade Coutinho asked the mayor to collaborate in the construction of a public swimming pool. Mr. Henrique Dodsworth promised to enter […] Guanabara Bay and Rodrigo de Freitas Lagoon, as a bonus.

(O Imparcial, pg 2, 12-18-1937)

Curiously, in an article from two years later, it’s mentioned that Dodsworth is planning a series of public pools in Rio, starting in the suburbs and culminating with pools near the beaches, which would mean that the second reference above, of public pools in Arpoador and Leblon in 1937, is probably inaccurate. I reached out to the author of the book in question from which that information was sourced and she graciously pointed me towards the location where I can find more details, given that I find myself in Rio again. Regardless, these projects take time to plan and build, so I don’t see how the public pools project from 1939 mentioned below could have reached the beaches in the same year, as the first reference at the top states.

C. R. Botafogo (Careta, 1937)

Popular Swimming Pools

It appeared in the newspapers that Mr. Mayor has just opened up credit for the construction of a public swimming pool in one of our farthest suburbs.

The initiative is the most commendable, and we are certain that the pool now decided for Realengo will be the first of a series of swimming pools with which the City Hall will progressively equip all neighborhoods.

Until now, the lack of water in abundance was enough to justify that the District administration did not decide on the construction of these public bathing spots.

If sometimes there was no water for drinking, it was not possible to admit that it was enough for hygiene and sports at the same time. But water is coming, according to the most truthful information, in sufficient quantity for all its useful uses. Therefore, it is time to start providing the people with that comfort, which our climate sorely demands.

The series of swimming pools logically started where it should start. In fact, the first ones should be installed in the suburbs farthest from our beaches.

Afterwards, they will multiply towards the coast, in whose neighborhoods they constitute a precious complement to our sports equipment and to the hygiene rooms of those who visit our beaches.

Hoping that Realengo’s swimming pool will be the starting point of a program to provide public swimming pools to all neighborhoods, we would like to express our applause to this initiative, so logically demanded by our tropical environment.

(Jornal do Brasil, pg 5, 12-27-39)

Despite all this talk about how many pools Rio had at the time or how many they would build – after searching newspapers and magazines from 1920 to 1950 – I could find zero pictures of said, supposedly-built, pools but regarding the existing pools of the time I did find the photos included in this post (and many more). Despite not being able to locate any real evidence of the public pools project that Dodsworth apparently spearheaded, I’m hoping that I was able to build a picture, as it were, of the situation at the time.

Heat & slumber – 1912

I like to take my idle bohemianism for a stroll, in these tropical days with lots of sun and little breeze, through the fresh greenery of the public park, in whose shadows lovely benches offer rest to my fatigue.

A few days ago, I went to that beautiful Campo de Santana, that saw the birth of, and is watching die, the Republic.

I was tired from a long sleepless night and all the limp members of my broken body, damp with sweat, asked for a gentle dive in the peaceful peace of sleep.

I looked, several times, on several streets, for a bench. Each one my eyes embraced was occupied. To distract myself until someone left the hard bed that I needed, I started to walk around the others, examining the people I saw.

It seemed that the heat had triggered a soft epidemic of sleep on the regular or casual patrons of the old park: almost everyone slept, some napped and others had sleepy faces. Some types really impressed me: An individual with the right leg drawn over the left, the arms equally drawn – the left over the right, and both falling harmoniously over the leg, slept sitting in a Fakirian attitude of positivist meditating.

He had delicate hands and semi-bare feet, and he must have been a Turk, a former lord of harems, who had fallen into poverty and was jobless in a foreign country.

At one end of another bench, a poor man who would be mistaken for Dr. Renato Carmil (he looked so much like him) if Dr. Renato Carmil wore rags, with his hat resting on his knee, immobile, […] in the manner of a corpse that had been seated, his funeral was overdue, and on the other an elderly citizen, still clean, arched over for a newspaper with the resigned appearance of a failed tavern-keeper. In the background, a little distant, in the path opposite this one, between the clearing in the trees, Dr. Humberto Gottuzo appeared, solemn, with the shining top hat buried in thick hair, and reclined in the hard seat destined for the common people, with the elegance with which one spreads out in the armchairs of the Hotel dos Estrangeiros.

I was feeling tired. I took a few more steps, panting. That’s when I saw the Municipal Guard. He had abandoned his beret and a package of pastries on the day’s newspapers perched on the bench where he slept, decently dressed and correctly seated, with his head resting on his right hand and his left disappeared between his white-clad legs. He slept soundly, the gentle municipal guard, sleeping with the safe tranquility of those who have to watch over him and his institutions, the orderly character of the nation. 

There were no deserted benches. I let the friendly municipal guard enjoy his sleep and left sadly, looking for a free bench in another square.

_____

Rivals on the street and in the ballrooms – 1967

Carnival blocos have long been an integral part and a mandatory procession to see during the Momo festivals. Every year people stop to watch the blocos pass by. That’s why Carnival for these groups practically starts on Ash Wednesday and runs through the entire year, until it comes time to parade again. These pages are a taste of the Carnival of two of the biggest blocos in Rio: “Bafo da Onça” and “Cacique de Ramos”. Its leaders said that they are going head to head and that it will be electric.

Below, we’ll lay out the “file” on the two associations:

BAFO DA ONÇA (founded 12-12-56) President: Albano Silva; 3,000 members; old hits: “Briguei, Briguei…”, “Oba, Oba”, “Saci Pererê” and “Deixa Andar”; current hit: “Palmas no Portão”. But the greatest success of all time was the samba that gave the Bloco its name.

Main elements: wards: da Corte, Intocáveis, Indiferentes, Caprichosos, Palhinha de Ramos and Comigo Ninguém Pode; dancers: Paulinho, Dedinho, Ailton, Luis Carlos, Celina, Sandrinha and Jorginho. Rivals? For Bafo everyone is a rival because everyone competes with each other. The special element, this year, will be pause for clapping.

CACIQUE DE RAMOS (founded 01-20-61): President: Ubirajara F. Nascimento (Bira) ; 6,400 members; old hits: “Água na Boca” and “Colher de Chá”; current: “Eu Não Tenho Ninguém” and “Coração Contente”. Main elements (of the bloco): any participating element in the Cacique is a complement to the whole, so there are no main elements. Rivals: do not exist. All are respected as brothers. Creator of costumes and the introductory float: costume designer Augusto Henrique Alves, champion several times in the medium of samba. The special element for this carnival will be a surprise. For our part, we can only wait for the time for the Onça to “drink water” and for the Cacique to “jump”.

The article above is from the magazine O Cruzeiro (Jan 28, 1967). Original below (right-click then zoom in to read it).

Samba will always be counterculture

Author of the book Zicartola: politics and samba in the house of Cartola and Dona Zica, and coauthor of the recently released Nos quintais do samba da Grande Madureira: memória, história e imagens de ontem e hoje (In the backyards of the samba of Grande Madureira: memory, history and images of yesterday and today), the researcher, writer, doctor in history from USP and professor of UERJ’s Institute of Arts, Maurício Barros de Castro speaks to Continente about the relationship of the centennial musical genre with the political events of the country and the transformations that samba went through.

Revista Continente: Comparing today’s samba with that of 100 years ago, in what aspects (musically, socially, market-wise) did the genre improve?

Maurício Barros de Castro: Samba has many aspects, such as the samba influenced by Rio de Janeiro’s maxixe, from the beginning of the 20th century, which had Donga’s Pelo Telephone as its hallmark – the reason for celebrating 100 years of the of rhythm. There is also samba de roda from the Recôncavo Baiano, the samba rural of São Paulo, the samba de coco of Pernambuco and Alagoas, but it is certain that the samba that became a symbol of a Brazilian national identity was the so-called “samba de sambar” from Estácio, a district of Rio de Janeiro, formed by a group of important samba musicians such as Ismael Silva, Bide, Heitor dos Prazeres, Baiaco, Rubem Barcelos, Aurélio Gomes, Nilton Bastos, João Mina, Edgar Marcelino, Brancura and Tancredo Silva, founders of what is considered the first samba school: Deixa Falar. This samba that brought about new instruments – such as the surdo de marcação, invented by Bide, and the cuíca, brought in by João Mina – favored percussion instruments and was made to accompany the blocos and samba school processions that were created at that moment, in the late 1920s, in neighborhoods and hills near or bordering the railway line, such as Mangueira and Oswaldo Cruz. So, it is not an evolutionary line, but one of multiple samba-related temporalities. In Rio de Janeiro, for example, in the 1960s we had phenomena such as Zicartola [1]- the samba house of Cartola and Dona Zica, which, among other feats, discovered Paulinho da Viola – and Fundo de Quintal, another revolutionary group. In the 1990s, still in the carioca scene, we had the emergence of Grupo Semente and the revitalization of Lapa, which helped discover names like Teresa Cristina and Pedro Miranda. And certainly there are other interesting contemporary examples, like that of the rapper Emicida singing Cartola.

RC: Did samba lose its critical capacity, its political engagement?

MBC: I do not think so. As African heritage, samba has consolidated as a historically marginalized and potentially contentious rhythm. That is why samba is always going to be a “counterculture of modernity”, as the British researcher Paul Gilroy says, even if at times it adapts to the official discourse of governments and the media.

RC: Sambistas were quite persecuted by the police at the beginning of the genre’s history. Did this happen again at the time of the military dictatorship? How can we place Zicartola in this context?

MBC: Samba was not included in the Penal Code, as happened with capoeira, in 1890, but samba artists used to be framed within the vagrancy law, especially those that were considered “malandros”. In the period of the military dictatorship, this still happened, but there was no persecution of sambistas. Zicartola was a samba house created by Dona Zica and Cartola, which operated at Rua da Carioca, 53, in downtown Rio de Janeiro. To this day there is a plaque in his honor at this address. Although it became famous, Zicartola lasted only two years, between 1963 and 1965. It was a political and cultural space that brought together intellectuals, journalists, artists, samba musicians and university students, especially those who hung out around UNE, which burned down on the day of the coup. Zicartola was important for the resurgence of old forgotten samba players, such as Nelson Cavaquinho, Zé Kéti and Cartola himself, whose songs were recorded by Nara Leão on her first solo album in 1964. He also discovered names such as Elton Medeiros, Nelson Sargento and, mainly, Paulinho da Viola, who received the first paychecks of his career in the samba house. Hermínio Bello de Carvalho, poet and composer, rediscovered Clementina de Jesus in Zicartola, which resulted in the musical Rosa de Ouro. In Zicartola, playwright Oduvaldo Vianna Filho and poet Ferreira Gullar had the idea of creating the spectacle Opinião, which brought together João do Vale, the Northeastern migrant, Zé Kéti, the samba singer, and Nara Leão, the girl from Rio’s zona sul, all regulars of the samba house. Opinião was a great success, raising a strong political question and was inspired by the samba of Zé Kéti, whose verses said: “They can arrest me / They can beat me / They can even leave me without eating / I won’t change my mind / From here on the hill I won’t leave.” (Podem me prender/ Podem me bater/ Podem até deixar-me sem comer/ Que eu não mudo de Opinião/ Daqui do morro eu não saio não).

RC: Why was there so much interest for samba in the Getúlio Vargas government (1930-1945)?

MBC: One of Getúlio Vargas’ concerns was formulating a national identity for Brazil based on popular cultures. Samba became the main musical genre of radio stations, which were only allowed by the government to broadcast commercials in 1932, and achieved great success with the voice of names like Francisco Alves, Mario Reis and Dalva de Oliveira. In the same year, the first samba schools contest, created by journalist Mario Filho’s Mundo Sportivo newspaper,  was organized. The organization of sambistas around schools and the contemporaneity of their compositions were fundamental to the popularity of samba, an important factor for their consecration as national music.

RC: Samba is considered the greatest national symbol with regard to music. Why does this still happen, if sertanejo, for example, is the most listened to genre in the country?

MBC: I think this happens because, as I said, this is not a recent issue, it has to do with the processes of national-identity building that took place between the end of the 1920s and 1930s.

RC: What would be the biggest obstacles to samba today?

MBC: I could mention the market aspects, since few samba players have access to the mainstream media, which certainly harms the trajectories of many young musicians. But this also happens with other musical genres. I think it is important to remember that samba is still part of family traditions and continues to be important as a living ritual for Afro-descendant populations living in the peripheries and favelas. The extermination and ethnocide suffered by these populations is certainly the greatest obstacle not only to samba, but also to funk and rap, for example.

RC: If genres such as frevo or forró had emerged in Rio de Janeiro in that same context, would they have a chance to occupy this symbolic place that samba has occupied?

MBC: I don’t know, but the story of Luiz Gonzaga is a curious one. When samba was already consolidated on the radios in the 1940s, he created the baião and reinvented the forró based on the needs that arose in Rio de Janeiro. It was with the vindication of medical students from Ceará, who frequented Mangue – a red-light district where he played his accordion, next to Morro de São Carlos, in Estácio, his home in the city – that he rediscovered the songs sung by his father Januário . The students told Gonzaga that they wouldn’t give him any more money for his performances if he didn’t sing songs from the Northeast. Thus began a process that made him the King of Baião and one of the most important voices in Brazil.

RC: To what extent has samba been losing space, in the hills, to funk? Is the style less popular today than it was in the 1970s, for example?

MBC: I don’t have statistics on this, but I don’t think that contemporary Rio funk is a problem for samba, at least I don’t see a reaction from traditional sambistas like there was to Black Rio soul music in the 1970s, for example. I also don’t believe that samba has lost space to soul, just think back to the Clube Renascença, which houses a traditional samba group and is a place remembered for Rio’s Black dances.

RC: Is it possible that in the future we’ll have a generation as bright as that of Noel Rosa, Wilson Batista, Geraldo Pereira, Cartola, Nelson Cavaquinho and Paulinho da Viola?

MBC: The generations get renewed, full of important talents, without evolutionary lines and scales.

RC: When do you consider the height of samba in terms of musical quality and space in the market?

MBC: I don’t know about the height of samba, but it’s certain that the first black samba singer, who was also a composer and became a success with critics and sales, was Martinho da Vila, between the mid-1960s and the early 1970s.

RC: How do you rate the quality of samba-enredo today?

MBC: I rate samba-enredo as still being outside of the evolutionary line, marked by historical moments of ruptures with the previous models, and thus the target of criticisms from traditional sectors, founders of samba schools, in constant negotiations with agents both inside and outside the samba schools. On this frontier is where the good samba-enredos keep happening.

The Carioca woman – 1923

– But how is it that you let that man come in if I’m in my under garmets?
– What’s the matter? When you go to dances, you go out in even less clothing!

__________

The image above and following story are both from an April 1923 edition of Careta. I noticed they both commented on the modern woman of the time. As for who Herr Hess is a pen name for, or if the story is true, I couldn’t find those answers. There’s also a word or phrase which I was unsure about how to translate.

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Rio is still a city in which the morals of colonial times have remained almost entirely. If this is good or bad on its own, each person can judge for themselves, because morals are just a result and don’t exist on their own. It’s like perfume and a flower, it’s perfume, good or bad, it doesn’t exist independently from the flower. This, yes, it exists and can have or not have a smell, whether great or detestable.

With that said, to not bore anymore, we return to Rio. Here a woman who likes to date is always badly seen. Why? On her own? No. By those that look upon her, who are worse than she is. Badness doesn’t come from the woman who likes to date, it comes from the conniving and the spies.

In my weak manner of understanding, dating, a national institution, represents the only rebellion that people of the other sex are capable of, and I think that it can only have good results, even when its duration exceeds nine months, in which case the census sees a serious increase in the city’s population. I don’t believe that due to dating that the sea leaves the seabed nor that the exchange rate lowers to 4d*. I appreciate a woman who likes to date in the same way that I behold a decided conqueror.

In my opinion the lady Anesthésia who lives right here in Flamengo is such a woman. She’s an intelligent and paradoxical young lady. Speaking with her alone on the porch about the slander involved in her name, she, who was once my girlfriend and today is undecided between a neighbor and a cousin, told me with complete calmness:

– I am, in fact, a woman who likes to date and I’ve very content with myself.

– You must have, certainly, moments of boredom…

– I do. Sometimes I cry; I contradict myself; I worry myself…but for a short time. At the end of 24 hours I recover my cold blood. Because, I’ll have you know, I do have cold blood. It’s in this special case of temperament that my unlimited faculty to date whoever I wish resides. Dating, it’s everything.

– Don’t I know it. I didn’t need to get information from strangers nor from…rivals.

– You’re conceited…Your own experience is still very reduced. I guarantee that you haven’t guessed anything else… Yes, that’s where you remain. But I should say that I don’t date just for temperament, but still for… (how shall I say it?) for…devotion or for humanity. Well that’s it. Dating is a condom, it is the prophylaxis of love…

– Would you have the good manners to explain it to me?

– Simply, I will. Here you see me. I am over 25 years old and I hope to reach 30 completely uninjured by love. Because love isn’t just romance. It’s the grave reality that is concerned with slavery, children, the devil. And why would I want to enslave myself and fill up the world with innocent victims of our slave-quarter morals? – Herr Hess

* – d usually equates to pennies, from the Latin denarius