Anibal Samón Domínguez

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Aníbal de Mar, 1908-1980). Cuban actor with a long and prestigious artistic career in radio, television, and theater. His most popular characters were "Filomeno" and the "Tremendous Judge".

Aníbal de Mar was born in Yateras, a town in the current province of Guantánamo. During his artistic career he worked in almost all the theaters on the Island.

His time in radio was brief, but intense, and took place at several broadcasting stations: CMKD and CMKI, in Santiago de Cuba; CMQ, COCO and RHC, in Havana. In the forties he began working with Leopoldo Fernández, in a duo that—with the respective names of Filomeno and Pototo—gained considerable audience ratings for the radio program they occupied, which was named after the characters (Pototo and Filomeno). In those days, radio programs were broadcast live with an audience in the studio, which required actors to have extensive mastery of histrionic skills, improvisation, singing, and dancing. This way of working, characteristic of Cuban radio in the first half of the twentieth century, served these splendid actors to enrich their performances on stage and in nightclubs.

One of the radio programs that benefited from the charm of the pair was La Tremenda Corte, which aired for the first time on January 7, 1942, through the RHC Cadena Azul radio station. The author of the original idea and scriptwriter of the program was Castor Vispo, who would later become a prolific television writer. The quality of his scripts, combined with the high performance standards of the cast, earned La Tremenda Corte the distinction of being the best radio comedy produced in Latin America. The program, heir to all the influence of Cuban bufo theater, constituted a different way of bringing to radio the trilogy of "the Spaniard, the black man, and the mulatto woman."

Each episode parodied the situations of a correctional court in which the characters interacted. Aníbal de Mar played the Tremendous Judge, counterpart to the character of "Tres Patines" (Leopoldo Fernández). The wordplay and double meanings delighted audiences and became a characteristic trait of the program, whose success grew thanks to simultaneous theatrical presentations.

Other actors who participated in La Tremenda Corte were Adolfo Otero ("the Spaniard Rudecindo Caldeiro y Escobiña"), Mimí Cal ("the mulatto woman Nananina"), and Miguel Ángel Herrera ("the Secretary"). It is estimated that more than three hundred sixty of these programs were recorded, many of which are still heard on Latin American radio stations.

With the arrival of television in Cuba in the fifties, both programs (Pototo and Filomeno and La Tremenda Corte) moved to the small screen, with which the popularity of Aníbal de Mar and Leopoldo Fernández grew enormously. When CMQ Televisión began broadcasting El Show de Pototo y Filomeno, both actors showcased their talents for singing and sketch comedy.

In 1957 they recorded a long-playing record (LP) with songs from the program, accompanied by the charanga orchestra Melodías del 40, which immortalized their parodies of popular songs—such as Carta a mamita and Ahorita va llover—which were widely distributed through radio and record players; so much so that they won a gold record for their large sales. Following that success, the emblematic duo expanded their venues to nightclubs like the famous Montmartre cabaret, theater, and cinema.

In addition to La Tremenda Corte and El show de Pototo y Filomeno, Aníbal de Mar starred in other television programs such as Los Ricachos, where Pototo and Filomeno changed characters to play, respectively, Juan Ramón and Domitilo, always accompanied by a stellar cast.

In 1934, Aníbal de Mar starred in a popular radio series written by Félix B. Caignet, La Serpiente Roja, in which he played "Chan-Li Po," a Chinese detective inspired by the "Mr. Chan" character from American cinema. Its debut was on the Santiago radio station CMKD at the Palacio de la Torre, and on that occasion, the story was co-starred by Nenita Viera. Years later it would be produced and broadcast in Havana, through the Radiodifusión O'Shea signal. The memory of Cuban media records the unprecedented communicative impact that this detective-style series caused: the rhythm of everyday life was affected during the radio broadcast hours due to the enormous audiences it drew.

The success of La Serpiente Roja was one of the determining factors in the decision to bring it to cinema. In 1937, the film of the same name, starring Aníbal de Mar, was the first Cuban sound film, which also marked Félix B. Caignet's debut as a film screenwriter. Other relevant figures who were part of the film's cast were Carlos Badías, as the young leading man; Dolores Zabala, Pedro Segarra, Aurelio Cavia, Ramón Valenzuela, Roberto Ínsua, and Caignet himself, in the significant role of Talúa. General direction was in charge of Ernesto Caparrós, and filming took place mainly at the old Hotel Almendares, on the banks of the river of the same name. Despite the difficulties of filming, it was both a critical and box office success.

In the forties, De Mar reprised the character of Chan-Li Po in the radio series El Ladrón de las Manos de Seda, which he would later also play in cinema. Other film works that featured his acting were Una aventura peligrosa (1939), Romance musical (1941), Hitler soy yo (1944), and, alongside Leopoldo Fernández, Fantasmas del Caribe (1942), La Tremenda Corte (1945), Música, mujeres y piratas (1950), Hotel de muchachas (1950), Príncipe de contrabando (1950), and Olé, Cuba (1957).

After 1959, when the mass media were nationalized by the Cuban revolutionary government, Aníbal de Mar moved to the United States. Outside the Island, his artistic career continued to flourish and his continental expansion was strengthened.

The cast of La Tremenda Corte reunited to continue producing the program outside of Cuba. In Mexico, the XEFB network launched, in the mid-sixties, a television version of the popular program. Episodes from that production were exported and broadcast in several Latin American countries.

Most of Aníbal de Mar's performances in the United States took place on stage, although he also made incursions into television.