ABSTRACT
The immigrants of the 1920s deserve as much credit for being the Founding Fathers of America as the original pilgrims some three hundred years before them, in the sense that they gave protection and courage to newcomers. New York meant sophistication, Broadway and Times Square, but also neighborhoods where street signs went unnoticed and a stranger knew where he was by the cooking odors seeping out of tenement windows. Now it was decided that the newly completed film The Gaucho, starring Douglas Fairbanks, would premiere at Grauman's. The accompanying program would draw its theme from the movie. He had achieved success and money, but it was early spring. In 1925 vaudeville meant three performances a day. Maria Montero was a headliner, booked up and down the circuit. Grease paint was removed only for sleeping. Antonio slept on lumpy mattresses in odd hotel rooms and walked about the strange cities between shows, buying picture postcards.
