Carpas, Theater, and Nightclubs in Early Mexican Television, 1950–55

This research examines the early years of Mexican television to illuminate the connections between popular culture and politics in Mexico during the 1950s to 1970s. Due to the low number of television sets in the country and the concentration of TV signal in Mexico City and a few other urban centers, this period has generally been understudied in terms of entertainment industries and politicized discussions of cultural issues. This paper focuses on programming in different melodramatic genres, TV shows, sponsors and sports broadcast prior to 1955, while also surveying advertisement agency archives, newspapers, TV critics’ papers and memoirs from performers of the period. The sources reveal the striking influence of Mexico’s vibrant nightclub life in shaping the nascent television industry. Given that most movie stars refused to participate in television, the majority of the talent involved in TV came from radio, theater and nightclubs. The production of teleteatros (plays adapted to TV, like Playhouse Theater in the US) proliferated and provided additional showcase opportunities for theaters, actors, and singers from opera and zarzuela (Spanish operetta). Comedians from carpas (vaudeville) were some of the best paid performers in television during the 1950s. Looking at this formative period provides vital context to understand the politicized discussions that developed in the 1960s and even 1970s regarding television programming as the intelligentsia and religious conservative groups protested that national television discouraged proper moral and cultural values among middle and working-class Mexicans.