Octavio Henrique de Oliveira was given this quaint moniker - Black-Out - when he started singing at radio stations in Sao Paulo in the mid-1940s. It obviously had racist connotations but Octavio didn't seem to mind.
Marly plays the piano while Antonio, mother Rosa & dad Octavio look on...
Black-Out shows he can play the piano too...
Marly kisses her father's hand on her graduation day - Radiolandia, 1st April 1963.
Octavio Henrique de Oliveira was born in Espirito Santo do Pinhal-SP on 5 December 1919. When he was 6 years old - in 1925 - he was taken to a boarding school in Sao Paulo: Colegio São Vicente de Paula. Apparently his family moved to the big city at the same time but why they didn't keep the boy at home is a mystery. They probably didn't have the means to feed him so the Saint Vincent's brothers took him in. Next thing we know is 1929, Octavio is 10 years old and is expelled from Grupo Escolar da Consolação (future Colegio Marina Cintra) for bad behaviour.
Child labour being second nature to Brazilian society, Octavio worked in a series of jobs from the time he was 10 years old until he became an adult: as a shoe-shine boy; as a newspaper-seller; as a chemist-hand, a boy who delivers parcels to clients' homes, sweeps the place and washes glassware; at a dry-cleaners' place where he probably helped in washing, pressing and delivering clothes; as a messenger-boy (that escapes my imagination as to its job description); and a mechanic helper in a garage where he learned the mysteries of fixing cars' engines.
In 1933, when he was 14 years old, Octavio sang at Radio Tupi's 'Peneira de Ouro', a popular gong-show and was well received by the audience. After singing as an amateur for 7 years, he was finally signed by Radio Difusora in 1941, and given an obviously racist moniker 'Blackout' (Apagão) - an English word much used in newspapers then to describe the blackouts Londoners were suffering as consequence of Hitler's bombs dropped off from Luftwaffe airplanes. According to legend, it was Capitão Furtado who came up with the idea. As Brazilians didn't know how to pronounce 'Blackout' they soon came up with a Brazilian spelling: Blecaute!
Octavio married Rosa in 1941 and had Marly in 1942 and Antonio in 1947.
Child labour being second nature to Brazilian society, Octavio worked in a series of jobs from the time he was 10 years old until he became an adult: as a shoe-shine boy; as a newspaper-seller; as a chemist-hand, a boy who delivers parcels to clients' homes, sweeps the place and washes glassware; at a dry-cleaners' place where he probably helped in washing, pressing and delivering clothes; as a messenger-boy (that escapes my imagination as to its job description); and a mechanic helper in a garage where he learned the mysteries of fixing cars' engines.
In 1933, when he was 14 years old, Octavio sang at Radio Tupi's 'Peneira de Ouro', a popular gong-show and was well received by the audience. After singing as an amateur for 7 years, he was finally signed by Radio Difusora in 1941, and given an obviously racist moniker 'Blackout' (Apagão) - an English word much used in newspapers then to describe the blackouts Londoners were suffering as consequence of Hitler's bombs dropped off from Luftwaffe airplanes. According to legend, it was Capitão Furtado who came up with the idea. As Brazilians didn't know how to pronounce 'Blackout' they soon came up with a Brazilian spelling: Blecaute!
Octavio married Rosa in 1941 and had Marly in 1942 and Antonio in 1947.
Radiolandia n. 19 - 1954.
Radiolandia n. 24 - September 1954 - says Black-Out was earning a lot of money having invested most of it in real estate buying 5 lots for future houses; apparently he owned his spacious house in Rio de Janeiro-DF.
Radiolandia n. 33 - 1954.
Radiolandia n. 60 - 1955 was a busy year for Black-Out.
Radiolandia n. 69 - 1955 - This is what a fan wrote to Black-Out: 'You're a nice negro and you have a white soul'.
Radiolandia n. 157 - 1957 - tells how 'Programa de Calouros Golgate-Palmolive' on PRE-4, Radio Cultura which beamed on Saturdays from 2:30 to 5:00 PM - started in 1939, when Radio Cultura had its studio in Jabaquara, a far-away suburb in the South sector. It had its hey-day as 'Peneira Rhodine' being MCed first by Gregorian, then Walter Gonçalves, Jota Silvestre & finally Helio Araujo near its demise - who introduced between 50 to 60 contentants in its 2:30 broadcast.
Black-Out was a song writer too. 'Natal das crianças', recorded for 1955 Christmas, was undoubtedly his greatest self-penned hit ever. Above are 'Feliz ano novo' and 'Natal de Jesus'.
Black-Out dances with his daughter Marly on her graduation-day in January 1963.
Radiolandia n. 364 - 1st April 1963.
'Carioca' n.654 - 1947.
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