Elvira Ríos

Ríos was born on 16 November 1913 in La Lagunilla, a neighborhood of central Mexico City.[1] She was the firstborn child of José María Gallegos Villalobos and María Guadalupe Ríos Rodríguez.[2] She had a younger brother, José Gallegos Ríos (d. 1993),[3] and a younger sister, Soledad Gallegos Ríos (d. 1981).[4]

According to one source, Ríos was discovered by Agustín Lara when the songwriter heard her singing in a nightclub in Mexico City. After hearing the great imitation she was able to make of him (with her deep contralto voice), he invited her to his house and promised to make her a great star. However, another source says that she became one of the main performers of the XEW station after she auditioned for Emilio Azcárraga Vidaurreta, who immediately signed her for three daily 15-minute spots;[5] this happened in 1936. She made her record debut singing "Pensaba que tu amor" and "Cachito de sol" with Lara.[6]

Elvira Ríos in 1938, when she performed over the NBC station

She made her debut in Mexican films singing "Noche de ronda" in ¡Esos hombres! (released in 1937). Manuel Riachi, an assistant to Paramount Pictures producer Arthur Hornblow Jr., discovered her singing over XEW and took her to Hollywood to appear in the musical Tropic Holiday,[7] where she sang songs by Lara and played Tito Guízar's sister. She was then chosen to play a young Apache woman named Yakima in John Ford's Stagecoach. In March 1938, NBC signed her as a sustaining artist and gave her her own 15-minute program every Thursday with Frank Hodek's orchestra.[8] Her success on the West Coast led her to New York City, where she performed at the popular nightclub La Martinique and began a series of recordings for the Decca label. After New York, she performed in Miami at the Miami-Biltmore Hotel with Maximillian Bergere's orchestra.

Her last appearances in Hollywood were as the leading lady of singer and actor Ray Whitley in the short film Cupid Rides the Range (1939) and as a Filipino woman in The Real Glory (1940).

The first film she made in Argentina was Ven mi corazón te llama (1942), in which she played the mysterious and fascinating Sombra Rey, a fictional Mexican bolero singer.

She returned to Mexican cinema with a starring role in Murallas de pasión (1944) with Isabela Corona and Alberto Galán.

She also starred in the Argentine film El tango vuelve a París (1948) with tango singer Alberto Castillo and bandoneonist Aníbal Troilo, among others.

In the early 1950s she recorded Sensualidad, one of her first studio albums, for the Mexican independent label Discos Musart. This LP record includes eight tracks with Don Americo's orchestra.

In 1957, she released her first studio album for RCA Victor, Noche de ronda. She rerecorded several of her classic hits, including "Noche de ronda", "Janitzio", and "Noche de luna". The album also includes a medley of Guty Cárdenas songs, Paul Misraki's "Una mujer", and Agustín Lara's "Santa", among other songs. A year later, she appeared in the musical film Melodías inolvidables (released in 1959), singing "Noche de ronda" and "Noche de luna".

In 1960, she recorded her second album for RCA Victor, Ausencia, accompanied by Gonzalo "Chalo" Cervera's orchestra and pianist Pepe Agüeros. The title track is a María Grever composition. The album also includes a new recording of Ríos' big 1940s hit "Desesperadamente", as well as the Agustín Lara standards "Rival" and "Amor de mis amores" and José Alfredo Jiménez' Mexican folk song "Qué bonito amor".

On 18 November 1961, she became "the first non-U.S. performer" to perform in the show of the National Press Club's annual President's Black Tie Ball in Washington, D.C..[9]

Her third RCA Victor album, La emocional Elvira Ríos, was also released in the 1960s. It features a new recording of "Flores negras", one of her signature songs; Agustín Lara's "Azul"; Alfonso Torres' "Pensando en ti"; and an Alberto Domínguez medley, "Frenesí-Perfidia", among other songs. For this album she also recorded two American pop songs—"All the Things You Are" and "Once in a While"—in English.

She remained with RCA Victor until December 1973, when she signed a recording contract with the Orfeón label.[10] In 1974, she recorded her first Orfeón album, La emocional Elvira Ríos, accompanied by Chucho Zarzosa's orchestra. In 1979, Orfeón released a 3-LP compilation with 30 of Elvira Ríos' hits.

Ríos died of kidney failure and bladder cancer at her home in Coyoacán on 13 January 1987.[11] Her remains were cremated at the Panteón Civil de Dolores.[11]

• Elvira Ríos at IMDb