A documentary series, ‘Pajares & Cía’, reviews the career of the most popular comedian in the Spain of the uncover, who only regrets “having entered the rag” in the heart programs
Andrés Pajares (Madrid, 1940) has done everything in the world of entertainment: liven up nightclubs, break the box office with Fernando Esteso in nine films that are still going around and show that he was a Goya actor under the orders of Carlos Saura. The documentary series ‘Pajares & Cía’ reviews his career in Atresplayer Premium and a period in the history of Spain in which he was the most popular comedian.
-I’m calling you from THE POST.
-Thanks to you I had one of my first contracts to liven up the publicity caravan that entertained the spectators at the Vuelta Ciclista a España, which was then organized by the newspaper. Year 1959, he was 19 years old. We acted a magician, a trio of French clowns, some athletes, two singers and myself. 45 minutes of spectacle before the cyclists arrived. A pleasure more than a job. It was the first time I saw the sea, I had not left Madrid, in those years it was not so easy. I set foot on a beach for the first time in Castro Urdiales. I thought, man, how big is this…
His mother was illiterate and his father worked in a bar. He inherited a sense of humor from him.
-If I talk to you about my father, tears come to my eyes. He was a hard-working man who earned a hundred pesetas a day. In the middle of the war, he would walk all over Madrid to buy a beef steak and for his son to eat meat. My parents’ son died of bronchitis when he was eleven months old, eleven years before I was born.
–At the age of 9 he won 25 pesetas reciting monologues in a Radio Madrid contest.
–’La gran illusion’, the program was called, presented by Eduardo Ruiz de Velasco and Manolo Bermúdez, Pototo y Boliche. The prize was 25 pesetas and, most importantly, a portrait of you by Gabarrón, the photographer to the stars, who had a studio on Calle Montera. It was the one that portrayed all the Hollywood actors who came to Madrid: Ava Gardner, Frank Sinatra…
-Already then it was clear that he was going to dedicate himself to the world of entertainment.
-Of course. She was very clear about it. I was a typist, a bellman, a waiter at Casa Morán and a tie seller at the Corte Inglés. But at the age of 17 he was already at the York Club, the most important nightclub in Madrid after Pasapoga. Then I met the mother of my son Andrés, María del Carmen Burguera, who was from Bilbao, from Zabalbide street, with wonderful parents. She was divorced and had been abused in her marriage. She first worked at Avon and then we formed a comedy couple, Maby-Pajares. The Maby thing was for Mari Carmen and Bilbao. Unfortunately, she died of lung cancer at the age of 33. You can’t suffer more than she suffered. In the niche where her remains rest, it says: “Here lies a great woman.”
–Who became a millionaire with the Esteso and Pajares films?
-I do not know. Mr. Reyzabal, the owner of the cinemas, and Bermúdez de Castro, the producer. Reyzabal had the idea that Fernando and I work together. I had already made movies, a movie with Pedro Carrasco (‘The sailor with the golden fists’) and another with Julio Iglesias (‘Life goes on the same’). Then and now we are aware of the money those movies made. Outrageous, they grossed more than American productions. And then there was another business, the rental and sale on video, the DVD and the remastering that a company from Barcelona has done of ‘Los bingueros’ and of two of my films, ‘Maki Navaja, el último choriso’ and ‘¡Semos dangerous! !!’.
Andrés Pajares at his wedding to Asunción Alonso, his second wife, in 1974.
Do you have the feeling that someone took advantage of you? Could they have negotiated another type of contract and made more money?
-It was what it was at the time. At that time half a million pesetas was a little money, what happens is that later the film made 200 million… In some I invested 50,000, 100,00 pesetas and they gave me a small percentage of the profits.
–What do you think when you hear about ‘uncovering cinema’?
–It did not come up with our films, but before, with magnificent actors like Alfredo Landa, López Vázquez or José Sacristán. It was the same type of cinema and the same director, Mariano Ozores.
– Were they sexist movies?
– No. We had a script. Whoever thinks they are macho is mistaken. We were humorous. There was a time when to see a tit you had to go to Perpignan. But our films had nothing to do with sex, they were based on humor and sex was added. Now it keeps happening. If you make a film in which there is a nudity and it is funny, they make you give birth. But if it appears in a dramatic film it turns out to be something important and from Goya. There is a false moral. We never had the feeling of doing something dirty. And so the public took it. I still run into people on the street who tell me how much they laughed at those nude movies. They were very funny. ‘They didn’t stop making movies!’ they tell me sometimes. Well, we only did nine.
–The Goya for ‘Oh, Carmela!’ changed your life?
-No. They realized that there was an actor – like antibiotics – with a broad spectrum. That he could do more than humor. With a director like Saura, a partner like Carmen Maura and a script by Azcona, if one is wrong, you’d better retire. ‘Ay Carmela!’ It is the film that has given me the most satisfaction, but it has not cost me as much as people think.
«My father used to walk all over Madrid to buy a beef steak and for his son to eat meat»
«I went to those kinds of programs to defend myself, because they said things about me that were not true. In bad time I did it»
–Did you have many friends after the Goya?
– No, I still had the same ones. They offered me much more serious, classic jobs at the Spanish Theater and at the María Guerrero. But I wanted to continue as a showman and comedian. That night, with the Goya in hand, I went to my dressing room in the Cleofás nightclub. I also made films like ‘Grandes occasions’, ‘Maki Navaja’, ‘Buana’, which won the Golden Shell in San Sebastian and the critics’ acting award in New York…
–That period in gossip shows talking about family miseries…
– If I find out… A great writer told me a very bullfighting phrase: not to get into the rag. I went to those types of programs to defend myself, because they said things about me that were not true. In bad time I did it. You shoot a movie, you learn a script, you pay attention to criticism and you win 10,000 euros. But in one of these programs on the chain that we all know, they offer you 30,000. Damn, a bargain. But it has already happened. Fortunately people are not stupid and time puts everyone in their place. I got sick, but I’m cured. Today is one more anecdote in my life. The nice thing is that I talk to you about my career and not about that.
– What do you regret in your life?
– Of having entered the rag. In my work, you’re welcome, everything has its charm. As hard as this job is, I’ve had a great time. Spain loves its comedians, although they don’t compare us to athletes. And much less economically. By the way, do you know who loved me very much? Zarra. I have an ashtray that he gave me with a picture of him scoring the goal…