XAVIER CUGAT (1900-1990) A caricaturist and painter, Xavier Cugat was born near Barcelona, Spain on Jan. 1, 1900. His family immigrated to Cuba when he was three years old. He studied classical violin and worked as a violinist at the age of nine in a silent movie theater to help pay for his education. He was first chair violinist for the Teatro Nacional Symphonic Orchestra. When he wasn't performing, he started drawing caricatures. This was the beginning of his long career as an artist. On 6 July 1915 he and his family arrived in New York City on the SS Havana. Cugat appeared in recitals with the legendary Enrico Caruso, playing violin solos.

In the 1920s, he led a band that played often at the Coconut Grove, a club in Los Angeles. Cugat's friend, the great silent film star Charlie Chaplin, visited the club to dance the tango, so Cugat added tangos to the band's performances. Seeing how popular the dance was becoming, Cugat convinced the owner to hire South American dancers to give tango lessons. This, too, became popular, and Cugat made the dancers part of his orchestra. In 1928 he turned his act into the film "Xavier Cugat and His Gigolos".

He worked for the Los Angeles Times as a cartoonist. His caricatures were nationally syndicated. They appeared in Photoplay magazine beginning with the November 1927 issue, under the byline "de Bru." His older brother, Francis, was an artist of some note, having painted cover art for F. Scott Fitzgerald's novel The Great Gatsby.

In 1931 Cugat took his band to New York for the 1931 opening of the Waldorf–Astoria hotel. He replaced Jack Denny as leader of the hotel's resident band. For sixteen years, he led the Waldorf–Astoria Orchestra, shuttling between New York and Los Angeles for most of the next 30 years. One of his trademark gestures was to hold a chihuahua while he waved his baton with the other arm.

His music career led to appearing in the films In Gay Madrid (1930), You Were Never Lovelier (1942), Week-End at the Waldorf (1945), Bathing Beauty (1944), Holiday in Mexico (1946), A Date with Judy (1948), On an Island with You (1948), and Chicago Syndicate (1955).

Cugat owned and operated the Mexican restaurant "Casa Cugat" in West Hollywood. The restaurant was frequented by Hollywood celebrities and featured two singing guitarists who would visit each table and play diners' favorite songs upon request.

Spanish bandleader Xavier Cugat was the most popular Latin-American bandleader of the forties. He was a flashy showman and dressed his band in colorful attire like flaming red and gold. Cugat began his bandleading at the Waldorf-Astoria and reviewed here is his triumphant return to that particular venue.