/// WEEKEND BY VIC MATUS AGO 30 2026 --------------- Back in the ’50s, Americans were caught up in an entirely different movement: Eddie Dean returns to the Weekend Beacon with a review of Pérez Prado: King of the Mambo by John Radanovich. https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!fMVY!,w_1456,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F9edb5932-9c49-423e-aaf2-46a8abf7f26b_695x491.jpeg “King of the Mambo is a smart and snappy portrait of a revolutionary musician whose fans ranged from Jack Kerouac and Quincy Jones to Igor Stravinsky, and who, according to Radanovich, hasn’t received his proper due. The book rescues Prado from the Exotica section of record stores where his albums are still found next to cult oddballs like Yma Sumac, Esquivel, and Martin Denny, all of which, as Radanovich notes, ‘couldn’t have existed until the Pérez Prado thing happened.’ “Yet while the loopy sounds of the Exotica acts are championed for their dated, time-capsule ambience (cf. Space-Age Bachelor Pad Music, the title of an Esquivel compilation), Prado’s music has stayed fresh and ageless, even as it morphs and reappears through the decades, such as the 1999 sampled version of ‘Mambo No. 5’ by Bavarian singer Lou Bega, which sold seven million CDs and remains a staple at weddings around the world. ‘As a pianist and bandleader,’ writes Radanovich, ‘Pérez Prado exerted more outside influence on American jazz, R&B, and even rock and roll than probably any other single musician in American history.’” “Mambo also exerted a pull on some of early rock’s pioneers like the songwriting team of Doc Pomus and Mort Shuman, who were among the ‘mambonik kids’ thronging the Sunday matinee shows in the late ’40s at New York’s Palladium ballroom. As Radanovich notes, the duo ‘incorporated Latin syncopation into their compositions,’ which included seminal hits for The Drifters and Elvis, among other rockers whose own rebellious sounds would quash the mambo dance craze by the end of the ’50s. “Radanovich is at his best elucidating how mambo is only part of a centuries-old procession of Cuban musical traditions, like its precursor danzón and its successor cha-cha, that gave American popular music what Jelly Roll Morton called ‘the Spanish Tinge.’ At its core, mambo was a fusion of Afro-Cuban rhythms and the big band format of the Swing era. Prado calibrated an array of touches from gutbucket to classical to forge a signature sound that, writes Radanovich, was ‘absolutely unmistakable Pérez Prado: the dramatic horns, the percussive and discordant piano, relentless bongos, and conga.’” []{} Speaking of flamboyantly dressed musicians, who can forget David Bowie’s look as the goblin king in Labyrinth? Not Mia Bowman, who reviews this cult classic from 1986. https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!Bdml!,w_1456,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Ffabe9e45-0806-4b22-a2c3-a6f790f16c81_715x491.png “Have you ever longed to know The Dark Crystal’s strange yet amicable cousin? Jim Henson’s 1986 coming-of-age acid trip Labyrinth covers every whimsical and weird base that puppetry can offer. Drawing from sources such as the paradoxical pieces of M.C. Escher and the medieval myth of changelings swapping babies with their own, the David Bowie-embellished journey immediately cemented itself into the weird fantasy hall of fame. “Sarah (Jennifer Connelly), a teenager wrapped snugly in her fantasy daydreams, is yanked into the reality of babysitting her infant stepbrother Toby for the umpteenth time. Her stepmother refuses to listen to gripes, and when she sees her favorite teddy bear in the hands of the baby, Sarah wishes for Toby to be whisked away by her book’s notorious goblins. To her horror, her wish is granted by the goblin king Jareth, David Bowie clad in skin-tight leggings and rumpled period-piece tunics. He declares that Sarah has 13 hours to find Toby in the labyrinth before the babe is transformed into a goblin permanently.” “Jim Henson pulled out all the stops to bring his vision to reality, a true marvel of puppetry and design. A shaft lined with hands was brought to life by 75 performers (that’s 150 total hands). A forest was brimming with 120 truckloads of tree branches. Jim Henson’s Creature Shop spent about a year and a half building the film’s puppets prior to filming. Set designer Elliot Scott and conceptual designer Brian Froud brought a devastating attention to detail; the Escher-inspired three-dimensional staircase and the largest panoramic black cloth ever made are among the most impressive of the production team’s feats.” “One of the major aspects that resonated with young viewers was Bowie’s performance. This is not to cast Connelly’s achievements aside; many adult actors have expressed difficulty acting with nonhuman costars, a feat surely made all the more impressive by a 14-year-old. Still, Bowie, merely as himself, is a singular figure. It’s difficult to conjure another artist who could successfully harness the same mysticality of Bowie’s Jareth besides maybe Prince, whom Henson considered for the role, as well. Jareth’s look is nothing unfamiliar to a Bowie fan, his stature lending perfectly to his costuming and makeup to paint a villain of authority and strange prowess.” []{} From a sinister labyrinth to the Smoky Mountains of Tennessee, Mary Katharine Ham reflects with gratitude on country music legend Dolly Parton. https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!Ssgp!,w_1456,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Ff7eae360-7e37-49ee-b760-72b2fb7007a9_714x491.jpeg There’s something special about the way Dolly told and lived her own story, and it gets rarer every day. We live in a culture increasingly interested in digging up trauma, naming it, and even building identities and audiences around it. There is value in talking about suffering. Dolly went through plenty. But she understood something we are in danger of losing. There is also value in refusing to let suffering become the most interesting thing about you. In an era of trauma farming, Dolly was farming joy and resilience, in moments big and small. (A professional breakup and betrayal by a mentor became the iconic ‘I Will Always Love You.’) “Her father was illiterate, so she built a global library that brought more than 300 million books to millions of families. She couldn’t have her own children, so she became a doting aunt to millions of others. My own nephew got a birthday message from her days after her passing to mark his first birthday because he’d joined the Imagination Library. “Julia Roberts tells a story of Parton on the set of 1989’s Steel Magnolias, filmed in Louisiana. Every member of the super-powered cast had complained about the heat at some point, but not Dolly. Roberts ribbed her, suggesting it was okay to admit she was hot sitting in the Louisiana heat with a wig on waiting for the director. Dolly told her, ‘When I was a little girl, I wanted to be famous and I wanted to be rich, and now I’m both those things. I’m not going to complain about it.’ Whether she was in a log home or on a movie set, Dolly was glad to be there.” []{} Happy Sunday. Vic Matus Arts & Culture Editor Washington Free Beacon Thanks for reading the Washington Free Beacon! Subscribe for free to receive new posts.