NOTE: This music reminds me a little of those tunes, which in my childhood were played by circus bands for the opening of the show. Of course, as for every kid also for me, going out with parents to the circus was one of those events, which my children's memory recorded in details and stored forever. Therefore, I am grateful whenever it happens - like this time - that accidental recording reminds me of children's lost paradise, full of somersaulting Lilliputians, trained dogs, elephants, horse ballets and ceiling-flying acrobats, denying the law of gravitation. To this tune I chose a show of appropriate photos, illustrating a few peculiarities of the Berlin Luna-Park from the early 20th century.
Efim Schachmeister (one of his pseudonyms was Sascha Elmo) was born in 1894 in Kiev, Ukraine, as the son of Jewish- Romanian parents. Early in his life he travelled to Germany, where in 1910-13 he received musical education in the class of violin at the Stern Conservatory in Berlin. Around 1915 he joined the Gypsy dance orchestra Popescu, which in 1923 he bacame the head of. From 1924, Schachmeister's Tanz-Orchester was a permanent dance floor band at the prominent Hotel Excelsior in Berlin. In those years he made his first recordings for Polyphon records, followed by his permanent contract with Deutsche Grammophon. Soon, Efim Schachmeister's hot dance band became so popular in Berlin, that managers of the night-clubs -- such as Barberina, Palais de Danse, Mascotte - simply snatched him from each others' hands, especially when he included into his repertoire hottest international jazz-hits of the day.
In 1933, when new nazi-rulers took over the power in Germany, Efim Schachmeister went on a tour to Luxembourg and Belgium from where, in 1936 he travelled to Argentine, following his compatriots Leon Golzmann (aka Dajos Béla) and Samuel Baskind (aka Sam Baskini). Alas, Schachmeister was not given a chance to enjoy much longer his life, which he managed to rescue from the Holocaust in Europe. In 1944 he suddenly died in Buenos Aires, at the age of 50.
