Lola Flores, 100 years of La Faraona, pioneer of crowdfunding: "It was a broken hole, there were no sorrows at her side"

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"They were two columns of Hercules", reflects the couturier

(87) when he thinks of the legs of Lola Flores.

Watching her walk was a spectacle in itself.

She had just turned 30 when on a certain occasion, the gentlemen from the casino on Sierpes street in Seville

That is called respect.

Today, January 21, exactly a century ago,

said good morning to Jerez de la Frontera (Cádiz) to warn that a new meteorological phenomenon in the form of a whirlwind of colors was going to devastate everything that he would find in his path.

Daughter of a seamstress (Rosario) and a bartender (Pedro), she gave samples of her art under the name of Lolita Flores Imperio de Jerez for her devotion to Pastora Imperio, who would make history in the tabloids for her romance with Fernando de Borbón,

from

whom the actress Pastora Vega (great-granddaughter) descends.

At the age of 16, she made her professional debut with

who proposed a tour to which Don Pedro refused because he was a minor.

MS

The director Fernando Mignoni did not take long to appear, offering him 8,000 pesetas for a role in

(1940), so the whole family moved to Madrid, including his brothers Manolo (1933-1948) and Carmen (1936).

But it was a matter of time before she left with Manolo, since after the premiere of

(1943)

They formed a company for eight years in which there were fights, jealousy, infidelity and beatings, situations that

denied in a statement when the docuseries

(2021) was released.

With that shine that her eyes gave off, she wove a net in which men fell.

With the guitarist Niño Ricardo he had a clandestine abortion;

to help her parents and the bullfighter Rafael Gómez

did the impossible to sleep with her.

It didn't hurt her to shout that "there has only been one virgin and it wasn't me, but the Virgin Mary."

Goblin and figure.

De ella (86) hastened to

: "There was nothing. My sister dedicated a song to her while she was performing on the Champs-Élysées and later Gary and her wife entered the dressing room to greet us".

One night she came in wearing a fur coat, climbed on a table, took it off and was completely naked.

The break with Manolo Caracol in 1951 coincided with her entry into the star Olympus of producer Cesáreo González, owner of Suevia Films, who hired her exclusively for six million pesetas.

Also on her payroll were Paquita Rico and Carmen Sevilla, with whom she starred

(1962).

The three had their egos so... how did they have to appear in the credits?

"They put the three names at the same size and

", reveals the book

(Notorius publishing house), where for the first time a review of the entire filmography of Lola Flores is carried out. she.

Don Ne-Cesáreo, as the generous producer was called,

and Mexican filming where Lola would achieve immortality after being baptized

by the owner of the Capri room, frequented by Ginger Rogers or Edith Piaf.

In the Aztec country he had a slip with Ricardo Montalbán and forged friendship with

, Miguel Aceves Mejía

and Cantinflas "who, after giving a diamond ring to Carmen Sevilla, her friend Lola forced him to return it, warning him that she already knew what was coming next," reveals the writer and journalist José Aguilar.

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After her romances with the soccer players Gustavo Biosca and Gerardo Coque, she would drink the winds for the guitarist Antonio González

, married to Dolores Amaya and mother of her daughter Antonia, to whom she was unfaithful with the dancer Carmelita Santos, with whom she had the guitarist Juan Antony

in the Monastery of El Escorial on October 27, 1957 when

It didn't take long for Lolita (64) to arrive and later Antonio (1961-1995), who gave him so many fatigues.

During the marriage Lola had her dalliances, the longest being Antonio Carrasco

At his side in those special moments was Carmen Caballero, who before passing away in 2020 told me that "when Antonio came to Barcelona to detoxify, I made the reservation in my name. He used to stay at my house, we talked almost all night, and when Lola was staying at the hotel next door, the Balmoral."

She also evoked the glamor days with Ava Gardner, "whom Lola adored, but she shunned when she was drunk. One night she came in wearing a fur coat, climbed on a table, took it off, and was totally naked." .

, like those of Caripén, the tablao that she ran together with her husband, where one could find Gina Lollobrigida or Beni de Cádiz.

With the unmistakable aroma that intoxicates memories,

remembers the good heart she had because on Christmas 1971 she participated in a charity event "because she called me to organize the match of fines against folkloric. She put me with the fines and not I know why (laughs). Sometimes, he

, like the 100,000 pesetas he pocketed the night the Red Cross organized a festival in the gardens of the Terry winery, "but it was profitable since a lot of people attended and it was possible to buy a well-equipped ambulance", alleges one of the organizers.

In the same way that he earned millions , he

.

"Oh, Toni! Your friends, the couturiers, have denounced me," he told Toni Benítez at one of the Friday meals at Casa Lucio.

"If I pay when I can and I owe you a lot and you haven't told me

", to which the couturier replied: "You are an artist and I am an artist, you will give it to me when you can".

With that grace she had, the singer of

blurted out:

, and two days later "she brought me a bag with 500,000 pesetas and a painted painting for her", points out the designer.

NOTORIOUS EDITIONS

"Lola was a broken hole since sorrows never existed at her side", confesses her friend Juan el Golosina while her mind goes back to 1989, when flamenco made history with I'm a Gypsy by Camarón and La Faraona testified in court for having defrauded to the Treasury 47 million pesetas for not presenting the Income for five years.

Mythical is her phrase "if each Spaniard gave me a peseta..." which made her a pioneer of crowdfunding.

Despite the troubles, he had a special picaresque, as

(65) recalls in his Los Gitanillos house in Marbella "when he asked me to take pictures of him sunbathing and bathing in the pool. When he opened the camera to go to Reveal there was nothing there. Two weeks later a report was published with my photos. It is the best time I have been robbed. What art I had! (laughs)".

An art that was palpable on stage, but that did not prevent him from admiring other artists, such as María Rosa, to whom he told "why didn't he teach his girls to dance? Look how proud he was. With Antonio the Dancer we commented that there was no one like her".

The biggest are the most generous.

From that faith Micaela Flores

"because she admired Carmen Amaya -her cousin-

In a dressing room she told me that it would make her very happy if I married a gypsy and I kissed her on the shoulder."

And no one beat graciosa, because

confesses that when he was performing in Miami "he went to Rocío's house because he was into American food and he wanted them to make him some yellow potatoes with cod. Before lunch he got into the jacuzzi with part of the group of artists and Lola

. " Juan de la Rosa -secretary of the chipionera- had to go all over Miami looking for the cod ".

NOTORIOUS EDITIONS

Despite so many joys, he suffered inside.

He refused to have a mastectomy while the breast cancer ran its course.

Two weeks later, her 33-year-old son, Antonio, accompanied her.

Grief, barbiturates and alcohol finished him off.

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

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