Abel Posse
The novelist's father, Ernesto Parentini, a porteño of Italian parents, was one of the founders of Artistas Argentinos Asociados and was the producer of the legendary feature film La guerra gaucha (1942), based on the text by the poet Leopoldo Lugones. The young Abel Posse grew up in the Argentine capital near Rivadavia street, and given his father's profession was exposed to the artistic and cultural milieu this most sophisticated of the South American capitals had to offer. The “Queen of the River Plate”, as Buenos Aires came to be known, fascinated the young man, (4) and his memories are evoked in his novel Los demonios ocultos (1987).
He was able to mingle with the glamorous stars of Argentine show business, like Chas de Cruz, Pierina Dealessi, Ulises Petit de Murat, Muñoz Azpiri, the writer of radioplays which were performed by Eva Duarte (de Perón), as well as the tango composers Aníbal Troilo and Homero Manzi. Such were the family connections to show business that one of his aunts, Esmeralda Leiva de Heredia, better known as “La Jardín”, was an actress friend of Eva Duarte. (5) Growing up in this environment enabled him to obtain an almost encyclopaedic knowledge of the tango repertoire and its culture, (6) which imbues his novel La reina del Plata (1988).
Bob Paul Kane
Bob Paul Kane was born in Cleveland, Ohio. As a child he attended the Cleveland Museum School, where he received his initial exposure to drawing and painting, and later at the Cleveland Institute of Art in 1953-54. In 1955 he enrolled in Cornell University, but left after a year to pursue painting, heading to Provincetown, Massachusetts, where he met the sculptor Chaim Gross. The two developed a close relationship, and Kane returned with the Gross family back to New York in the fall of 1956. At Gross’ encouragement, he began studying at the Art Students League of New York, as well as for a one year scholarship to Pratt Institute in 1958.