It was the first such recording ever made. Tango had existed for years before this, but more as a folkloric music and dance that celebrated rural happiness, fine horses, and the loveliness of country girls. This that Gardel was singing was new - and instantly popular.

"El espejo está empańado / y parece que ha llorado / por la ausencia de tu amor." ("The mirror mists / and appears to have wept / with the absence of your love.")

Carlos Gardel went on to become the biggest-selling music star in the Spanish-speaking world, an international phenomenon of enormous proportions. He and Razzano came together again on one memorable occasion. On October 12, 1924 they made one of the first live radio broadcasts to be produced from the studio of "Lo Grand Splendid," Max's important new station that was housed on the upper floor of his theater.

Gardel himself also became a movie star, so well thought of by Hollywood that by 1934 he was being prepared by Paramount Studios to become the next Maurice Chevalier. On March 5, 1934, Max arranged for a short wave radio hook-up, broadcast by Radio Splendid in Argentina — from the same studios atop the Grand Splendid Theater — and NBC in the United States.

The artists were Carlos Gardel and his long-time guitarists, Guillermo Desiderio Barbieri and Angel Domingo Riverol. These men had accompanied Carlos on many of his most memorable recordings, much of the music also written by them. This occasion was memorable for quite a different reason, since in fact Carlos was singing in New York while the guitarists were playing in Buenos Aires. It was one of the first such international broadcasts ever made.

Carlos's ambitions for international film star status came to naught. He was killed in an airplane accident in Columbia on June 24, 1935, still an occasion of national mourning in Argentina. All of Carlos's recordings are in print to this day and readily available on CD and the Internet.

For me, the Café Impresso, which is located on the stage of the old Grand Splendid Theater, is a great pleasure simply because of all this history - but there is more. . .

El Ateneo Grand Splendid is now a very fine bookstore in a country that prides itself on its literate population and its reading. Perhaps there are more bookstores per capita in London or New York, but I wouldn't bet on it. The Argentines read; and if you read Spanish, you can find in this store and in this old theater enough to keep you going, well, for as long as the theater stands.