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Finding aid for the Dancing Cansinos photograph album 8000
8000  
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Table of contents What's This?
  • Scope and Contents
  • Conditions Governing Access
  • Conditions Governing Use
  • Rights Statement for Archival Description
  • Immediate Source of Acquisition
  • Preferred Citation

  • Contributing Institution: USC Libraries Music Library
    Title: Dancing Cansinos photograph album
    Creator: Cansino family
    Identifier/Call Number: 8000
    Physical Description: 0.69 Linear Feet 1 box
    Date (inclusive): 1920-1939
    Abstract: The Dancing Cansinos photograph album consists of photographs and ephemera relating to the Dancing Cansinos, a family of professional dancers who emigrated from Spain and eventually settled in Los Angeles. The troupe consisted of Antonio, Sr. and Carmen Cansino; their children Eduardo, Elisa, Paco, Jose, Antonio, Jr., Rafael, and Angel; Gabriel Cansino, a cousin; and, briefly in the 1930s, Margarita Carmen Cansino, who later became known as the actress Rita Hayworth. Rita Hayworth's parents were Eduardo Cansino and Volga Hayworth. The Dancing Cansinos, and Elisa in particular, played a major role in bringing Spanish and Romani dances to the United States. The album primarily comprises professional posed images of the Cansino dancers, including real photo postcard (RPPC) portraits of of Eduardo and Elisa, a backstage photograph of Gabriel and other dancers (possibly including Elisa) at a theatre, and several RPPCs of the Cansinos striking dance poses and in costume. Other images of the Cansinos include a handful of vernacular snapshots of several members of the family on a boat, and one of what appears to be Gabriel on a horse. Additional images include a group portrait photo of a party in what appears to be Seville, images of other dancers and performers that either performed with the Cansinos or, possibly, were students. The album also contains various ephemera that primarily relate to Gabriel Cansino. Included is a 1927 holograph note for a monetary transaction in Madrid between Antonio and Gabriel; two promotional cards from 1925 and circa 1930; a program for a celebration of Mexico's independence held in San Francisco in 1931, at which Gabriel performed; a mockup of an advertisement featuring Elisa and Gabriel in Who's Who in Music and Dance in Southern California; a flyer for an appearance by Elisa in Toronto; and programs for California performances by Gabriel.
    Physical Description: 7 x 11 inch photo album and assorted ephemera and snapshots. Photo album: commercial black string-bound album with black construction paper leaves; 27 leaves used, recto only. Fold lines and light wear, foxing and soiling to ephemera; small ink stain to corner of one flyer; ink signatures to some of the photographs; a few photographs creased; one piece of ephemera nearly split at a fold line; tear to one leaf. Several items neatly removed from other photo albums or scrapbooks and still pasted to those original pages, with the latter then pasted into this album. Good to Very Good condition overall.
    Language of Material: English .
    Container: 1

    Scope and Contents

    The Dancing Cansinos photograph album consists of photographs and ephemera relating to the Dancing Cansinos, a family of professional dancers who emigrated from Spain and eventually settled in Los Angeles. The troupe consisted of Antonio, Sr. and Carmen Cansino; their children Eduardo, Elisa, Paco, Jose, Antonio, Jr., Rafael, and Angel; Gabriel Cansino, a cousin; and, briefly in the 1930s, Margarita Carmen Cansino, who later became known as the actress Rita Hayworth. Rita Hayworth's parents were Eduardo Cansino and Volga Hayworth. The Dancing Cansinos, and Elisa in particular, played a major role in bringing Spanish and Romani dances to the United States.
    The album primarily comprises professional posed images of the Cansino dancers. A real photo postcard (RPPC) portrait of Eduardo and Elisa opens the album, soon followed by a backstage photograph of Gabriel and other dancers (possibly including Elisa) at a theatre, several RPPCs of the Cansinos striking dance poses and in costume, and an inscribed photograph of Gabriel. Other images of the Cansinos include a handful of vernacular snapshots of several members of the family on a boat, and one of what appears to Gabriel on a horse.
    Additional images include a group portrait photo of a party in what appears to be Seville, images of other dancers and performers that either performed with the Cansinos or, possibly, were students. The former include Nicholas Tsoukalas and Carmen and Pepe Guerrero, while the latter are a woman identified only as Coco, pictured in San Francisco (where Carmen opened a studio), and an unidentified woman in a swimsuit.
    The album also contains various ephemera that primarily relate to Gabriel Cansino. Included is a 1927 holograph note for a monetary transaction in Madrid between Antonio and Gabriel; two promotional cards from 1925 and circa 1930; a program for a celebration of Mexico's independence held in San Francisco in 1931, at which Gabriel performed; a mockup of an advertisement featuring Elisa and Gabriel in Who's Who in Music and Dance in Southern California; a flyer for an appearance by Elisa in Toronto; and programs for California performances by Gabriel.
    The album measures 7 by 11 inches: commercial black string-bound album with black construction paper leaves; 27 leaves used, recto only. The album contains 9 black and white photographs and 17 real photo postcards (most affixed with corner mounts, but a few pasted in), two laid-in real photo postcards of Rita Hayworth, and 5 mounted or pasted-in pieces of ephemera. An additional 11 pieces of ephemera are laid in, mostly programs, as well as 10 black and white snapshots and real photo postcards of what appear to be unidentified members of the Cansino family. Lastly, the album contains six copies of a blank consent form for the Cansino Studio to use the name of the student, presumably in its programs and promotional material.

    Conditions Governing Access

    COLLECTION STORED OFF-SITE. Advance notice required for access.

    Conditions Governing Use

    All requests for permission to publish or quote from manuscripts must be submitted in writing to the Music Library at music@usc.edu. Permission for publication is given on behalf of the Music Library as the owner of the physical items and is not intended to include or imply permission of the copyright holder, which must also be obtained.

    Rights Statement for Archival Description

    Finding aid description and metadata are licensed under an Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) license.

    Immediate Source of Acquisition

    Purchased from Kate Mitas, Bookseller, October 3, 2022.

    Preferred Citation

    [Box/folder no. or item name], Dancing Cansinos photograph album, Collection no. 8000, Music Library, USC Libraries, University of Southern California

    Subjects and Indexing Terms

    Dance -- United States -- 20th century -- Archival resources
    Dance companies -- United States -- History -- 20th century -- Archival resources
    Dancers -- United States -- 20th century -- Archival resources
    Dancers -- United States -- 20th century -- Photographs
    Folk dancing, Romani -- United States -- 20th century -- Archival resources
    Folk dancing, Spanish -- United States -- 20th century -- Archival resources
    Ephemera
    Fliers (printed matter)
    Photograph albums
    Photographic postcards
    Programs (documents)
    Promotional materials
    Scrapbooks
    Cansino family -- Archives
    Cansino, Eduardo, 1893-1968 -- Photographs
    Cansino, Elisa, 1894- -- Photographs
    Cansino, Gabriel, 1913?-1963 -- Photographs
    Hayworth, Rita, 1918-1987 -- Photographs