Asensio Marsal

Asensio Marsal Martínez (1897 – c.1936 or 1950),

Career

Early life Asensio was born in Cartagena in 1897. Due to the death of his father, he began working at a young age, excelling in sewing. He worked as a dressmaker and tailor for cuplé singers and celebrities, gaining recognition and even being mentioned in Rafael Cansinos Assens’ memoir La novela de un literato (1911). During this period, he lived with his mother Isabel Martínez and his sister, the dancer and singer Magda de Bries, in a guesthouse on Relatores Street in Lavapiés.

Fame In 1919, he performed before the Spanish royal family at the Victoria Eugenia Theatre in San Sebastián, and in 1920, he debuted at Teatro Fuencarral in Madrid, drawing over 2,500 spectators per show for four months. and it is believed he may have died during the war or in the 1950s.

In 2017, the book Orgullo travestido: Egmont de Bries y la repercusión social del transformismo en la España del primer tercio del siglo XX by researcher Juan Carlos Usó was published.

Book

Bonitos couplés por el mago del arte del vestido (1925)