Ben Molar

Ben Molar (3 October 1915 – 25 April 2015) was an Argentine author, composer, musical producer, and talent scout. He created the National Day of the Tango, held annually on 11 December, placed bronze plaques on all 40 corners of Calle Corrientes and produced an interdisciplinary artistic project that combined art, poetry, and music to promote Argentine tango.

Biography Moisés Smolarchik Brenner was born on 3 October 1915 at Calles Montevideo and Corrientes in Buenos Aires, Argentina to Jewish immigrants León Smolarchik and Fanny Brenner. From childhood Molar sang with the neighborhood street musicians and at a very early age began writing songs.

Molar was an ambitious talent scout, a shrewd businessman, who had a good ear for what the general public and young people were interested in hearing. He was one of the key figures who helped promote Argentine tango albums from the 1950s to the 1970s. As the owner of the label Fermata he both promoted local talent like Mercedes Sosa, El Club del Clan, Los Abuelos de la Nada and Los 5 Latinos Jorge Luis Borges, Carlos Cañás, Juan D'Arienzo, Florencio Escardó, Raquel Forner, Another of his ideas to promote the tango was to place bronze plaques on all 40 corners of Calle Corrientes featuring well known stars such as Enrique Cadícamo, Libertad Lamarque, Raúl Lavié, Tita Merello, Mariano Mores, Horacio Salgán and Tania.

He was married to actress Pola Neuman, with whom he had two children: Daniel and Ruben Brenner. Molar died on 25 April 2015 in Buenos Aires.

Filmography Acting Los guardianes del ángel (2004) Merello x Carreras (2015)

Composer Fascinación (1949) Theme Yo soy el criminal (1951) ((Mi Lejano Amor))(1957) Los días ardientes (1966) Patricia mía (1961) Un Elefante color ilusión (1970) Theme

Musical scores Navidad de los pobres (1947) (interpretation) Punto y banca (1959) Días calientes (1966)

Soundtrack Barcelona (1994) Alas, poder y pasión (1998)