Dario Moreno

Darío Moreno (April 3, 1921 – December 1, 1968) was a Turkish-Jewish polyglot singer, as well as an accomplished composer, lyricist and guitarist, who was born in İzmir, Turkey, in 1921, and who attained fame and made a remarkable career centered in France and which also included films, during the fifties and the sixties. His real name was David Arugete and he was born in the poorer Jewish quarter of İzmir to a large family. He was orphaned in early childhood when his father, who worked in a train station in the city, was shot to death under tragic circumstances. He was placed in the Sephardic orphanage of İzmir (Nino De Guerfanos) by his mother and remained there until he was four. After a patchy primary education in the Jewish educational establishments of İzmir, he did many odd jobs during his early youth. But he has also put great effort into bettering his education at the same time as working for the bread, and having started as an errand boy in the cabinet of one of the city's prominent lawyers, he was in time raised to becoming a clerk in his office. In the evenings, he would study French in İzmir's Central Library. With a guitar that had fallen into his hands by chance, he also learned, mainly on his own with occasional tutoring asked here and there, to master playing that instrument. He started singing in the Bar Mitzva feasts as a secondary occupation. In his early twenties, he had already become a well-known singer in İzmir, and particularly among the Jewish community. During his military service in the Turkish army, he was employed as a singer in officers quarters in various garrisons and became more focused on music. His first truly professional musical performance started in his hometown right after his discharge, through connections established while under the arms. Since he had started making money thanks to music, he moved to the more well-off Jewish quarter of Karataş to a house in a street leading to the historical building of Asansör, one of the city's landmarks (and which means, literally, the "Escalator", people taking an actual escalator to go to the higher part of the quarter, this part being separated by the coastal strait with a steep slope). This street is named Dario Moreno Sokağı (Dario Moreno Street) today in his memory. A hyper-active personality, Darío Moreno died of a heart attack in a taxi while going to the airport in İstanbul on 1 December 1968. He was only 47. He has been buried in Israel against his wish.