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Gilbert Mamery Riera (March 15, 1927 – March 30, 2003) was a Puerto Rican disc-jockey, musicologist, radio station owner, radio and television personality, marketing impresario and composer born in Mayagüez, Puerto Rico. He is the father of Puerto Rican talent manager and radio entrepreneur Topy Mamery, Puerto Rican radio announcer and marketing impresario Eric William Mamery, and media announcer and comedienne Gricel Mamery. He was also the son of Lebanese-born textile impresario William Mamary (the family name's spelling was later changed during Gilbert's lifetime). ==Early years== Gilbert Mamery was born to a well-to-do family in Mayagüez, Puerto Rico. His father William was a Lebanese immigrant to the United States who, after moving to Philadelphia and serving in World War I decided to join a sizeable group of Maronite Christian Lebanese immigrants who left the United States for Puerto Rico in the early years of the 20th century. He established a handkerchief and lace products factory (and ran a numbers game operation as a side occupation), and became a successful businessman. His factory and name became cultural references (in a somewhat unflattering way) in the plena ''"Aló, ¿Quién Ñama?"'' by Mon Rivera. Referring to the plena, it is said that Mamary used to agree with the saying that "bad publicity is better than no publicity at all". Gilbert did not want to follow on the family business since, from an early age, he was obsessed with popular music. A live presentation by Carlos Gardel in Mayagüez's Teatro Yagüez (on 9 April 1935) was a defining moment in his life. He initiated his large collection of music recordings and items soon after. Since he was tall for his age (and had a booming bass voice, which was the deepest one of any local radio personality at the time he became a broadcaster), Gilbert could sneak in clubs at an age as early as thirteen years-old, which allowed him to visit relatives in New York City and sneak into live presentations by Tommy Dorsey and Xavier Cugat (who caught him playing bongo drums onstage with the band unsupervised once, and later became a friend). At the age of fourteen, Gilbert pleaded for a job as a disc-jockey at the city's first radio station, WPRA-AM. The station owners were reluctant to give him a job due to his age, but conceded due to his sheer persistence. Gilbert would later make solo trips to Cuba at the age of sixteen (1943), in search of local acts such as the Orquesta Casino de la Playa and Miguelito Valdés. In his first trip he visited the studios of CMQ, Cuba's main radio station. Soon after his Cuba trip, Mamery joined WKJB-AM in Mayagüez, where he would host three radio shows a day. Taking a cue from his Cuban trip, Gilbert tried using two turntables simultaneously (one playing the music currently being aired, while cueing another record at the same time), something unheard of in Puerto Rico at the time. This gained him the nickname ''"El Loco de Los Controles"'' ("The Control Room Looney") by his fellow DJ's, and the technique, plus his expansive interest as a collectionist, earned him a reputation for efficiency at his broadcasts. Gilbert became a cultural reference himself in another plena, Daniel Santos' version of ''"La Máquina"'' ("The Engine"), a song about the existing train route between San Juan and Ponce (for which Mayagüez was the midway point) in the lines: ''"Mamery le puso un disco/Y la máquina bailó"'' ("Mamery played a record, and the engine danced"). 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Gilbert Mamery」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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