On 16 January 1944 a medium-strength earthquake leveled the city of San Juan, Argentina, leaving 10,000 dead (10% of the city's inhabitants) and one-third of the province homeless. In response to the tragedy, many of our beloved tango orchestras gave of their time and talents to support the relief efforts. Most of the concerts were organized by the sports and social clubs that were in the ascendancy as dance venues at the time. Here are some ads for benefits concerts featuring the orchestras of Tanturi, Laurenz, Demare, Firpo, De Angelis, and many others. They appeared in the Saturday and Sunday editions of the morning newspaper El Mundo on the "Dance Guide" pages.
23 January 1944. Club Resurgimiento. Grand Soiree for the sole benefit of the survivors of San Juan….
22 January 1944. Club Social and Cultural General San Martín. Grand Dance for the sole benefit of the survivors of San Juan.
22 January 1944. Club Atletico "Huracan." Grand Soiree for the sole benefit of the survivors of San Juan with the generous participation of the following orchestras….
22 January 1944. As above.
And here's the front page of the newspaper the day after the quake. Awful!:
Tango Decoder 