Vida Amélia Guedes Alves (April 15, 1928 – January 3, 2017) was a Brazilian

actress An actor or actress is a person who portrays a Character (arts), character in a performance. The actor performs "in the flesh" in the traditional medium of the theatre or in modern media such as film, radio, and television. The analogous Greek ...

and pioneer of early

Brazilian television Television in Brazil has grown significantly since the first broadcasts in 1950, becoming one of largest and most productive commercial television systems in the world.Straubhaar, JosephBrazil - The Museum of Broadcasting Communications Its bigg ...

whose career spanned more than seventy years. In 1951, Alves made history when she and actor Walter Forster performed the first on-screen kiss ever

broadcast Broadcasting is the distribution of audio or video content to a dispersed audience via any electronic mass communications medium, but typically one using the electromagnetic spectrum ( radio waves), in a one-to-many model. Broadcasting began ...

on Brazilian television on the early

telenovela A telenovela is a type of a television serial drama or soap opera produced primarily in Latin America. The word combines ''tele'' (for "television") and ''novela'' (meaning "novel"). Similar drama genres around the world include '' teleserye'' ...

series, '' Sua Vida Me Pertence''. In 1963, Alves made

television history The concept of television was the work of many individuals in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The first practical transmissions of moving images over a radio system used mechanical rotating perforated disks to scan a scene into a time-var ...

once again by sharing the first gay kiss shown on Brazilian television with actress Geórgia Gomide on the teleteatro show, ''TV de Vanguarda''. Additionally, Alves co-founded the Associação dos Pioneiros da Televisão, or ''Association of Television Pioneers'' (Pró-TV), in 1995 and operated the Museu da Televisão Brasileira from her home in

São Paulo São Paulo (, ; Portuguese for 'Saint Paul') is the most populous city in Brazil, and is the capital of the state of São Paulo, the most populous and wealthiest Brazilian state, located in the country's Southeast Region. Listed by the GaWC a ...

Biography

Vida Alves was born on April 15, 1928, in Itanhandu, a mining city in

Minas Gerais Minas Gerais () is a state in Southeastern Brazil. It ranks as the second most populous, the third by gross domestic product (GDP), and the fourth largest by area in the country. The state's capital and largest city, Belo Horizonte (literally ...

. She moved to the city of

to pursue acting. She began her career in radio before transitioning to film and early television roles. Her film roles included ''Paixão Tempestuosa'' in 1954 and ''A Pequena Órfã'' in 1973. Alves was cast in '' Sua Vida Me Pertence'', Brazil's first

and a pioneer of the

television genre This is a list of genres of literature and entertainment (film, television, music, and video games), excluding genres in the visual arts. ''Genre'' is the term for any category of creative work, which includes literature and other forms of ar ...

, which debuted on

TV Tupi Rede Tupi (; in English, Tupi Network) was a Brazilian television network free-to-air. Its parent broadcaster, located in the city of São Paulo, was the first TV station to operate in the country, being inaugurated on 18 September 1950 by journ ...

in 1951. She co-starred in the series with Walter Forster, an actor who was also TV Tupi's director. In 1951, Alves and Forster shared the first on-screen kiss ever broadcast on Brazilian television. Alves and Forster rehearsed their scene in her

living room In Western architecture, a living room, also called a lounge room (Australian English), lounge (British English), sitting room (British English), or drawing room, is a room for relaxing and socializing in a residential house or apartment. Su ...

under the watch of her husband, Gianni Gasparinetti, who gave his permission. Alves and Gasparinetti were newlyweds at the time and Forster was a close friend of the couple. According to Alves, who spoke of the scene in a December 2016 interview, "We he and Forsterlived very close, a

block Block or blocked may refer to: Arts, entertainment and media Broadcasting * Block programming, the result of a programming strategy in broadcasting * W242BX, a radio station licensed to Greenville, South Carolina, United States known as ''96.3 ...

away...It was a technical kiss. Walter Foster showed up at my house and said, 'Let's rehearse.' My husband thought it was kind of weird, but he agreed." Alves historic kiss was performed live on television and not taped, so unfortunately no copy of Brazil's first on-screen kiss exists. Alves called the early telenovelas aired in the 1950s "simpler" than today's series, since the shows were only broadcast two or three times per week, rather than airing daily episodes. During the 1950s and 1960s,

also aired a teleteatro show called ''TV de Vanguarda'', which broadcast television adaptations of

literary novel A novel is a relatively long work of narrative fiction, typically written in prose and published as a book. The present English word for a long work of prose fiction derives from the for "new", "news", or "short story of something new", itself ...

s and

plays Play most commonly refers to: * Play (activity), an activity done for enjoyment * Play (theatre), a work of drama Play may refer also to: Computers and technology * Google Play, a digital content service * Play Framework, a Java framework * Pla ...

. Teleteatro were a type of Brazilian television show that featured a complete

story arc A story arc (also narrative arc) is the chronological construction of plot in a novel or story. It can also mean an extended or continuing storyline in episodic storytelling media such as television, comic books, comic strips, board games, vide ...

with a beginning, middle and ending broadcast in a single, two-hour episode. In 1963, Alves appeared in an episode of the series called ''A Calúnia'' in which she and actress Geórgia Gomide shared a kiss, marking the first gay kiss ever broadcast on Brazilian television in the country's history. The plot of ''A Calúnia'' featured two staff members of an all-girls boarding school, played by Alves and Gomide, who become the subjects of rumors that they were gay. Alves plays the director of the school, while Gomide portrays her colleague. Upon hearing the rumors, outraged parents complain and the school is forced to closed. On the day the school closes, Alves and Gomide look at each other, kiss and realize they are actually in love. In a 2011 interview with '' Época magazine'', Alves called the landmark kiss "tender", since their characters had not realized their feelings for each other until that moment. In 1995, Alves and several television co-founded the Associação dos Pioneiros Profissionais e Incentivadores da Televisão Brasileira (Pró-TV), a professional organization. She also operated the Museu da Televisão Brasileira, including special exhibitions, at her own home in São Paulo for thirteen years. Alves released two books focusing on her career during her later life. A

biography A biography, or simply bio, is a detailed description of a person's life. It involves more than just the basic facts like education, work, relationships, and death; it portrays a person's experience of these life events. Unlike a profile or ...

titled ''Vida Alves - Sem medo de viver'', authored by Nelson Natalino, was published by Editora Imprensa Oficial in 2013. Alves also wrote a second book, ''Televisão brasileira: O primeiro beijo e outras curiosidades'' (''Brazilian television: The first kiss and other curiosities''), which she released in 2014. Alves was interviewed by

BBC Brasil BBC Brasil is the subsidiary of the BBC in Brazil. Acting as world news provider in Portuguese and news agency, BBC Brasil possesses resources such as physical installed branches in São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro and a team specially assigned in Lo ...

in December 2016, just weeks before her death. Alves began suffering from declining health in 2016. She was hospitalized in Sancta Maggiore hospital in

on December 28, 2016, just weeks after her BBC Brasil interview. She died at the same hospital from multiple organ failure on January 3, 2017, at the age of 88. She was survived by two children, three grandchildren, including singer

Tiê Tiê Gasparinetti Biral, simply known as Tiê (São Paulo, March 17, 1980), is a Brazilian singer-songwriter. Biography The granddaughter of the actress Vida Alves, Tiê approached music in her high school years, when she founded a band and won ...

, and three great-grandchildren. Alves was buried in the Cemitério do Araçá in São Paulo.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Alves, Vida 1928 births 2017 deaths Brazilian television actresses Brazilian telenovela actresses Television pioneers Brazilian film actresses Brazilian radio actresses Brazilian women writers Brazilian non-fiction writers Actresses from São Paulo People from Minas Gerais