La Tremenda Corte

Both Vispo as the production team were given the task of finding local comedians who would shed a humorous light, in 1941 (during WWII) and help people to forget the hardships of that time.

Soon they found Leopoldo Fernández (Tres Patines), a talented comedian who was already recognized in radio spots and theatre, and his inseparable friend, Anibal de Mar.

In 1947, “La Tremenda Corte” like several other programs of its time, was transferred to rival station CMQ Radio advertisers and sponsors, seeking greater competitive advantage.

Of all these missing radio shows were recorded at station CMQ in Havana, between 1947 and 1961, no one knows how many still survive, and they are considered rare and invaluable for fans and collectors of the series.

After his release, Fernández is said to have made a short comic piece where he played “Pototo” while he and another actor reviewed a file of Cuban presidents' photos to install them on the wall.

This caused the main cast of “La Tremenda Corte” (with the exception of the production team, including Cástor Vispo) to leave Cuba that year for Miami, never to return.

In fact, none of the cast team expressed any political views and they decided to avoid referring to the events that were happening in Cuban society, even if they were living in a foreign country.

For this reason, Abel Mestre, who had been executive of company CMQ before it was expropriated by the Cuban government, bought many of the chapters of La Tremenda Corte for a truly laughable sum.

Of the original radio performers, only Leopoldo Fernández (who also wrote the scripts in the absence of Vispo) and Aníbal de Mar reprised their roles, which were central and irreplaceable to the plot.

The TV show was cancelled in mid-1969, due to unsustainable production costs and a lack of strong sponsors coupled with the obvious technical limitations.

In mid-1969 Panamericana Televisión (Channel 5 Peru) bought all 260 filmed chapters of and the rights to La Tremenda Corte and later hired Fernández to lead El Guardia Tres Patines, a spin-off of the original show.

Fernández was cast in the title role, a clueless police officer of Caribbean flavor, and Antonio Salim as his boss, Sergeant Bonifacio Palomino, along with other Peruvian comedians like Jorge Montoro and Anita Saravia.

La tremenda corte has been one of the most widely listened radio shows in many American countries; it has been so successful, it remains on air even today on many radio stations, mainly for audiences in Mexico, Peru, Panama, Costa Rica, the Caribbean (particularly in the Dominican Republic), Florida in the United States and the rest of the Americas; further, also the TV versions are still transmitted in certain channels of Mexico, Peru, Ecuador and Panama.

Of Cubavision, and took to the air a remake starring, among others, by Ulises Toirac as Trespatines, Carlos Otero as the Judge, Geonel Martin as Secretary, and Edith Massola as Nananine.

Later they tried to convert it into a regular program, and finally, in 2001, it was only possible by making some changes that removed the original names, still closed to large scale and became Chivichana Trespatines (a kind of rustic skateboard Cuban children), the plaintiffs were replaced by new characters (Amado Fiel del Toro, Marieta Pozo Alegre, the professor Pepe Rillo and Cuqui la Mora), and the name remained as a ¿Jura decir la verdad?

Set in the Republican era, but early is contextualized in modern times subtextual level, with unprecedented sharp social criticism (the character Cabo Pantera, appeared in the second season, has been the only satirical allusion to the current police throughout the history of radio and television post-revolutionary), a weekly comedy show is hailed as one of the most popular in the history of Cuban television (directed by Ulises himself Toirac and Gustavo Fernández-Larrea), and which always appears at the beginning, the poster: Tribute to Tremenda Corte.

They are crimes in which Jose Candelario “Tres Patines” has made victim to Rudecindo or Nananina with some of his thefts, deceits or knavery, and these demand him before a judge in that correctional court.

The expression "A la Reja" (“To the bars!”) —typical of Tres Patines whenever they called him to appear, it was said in Cuba to those who were in prison already, in other words, was locked up in his cell, and in addition people came to look for him, could be a relative, his lawyer, or whoever.

Juan "El Gallo" Calderon relating the history of the "Tremenda Corte" on NXclusiva TV, January 2010 Artículos de Interés - latremendacorte.info