In its beginnings in TVEaround the year 1956, the salary of Laura Valenzuela, the historic presenter and actress who died this Friday at the age of 92, was so low that they had to find a ploy to adjust it a little higher. About 400 pesetas a month (2.40 euros) appeared on the payroll and the first presenter that the state channel had complained and asked for a raise, even knowing that in the beginning they did not have much of a budget and even less for a woman.
Also read: The actress and presenter Laura Valenzuela, mother of Lara Dibildos, dies at the age of 92
The directors of the chain devised a plan to comply with her demands, a grotesque solution, because they couldn’t think of anything else but to pay her a bonus as a piano tuner. Forty more dollars a month, or what is the same, two hundred pesetas, which rounded off the emoluments. And Laura was satisfied with the patch that raised her salary.
Those were difficult times, as Laura herself recounted years ago: “Sometimes we had to sweep the set due to lack of personnel. One day Jesús Álvarez Sr. and I did it. There was no other choice but to lend a hand in whatever was necessary. And we helped very willingly, because we understood the situation perfectly”.
It is clear that Laura never tuned a piano in her life, she didn’t even know how to play the musical instrument. She took the thing very philosophically and played dumb when asked about her piano side. She answered with a simple smile and kept quiet for an answer.