Cornélio Pires

Cornélio Pires (July 13, 1884 in Tietê – February 17, 1958 in São Paulo) was a Brazilian journalist, writer, composer, film director, and folklorist.

Early life
From the ages of 14 and 15, Pires began his career in journalism. At the age of 17, he left his hometown Tietê and moved to São Paulo where he continued his journalism, where he then pursued his other careers during his adulthood.

Film career
Cornélio Pires's first film, “Brasil Pitoresco", was made in 1924. The film showed Cornélio cruising around Brazil's coastal cities, displaying society in Brazil.

During the 1920s, Cornélio had his highest success in his writing career with “As estrambóticas aventuras de Joaquim Bentinho”. The book became very successful that Cornélio was one of the most best-selling authors in Brazil during that era, in terms of how much books were sold.

Cornélio Pires released 78 rpm records of música caipira recordings, (now roots music), as opposed to sertanejo music, in 1929. In 1935, he began his radio show and then produced his second film, “Vamos Passeiar”. In 1945 he published his last book, “Enciclopédia de Anedotas e Curiosidades”, more than a decade before his death, which during that time he'd become a spiritualist.

Cornélio Pires was a cousin of the writers Elsie Lessa, Orígenes Lessa, Ivan Lessa.