e was the most prolific playwright of Argentine theater, for which he worked for nearly fifty years. Quite a record!

He made his debut with the play Mala vida, premiered on July 7, 1911 at the Nacional, forerunner of a list so long that two pages would not be enough to mention all the titles he premiered; because he tried everything: dramas, sainetes (one-act farces), comedies, musical comedies, revues, comic entertainment, etc., collaborating with almost all the colleagues of the period, such as Florentino Iriarte, Manuel Romero, Luis Bayón Herrera, Antonio and Arturo De Bassi, Luis César Amadori, Antonio Botta, León Alberti, Alberto Ballestero, Carlos Schaefer Gallo, Ricardo Hicken, Francisco Payá, Pascual Contursi, Francisco Canaro and many others.

In a review of his work we find: El presupuesto, Con permiso señor Intendente, El A.B.C., La ley del embudo, De siglo a siglo, Maidana, El reino del disparate, Manzanilla y mate amargo, La donna è mobile, El Capitán Metralla, Almanaque porteño ilustrado, El angelical Manuelito, La casa de los Borgia, No forma parte del Trust, Don Cándido Buenafe, La Pulpería del Diablo, Donde hubo fuego, cenizas quedan, El Reverendo Catachín, El marido de mi mujer, Flores de trapo, Hembra, El fruto prohibido, El Bajo Belgrano, La bataclana y el engominado, La musa del arrabal, Café cantante, Cataluña, Doña Juana la Loca, La cumparsita, Facundo, Hay baile en el rancherío, Hay que hacer economía, Linyera, Mi otro marido, Ropa nueva, ropa vieja, Dueto criollo, La honradez del siglo, La Porteña, Quién te manda estar metido, Los muchachos del baldío, Alí Babá y los 40 ladrones, Bohemia loca, El desconocido, El momento universal, La ficha blanca, La honradez del amigo López, La Vascongada: pensión barata, ¡Pulgarín solo!, Qual piuma al vento, Ushuaia, Buenos Aires chic o París reo, De Puente Alsina a Montmartre, El viudo alegre, Balconeando la ciudad, Mal de amores, El muchacho de la orquesta, Dos corazones, La Madre María, Sentimiento gaucho, Buenos Aires de ayer y hoy, Rodríguez supernumerario, Rascacielos.

The plays which resulted most rewarding, because of them he was internationally acclaimed, are: Judío, Llegaron parientes de España, La muchachada del centro, La canción de los barrios, Jesús, María y el otro, El desconocido, Pantalones largos, Burro de carga, reprised several times.

For his revues, musical comedies or some other play, he created around a hundred songs, from which half of them had a wide popular acclaim. The first he wrote was “A mí lo mesmo me da”, a tango with music by Manuel Jovés, in 1921, later with maestro Antonio Lozzi he made the well-known “Canción del linyera”.

In collaboration with Matos Rodríguez, Francisco Lomuto, Raúl de los Hoyos and somebody else he devised compositions to be included in his plays, but he achieved his big hits with Francisco Canaro, nearly all of them made known through his musical comedies: “El tango de la mula”, “La muchachada del centro”, “Yo no sé por qué te quiero”, “Casas viejas”, “Todo te nombra”, “Adiós, Pampa mía”, “No hay que hacerse mala sangre”, “Niebla”, tangos; “El jardín del amor”, “Un jardín de ilusión”, “Dos corazones”, “Soñar y nada más”, “Viviré con tu recuerdo”, “Bajo el cielo azul”, waltzes; the famous “Tangón”; the rancheras: “Me enamoré una vez”, “¿Dónde hay un mango?”, “Los amores con la crisis”; the marches “La ribera” and “La canción de los barrios”; “La milonga de Buenos Aires”, “Ya vendrán tiempos mejores”, “Se dice de mí” and many others.

An acquaintance and friend of Carlos Gardel’s since his beginnings, when both were struggling to succeed in their respective trades, he remained in the singer’s repertoire when the latter recorded “Me enamoré una vez”.

In the late 1931 Hay que hacer economía was on stage with success at the Teatro Nacional, a satire on the crisis that that year was felt in the nation. Gardel had triumphantly returned from Paris but had no venue where to play. One evening after the play, singer and playwright met at the Domínguez, a barroom in front of the theater, and Carlitos straightforwardly told him:

«—Hey, Ivo... Why don’t you hire me for your theater?»
And he said half astonished:
«—In my theater? But how would I pay you?»
«—The ticket is one peso. Isn’t it?», replied Gardel.
«—Well... charge one-twenty, twenty for me and that’s settled».

In spite of the suggestion there was no agreement, but it helped so that months later at that same theater Gardel appeared on a play he wrote De Gabino a Gardel, in March 1933.

He worked as journalist in Crítica, he published his poems in magazines, for the movies he directed El diablo con faldas with Florencio Parravicini in 1938 and he wrote for the radio.

Pelay was born in La Plata (Buenos Aires) on May 5, 1893 and died in Buenos Aires on August 28, 1959.