Alonso

"“If you stay an actor, before long you’ll be only a memory,” he warned. “But if you become a television producer, you can be successful for the rest of your life.” It was one of the first examples of Emilio’s ability to anticipate the future. Alonso signed a contract with Procter & Gamble, one of the major sponsors of television, and as a team with the Cuban writer Caridad Bravo Adams he produced his first telenovelas, El otro and Pecado mortal, in 1960. Soon, Alonso became a notable creative force within Mexican television. He explored new themes, convinced prestigious writers to work with him (as in the 1962 historical fantasy Las momias de Guanajuato), and raised the level of production with his good taste for mounting period settings and lavishly decorating his. sets Ever the leading man, he continued accepting starring roles, but now on the small screen."

"Valentín Pimstein, who along with Alonso would come to dominate television production in Mexico, also became a friend of Emilio in the mid-1950s. Pimstein arrived from Chile at the beginning of that decade, knowing no one, but in love with Mexican music and cinema, and hoping to make films with Gregorio Walerstein. Pimstein had worked in Chilean cinema and shared Walerstein’s Jewish ethnicity, but the great Mexican producer hired him only as a junior assistant."