Moscopol's parents were
Greek. His mother,
née Constantinidi, was from
Constanța, while his father originated in
Mesembria on the shores of the
Black Sea. From there he settled in
Brăila, where he opened a pastry shop and then worked as a jeweller, like one of his sisters. Jean Moscopol was born in Brăila, where he showed ease of learning from his early days. He could play several instruments (including the
banjo and
mandolin) and, besides
Romanian, spoke French, Italian, English, German, and
Greek fluently. His first formal education took place at Brăila's Greek school, and he continued learning in that city, also taking classes at its Lyra conservatory, before graduating from the Pelarinos High School in
Galați. He then enrolled in the
Politehnica University in
Bucharest. From 1921–22, he was a clerk at the M. Embiricos et Co Maritime Agency. He then spent two years at the P. Macri et Son Agency in Brăila, and from 1925 to 1929 worked at the in Bucharest. While an aeronautics student, someone advised him to put his musical talent to use and make some recordings. At that moment, music became his profession. He made his performing debut in 1929 at the Zissu bar on Șerban Vodă Street, Bucharest. He would spontaneously create epigrams for the clients and banter with them. He also published a book of epigrams,
101 răutăți ("101 Naughty Sayings"). Around this time he also made his first gramophone recordings and first appeared on radio. He took music lessons in 1930, passed an examination and was confirmed as a professional artist. H. Nicolaide hired him at the Alhambra Revue Theatre, where he sang in the operettas
Alhambritta,
Lăsați-mă să cânt, and
Contesa Maritza. In 1931, he toured Romania with , an actor at the
National Theatre Bucharest. That year he signed an exclusive contract with the London-based
RCA Records. By 1936, his repertoire included some 300 songs of various genres, both Romanian and foreign; he helped popularize the
tango in his native land. In 1932 he went to
Berlin, where he recorded discs with famous orchestras such as Hönigsberg and
James Kok, and took
bel canto lessons with Professor Korst. In 1943 he played the part of the Armenian in , a film adaptation of
the eponymous play by
Ion Luca Caragiale, directed by
Jean Georgescu. as well as "Dă-mi gurița s-o sărut". Due to his vehement opposition to the
Russification policies put in effect during the
Soviet occupation of Romania, the
Communist regime tried to erase Moscopol from the
national memory by marginalizing him. Around 2005, director met with great difficulties when he sought information about Moscopol for a biographical film; few archival documents about him remained. ==Notes==