Born in Germany on November 3, 1901 under the name of Joseph Bohr Elzer, the young José Bohr arrived with his family to colonize southern Chile in 1904. It was in the city of Punta Arenas where he began his precocious cinematographic and musical career, composing songs including the hymn "Punta Arenas", playing the piano for silent films and making his first film works before he was in his twenties.

After emigrating to Santiago in 1921, he went to Brazil, Uruguay and Argentina, hired by the Chilean Ministry of Foreign Affairs to make a documentary. Later he settled in Buenos Aires, where he composed a good part of the 200 songs that swelled the popular songbook of the time, such as "Y tenía un lunar", "Cascabelito" and "Pero hay una melena", as well as advertising tangos for music houses. He performed for the first time in the United States in 1925, starring in the musical show Gaucho at the Paramount Theater in Broadway.