Sexy to be Polish

The first female Euro-Hollywood crossover star that paved the way for screen actresses such as Greta Garbo and Marlene Dietrich was a fascinating Polish beauty by the name of Pola Negri, who incidentally has a star on Hollywood Boulevard. It is said often by cinema aficionados that she was born in Poland, "made" in Germany, stolen by Hollywood. She made her debut in pre-WWI Warsaw and soon found herself working with German directors. She arrived in Hollywood in 1923 taking America by storm.



Pola was born Apolonia Chalupiec on January 3rd, 1897 in Janowo, Poland (Russian partition). For PR purposes she claimed to be born on "the last day of the century," that is, December 31, 1899. She passed in San Antonio Texas in 1987 after contracting pneumonia.

Owing to her very feminine mystique, speaking five languages and with her passionate characters and her exotic good looks, Negri was linked romantically with the likes of Charlie Chaplin and Rudolph Valentino. A "vamp" by reputation, a tragedienne in practice, but a stunningly gifted actress in truth; besides trysts with Rod LaRoque and the aforementioned, she was wife to a count and a prince.

Often there was Hollywood gossip regarding Pola and Polish-American actress, Gloria Swanson. Actually they were friends. Occasionally the one would invite the other to a dinner party at the other’s house, which was customary at the time. If they did start avoiding each other (which apparently they did later on), it was to avoid further provoking the fabricated publicity that was flying about concerning their so-called “rivalry”. This ongoing bit of publicity whoredom stemmed from the fact that big-name drama queen Pola had just moved from Germany onto the Paramount lot, where Gloria was already the reigning dramatic star. The plot thickened, and the two stars were along for the ride whether they liked it or not.

Currently the New York Museum of Modern Art is hosting a film retrospective of this great actress who earned as much as $10,000 a week making silent films rising to be one of Americas biggest silent film stars ever.

The retrospective at MOMA opened with the premiere of Mariusz Kotowski’s documentary Life Is a Dream in Cinema: Pola Negri. It is a chronicle of the star’s life, with clips from rare films and interviews with friends, co-workers, and critics.

Preceding Pola to America by 40 plus years was stage actress extraordinaire Helena Modjeska who at a swank Manhattan gathering; after a request to perform a soliloquy of her choosing, brought the room of English speaking American blue-bloods to tears by simply reciting the Polish alphabet in a most dramatic fashion.