My Heart Calls You

Written on the back, "Mein herz ruft nach dir."  A quick trip to Google translate gave me my heart calls you.  It sure looks like a theatrical photo so a quick trip to IMDB gave me Mein Herz Ruft Nach Dir, My Heart Calls You, 1934, starring Jan Kiepura as Mario Delmonte, and Marta Eggerth as Clara.  And what do you know, this happy couple are Jan and Marta themselves.  Really happy since they met on the movie, and married in real life.  They stayed married until Jan's death in 1966.

Anyway, both Jan and Marta were pretty famous in the world of opera, and starred in a number of pre-war German musicals.  Jan Kiepura, a tenor, was born in 1902, in a small town in  Poland, back when Poland was still part of the Russian Empire.  Marta Eggerth, a lyric soprano, was born in 1912, in Budapest, back when it was still part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. 

After their marriage, Jan and Marta called Vienna home, but after the Anschluss, the annexation of Austria by Nazi Germany, they fled, first to Paris, and then the United States.  Back to IMDB, and I found a 1942 credit for Marta in For Me and My Gal, starring Judy Garland and Gene Kelly, directed by Busby Berkeley.  IBDB, the Broadway theater version of IMDB, listed three war time credits for Jan and Marta together.  They played supporting roles in two separate productions of The Merry Widow, and lead roles in Polonaise.  Marta also had a credit, without Jan, in Higher and Higher.  They also became American citizens and bought a home in Rye, New York.

After the war, they often returned to Europe to perform in operas, operettas, and concerts, though their pre-war film career was lost to them.  As already noted, Jan Kiepura died in 1966.  He was buried in Warsaw, Poland.  Marta lived to 2013, aged 101.  I went to YouTube and found some of their work, including a concert by Marta, aged 82, singing songs by Robert Stolz, composer of light operas and music for cabaret.   At that point, I realized I could spend the whole day researching Austrian operettas and Berlin cabaret.  I have eclectic musical tastes, have actually been to a grand total of two operas and have several  Kurt Weill/Ute Lemper CDs, (In German, I can't understand a word.) so it might have been a day well spent, but I've other things to do, so don't be lazy, do your own computer surfing.

Polish Sled Dogs

Any Polish speakers out there?  I thought about trying my hand with Google translate, but I suspect I'd get some mash-up that makes only marginal sense.  What's really important is that these two photos are dated.  The top, 1976 and the bottom, 1977.

Anyway, I did do some research into Zakopane, Poland.  It's a town, 28,000 people as of 2004, on the southern border of Poland, near Slovakia. It's at the foot of the Tatra Mountains.  The first written reference to Zakopane dates back to the mid 17th century, referenced not as a town, but a meadow.  By 1676, a village of 43.  By 1889, a climatic health resort of 3,000.  (That's when the treatment of tuberculosis was clean, mountain air.)  And then there was the Hitler/Stalin Pact.  People have forgotten, but World War 2 pretty much began with a joint German, Soviet invasion of Poland.  Soviet NKVD agents and Gestapo officers met in Zakopane to formulate a plan for the pacification of Polish resistance movements.  Today Zakopane is a resort catering to mountaineers, Alpine, and Nordic skiers, snow boarders, and ski jumpers.

Now about the dogs.  The guy who sold these to me swore up and down that they're Saint Bernards.  I don't think he's right but then again, the only dogs I've ever had were mutts, so what do I know.  In our pet-centric world, it's hard to remember, but there was a time when dogs that didn't work, didn't get fed.  I'm going to recommend a DVD, Landmarks of Early Film.  From Blackhawk and Image Entertainment, it's an anthology of film shorts from 1886 to 1913, including The Dog and His Various Merits.  Released in France, in 1908 by Pathe, it's pretty much what the title implies, working dogs, working.  If you've ever wanted to see a dog delivering milk, here's your chance.