Wiera Gran sings American tango – Orchids In The Moonlight (Orchidea) 1935
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Wiera Gran & Orkiestra taneczna Syrena Rekord – Orchidea (Orchids In The Moonlight) z filmu “Flying Down To Rio” (Youmans /Jerry), Syrena-Electro 1935 NOTE: Wiera Gran was one of the most fascinating personalities in the history of Polish song. A rising great star shortly before the onset of WWII, she continued her career during the nazi occupation of Poland, singing in the cafes or on the concerts in the Warsaw Ghetto and becoming a living legend of her time. With a help of her husband, who was a Polish doctor, she managed to survive the Holocaust on so-called “aryan” side in the Warsaw suburbs, to live up to the most terrible time of her life, that started immediately after the end of war, when she was accused by her compatriots of being a “Gestapo-collaborator” during the war. The decades to come meant for her a desperate struggle to regain her good fame and artistic position, in which she never succeeded. Bitter and disillusioned, she died in 2007 in old people’s home near Paris. She managed to describe her tragic life as victim of accusations that have never been justified or documented – in her book “A Raly Of Caluminators” (1981). Available are in YT several recordings of Wiera Gran, with a lot of biographical infos about her. The best known American version of that great tune is by Rudy Vallee www.youtube.com
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Comments on Wiera Gran sings American tango – Orchids In The Moonlight (Orchidea) 1935 »
As Marian Fuks, director of the Jewish Historical Instotute in warsaw, writes in his book “The Rescued Music” Wiera had stage rival in the Ghetto, who was Diana Blumenthal, wife of a Jewish activist, Jonas Turkow. Hard to believe, but in a bottom of hell, as life in the ghetto in 1942 or 43 started to be, Diana hated Wiera still more and more and her wish was to do any possible harm to her career. She and her husband seem responsible for spreading rumors about Wiera in the Ghetto
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Hi D., thanks for your comment! If you are interested in details a propos Wiera, please read my comment to Barbcard.
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Beautiful pictures of the beautiful, and erotic Orchid. Orchids are noted for their extended reproductive organs, namely the Pistel and Stamen, as you have noted in your pictures. Another interesting phenomenon about the beautiful Orchid. They do not have a traditional root system for nourishment. Instead they germinate and grow attached to another plant ie..Live Trees, Fallen Logs, etc…as a Parasite; feeding off of it’s host.
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Thanks Bill3murr! Please, read my answer to Barbcard with a few more details about Wiera Gran’s life in the Ghetto. It’s very interesting!
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First class upload!!
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Thanks for your nice stroy. I also think, it’s one of the most beautiful “European” tangos ever composed (I put “European” in quotes, to distinguish them from Argentinian tangos. In fact, this tango should be called “American”, but Americans – on the contrary to Europeans – so rarely composed tangos, that I prefer calling all of them “European”).
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Corri, I checked in the sources and I’m afraid I made a mistake. It was not Diana Blumenthal, but Diana BlumenFELD who fought with Wiera Gran in Warsaw Ghetto. The story is so tragic, it asks for the movie. Two actresses in a life or death artistical struggle, on the verge of the hell on earth.
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My mother spoke of her enjoyment in this movie when it came out, and this was her favorite song from it. The record she bought at the time is in poor shape, evidence of how many times it was played! Now I can hear the song in Polish, in this beautiful Wiera Gran recording! Thank you!
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This is a proper pace?
Beautiful images.
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Lovely presentation. Thank you for the informative notes.Your reference to Diana Blumenthal makes interesting reading. Perhaps she has -or had -a lot to answer to.
Wiera Gran must have suffered emotionally from the wars end, until her death as a result of the accusations levelled against her.
I must learn more of this fine singer’s life.
Thank you for sharing.
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Hi Lana, yes, that lady at 1:58 is a typical 1940s beauty. I love that hairdressing, I remember my mother style her hair in that way, still in 1950s. The lady’s face reminds me of some actress, but I can’t figure out, who.
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It’s a beautiful presentation – Grzegorz. I – especially like the frame 1:58 – gorgeous face. Wiera Gran’s life was bitter at the end – however – it was glamorous at the beginning. Someone said – that what really counts – is how someone ends up.
If we could choose when we “pay” our debt of suffering which life collects – I would most definitely choose the beginning of life!
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Exotic and beautiful as an orchid; also, unfortunately,
as frail, given her post-war tragedy.
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piękne!
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What a marvelous and unique voice she had and what a tragic life. One of so many survivors whose suffering didn’t stop with the end of war. Beautiful orchestration and a classy video too.
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i love this song; and ,yes, the vallee version is the best; however, i like this very much. what a tragic end to her life…. thank you for this fine version.
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