English Section

Remembering silent film star Pola Negri

10.02.2022 07:00
An exhibition in tribute to Polish Hollywood star Pola Negri has opened in Toruń, northern Poland.
Pola Negri
Pola NegriNarodowe Archiwum Cyfrowe

The event marks the 125th anniversary of her birth, in Lipno, some 50 km east of Toruń.

On display is a wide range of photographs, postcards, vinyl records, posters, and personal memorabilia documenting Negri’s life and artistic career. The exhibits also include her portraits and autographs.

Born Apolonia Chałupiec on January 2, 1897, into a poor family, in her early  teens, she auditioned and was accepted to a ballet school in Warsaw. Her dancing career was soon interrupted by an illness and she enrolled at the Academy of Dramatic Arts to become an actress.

Negri made her stage debut at the age of 15. A year later she appeared in her first film. Soon she was a top star in Poland, prompting German director Max Reinhardt to invite her to act in Berlin theatres as well as in films.

Flooded with contract offers from Hollywood, Negri moved to America and in 1922 became the first European actress to sign a contract with Paramount Pictures.

Her exotic, mysterious, passionate qualities caught on with American audiences. She also attracted a great deal of publicity for her offscreen romances and her long-term feud with Gloria Swanson.

Her close friends included Charlie Chaplin, Rudolph Valentino and Margaret West.

With the passing of time, the American public grew bored with her flamboyant exploits. The advent of the sound era put an end to her film career.

Negri returned to Europe. After residing in Germany, and subsequently on the French Riviera, she returned to the United States in 1941, becoming a US citizen 10 years later.

She died in San Antonio, Texas in 1987 at the age of 90.  She appeared in over 60 films, only three of which were made after World War II.

The exhibition in Toruń was organized by the Pola Negri Cultural Society in her birthplace of Lipno. It runs until the end of the month.

For a virtual tour of the exhibition go to https://www.kujawsko-pomorskie.pl/aktualnosci-negri

(mk/gs)