Tag #108812 - Interview #78427 (Janina Wiener)

At high school, we went to the theater every month, and it was chiefly with school that I went to the theater. My parents never refused me money for school or the movies. I remember my first film, it was a nature documentary. I remember the movies from 1937, 1938, 1939, because I used to go to the movies a lot then. I remember French films, which I very much liked. My favorite actress was Michèle Morgan [b. 1920, French actress], who acted with Jean Gabin [1904-1976, French actor] in ‘People in the Fog’ [Editor’s note: actually called ‘Port of Shadows,’ 1938, directed by Marcel Carne, acknowledged as a masterpiece of poetic realism]. I also liked those musicals with Jeanette MacDonald [1903-1965; American actress], such as ‘Rose-Marie’ [1936]. I somehow wasn’t one of those girls who fall in love with movie actors, get crazy about them, collect their photos – nothing of the sort.

I used to go to the movies with a girl friend of mine, and always for the afternoon show. Never with my parents. I remember that every Sunday, I don’t know what time, probably 9pm, the city would become deserted, with everyone hurrying home to listen to the Wesola Lwowska Fala [Jolly Lwow Wave], a [radio] show [Radio Lwow’s hugely popular weekly show, broadcast nationally in 1933-1939. Created by Wiktor Budzynski, author of most of the scripts. The show presented a broad range of Lwow yokel types, including, most popular of all, a ‘batyar’ (Lwow street smart) double act: Szczepko (K. Wajda) and Toncio (Henryk Vogelfaenger) and comedians parodying the Jewish accent: Aprikosenkrantz and Untenbaum]. And I certainly listened to all those shows.