Tag #109683 - Interview #78228 (Leon Glazer)

As a young boy I liked going to the movies and to the theater. I was the youngest in the family and the 50 groszy for the ticket could always be found. And I went to the movies every week, yes, really, I didn't miss a single Polish film. The pre-war films that they sometimes show on television I know from before the war - I went to see them several times. German films were also shown quite often in Bielsko, with that well-known German actress, Dietrich [Marlene Dietrich (1901-1992)]. I remember I went to a film about Jews once. 'The ...' - what are those rich ones called? 'The Rothschild Family'? Yes. I don't remember who made it, or what language it was in. I remember that the movies were silent at first, and then later not any more [films with sound could be seen in Poland from 1931]. I still remember silent movies. The violinist who played the tunes...

I remember an actor from Bielsko Theater. He was called La Grange or something like that. A French name. A good actor, he was, that much I remember. I remember too that I went to this German operetta at the theater, 'Weisse Rosse' - you could translate that as 'White horse' [actually 'White steed']. I mostly went to the theater on my own. The theater was in the very center of town, near the railroad station. I used to stand in what they called the gallery. The standing room. At the bottom, or right at the top. I don't even know what that theater's called [before the war the Municipal Theater, Teatr Miejski, now the Polish Theater, Teatr Polski].