Mieczyslaw Fogg. Photo: Henryk Rosiak- Forum
The eternal life of Mieczyslaw Fogg
Mieczysław Fogg’s significance for Polish culture extends beyond the world of music. He created hits, but also brought the charm of pre-war theatres and cabarets to the grey world of communist Poland, and his elegance evoked the class of a bygone lifestyle. We were celebrating the 35th anniversary of the artist’s death on 3 September.
During the interwar period, his repertoire included songs destined for success. They were written by masters of the craft, excellent lyricists and composers. Andrzej Włast, for example, wrote the lyrics to the hits Tango milonga (1929) and Jesienne róże (Autumn Roses, 1932), while Jerzy Petersburski and Adam Gold composed the music for the former and latter, respectively. The lyrics were heart-wrenching because they reflected real life and were written in beautiful Polish. The rhythms of these compositions, especially the tangos, encouraged dancing. They were also popularised by films that were widely watched.
Mieczysław Fogg sang with a lyrical baritone voice and clear diction, and had a captivating style of interpretation. He created a lasting image based on impeccable manners and meticulous appearance.
His timelessness is evidenced by the fact that he won the title of Most Popular Singer of the Year twice in polls conducted by Polish Radio listeners. He received his first award in 1938 and his second twenty years later, despite so much having changed in Poland in the meantime. However, Fogg remained steadfast in the face of changing fashions. After the war, he knew how to maintain and develop his popularity, and many artists were eager to work with him, including composers, songwriters, musicians, and choristers.
Photo: gentlemanschoice.pl
In the early 1950s, it was not only the entertainment world that was excited about the hit song Pierwszy siwy włos (The First Grey Hair). Marta Mirska was the first to perform it in public, but Mieczysław Fogg sensed its potential and quickly recorded it on an album, making it famous.
He was known in almost every home in Poland for several decades. Before World War II, thanks to his stage performances, but especially his radio and record recordings, and after the war, also thanks to television. He performed in television concerts, at festivals, and, as was customary, on 1 January, he was featured on television – the most famous birthday boy on the first day of the year.
He also had an international career before the war, starting in 1928, as a member of the Dana Choir, which consisted of the then-fashionable so-called revellers performing an entertainment repertoire, including tangos in Spanish and Polish folk songs in jazz arrangements. Fogg and his bandmates toured many European countries for a decade, as well as thirty-one states in the USA. After World War II, already as a soloist, Fogg included Australia and New Zealand, Canada, Brazil, Ceylon (now Sri Lanka), and Israel to the list of places where he performed his stage programmes.
Mieczysław Fogg’s talent was discovered by actor, director, and teacher Ludwik Sempoliński. He heard him during a Christmas carol concert at St. Anne’s Church in Warsaw and guided his education. However, Mieczysław’s fate could have turned out quite differently. His father dreamed of a career for him in the Polish State Railways, where he himself was employed. The future singer began working for this institution in 1921 and, even after achieving popularity, remained a cashier for the Polish State Railways until 1935.
He was a native of Warsaw and loved the city. He was born there on 30 May 1901 under his family name, Fogiel. He lived with his parents and five siblings in the Old Town, in a tenement house on the corner of Długa and Freta Streets, where his mother ran a shop. He took part in the Polish-Bolshevik War.
As an adult, he changed his address several times, but he is most closely associated with Koszykowa Street. He moved into number 69 with his wife, Irena, and son Andrzej in 1935, and it was also there that the Fogg Record label operated between 1946 and 1951 (many years later, the artist’s great-grandson, Michał Fogg, revived the music label under this name to promote and propagate the culture of the interwar period).
Mieczysław Fogg became synonymous in the minds of Warsaw residents with numerous pre-war, wartime, and post-war music venues. Depending on the historical moment, the artist’s role changed in character. Before the war, Fogg entertained and delighted audiences; during the war, including the Warsaw Uprising, he kept their spirits up; after the war, he added colour to Warsaw in ruins. He even managed to run Café Fogg for a year, until 1946, in a destroyed house at 119 Marszałkowska Street. It was from here that the popular radio programme Podwieczorek przy mikrofonie (Afternoon Tea at the Microphone) was broadcast for the first time after the war.
Fogg actively participated in fundraising for the reconstruction of the Royal Castle in Warsaw.
In 1928, he and the Dana Choir first appeared on stage at the famous Qui Pro Quo theatre in Warsaw. Ludwik Sempoliński recalls Fogg’s participation in the historic satirical revue Orzeł czy Reszka (Heads or Tails) at the Ali Baba theatre, where he was supposed to soften the political, anti-Nazi edge of the programme with his ‘pleasant to the ear’ songs.
During the war, Fogg was active in the underground under the pseudonym ‘Ptaszek’ (Bird). He was involved in hiding and helping his Jewish musician friends. For his courageous actions, he was awarded the title of Righteous Among the Nations. Accompanied by accordionist Wiesław Brodziński, he gave a total of about one hundred performances in hospitals, on barricades, and in shelters during the 63 days of the Warsaw Uprising. He also sang on the day of the capitulation, in the auditorium of the Faculty of Architecture at the Warsaw University of Technology. His insurgent armband is now in the collection of the Warsaw Uprising Museum.
Mieczysław Fogg performed almost until the end of his life. He gave his last public concert in 1986. He became one of the important symbols of 20th-century Polish culture. He received many awards and honours. Radio and television archives preserve recordings of his voice and stage style. In the early 1970s, he published his biography, ‘Od palanta do belcanta’. Contemporary artists draw on his achievements and give them new life.
Jerzy Waldolff, once a guru of music criticism, said about Fogg, ‘I see no logical reason why dear Miecio should not live and sing forever’.
Karolina Prewęcka
Source: DlaPolonii.pl
