Comedians and Comics: The Second Life of the Interwar Film Stars
Wojciech Świdziński
woyciesz@gmail.comThe Aleksander Zelwerowicz National Academy of Dramatic Art (Poland)
https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6840-4069
Abstract
In the comic strips published in the Polish press of the interwar period, a distinct current was represented by humorous stories about film comedians. This article discusses “cartoons” – as the press comic strips were called at the time – devoted to Charlie Chaplin, Pat and Patachon, and comic incarnations of the cinema and cabaret stars Kazimierz “Lopek” Krukowski and Adolf “Dodek” Dymsza. Most of the works discussed here emphasize Eulenspiegel qualities of the on-screen comedians, which, especially in the case of Chaplin, was a return to his cinematic origins. There are also reminiscences of specific films in some of these cartoons, as well as – especially in the case of Dodek – attempts to adapt the specific language used by his character. It is difficult to determine to what extent this second life that the stars of the screen found in the press matched the reception of their movies. However, it certainly enhanced their popularity by minimizing the barriers between the inaccessible cinema idols and the public, who imaginatively transposed their adventures into the familiar Polish realities.
Keywords:
comics, interwar period, Charlie Chaplin, Adolf Dymsza, Kazimierz Krukowski, Pat and PatachonReferences
[And. Z.] (1926). Chaplin dawniej i dziś, czyli jak rozwija się artysta filmowy. Kino dla Wszystkich, (13), s. 6.
Google Scholar
Birkholc, R. (2019). Charlie Chaplin w modernizmie wernakularnym polskiego dwudziestolecia międzywojennego. Tekstualia, (2), ss. 19-35.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.5604/01.3001.0013.3539
Google Scholar
Biskupski, Ł. (2017). Literatura obiegu brukowego. Świat niepospolitych zdarzeń i straszliwych przygód. W: Ł. Biskupski, M. Rawska (red.), Papierowi bandyci. Wypisy z polskojęzycznych powieści obiegu brukowego do 1939 roku (ss. 9-42). Łódź: Przypis.
Google Scholar
Dahl Astrup, J., Braae, M., Ruedel, U. (2022). Towards Preserving a Transnational Comedy Phenomenon: The World of Pat and Patachon. Kosmorama, (281). www.kosmorama.org/artikler/pat-and-patachon
Google Scholar
Dunin, J. (1974). Papierowy bandyta. Książka kramarska i brukowa w Polsce. Łódź: Wydawnictwo Łódzkie.
Google Scholar
Dygat, S. (1946). Wspomnienia kinomana. Film, (4), s. 13.
Google Scholar
Inge, M. T. (1991). Charlie Chaplin and the Comic Strips. W: A. Nysenholc (red.), Charlie Chaplin: His Reflection in Modern Times (ss. 161-170). Berlin – New York: De Gruyter Mouton.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110857740.161
Google Scholar
Irzykowski, K. (1977). Dziesiąta muza. Zagadnienia estetyczne kina (wstęp J. Bocheńska). Warszawa: WAiF.
Google Scholar
Kaden-Bandrowski, J. (1930). Z Marszałkowskiej na wyżyny Tybetu. Kino, (1), s. 3.
Google Scholar
Kosińska, K. (2009). Manewry tożsamościowe. Kobieta jako mężczyzna i mężczyzna jako kobieta w przedwojennym polskim kinie komediowym. W: S. Jagielski, A. Morstin-Popławska (red.), Ciało i seksualność w kinie polskim (ss. 25-41). Kraków: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Jagiellońskiego.
Google Scholar
Krukowski, K. (1957). Moja Warszawka. Warszawa: Filmowa Agencja Wydawnicza.
Google Scholar
Krzyżanowski, J., Hernas, C. (red.) (1985). Literatura polska. Przewodnik encyklopedyczny (t. 2). Warszawa: PWN.
Google Scholar
Kurek, J. (1928). Jeszcze przeciw Patowi i Patachonowi. Kino dla Wszystkich, (57), s. 11.
Google Scholar
Lefèvre, P. (2006). The Battle over the Balloon: The Conflictual Institutionalization of the Speech Balloon in Various European Cultures. Image and Narrative, (14). www.imageandnarrative.be/inarchive/painting/pascal_levevre.htm
Google Scholar
Lubelski, T. (2011). Polska Szkoła Filmowa na tle rodzimego kina. W: T. Lubelski, I. Sowińska, R. Syska (red.), Historia kina, t. 2. Kino klasyczne (ss. 935-992). Kraków: Universitas.
Google Scholar
Rusek, A. (2001). Tarzan, Matołek i inni. Cykliczne historyjki obrazkowe w latach 1919-1939. Warszawa: Biblioteka Narodowa.
Google Scholar
Rusek, A. (2023). Kraina zapomnianych przodków. Cykliczne historyjki obrazkowe w Polsce w latach 1919-1939. Szczecin: Ongrys.
Google Scholar
Sitkiewicz, P. (2012). Miki i myszy. Walt Disney i film rysunkowy w przedwojennej Polsce. Gdańsk: słowo/obraz terytoria.
Google Scholar
Surówka, B. (1980). Było – minęło. Katowice: Śląsk.
Google Scholar
Szyłak, J. (2009). Komiks: świat przerysowany. Gdańsk: słowo/obraz terytoria.
Google Scholar
Świdziński, W. (2015). Co było grane? Film zagraniczny w Polsce w latach 1918-1939 na przykładzie Warszawy. Warszawa: Instytut Sztuki PAN.
Google Scholar
Żółkiewski, S. (1973). Kultura literacka (1918-1932). Wrocław: Ossolineum.
Google Scholar
Authors
Wojciech Świdzińskiwoyciesz@gmail.com
The Aleksander Zelwerowicz National Academy of Dramatic Art Poland
https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6840-4069
PhD in Humanities; theatre and film scholar. Lecturer at the Theatre Academy in Warsaw, member of the Polish Society for Film and Media Studies. He published the book Co było grane? Film zagraniczny w Polsce w latach 1918-1929 na przykładzie Warszawy [What Was on Screens? Foreign Movies in Poland 1918-1929. A Case Study of Warsaw] (2015). He is also the author of an academic study of Andrzej Włast’s collection of movie columns. He published scientific and popular science articles in Kwartalnik Filmowy, Ekrany, Pleograf, and Stolica.
Statistics
Abstract views: 187PDF downloads: 118
License
Copyright (c) 2024 Wojciech Świdziński
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
The author grants the publisher a royalty-free non-exclusive licence (CC BY 4.0) to use the article in Kwartalnik Filmowy, retains full copyright, and agrees to identify the work as first having been published in Kwartalnik Filmowy should it be published or used again (download licence agreement). The journal is published under the CC BY 4.0 licence. By submitting an article, the author agrees to make it available under this licence.
In issues from 105-106 (2019) to 119 (2022) all articles were published under the CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 licence. During this period the authors granted a royalty-free non-exclusive licence (CC BY-ND 4.0) to use their article in „Kwartalnik Filmowy”, retained full copyright, and agreed to identify the work as first having been published in our journal should it be published or used again.
Most read articles by the same author(s)
- Wojciech Świdziński, The Backstage Film as a Genre and as a Social Mirror , Kwartalnik Filmowy: No. 116 (2021): Cinema and Social Identity
- Wojciech Świdziński, Benshi in “Yoseba” or Following Other Shadows , Kwartalnik Filmowy: No. 116 (2021): Cinema and Social Identity
- Wojciech Świdziński, Description of Customs of the Regulars of the Film Atlantis , Kwartalnik Filmowy: No. 111 (2020): Senses and Affects
- Wojciech Świdziński, Changing Preferences: A Change of Perspective , Kwartalnik Filmowy: No. 121 (2023): Cinema and Young Audience
- Wojciech Świdziński, Is It Possible to Identify Who Was the King of Laughter?: Notes on Film Reception Studies in Interwar Poland , Kwartalnik Filmowy: No. 127 (2024): Empirical Film Studies
- Wojciech Świdziński, Make Yourself a Universe, or Anatomy of the Contemporary Comic Book Film , Kwartalnik Filmowy: No. 101-102 (2018): European Cinema of 21st Century
- Wojciech Świdziński, Where the Wind Blows From: Western Inspirations in the Work of Miyazaki Hayao , Kwartalnik Filmowy: No. 91 (2015): Film Between Pop Music and Pop Culture
- Wojciech Świdziński, “The Tenth Muse (Impressions)”: Andrzej Włast’s Columns on Film From the Period of 1923-1924 , Kwartalnik Filmowy: No. 86 (2014): Dimensions of Time
