A Hungarian born movie star who is better known abroad than in her native country: an exhibition honors the actress Franciska Gaal in the Moscow Bakhrushin Museum from 23 May.
Gaal was a star of Budapest, Berlin and Hollywood – and, in particular, of Russia. The Soviet cinemas played a very few foreign films in the 1930s, however, most of the Franciska Gaal movies were distributed. Even Stalin adored him: she was one of the most famous Westerm movie stars, Greta Garbo and Marlene Dietrich in one. This spring the Moscow Bakhrushin Museum, the world's largest theatre museum dedicates a large-scale exhibition to Gaal’s films and remarkable life story.
The collection opened with great success in Hungary at the Miskolc International Film Festival’s CineClassics series in 2009. The exhibition material will accompanied to Moscow by Natasha Buza, film historian Anna Gereb, the caregiver of Gaal’s bequest and film historian Peter Muszatics, the curator of CineClassics. The extensive exhibition can be visited during the Moscow International Film Festival (19-28 June), too.
Franciska Gaal, born into a Hungarian Jewish family in Budapest as Franciska Silberspitz 111 years ago in 1903, was a shining star of Budapest theatres in the twenties, even the great Franz Molnar wrote directly to her the play Violet. Then she moved to Berlin and become one of the most popular stage and film actresses. Not only Stalin loved her films – Hitler was also a fan of Gaal (“pity that she’s Jewish”, once he allegedly said). On the peak of her European career she went to Hollywood in 1936 and starred in three blockbusters, including The Buccaneer by Cecil B. DeMille and, with Bing Crosby, in the Paris Honeymoon. In 1941 she made a bad decision: came back to wartime Europe, perhaps to rescue his family. After the Hungarian declaration of war she was not able to return to America. After four years of hiding she found herself in the protective arms of the Red Army – almost all of the soldiers were her fans. She was the first guest star in the Soviet Union after the war. The two-month tour was a triumph. In 1947 Gaal returned to Hollywood – too late. She died in a New York hospital in 1972.
Her memory is living: several of Gaal’s films are released on DVD in Russia, the tv stations regularly honor her with retrospectives and portraits, her life story has been even transformed into a ballet, based on the star’s most successful film Peter.
The present exhibition showcases Gaal’s story though personal items (her niece Judith Boruzs retained them carefully), furniture, posters, Paramount public relations materials, several celebrity and private photos – even her false eyelashes and mascara will be seen in the Moscow Bakhrushin Museum from 23 May in the joint exhibition of the museum and the Moscow Hungarian Cultural, Scientific and Informational Centre of the Balassi Institute.
