Meantime, I'm thinking of more names. Well, my computer is doing flips lately, so I only tax its brain for any length every so often, but I'll be back.
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ossobuco
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Sun 8 Jul, 2007 02:42 pm
From my second list, these WERE NOT in the polish wiki -
David O. Selznick
Preston Sturges
John Sturges
Louis B. Mayer
John Frankenheimer
Dalton Trumbo
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plainoldme
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Mon 9 Jul, 2007 11:41 am
Hi, literarypoland,
KelticWizard alerted me to this thread. I just finished reading the first page and will post in a bit. I find it interesting for two reasons: one, just because it is interesting and two, because I am of mixed descent, but mostly Polish and Irish.
Want to write a book about my ancestress Margaret (can not speak or write Polish and don't have the proper characters on my keyboard to spell her name correctly) Kozal.
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literarypoland
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Mon 9 Jul, 2007 12:13 pm
OK, the more names, the better.
I have this feeling that Ronald Reagan is the person from show business which fascinates Poles the most. Reagan and the Polish Pope are two symbolic figures for the 1980s, for hope coming from the vague West. For two years now, we have had a governement which comes straight from the original Solidarity movement, and this interest in the American right wing may come from that.
I am just one person, but I somehow guess the national mood at the moment.
Also, one similarity with the 1950s or 60s in America would be the fact that children of these workers are now buying cars, fridges, dishwashers, etc. So this would be the era when such products have become widely available.
We've even had some TV ads copying Reagan-era ads.
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literarypoland
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Mon 9 Jul, 2007 01:08 pm
Because you know, your famous TV announcers from the 1950s or 1960s are automatically thought of as strongly anti-Soviet. Hide in bunkers and so on. Nowadays, with Russia getting stronger, this scare may be returning to some extent, but now we are on the other side of the fence.
Note: I've put everything that I know into our Wikipedia and it has been a purifying experience!
And - thanks! All the names are already in the waiting room. And the entries will really be created. You can check Louis B. Mayer - he is already there, someone put him in on June 15.
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literarypoland
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Tue 10 Jul, 2007 04:36 am
I would also like to check the current British stars in this way, because the Poles working or studying in Britain say it's a separate universe. I know about the Beckhams, Robbie Williams, Kate Moss, Jordan. Who else?
The problem with Britain is that I can't find a good forum there.
All the major British rock bands are known here.
An interesting fact: in the 1970s, 1980s we had official piracy here, meaning that the state radio, on its more fancy channel 3 (1 was for news, 2 for classical music and literature), presented whole records to the public, and the public duly copied these broadcasts on tape. It was something normal back then.
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farmerman
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Tue 10 Jul, 2007 05:46 am
According to some translators of Adam Mickiewicz work (Jablonski et al) , there were "Mickiewicz Brigades" in The US Civil War. These fought for the union in the same fashion as Mickiewicz had started the Jewish brigades in the later years of his life when he went to Turkey.
American Wiki doesnt do Mr Mickiewic any justice . Its just blah blah blah and no soul. Take a look at our versions of the life of Mickiewicz. (as a 3rd generation Slav, Im dissapointed in the contect). We are all taught about Pushkin but Mickiewicz is left to "trivia buffs"
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literarypoland
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Tue 10 Jul, 2007 08:05 am
What a long article about Mickiewicz! I once saw him in the Britannica and his entry was shorter than Mickey Mouse's.
But seriously, Adam Mickiewicz is the basic Polish poet, though probably Henryk Sienkiewicz is our most eminent writer in history.
I can give you from memory a short account of Mickiewicz's life, more fascinating: first an unhappy romance with a rich girl, then the university years in Vilnius filled with artistic explorations; mild exile in Russia; then his stay in Paris in relative poverty. He was never close to fighting, he fought with his poetry like Byron. "Pan Tadeusz" (Mr Tadeusz) is a complex work best understood when you are Polish from birth.
Sienkiewicz was more cosmopolitic.
Germans will tell you that Copernicus was German, Lithuanians that Mickiewicz was Lithuanian, the French that Chopin was French. For us they are Poles. Mickiewicz wrote in Polish, Copernicus was a Polish ecclesiastic and Chopin, from what I know, just regarded himself as Polish.
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farmerman
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Tue 10 Jul, 2007 08:33 am
I was interested in the Mickiewicz brigades that volunteered for the US Civil War. The Polish AMvets of Pa has a vague reference that these units, founded from the spirit of Adam Mickiewicz were organized in Pa and NY. (Of course in NY all the "native borns" were fighting more to be excused from military service.
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literarypoland
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Tue 10 Jul, 2007 09:25 am
As blacks in the movie "Glory"?
Well, this story is unknown here. Poles fighting in the Civil War - probably fighting for the North since they had settled in big cities. A good subject for a book by a Polish historian.
OK, I've just found out that our history buffs discuss this situation.
Polish Legion ("United States Rifles", commanders Włodzimierz (Wladimir) Bonawentura Krzyżanowski, Józef Karge) - fighting for the North, Polish Brigade (Kasper Tochman) - fighting for the South, from Louisiana (http://ftp.rootsweb.com/pub/usgenweb/la/ta...wns/pulaski.txt), Panna Maria Grays from Texas.
4000 Poles fighting for the Union, 500 for the South.
Even a book exists:
"Polacy w wojnach amerykańskich 1775-1783, 1861-1865" B. Grzeloński I. Rusinowa. = "Poles in American wars".
A statue of our famous king Jagiello stands in the Central Park in New York.
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literarypoland
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Tue 10 Jul, 2007 09:29 am
Wlodzimierz Krzyzanowski; Grzelonski
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literarypoland
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Tue 10 Jul, 2007 09:31 am
Some may argue that Jagiello was Lithuanian
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literarypoland
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Sun 7 Dec, 2008 10:45 am
After 17 months.
I would say that about 60% of the names you mentioned exist now in our Polish Wikipedia, which still is the 4th Wikipedia in the world as regards the number of entries.
Thanks again for your valuable input.
Actors are very popular with our contributors; the matter is worst with your local TV hosts, sports commentators, stand-up comedians, from the 1950s, 1960s, but I believe that ultimately all the proposals will be introduced.
Hobbyists are unbelievable, no subject is too obscure, we love to discover new uncharted shores.