Alla Nazimova, Broadway, silent movie, and talking picture star, appeared briefly in Since You Went Away, reciting the inscription to the Statue of Liberty. The best known of those words are the last five lines of The New Colossus, a poem written by Emma Lazarus in 1883 to help raise money to complete the statue, which was donated by the people of France. The lines read:
Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost, to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!
The title refers to the Colossus of Rhodes, the giant (for its time) statue that was one of the seven wonders of the ancient world. The poem contrasts the Colossus and its "conquering limbs" with Lady Liberty, a welcoming symbol to immigrants of every sort, according to the Statue of Liberty website. You can find the entire poem engraved on a plaque at the Statue of Liberty in New York, New York.
Read the remarkable Alla Nazimova story in Pulitzer nominated author David W. Menefee's THE FIRST FEMALE STARS: WOMEN OF THE SILENT ERA. Available in hardback and Kindle editions. Visit www.abc-clio.com/product.aspx?... or www.amazon.com.