Tola Mankiewiczówna & Ork. pod dyr. Henryka Golda -- Tangolita (P.Abraham) Tango z operetki „Bal w Savoy'u" (Tango from the operetta Ball At Savoy), Columbia 1934 (Polish)
NOTE: Tola Mankiewiczówna (née Teodora Oleksa) b. 1900 in Bronowo by Łomża, Poland, Warsaw-Bialystok district) d.1985 in Warsaw. Polish lyrical soprano; the film operette and cabaret diva of the inter-war period in Poland. In her youth, Mankiewiczówna received a fine musical education in class of piano at the Warsaw Conservatory. She attended operatic singing lessons with the world-famous Polish soprano, Janina Korolewicz-Waydowa, and she also studied singing in Milan. In 1921 she had her serious operatic debut at the Cracow Opera in "The Countess" (Hrabina) by Stanislaw Moniuszko. In years 1922-31 she was contracted at the most prestigeous Polish stage -- the Warsaw Grand Theatre, where she was cast in the leading roles in Carmen, Faust, or Hansel and Gretel. However, her stage temperament made Mankiewiczówna attracted to the lighter repertoire, so she also performed in the Warsaw Operetta, where she gradually gained more and more popularity. In 1931, Mankiewiczówna abandoned her operatic career for the film and music show, where she quickly became one of the first names in prewar Polish entertainment business.
Endowed with excellent voice and the physical conditions equating her to the film celebrities of her time, Gracie Fields, Jeannette MacDonald or Martha Eggerth, she was entusiastically received by the audiences of Warsaw music theatres and cabarets: "Wielka Rewia", "Rex", "Hollywoood", "Morskie Oko". In film, she created with Aleksander Żabczyński -- the first lover in pre-war Polish film -- a memorable couple in such musical comedies as "10% dla mnie" (Ten Percent For Me, 1933), "Manewry miłosne" (The Love Manouvers, 1935) or "Pani minister tańczy" (Madame Minister Dances, 1937). She also succesfully acted, sung and danced in few other hits of prewar Polish film comedy: "Śluby ułanskie" (The Uhlans' Oaths, 1933), "Parada rezewistów" (The Reservists' Parade, 1934) or "Co mój mąż robi w nocy" (What My Husband Does At Nights, 1935). For Columbia, Syrena Electro and Efta she recorded some of her great hits: waltz "François" • Grande Valse from Wars... , tango "Jesienne róże" (Autumn roses, 1931) • Tola Mankiewiczówna si... English Waltz "Opium" • Adam Aston - Opium, 1933 or Jerzy Petersburski's tango "Ty, miłość i wiosna" (You, Love and Spring) • W majowy dzień In 1935, Mankiewiczówna married a Warsaw lawyer Tadeusz Raabe, who was also a well-known collector of antiques.
Onset of the 2nd World War in September 1939 followed by the occupation of Warsaw by the Gemans, meant the end of the brilliant career as well as the happy life of that extremely friendly and straightforward star. Her husband, who was a Polish Jew, was arrested by Gestapo and forced to move to the Ghetto, which was created within the central area of Warsaw by German occupational administration. Tola, suddenly deprived of all means to survive, moved on to Białystok, where for some time she earned living, singing on small stages. In 1941 she returns to Warsaw, first of all to be closer to her beloved husband as well as to join the friendly-help, organised by other actresses, who were in a similar situatiation. Refusing to perform in the Nazi-controlled stages of Warsaw, they rented apartment for the popular cafeteria named "U Aktorek" (At the Actresses), where many of them worked as waitresses and sold home-made confectionery. In August 1944, during the Warsaw Uprising, which was followed by the total destruction of Warsaw and the annihilation of the most of its inhabitants, Mankiewiczówna lost all her property, including the priceless collection of her husbands' as well as her huge musical archives, which she mourned for the rest of her life.
After the war, she and Tadeusz Raabe who survived the Holocaust, continued living together in Warsaw. He tried to recreate his collection of antiques, while she was taking pains to do the same about her stage career. However, the new communist regime no longer needed actresses playing the roles of upper-class ladies of the "rotten burgeois society". Enjoying the shrinking group of her prewar fans, Mankiewiczówna continued performing, albeit in the secondary roles and in secondary theatres -- e.g. each year she could be applauded in the New Year's show on stage of the sports club Huragan (The Hurrican) in Wołomin near Warsaw, where lived her sister. In 1975, after death of her beloved husband, Tola Mankiewiczówna definetely ceized her artistic activity and worked as clerk at the post office. Before her death in 1985, she donated her husband's collection of the old Delftware to the Royal Castle in Cracow.