Zarah Leander – The Actress and Singer
You have heard of famous French entertainers who sang in front of Hitler and the Nazi leaders during World War II. During this time, only the best performers were allowed to perform in front of Hitler and certain performers, like Maurice Chevalier and a handful of others, were able to gain even more fame from this. However, not all of those who performed for Hitler during this time were able to further their careers. In fact, one woman, Zarah Leander, left the spotlight after the war ended in 1945.
For Zarah, when the war ended she started to face a lot of suspicion. People suspected that she was guilty of slander. All of this weighed heavily on her, and it caused her to leave her fame behind her and stay out of the public eye. The former UFA film actress and singing star was nowhere to be found for more than ten years. After that, there were rumors of her being spotted in the outskirts of the country, and not long after that she was finally able to regain the love and trust of her beloved Swedish community.
I believe it was the Summer of 1955 when Zarah and her constant pianist Hülphers made an appearance in the northern Swedish area of Norrbotten. At the time, I was with Mr. Lindblom’s orchestra and our vocalist was Gunnar Wiklund. I am honored to say that we were the opening act for Mrs. Leander. We took our place on the large but temporary artistic stage next to the dance floor and I was privileged to be able to share one of the only lodges at the interim stage with Zarah herself.
Once we completed our orchestra’s performance Zarah took her turn on the stage. Inside this lodge, I was able to watch Zarah as she went on stage before a massive audience. But just before she was about to start singing we heard shouting, the people started screaming “Nazi, Nazi, Nazi!”. As time went on, they began to shout even more loudly, and I could feel that the mood around me had shifted to a dark place. I began to wonder what would happen next, what would Zarah possibly do now?
It was then that the world famous Zarah Leander made her famous gesture of pointing her index finger into the air and she began to sing her big shownumber “Do you want to see a star, look at me”. As you can imagine, the audience quickly fell silent and both Zarah and her pianist Hülphers received a long applause when they ended their program.
When Zarah entered our dressing room after the show, I was full of admiration and I told her that was the coolest thing that I had ever seen! Immediately she replied, “You have to sit down over small bagatelles!” And then she and Hülphers went down into the city’s hotel where they ate a light dinner and came back at 23 to perform the second programs of the evening. This time there was no shouting ‘Nazi!’, this time the audience was filled with adoration and gave Zarah many long applauses. For me, this was a memory that I would never forget, I am honored that I was able to meet one of the greatest, most admirable, and most versatile artists that ever lived!
