Events | Exit Exil. Fünf Frauenleben in L.A. (4/5): The life divided
Radio | July 1, 2022 | 10:15 AM (PDT)
with Farahnaz Hatam & Étienne Roeder
by Étienne Roeder
Broadcast: June 1, 2022
Time: 7:15 Uhr (CET)
Director: Philippe Brühl
Production: Deutschlandfunk 2022
More information: www.hoerspielundfeature.de
Fritzi Massary was the most famous operetta singer of her time. But then came the Nazis, her flight to Los Angeles and oblivion. Time to rediscover her story together with composer Farahnaz Hatam.
A good 100 years ago, the young Austrian Fritzi Massary was a star on the stages of Berlin. She was the face of Berlin's Metropol Theater, and her frivolous song "Why shouldn't a woman have an affair" was a hit. But even before Hitler came to power, SA people disrupted her performances with chants.
After her escape in 1932, she lived in Los Angeles in the neighborhood of the German exile bohemians around Thomas Mann and Marta and Lion Feuchtwanger. But even though she was awarded the Federal Cross of Merit in 1957, her career was over.
Together with composer and Villa Aurora fellow Farahnaz Hatam, Étienne Roeder visits the site of her great successes in Berlin - to discover that the spirit of "the Massary" is still in the air there.
A cooperation of Villa Aurora & Thomas Mann House and Deutschlandfunk.
After being broadcast on the radio, the radio features "EXIT EXIL. Five Women's Lives in LA" will be presented in our app "Exit Exil," which will be available free of charge in the appshops later this summer. In the coming years, it will develop into a central platform for artistic, journalistic and academic contributions focusing on German-speaking exile in the US. Current debates on migration, identity, etc. will take a prominent place. EXIT EXIL is designed as a network project and will be successively expanded by further content from alumni of the VATMH residency programs and cooperation partners from culture and science.
EXIT EXIL was developed within the framework of "dive in. Program for Digital Interactions" of the German Federal Cultural Foundation, funded by the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media (BKM) in the NEUSTART KULTUR program.
