South American motifs also began to appear on the scene during these years. The aforementioned Dana Choir, where Mieczysław Fogg made his debut, initially performed Latin American masquerades and was announced as Coro Argentino V. Dano – its repertoire included Spanish-language tangos. In his book Powróćmy Jak Za Dawnych Lat (Let Us Return to the Old Days), Dariusz Michalski recalls an anecdote from Fogg: ‘We were given nice silk shirts with jabots, black silk trousers and sombrero hats. They painted whiskers on our faces. Behind us, on the stage, the set was decorated to look like Rio de Janeiro [...].’
Pre-war songs also reflected the Sanation government’s fantasies about overseas colonies. On the eve of World War II, the Maritime and Colonial League was one of the largest organisations in Poland, with almost a million members. It fostered a ‘colonial mentality’ among Poles and even organised competitions for songs praising distant sea voyages. Echoes of Polish colonial thinking can be found, for example, in the satirical Madagascar, written in 1938 by Mieczysław Miksne, or in the tango Angola (lyrics by Andrzej Włast, music by Marceli Julski) from the repertoire of Tadeusz Faliszewski – although potential colonists should have taken this text as a warning:
I saw a different land in my dreams
A land of exotic dreams and lusts
Where man searches in vain for shade
Trembling before his own shadow
Today, like a castaway, I look from afar
Into the past and my family home
And the sun burns me to ashes
And I perish here, giving the lie to my dreams
Hawaii held a special place in the hearts of songwriters. Below are a few titles of the hits from that period: Hawajskie Noce (Hawaiian Nights), Hawajskie Serce i Gitara (Hawaiian Heart and Guitar), Kwiat z Hawajów (Flower from Hawaii), Noc w Hawai (Night in Hawaii) and Walczyk Hawajski (Little Hawaiian Waltz). Jan Ławrusiewicz’s Hawaiian Guitar Orchestra recorded for the Syrena-Electro label. Whether the song was about Hawaii or, say, Brazil (‘Do you know this heavenly country? / Where eternal May blooms’ – as it was praised in Brazylijskie Tango [Brazilian Tango]), all these overseas lands were surprisingly similar to each other.
If you’d like to create a group re-enacting pre-war vaudeville and dance orchestras, here’s a recipe for a song with a touch of exoticism. Open an atlas and pick a geographical name – island countries are the best choice. Select at least four elements from the mandatory set: a starry/moonlit/hot night, singing birds-of-paradise, rustling palm trees or whispering waves. Love, dancing, the senses and wistful motifs are also essential. Be sure to mention tropical flora, such as coconut trees, magnolias or vaguely described mysterious flowers. Remember that the word ‘żar’(ardour) rhymes with ‘czar’ (charm), and another clever rhyme could be, for example, ‘dżungli gwar’ (the buzz of the jungle), as in the song Rumba Negro. To create atmosphere, it is worth adding a foreign word, such as hacienda, pueblo, donna, señorita, caballero or, of course, aloha.