Vera Bobrowska, in the words of veteran Polish theatre star Ludwik Sempoliński, had an ‘interesting’ career during the interwar years, although little is known about her private life. An enigmatic and alluring figure, historians have made various suggestions about her real history – including that she was not a professional artist at all, but a spy. Indeed, Justyna B. Walkowiak, who has worked on the history of Polish stage names, includes Vera Bobrowska in a list of artists ‘who in artistic life used rather fancy names, which in all likelihood may have been invented pseudonyms’.
Nevertheless, Bobrowska certainly took the glittering interwar stages by storm. Her career began in the ‘Roaring’ late-1920s, when Polish interwar culture was in full swing, with cabarets, theatres and dance floors erupting across Warsaw. Bobrowska was spotted by stage actor Tadeusz Olsza at a private party and, charming him with her smouldering looks and artistic talent – including singing romantic songs and tangos whilst accompanying herself on the banjo – she looked like she too could be a theatre hit.
Olsza then recommended that she audition with ‘King of Trash’ Andrzej Włast, a talented songwriter and director who, by then, had founded the legendary music hall theatre, Morskie Oko, in the centre of Warsaw. With shows modelled on revues plucked straight from Paris, Morskie Oko looked like a perfect home for the gorgeous Bobrowska and her compelling stage presence.