POLAND: Maga. zine

The appearance of the October number of Poland, a monthly magazine published in the U. S. and devoted to serious discussions of the condition of Poland, sent a thrill of ill-concealed horror through stalwart, patriotic Poles resident in the U. S.

On a navy blue cover there appeared not a portrait of Premier Dictator Joseph Pilsudski, or of President Ignatz Moscicki, or of Ignatz Paderewski, or Joseph Conrad, or Tadeusz Andzrezej Bonawentura Kosciuszko but an action picture of Gilda Gray.* “Polish dancer.” Poles, incensed, took umbrage at such terpsichorean levity in their favorite periodical.

* Marja (Mariana) Michalska, named Gilda Gray by Sophie Tucker, was born in Krakow, Poland, and early came to the U. S. with her laborer father. She married a bartender and left him to earn her own living, which she started to do in vile “honkytonks” with sawdust on the floor—at eight dollars a week. She once related that when she went to conquer Manhattan the city so nearly conquered her that she and a girl who came with her from the west decided to kill themselves. Now she is one of the most highly paid dancers in the world.