Month: March 2021

The name Warner Oland might not be familiar to many people. However, he was actually one of Hollywood’s most recognizable and biggest stars during the 1930’s. In his career he appeared in over 100 films. Today, his roles would be considered politically incorrect, but at the time they were made, they reflected the way white film makers saw minority groups.

Warner Oland was born in the northern Swedish county of Västerbotten in 1879. In 1892, he emigrated with his family to the USA where he anglified his Swedish name – Johan Verner Öhlund.

After leaving school, he quickly got into acting and the theater. He was the first person to translate Strindberg and Ibsen and present it to the American audience. He started his career in silent movies, and had a small part in the very first talkie ever made – The Jazz Singer, and later played opposite Marlene Dietrich and Greta Garbo.

However, he is most famous for his depiction of a certain character – the iconic Chinese detective Charlie Chan. In over 16 films, Werner played this legendary character and, because of it, he became a huge star and box office success.

During the 1930’s Hollywood did not cast Asian actors in leading roles. This is why Warner Oland was given the job – his appearance reflecting the idea at the time of what Chinese people looked like. A bit of make-up, a false mustache and the stereotypical image was complete. He played other Asian characters such as super villain Fu Manchu.

Later on, the character of Charlie Chan became very controversial. When author Earl Derr Biggers created the character, he wanted to show an alternative to the evil Chinamen, which was the prevailing representation at the time. Charlie Chan was intended to be accommodating and unthreatening to combat xenophobia.

Werner Oland died in Stockholm in 1938 of pneumonia. He also had long-standing problems with alcoholism and ill health. He was married to a wealthy Bostonian, the artist Edith Gardener Shearn. Among their many houses was a historic farmhouse in Southborough Massachusetts. Here, Werner Oland is buried in the town cemetery.

He is probably the most famous, and anonymous, Swedish film star of all time.

If you are not familiar with the name Evert Taube, you should check him out. A more legendary name is hard to find in a Sweden. Born in 1890 in Gothenburg, he was a writer, musician, composer and singer. He is one of the most respected musicians and foremost troubadours in the folk ballad tradition of the 20th century.

He was most known for his idyllic folk songs about the Swedish countryside, the sea, the archipelago and the flora and fauna of the country. He is so engrained in the national psyche that there is no Midsummer celebration in Sweden without the playing of Taube’s songs. He is the soundtrack of summer.

Evert Taube didn’t restrict himself to pastoral romanticism however, he also wrote famous songs about Latin America and the Mediterranean as well as anti-war and anti-fascism anthems. Many of his songs have been translated and recorded in other languages. He had four children, one of whom is the popular Swedish crooner Sven-Bertil Taube, today 86 years old, and an icon in his own right.

Evert Taube died in Stockholm in 1976 aged 85. In 1990, he was immortalized when a statue was raised in his honour on Evert Taube’s Terrace in central Stockholm. There he sits, holding his faithful lute in his hand. A second statue of him stands discretely in the corner of Järntorget Square in the Old Town.

My favourite Taube ballad below is performed beautifully by Roxette’s singer Marie Fredriksson. The song called ‘Så Skimrande Var Aldrig Havet’ translates loosely as ‘The Sea Was Never So Shimmering’ and is about the magic of a first kiss.