February 4, 2023: Filip Šír about Voskovec & Werich

Transatlantic Battlefront: How the Exiled Czech Comic Duo Voskovec and Werich Continued Resistance to Nazi Occupation Via Radio

Sunday February 4, 2024, 3-5pm
Boylston Hall 105, Harvard University (Harvard Square)

Voskovec & Werich – two giants of Czechoslovak theater, comedy, satire, and film who emigrated to the USA in 1939. Although Jiří Voskovec never returned to his homeland, Jan Werich was then active in filmmaking in Czechoslovakia until his activities, although restricted by the regime, were almost stopped for good by the Soviet invasion in 1968. Come and listen to a lecture by Filip Šír, who is researching archives in the USA and the lesser-known activities of Voskovec and Werich in the USA.

Filip Šír will take you on a transatlantic journey of V+W, and share his archival discoveries related to their activities in the US during WWII, including their collaboration with Jaroslav Ježek, Hugo Haas, and Adolf Hoffmeister. Their war-time recordings were broadcasted by the radio stations WRUL in Boston, BBC in London and by the U.S. Office of War Information.

 

 

Filip Šír, National Museum in Prague, a pioneer in Historical Audio
Preservation, works in the newly established National Museum’s Sound Lab.