Stalin's Comedian

January 10 is the centennial of the founder of the Soviet musical comedy, Grigory Alexandrov (his real surname was Mormonenko).

Alexandrov’s career started behind the theater curtains. He worked as costume assistant, stage designer and technician in the Yekaterinburg opera. After completing a course in directing, in 1921 he joined Proletkult’s First Workers’ Theater, where he met Sergei Eisenstein (see sidebar at left), whose famous Battleship Potemkin (1925) he co-directed. He also scripted and co-directed Eisenstein’s October (1927) and The Old and the New (1929), later accompanying him to the United States and Mexico to work on the never completed Que Viva Mexico!

In the 1930’s, Alexandrov was charged with the task of creating the Soviet musical comedy. He made his debut with Vesyoliye Rebyata (Happy Fellows), also known outside Russia as Moscow Laughs or Jazz Comedy. The film was a huge hit and made Alexandrov’s wife, Lyubov Orlova, the star and sex symbol of “Soviet Hollywood.”