Born on this day: awe-inspiring and berserk operatic Polish chanteuse, actress and all-purpose diva Violetta Villas (née Czesława Maria Cieślak, 10 June 1938 - 5 December 2011). For anyone not au fait with the wild, wild world of the tempestuous Villas, think of her as an ultra-campy, kitsch outsider artist; a wild low-budget Eastern European hybrid of Yma Sumac, Jayne Mansfield, Anita Ekberg in La Dolce Vita, Brigitte Bardot and Charo; a punk (her image and un-hinged performances can anticipate Nina Hagen or Jayne County); and the self-parodic possessor of a drag queen sensibility (is it deliberate or naive? Certainly, her persona evokes the films of the Kuchar brothers and John Waters). Dubbed "the voice of the atomic age”, Villas was a celebrated Las Vegas headliner (at the Casino de Paris at the Dunes) in the 1960s, but her promising international career was cut short by Communism (she bounced back in the 1980s and never stopped being venerated in Europe). I revere this woman and wish she was more embraced as a queer icon in the non-Polish speaking world. I highly recommend investigating old clips of Villas on YouTube (especially her interpretations of “Strangers in the Night”, “My Heart Belongs to Daddy” and Barbra Streisand’s “Free Again”). Prepare to have your mind blown!
