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Leopoldina Sangora was a well-known stage and early film actress in Germany and Austria. She was the very first actress to play Eliza Doolittle in George Bernard Shaw's German opening of Pygmalion, according to family lore.
She had many suitors but chose to marry fellow actor Wilhelm Schröder-Schrom around 1922. They appeared in several films together including a version of Peer Gynt in 1934. They had no children but Poldi raised her nephew Richard Elsass-29 alongside her widowed sister, Maria.
After Willi's death in 1956, Poldi emigrated to America where she spent the rest of her days with her beloved nephew and his young family in New York City.
She spoke little English but when Richard took her to see My Fair Lady on Broadway in 1956, she was delighted to recognize Eliza Doolittle, the character she had debuted in 1913.
She passed away in Manhattan in 1963.
Sources
- "New York, New York Passenger and Crew Lists, 1909, 1925-1957," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3QSQ-G945-H93J-4?cc=1923888&wc=MFKX-QZS%3A1030337801 : 3 October 2015), 8813 - Dec 2, 1956, GAUTHOID-Dec 6, 1956, EROS > image 653 of 1203; citing NARA microfilm publication T715 (Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.).
