Queer Places:
Hietaniemi Cemetery Helsinki, Helsinki Municipality, Uusimaa, Finland
Vivica Aina Fanny Bandler[1] (5 February 1917 – 30 July 2004) was a Finnish theater director and agronomist.[2] She founded a theater in Helsinki and is credited for popularizing avant-garde Finnish theater.
Vivica von Frenckell was born in Helsinki, Finland, in 1917. She was the daughter of Helsinki Mayor Erik von Frenckell and theater historian Ester-Margaret Lindberg.[3] She studied agronomy, graduating in 1943. She then maintained her family home, Saari Manor, a historic home located in Tammela, Finland. She served in the Lotta Svärd during World War II and married Austrian Kurt Bandler in 1943; they divorced in 1963.
In 1946, she became involved in a love affair with Finnish writer Tove Jansson, which is documented by a series of letters they exchanged in subsequent years. Jansson incorporated the pair of them into her Moomin series as Thingumy and Bob (Bob, whose original name is ''Vifslan'', being based on Vivica). Bandler eventually decided to stay with her husband, but the two women maintained a life-long friendship. Bandler adapted two of Jansson's Moomin stories for theater. In cooperation with her husband, she translated the first three Moomin books into German.[4]
After the war she started working in an amateur theater in Tammela. She studied, in Paris, France in the 1930s, under a French movie director. Upon her return to Helsinki she sought to become a film director, but because of her gender, the opportunity was lacking. She went on to get her degree in agriculture, instead.[5]
In 1939, she founded Helsinki's first Swedish student theater, Studentteaternin. Bandler also served as director of the theater. When visiting film directors came to film in Finland she often served as translator, such as Jacques Feyder. In 1969, she was awarded the Order of the Lion of Finland.
Film director Tuija-Maija Niskanen made the film ''Jäähyväiset'' (''Avskedet'') based on Bandler's life.
My published books:
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- ^ Vivica Bandler, From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- ^ cite web|last=Moring|first=Cherry|title=Vivica Bandler|url=http://muistot.hs.fi/muistokirjoitus/865/vivica-bandler|publisher=Helsingin Sanomat|accessdate=20 September 2012
- ^ cite book|last=Belinka|first=Karmela|title=Vivica Bandler and clowns laugh|year=1998|publisher=Wiley|location=Juva|isbn=951-0-22607-6|pages=31–40
- ^ Tuula Karjalainen: ''Tove Jansson. Work and Love.'' Particular Books, London 2014.
- ^ cite book|author=Robert Aldrich|title=Who's Who in Contemporary Gay and Lesbian History: From World War II to the Present Day|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9KA7_1s6w-QC&pg=PA29|accessdate=20 September 2012|date=5 December 2000|publisher=Taylor & Francis|isbn=978-0-415-22974-6|pages=28–29