When Mr Svasse Bergqvist composes a show
He writes it in Copenhagen you know
Sometimes in Berlin and sometimes in Paris
That’s why it comes at so high a price.
These words were sung by Ernst Rolf in a revue song in 1928 about one of his competitors in the cabaret world: Jacob “Svasse” Bergqvist. Ernst Rolf is still somewhat remembered today as one of the great cabaret masters of his time, which can hardly be said of Svasse Bergqvist (1887-1959). Yet even he can be worth highlighting. Deep down, Bergqvist was namely a creature very different from a theatre man and an entertainer: he was a civil servant, with a law degree from Lund University to his name.
A young Svasse Bergqvist, possibly photographed during his time as a student in Lund.
Image source: Academic Society Archives & Student Museum.
The fact is that Svasse Bergqvist’s heritage more than qualified as Lundensian-academic. His father, Bengt J:son Bergqvist (1860-1936), was not only born in Lund and studied there, but had even earned a doctoral degree there before making a fine career in the education sector – including as a school administrator and director general of the supervisory body for schools, Skolöverstyrelsen – which culminated in a position as the Swedish ecclesiastical minister (corresponding to the minister for education) from 1920 to 1921. Svasse’s paternal grandfather, Jakob Bergquist (1831-1891), had “only” been a parish priest in Bosarp, but he too, as a young man, had studied in Lund. However, it was Svasse’s paternal great-grandfather who had got furthest on the academic path. He was Bengt Jacobsson Bergquist (1785-1847), who had been a professor of theology at the University from 1833 (but there the academic roots on the father’s side terminate: the professor’s own father, also called Jacob Bergqvist, had been a master bricklayer in Västra Göinge). Svasse’s mother, Constance Bergqvist, also had a strong Lundensian heritage: she was the daughter of professor and Lund bishop Vilhelm Flensburg, and the sister of professor of Sanskrit Nils Flensburg, a known figure in academic social life.
The young Svasse himself started on an academic path as a 17 year-old in the autumn semester of 1904, when he enrolled at both Lund University’s Faculty of Law and the Kristianstad Nation. The fact that Bergqvist, despite being born in Lund, chose this student nation probably had less to do with his family roots in the area reaching back to the 1700s, and more with his father having been the principal of the secondary school in Kristianstad since 1899, which meant that his son finished upper secondary school there. In fact Bergqvist senior was appointed an honorary member of Kristianstad Nation a few years later (1913).
Law student with new conditions
The possibility of enrolling directly in the Faculty of Law as a fresher, as Bergqvist did, was a novelty at the time. Previously it had been considered obvious that, to ensure “the universal education of the Swedish civil service”, students first needed to complete a “preliminary degree” in the Faculty of Philosophy before being accepted into more specialised studies in one of the “higher” faculties (theology, law and medicine). In 1904, an educational reform was carried enabling direct enrolment in these faculties. For law students, a Bachelor of Laws degree was now introduced as a main degree within the faculty, instead of the various types of professional civil service degrees which were previously common. The whole process has been described by historian of law Kjell Å Modéer as “part of a modern professionalisation of lawyers”.
By all accounts, the law student Bergqvist did not make much of an impression, and his name does not figure in the memoirs of old Lundensians or other recollections from the time. During his final year of study at the University, he did apply for a couple of positions in his student nation – as a senior and as a representative on the supervisory board of the Academic Society – but he did not get enough votes in either election. One could imagine that a future cabaret and theatre man such as Bergqvist would have been drawn to one of the many opportunities for public performance offered by the student world. There were probably plenty. In the first decade of the 1900s, the student cabaret scene in Lund was thriving, and during Bergqvist’s years as a student, three future classics in the genre premiered: Carl XII, Bonifacius and Uarda, the latter as part of the famous carnival of 1908 in which the first carnival films were recorded. Investigations into the cabaret and carnival history material in the Academic Society archives have not produced any indication that the future show-writer was in any way involved.
In September 1909, Bergqvist completed his Bachelor of Laws degree. His grades were mediocre to say the least: apart from a single “pass with credit” (Ba) in history of law, he earned only a number of “pass” marks, (B), the lowest possible passing grade. This contrasts strongly with Bergqvist’s final results from upper secondary school in Kristianstad five years earlier. His report was full of high marks (including a big A in German), an indication that the young Bergqvist probably didn’t lack talent and brains. Perhaps his poor Bachelor’s degree in law rather reflected a lack of interest in the subject itself? On the other hand, other students at the time testified that the lecturers of the Faculty of Law, in particular, “were very uninterested in differentiating grades”.
The grades in Bergqvist’s Bachelor of Laws degree from 1909.
Image source: Lund University Archives.
In any case, the grades did not prevent Bergqvist from getting a position both in Stockholm’s lower court and in the Swedish secondary school authority (Läroverksstyrelsen) the same year (the latter job begs the question of whether his director general daddy might perhaps have had something to do with the matter?). After that, Bergqvist spent a brief period in the ministry of trade, transport and local government before entering, in 1916, the first of a number of positions in the part of the state apparatus where he would earn his living for the next few decades: the prison system. Yet it was for a completely different occupation that he began to make a name for himself in the capital city at that time.
Lawyer Jacob becomes the entertainer Svasse
During spring 1916, Bergqvist’s name started to appear in the Stockholm press. Initially, it was in his capacity as master of ceremonies for a cabaret entitled the “Red Rooster”. Svenska Dagbladet observed in a news item on 4 April that, out of the participants, “administrative assistant Bergqvist deserves a special mention, as his reputation as a master of ceremonies is already established in Stockholm”. This early recognition also seems to be one of the last references to Bergqvist in these contexts by his real first name. Already in the contemporary advertisements for the cabaret, he was referred to as “Svasse”, and it was under this pseudonym that he continued to figure in entertainment contexts – he seems thereafter to have reserved the name Jacob for the exercise of his more serious profession. I have unfortunately been unable to find any information on the origin of this nickname.
Within a short time, greater things than the odd assignment as master of ceremonies followed for “Svasse”. Already in the autumn of 1916, he made his debut as an author for the stage with the farce Ack, Elvira at Södra teatern. His debut work was a collaboration with the composer Sten Njurling, who wrote the music. Njurling had shortly before given himself the stage name “Fred Winter” and, as a logical counterpart, he called his partner of the time not Svasse but “Strid Sommar” – Conflict Summer - a play on the word Fred which means peace in Swedish! Maybe he was happy to have chosen to debut under a pseudonym when he read the review earned by the show in the well-established weekly magazine Idun. Its reviewer said he wished to
[…] try to forget as soon as possible the sorry impression made by the entire production. But he can nevertheless not repress the reflection that the author does not seem to understand anything of the time in which he lives as, in his show, he has neglected all current topics and only served up old and worn themes from the older productions in the genre. The show, which is not a satire on the times, has no justification, as a display of half-naked girls and boisterous gentlemen in tails is a spectacle that is starting to be somewhat stale.
I don’t know whether Svasse cried about this review, but if he did, he could on the other hand “laugh all the way to the bank” as it were. Ack, Elvira indeed became a box office hit. It was performed 127 times during the autumn and put on again in spring 1917 and once more in spring 1921. The contrast between the appreciation of the critics and the audience seems to have affected much of Bergquist’s stage productions. A review in Svenska Dagbladet in 1920 of the new year’s show Nattugglor (Night Owls) is revealing. The reviewer, Finn, wrote that “Svasse Bergquist was perhaps witty at some point in time. Now he has lost this ability completely, and is merely going through the motions – unfortunately. For a painful three hours, his new year revue of 1920 struggled on aimlessly at Mosebacke, without a single witticism that was not old. When Mr. Bergqvist is recycling old material, why not at least choose the best?” At the same time, the astonished reviewer observed that “the audience, however, which filled every seat, applauded, one could say frenetically” and asked himself “Is Mr Bergquist making fun of the audience, or is it the audience that is making fun of Mr Bergquist?”.
Bright colours and plenty of them
Better disposed towards Svasse than the press were his colleagues in the entertainment business. The real seasoned showman of the time, Emil Norlander, wrote in his memoirs that “Svasse Bergqvist celebrated […] many victories. All of them well-deserved”, while theatre director Björn Hodell called the results of Svasse’s revue writing “particularly good”. Hodell was, however, speaking in his own interest: several of Bergqvist’s cabaret shows had been written for Hodell’s own theatre at Folkets Hus, and a couple of them had been directed by him as well. On the other hand, Hodell may thereby have been better placed than many others to put his finger on what made Bergqvist’s work so successful: “The shows were beautifully produced with dazzling dance numbers unlike any we had seen before”. In other words, Svasse served up a visual treat rather than any profound observations. And the audience enjoyed what he offered. A contemporary critic observed in 1920: “As most creators of cabaret shows, he [Bergqvist] has both good and less good sides, as a stage producer, he has understood the demands of modern times for extravagant sets, bright colours and plenty of them”.
The above-mentioned Hodell also raises the significance of the Svasse revues as “nurseries for young cabaret stars”. Bergqvist really seems to have had an eye for new talent, and made sure to attract it to his productions. An extremely successful example was the Danish former boxer Carl Pedersen. When he hung up his boxing gloves, he reinvented himself as a dancer under the stage name Carl Brisson and, as such, participated in Ernst Rolf’s cabaret at the Fenix restaurant. Svasse clearly saw greater potential in the Dane and constructed an entire revue around him as a charming songster: Brisson’s blue blondes (1918). Besides the final number “Blått” (“Blue”) Brisson also enjoyed success with Svasse’s song “The girl from Södermalm”:
Who is the lively Stockholm girl
Who never loses her good humour?
Whose eyes burn brightest?
Who is constantly making mischief?
Who has such lovely white teeth?
Who is as shy as a gazelle?
Who is sitting here clapping her hands
And is so very pretty and kind
And sings along tonight?
Yes, it is the girl from Södermalm;
Slender and supple as the palm of the desert
She stands in my memory, with sun-kissed cheeks
Swift of tongue and quick to reply
Yet always so sweet and kind,
Merry of mood, and taking life so lightly.
According to Hodell, the young girls in the audience went “completely crazy” when Brisson performed this tribute to the ladies of the neighbourhood; among them, in particular, a certain 16-year-old Greta Gustafsson, who was working at the time as a soap-girl in a barbershop in Söder, and who seems to have sent passionate declarations of love to Brisson. In time, she became famous herself, under the name Greta Garbo. And Brisson’s own career would eventually take him to Hollywood where, in the film All the King’s Horses (1935), he sang what would become his signature tune for the rest of his career: “A little white gardenia”. Would this ever have happened without prison officer Bergqvist?
Final scene in Blått-Blått, the Helsingborg version of the show Brisson’s Blue Blondes, 1919. The man in the tailcoat is probably Gösta Bodin who had taken over Carl Brisson’s role as the principal heartthrob in the show.
Image source: Programme in Lund University Library collections.
In time, the Brisson revue was also exported from Stockholm to the region where Bergqvist himself was born. In 1919, it was performed in Helsingborg, now without the main protagonist and therefore renamed as Blått-Blått (Blue-Blue). This was not the only change. To give the revue a bit of local colour, Bergqvist had travelled down and conferred with a journalist in the city, who was engaged to write a few new songs with topical Helsingborg references. This co-author is only mentioned in the programme for the revue with the extremely anonymous signature “X.X.”. Only a few years later, however, he would become famous for a collection of songs – Fridas visor – published under his own name: Birger Sjöberg.
The daily dose
Another young talent whose career Svasse helped to launch was Stig Hansson, a 24 year-old student from the Music Academy. Besides his serious music studies, Hansson harboured a desire to explore the domain of popular music. In the spring of 1924, he contacted cabaret director Bergqvist and tried to sell him some works for the forthcoming summer revue. Bergquist had no use for them, but gave the young composer a tip. At that time, a well-known universal remedy called Kruschensalt was on sale – a product presented as being good for everything from digestion and sleep to appetite and nerves – and the company behind it wanted a melody for its advertising slogan “It’s the little daily dose that does it”. Could Hansson come up with a tune? He could, on condition that he was allowed to eliminate the word “little” for the sake of the melody. He whistled his composition over the telephone to Bergquist, who quickly came up with lyrics for it, including the following chorus:
It’s the daily dose that does it,
That puts a bounce in everything and in your mood.
It will make me live to be a hundred
With new teeth and curly hair.
It’s the daily dose that does it,
And if you go mad you can’t help it.
Before it was gymnastics and a cold morning shower,
Now everything that goes wrong is blamed on Kruschen.
Kruschensalt, a universal health remedy which gave Jules Sylvain his first hit. Svasse wrote the lyrics.
Image source: Private collection.
Svasse was so satisfied with the result that he not only delivered it to the Kruschen company but also included it in his summer revue show. It was a tremendous hit: “It’s the daily dose that does it”, performed by the popular comedian Kirre Lindholm, became the big hit of the summer and sold 60 000 copies of sheet music. The young Stig Hansson put aside his ambitions as a serious composer, taking on the pseudonym Jules Sylvain to become the most successful Swedish hit-writer of the 1900s.
Sketches from Berlin?
Svasse was – not least during the late 1910s and early 1920s – extremely productive. During his time as artistic director at the Mosebacke revue theatre, he was under contract to deliver three revues per year. Under such circumstances, one can assume that his superiors in the prison board must have been very generous in granting him leave, while having some understanding for the difficulty involved in consistently producing new amusements. As mentioned above, critics in the press sometimes accused Svasse of stealing old jokes from himself. What was worse, however, was that he was also sometimes accused of stealing material from others, mainly from sources abroad. Erik Zetterström, another prolific youngster and famous columnist and revue author during the 1920s who signed himself Kar de Mumma, in later columns, memoirs and other writing almost routinely added comments of the type “with sketches from Berlin” as soon as Svasse Bergqvist’s revues came up. Even the song by Ernst Rolf quoted in the introduction to this text formulates Svasse’s shows as written “in Copenhagen, sometimes in Berlin and sometimes in Paris” which could be interpreted as a corresponding pique.
Rolf was now no longer satisfied with merely accusing his colleague Svasse in the form of song verses. Already in 1918, he had initiated a court case about certain Danish verses which he had had translated for his cabaret, but which then turned up in similar translations in Svasse’s Mosebacke revue. The court dismissed Rolf’s case, however, and when Svasse was again under fire for plagiarism that same autumn, the accusations apparently came from a different direction, namely from the Danish revue author Aage Steffensen, who published an open letter on the matter in the Stockholm press. However, on closer inspection, Steffensen’s letter proved to have been written by Ernst on writing paper from Ernst Rolf’s own music company!
Yet even after these accusations, Svasse did not end up behind the bars of any of the prisons where he occasionally served as the warden’s assistant. But a number of years later, he did have to welcome a distinctive colleague from the entertainment business as a prison inmate. That story will have to wait for part 2 of this article, in which we will also find out about Svasse making a film together with Sweden’s best-loved actor and what his father, the director general, really thought of his son’s activities in the world of popular theatre …
Fredrik Tersmeden
Archivist at Lund University Archives
P.S. The spelling of Svasse’s surname varies in contemporary sources: v or u? My impression is that the formal spelling was Bergqvist. The v variant was used in biographical reference works of the Who’s who variety, as well as in the printed University directory during Svasse’s student years. His own signature on his application documents to the University also appears to use the v spelling. However, in contemporary newspaper text such as advertisements for his revue shows, his name was often spelt Bergquist and, in the text above, I have kept the original spelling in direct quotations. |
