Career
In 1949, when the postwar theater euphoria died down, Millowitsch focussed on his television career and in 1949 his first television film (Gesucht wird Majora, directed by Hermann Pfeiffer) was released. Many more were to follow. But he did not content himself just transferring from one medium to the other, but brought the theater with him. On October 27, 1953, the Kölsch dialect play Der Etappenhase was broadcast on the Western regional channel WDR, the first live broadcast of a theatrical performance with real audience in German television history. Despite bitter criticism of the entry of low 'folk culture' into television by the director of the Nordwestdeutscher Rundfunk, Adolf Grimme, it was an instant success. This remains one of Millowitsch's most popular plays and has been performed more than 1,000 times. Der Etappenhase was so popular that just six weeks later it was broadcast again, live from the Volkstheater.
He continued to put on television plays that were instant successes, gaining national popularity. It is in great part Millowitsch's achievement to have popularized Kölsch throughout Germany. People were now associating the Rhinelander with a relaxed lifestyle and genial humor. Theaters from other dialectal areas scrambled to catch up with him and soon the dialect theater became an important part of the German television landscape.
With the success of these plays on television, interest in theater gradually increased and by the sixties flocks of people took to the theater again to witness performance of Millowitsch's popular plays first hand. Until the beginning of the 1960s Millowitsch had to rent out his theater now and again, but with the arrival of the new crowds Millowitsch could afford to concentrate his career on theater from then on. He renovated the theater in 1967 and the Volkstheater once again became a focal point of local culture, and many young dialect artists started their careers there.
Throughout the 1970s, Millowitsch stuck to the folk theater, and it wasn't until the end of the 1980s that he also turned back to television and took the title role in a detective series as Kommissar Klefisch, whom he played until 1996. He even played a small part in the Hollywood Comedy National Lampoon's European Vacation with Chevy Chase (1985). Aside from his theatrical merits, he also wrote classic popular folk songs, such as Schnaps, das war sein letztes Wort and Wir sind alle kleine Sünderlein. He also embraced political causes and in 1992 he participated in the important anti-Nazi campaign, Arsch huh, Zäng ussenander! (Kölsch, meaning: Move your butts and pipe up!), which culminated in a major concert by local acts attended by 100,000 people at Cologne's Chlodwigplatz.
Read more about this topic: Willy Millowitsch
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