Wasn Pola Negri a lesbian (or at least bisexual)?
The record says “No”. This rumor is completely based on the existence of Pola’s long-time friendship with Margaret West. Margaret West was an oil heiress and vaudeville performer who ended up becoming Pola’s best friend and roommate. People who desperately want to create a broad history for homosexuality have looked at this and jumped to conclusions without examining the facts. First, if Pola was a practicing lesbian or bisexual, we would have a pattern of rumored or real lesbian relationships over the years, but we have no such pattern, even though she had plenty of opportunities to get involved in homosexual activity in post-World War I Berlin. But what we do have is a pattern of passionate love for men, including a string of relationships and affairs too long to go into here. Not to mention that there was another woman involved in Pola’s affairs, and that woman was Pola’s mother, who was a staunch Victorian lady and Polish Catholic, and by virtue of her religious beliefs alone would
