Beautiful Marie Prevost (1898-1937) was an American silent screen actress. She started out as one of Mack Sennett's bathing beauties, but after signing a contract with Universal she publicly burned her bathing suit. She became a popular star with sophisticated comedies as The Beautiful and the Damned (1922) and Ernst Lubitsch's The Marriage Circle (1924), but her life ended in tragedy.


French postcard by Cinémagazine-Edition, no. 242.

A 'French' Bathing Beauty

Marie Prevost was born in 1897 in Sarnia, Ontario, Canada, as Mary Bickford Dunn. She was the daughter of Hughlina Marion (née Bickford) and Arthur 'Teddy' Dunn. Her father worked as a railroad conductor. When Mary was an infant, he was killed when gas seeped into the St. Clair Tunnel. Hughlina later married Frank Prevost. Her sister was the future actress Peggy Prevost. Both were still children when the family moved to the US. First, the family settled in Denver, Colorado, then in Los Angeles.

By 1915, Mary landed a job as a  a stenographer at a law firm which represented the Keystone Film Company. While running an office errand at the Keystone Studios, Prevost was asked to appear in a bit part for the short film His Father's Footsteps (1915).  Keystone's owner, Mack Sennett, also of Canadian origin, entrusted her with the role of an exotic 'French girl' and inserted her into his Bathing Beauties, with the stage name of Marie Prevost.

In 1919, Marie was secretly married to Sonny Gerke, a young man from high society, but the marriage failed after only six months, because Gerke did not have the courage to tell his mother that he had married an actress. Fearful of the bad publicity resulting from a divorce, Marie remained married until 1923, always keeping everyone unaware of her marriage.

At Keystone, Marie appeared in  series of small roles as a young, innocent sexy girl. In 1919, Sennett cast Prevost in her first bigger role in Yankee Doodle in Berlin (Frank Richard Jones, 1919). The film was a hit and helped to solidify Prevost's career. Another successful film was Love, Honor, and Behave (Richard Jones, Erle Kenton, 1920), alongside another Sennett protege, George O'Hara.

In 1921, Marie signed a contract with Universal after getting the attention of Irving Thalberg. Thalberg decided to make her a star and organised a great advertising hype for her. He announced that Marie would star in two films, The Moonlight Follies (King Baggot, 1921) and Kissed (King Baggot, 1922), and sent her to Coney Island. There the actress publicly burned her bathing suit, signifying the end of her 'bathing' days.


Austrian postcard by Iris-Verlag, no. 5618. Photo: PMC / Verleih Mondial.


French postcard by A.N., Paris in the Les vedettes de cinéma, series, no. 1. Photo: Universal Film.

The Marriage Circle

At Universal, Marie Prevost only got light comedy roles. When the contract expired, Jack Warner had her signed for Warner Bros, recognising $ 1,500 a week. Alongside actor Kenneth Harlan as Tony, Marie played Gloria in The Beautiful and the Damned (Sidney Franklin, 1922), based on F. Scott Fitzgerald's bestseller on two idle spendthrifts who do not know how to cope with money running out.

To publicise the film, the production company announced that the actors would get married during filming on the set. The advertising launch worked and the studios were flooded with letters and gifts for the spouses. But when in the Los Angeles Mirror the story of Prevost's earlier secret marriage appeared: "Marie Prevost will become bigamist if she marries Harlan", Warner immediately took charge of the annulment of that marriage, so Harlan and Marie could marry.

Despite the bad publicity, The Beautiful and Damned was successful. By consequence, Ernst Lubitsch wanted Marie as  the beautiful seductress for his film The Marriage Circle (1924), with Adolphe Menjou. Lubitsch said that Prevost was one of the few actresses in Hollywood who knew how to underplay comedy to achieve the maximum effect. He also cast her in  Three Women (Ernst Lubitsch, 1924) with May McAvoy and Pauline Frederick, and Kiss Me Again (Ernst Lubitsch, 1925) with Monte Blue, and Clara Bow.

At Warner's in the mid-1920s, Prevost would star in comedies and dramas with Harrison Ford [the silent actor], Monte Blue, Matt Moore, Douglas Fairbanks jr., and Harlan. In 1926, Warner decided not to prolong the contracts of Harlan and Marie Prevost.

Marie also lost her mother, who was travelling to Palm Beach, Florida, with actress Vera Steadman and producer Al Christie, when their car overturned. Hughina was crushed by the vehicle and died at the scene. Steadman and Christie both sustained serious injuries, but survived. Devastated by her mother's death and losing her work, Marie's marriage deteriorated, she began to drink and soon slipped into alcoholism.


Photo of The Marriage Circle (Ernst Lubitsch, 1924) with Monte Blue. Collection: The Island of Cinema @ Flickr.

She was a winner/Who became her doggie's dinner

In 1927, Marie Prevost separated from her second husband, and despite a reconciliation in between, she divorced him altogether in 1929. To overcome the crisis, Prevost threw herself completely at work. After seeing her in The Beautiful and Damned, in 1928 Howard Hughes wanted her to star in The Racket. The two had a brief relationship but Hughes soon left her and Marie fell into a deepening depression. The Racket (Lewis Milestone, 1928) would be her last leading role in a feature film.

With the advent of sound her thick New England accent didn't lend itself well to the 'demon microphone'. Hal Erickson at AllMovie: "Talking pictures forced Prevost to alter her image; her nasal, high-pitched voice was more suited to wisecracking chorus girls or gum-chewing receptionists than pampered society wives."

In 1929, Cecil B. DeMille offered her a co-starring role in his final silent film The Godless Girl, starring Lina Basquette. Prevost received generally good reviews for her role in the film. In 1930, she appeared in Paid (Sam Wood, 1930), starring Joan Crawford. While Prevost's role was secondary, she still garnered good reviews.

At MGM, Prevost played Academy Award winner Helen Hayes' loyal friend in The Sin of Madelon Claudet (Edgar Selwyn, 1931), and was one of the three leads in the film Three Wise Girls (William Beaudine, 1932), with Jean Harlow. She began to gain weight and could no longer control either food or alcohol.

By 1934, Marie had no work at all and her financial situation deteriorated dramatically. She did a last good supporting part as Carole Lombard's manicurist chum in Hands Across the Table (1936). Her final film appearance was a bit part as a waitress in the action-drama Ten Laps to Go (Elmer Clifton, 1936-1938). To find work again, she faced drastic diets that further weakened her. In 1937, Marie Prevost died of a heart attack due to malnutrition and acute alcoholism. She was only 38.

Her body was found only two days later, due to the continuous and insistent barking of her dachshund dog. A bellhop came into the house and found her lying face down on the bed. Prevost's death was featured in Hollywood Babylon by Kenneth Anger. In the book, Anger falsely claimed Prevost's dachshund consumed her remains to survive. Musician Nick Lowe used details of her life and Anger's account of her death for his song Marie Prevost (1978) including the lyric in the chorus "She was a winner/Who became her doggie's dinner". According to IMDb however, Prevost only had some scratches on her hand where her dog had been pulling at her, probably to try to get her attention.

The funeral at the Memorial Cemetery in Hollywood was paid by Joan Crawford: in addition to Crawford, Clark Gable, Wallace Beery and Barbara Stanwyck participated. Her poor case prompted the Hollywood community to create in the early 1940s the Motion Picture & Television Country House and Hospital to provide medical care for employees of the television and motion picture industry.


Collection: Grudnick @ Flickr.


Collection: Charissa @ Flickr.

Sources: Hal Erickson (AllMovie),  Denny Jackson (IMDb), Wikipedia (Italian and English) and IMDb.

Jack Palance (1919-2006) was an American actor and singer, who portrayed some of the most intensely despised villains witnessed in Westerns and melodramas of the 1950s. In the late 1950s, he became an international star, who often played in Spaghetti Westerns and in the Nouvelle Vague classic Le Mépris (1963) with Brigitte Bardot. He was nominated for three Academy Awards for Best Actor in a Supporting Role, winning an Oscar for his grizzled, eccentric role in City Slickers (1991).


Spanish postcard by Postalcolor, Hospitalet (Barcelona), no. 107. Photo: Warner Bros.


Spanish postcard by ANMAVI, no. 29.

Alan Ladd's biggest nightmare

Jack Palance was born Vladimir Ivanovich Palahniuk in Lattimer Mines, Pennsylvania, in 1919. He was one of the six children of Ukrainian immigrants, Anna (née Gramiak) and Ivan Palahniuk, an anthracite coal miner. After his father had died of black lung disease, the sensitive, artistic lad worked in coal mines before becoming a professional boxer in the late 1930s. Fighting under the name Jack Brazzo, Palance reportedly compiled a record of 15 consecutive victories with 12 knockouts before losing a close decision to future heavyweight contender Joe Baksi in a Pier-6 brawl.

With the outbreak of World War II, Palance's athletic career ended, and his military career began as a member of the United States Army Air Forces. He was honorably discharged from the United States Army Air Forces in 1944. After the war, he attended Stanford University, leaving one credit shy of graduating to pursue a career in the theatre. During his university years, he worked as a short order cook, waiter, soda jerk, lifeguard at Jones Beach State Park, and photographer's model. His new last name, Palance, was a derivative of his original name. No one could pronounce his last name and it was suggested that he be called Palanski. From that he decided just to use Palance instead.

In 1947, Palance made his Broadway debut in The Big, playing a Russian soldier, directed by Robert Montgomery. His acting break came as Marlon Brando's understudy in A Streetcar Named Desire, and he eventually replaced Brando on stage as Stanley Kowalski. He debuted on television in 1949 and made his screen debut as a gangster in the Film Noir Panic in the Streets (Eliz Kazan, 1950). As a plague carrying fugitive, he stood out among a powerhouse cast including Richard Widmark and Paul Douglas.

The same year he made fine use of his former boxing skills and war experience for the film Halls of Montezuma (Lewis Milestone, 1951) about the United States Marines in World War II. He returned to Broadway for Darkness at Noon (1951), by Sidney Kingsley, which was a minor hit. Palance was second billed in just his third film, playing opposite Joan Crawford in the thriller Sudden Fear (David Miller, 1952). According to Gary Brumburgh at IMDb, Palance found “the right menace and intensity to pretty much steal the proceedings”, and he received an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor.

He was nominated in the same category the following year as well, for his role as the hired gunfighter Jack Wilson in Shane (George Stevens, 1953). Brumburgh again: “arguably his finest villain of the decade, that of creepy, sadistic gunslinger Jack Wilson who becomes Alan Ladd's biggest nightmare (not to mention others) in the classic western Shane (1953). Their climactic showdown alone is text book.“ Shane was a huge hit and Palance was now established as a film name.

He played another villain in Second Chance (Rudolph Maté, 1953) opposite Robert Mitchum and was an Indian in Arrowhead (Charles Marquis Warren, 1953), opposite Charlton Heston. He got a chance to play a heroic role in the thriller Flight to Tangier (Charles Marquis Warren, 1953). Palance played the lead in Man in the Attic (Hugo Freegonese, 1953), a remake of The Lodger (1927), the classic silent film by Alfred Hitchcock. Palance was Attila the Hun in Sign of the Pagan (Douglas Sirk, 1954) with Jeff Chandler, and Simon Magus in the Ancient World epic The Silver Chalice (Victor Saville, 1954) with Paul Newman.

He had the star part in I Died a Thousand Times (Stuart Heisler, 1955), a remake of High Sierra and was cast by Robert Aldrich in two star parts: as a Hollywood star in the Film Noir The Big Knife (1955) based on the play by Clifford Odets; and as a tough WW II soldier in Attack (1956). He was in a Western, The Lonely Man (Henry Levin, 1957), playing the father of Anthony Perkins, and played a double role in House of Numbers (Russell Rouse, 1957). In 1957, Palance won an Emmy Award for best actor for his portrayal of Mountain McClintock in the Playhouse 90 production of Rod Serling's Requiem for a Heavyweight.


French postcard by P.I., no. 596, 1955. Photo: Paramount.

The Meanest Guy That Ever Lived

In the following years, Jack Palance became an international star. He was hired by British Warwick Films to play the hero in The Man Inside (John Gilling, 1958). He was reunited with Robert Aldrich and Jeff Chandler on Ten Seconds to Hell (1959) playing a bomb disposal expert, filmed in Germany. He made the drama Flor de Mayo/Beyond All Limits (Roberto Gavaldón, 1959), with Maria Felix, in Mexico, and Austerlitz (Abel Gance, 1960) in France.

Then he did a series of adventure films in Italy: Revak the Rebel/The Barbarians (Rudolph Maté, 1961) with Milly Vitale, Rosmunda e Alboino/Sword of the Conqueror (Carlo Campogalliani, 1961) with Eleonora Rossi-Drago, and I mongoli/The Mongols (Andre DeToth, Leopoldo Savona, 1961) opposite Anita Ekberg.

Next he appeared in the Commedia all'italiana Il giudizio universale/The Last Judgment (Vittorio De Sica, 1961) with Alberto Sordi, and the religious epic Barabbas (Richard Fleischer, 1961), starring Anthony Quinn. Jean-Luc Godard persuaded Palance to take on the role of Hollywood producer Jeremy Prokosch in the nouvelle vague movie Le Mépris/Contempt (1963) with Brigitte Bardot. Although the main dialogue was in French, Palance spoke mostly English.

Palance returned to the US to star in the TV series The Greatest Show on Earth (1963–1964). He played a gangster in Once a Thief (Ralph Thomas, 1965) with Alain Delon. He had a featured role opposite Lee Marvin andBurt Lancasterin the Western adventure The Professionals (Richard Brooks, 1966). He guest starred on The Man from UNCLE and the episodes were released as a film, The Spy in the Green Hat (1967). Palance went to England to do Torture Garden (Freddie Francis, 1967) and did Kill a Dragon (Michael D. Moore, 1968) in Hong Kong.

In 1969, Palance recorded a country music album in Nashville, released on Warner Bros. Records. It featured Palance's self-penned song The Meanest Guy That Ever Lived. His films continued to be international co-productions: They Came to Rob Las Vegas (Antonio Isasi-Isasmendi, 1968), the Zapata Western Il mercenario/The Mercenary (Sergio Corbucci, 1968) with Franco Nero, The Desperados (Henry Levin, 1969), and Justine ovvero le disavventure della virtù/Marquis de Sade: Justine (Jésus Franco, 1969), starring Klaus Kinski.

Palance had an excellent part in the Hollywood blockbuster Che! (Richard Fleischer, 1969) playing Fidel Castro opposite Omar Sharif in the title role but the film flopped. Palance went back to action films and Westerns like the Macaroni-War film La legione dei dannati/Battle of the Commandos (Umberto Lenzi, 1970), with Curd Jürgens, and the Zapata Western Companeros (Sergio Corbucci, 1970) with Franco Nero and Tomás Milián.

He had another good role in Monte Walsh (William A. Fraker, 1970), from the author of Shane, opposite Lee Marvin, but the film was a box office disappointment. So too was The Horsemen (John Frankenheimer, 1971) with Omar Sharif. Palance supported Bud Spencer in Si può fare... amigo/It Can Be Done Amigo (Maurizio Lucidi, 1972) and Charles Bronson in Chato's Land (Michael Winner, 1972) and had the lead in the Spaghetti Western Tedeum/Sting of the West (Enzo G. Castellari, 1972).

He returned to Hollywood for Oklahoma Crude (Stanley Kramer, 1973) with Faye Dunaway, and then went to England to star in Craze (Freddie Francis, 1974) opposite Diana Dors.

In the late 1970s Palance was mostly based in Italy. He supported Ursula Andress and Giuliano Gemma in Africa Express (Michele Lupo, 1976), Lee Van Cleef in Diamante Lobo/God's Gun (Gianfranco Parolini, 1976), and Thomas Milian in Squadra antiscippo/The Cop in Blue Jeans (Bruno Corbucci, 1976).

Palance was in the exploitation film Eva Nera/Black Cobra Woman (Joe D’Amato, 1976) with Laura Gemser. He travelled to Canada to make the virtual reality film Welcome to Blood City (Peter Sasdy, 1977) and the US for the slasher film Alone in the Dark (Jack Sholder, 1982).


French postcard by Korès 'Carboplane', no. 328.


German postcard by Netter's Verlag, Berlin.

Billy Crystal... I crap bigger than him

In 1982, Jack Palance began hosting a television revival of Ripley's Believe It or Not!. The weekly series ran from 1982 to 1986 on the American ABC network. Palance had never been out of work since his career began. But his success on Ripley's Believe It or Not! and the international box-office hit of the German film Bagdad Cafe (Percy Adlon, 1987) resulted in a demand for his services in big budget Hollywood films.

He made memorable appearances as villains in Young Guns (Christopher Cain, 1988), Tango & Cash (Andrei Konchalovsky, 1989) and Batman (Tim Burton, 1989) starring Michael Keaton as Bruce Wayne/Batman and Jack Nicholson as the Joker.

In 1992, four decades after his film debut, Palance won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performance as cowboy Curly Washburn in the comedy City Slickers (Ron Underwood, 1991). Stepping onstage to accept the award, the 6' 4" (1.93 m) actor looked down at 5' 7" (1.70 m) Oscar host Billy Crystal (also his co-star in the film), and joked, mimicking one of his lines from the film, "Billy Crystal... I crap bigger than him." He then dropped to the floor and demonstrated his ability, at age 73, to perform one-handed push-ups.

In 1993, during the opening of the Oscars, a spoof of that Oscar highlight featured Palance appearing to drag in an enormous Academy Award statuette with Crystal again hosting, riding on the rear end of it. Halfway across the stage, Palance dropped to the ground as if exhausted, but then performed several one-armed push-ups before regaining his feet and dragging the giant Oscar the rest of the way across the stage.

His later films include Cyborg 2 (Michael Schroeder, 1993) with Angelina Jolie, Cops & Robbersons (Michael Ritchie, 1994) with Chevy Chase, and City Slickers II: The Legend of Curly's Gold (Paul Weiland, 1994).

In 2003, he narrated the documentary Between Hitler and Stalin: Ukraine in World War II (Slavko Nowytski, 2003). In 2004, Palance, at the time chairman of the Hollywood Trident Foundation, walked out of a Russian Film Festival in Hollywood. After being introduced, Palance said, "I feel like I walked into the wrong room by mistake. I think that Russian film is interesting, but I have nothing to do with Russia or Russian film. My parents were born in Ukraine: I'm Ukrainian. I'm not Russian. So, excuse me, but I don't belong here."

Palance was awarded the title of ‘People's Artist’ by Vladimir Putin, president of Russia, but Palance refused the title. His final performance was in the TV film Back When We Were Grownups (Ron Underwood, 2004), opposite Blythe Danner.

Jack Palance was married to his first wife Virginia Baker from 1949 to 1968. They had three children: Holly (1950), Brooke (1952), and Cody (1955–1998). On New Year's Day 2003, Baker was struck and killed by a car in Los Angeles. Palance's daughter Brooke married Michael Wilding, son of Michael Wilding Sr. and Elizabeth Taylor; they have three children. Cody Palance, an actor himself, appeared alongside his father in the film Young Guns. In 1987, Palance married his second wife Elaine Rogers.

In 2006, Jack Palance died of a sudden stroke at his daughter Holly's home in Montecito, California. He was 87.


Trailer Attack (1956). Source: Movieclips Classic Trailers (YouTube).


Trailer City Slickers (1991). Source: Trailer Chan (YouTube).

Sources: Gary Brumburgh (IMDb), Wikipedia, and IMDb.

Beautiful blonde American actress Mari Blanchard (1927–1970) was known for playing alluring harem girls and saloon dancers in American adventure films and Westerns of the 1950s and early 1960s. Blanchard was a B-movie queen who excelled at playing tarts, home wreckers, and other assorted villainesses.


Italian postcard by Bromofoto, no. 552. Photo: Universal International.

Running away from home to join the Circus

Mari (sometimes written as Mary) Blanchard was born in 1923, in Long Beach, California. Her father was an oil and mining tycoon; her mother, Dr. Mary Sennott, a psychotherapist.

Blanchard trained from childhood for a dancing career, but at the age of nine, she suffered from severe polio. She fought back against her illness and was walking again by age eleven. To exercise her once-paralysed limbs, she swam daily for several years afterwards.

At 17, she ran away from home to join the Cole Brothers Circus and learned how to ride elephants, perform bareback on horses and fly on the trapeze bar. Her mother found her and took her back home. She attended Santa Barbara State College, UCLA, and USC to study international law and graduated with a Bachelors Degree in International Law.

In the late 1940s, Mari joined the Conover Agency as an advertising model and was a successful  model and film extra. In 1948, her beautiful blue-eyed brunette (later blonde) looks and 36-25-36 figure became the inspiration for cartoonist and writer Al Capp in creating the voluptuous Stupefyin' Jones character for his L'il Abner comics.

After she was seen by a Paramount producer in a bubble bath commercial ad for Kodak that appeared on the back of The Hollywood Reporter, she was offered a film contract. From 1951 to 1952, she took roles in a number of films at MGM, RKO, and Paramount, but was relegated to walk-ons and bit parts. I.S. Mowis at IMDb: "Ten Tall Men (1951), for example, limited her to a token stroll down a street, twirling a parasol and smiling seductively at members of the Foreign Legion."

In 1952, she was signed by Universal-International. There her fortunes improved somewhat. Her first film at the studio was Back at the Front (George Sherman, 1952) with Tom Ewell. In the romantic adventure The Veils of Bagdad (George Sherman, 1953) she co-starred with Victor Mature. One of her more memorable tongue-in-cheek exotic roles was the Venusian queen, Allura, in the comedy Abbott and Costello Go to Mars (Charles Lamont, 1953).

She starred with Audie Murphy in the Western Destry (George Marshall, 1954). I.S. Mowis at IMDb: "A remake of the classic Destry Rides Again (1939), she was cast in the Marlene Dietrich part and took great pains to affect a totally different look, darkening her hair, so as not to be compared to the great star. Even the name of her character was changed from 'Frenchy' to 'Brandy'. Destry was not all smooth sailing. There was tension between her and director George Marshall (who had also directed the original version) and Mari suffered a facial injury as the result of a fight scene. The film was critically well received." However, her contract was not renewed by Universal.


French postcard by Editions P.I., Paris, no. 609. Photo: Paramount Pictures, 1950.


Italian postcard by Rotalfoto, Milano, no. 733.

Playing bad girls and ladies of ill-repute

Mari Blanchard worked for television and for minor studios. She continued to excel at playing bad girls and ladies of ill-repute. In Son of Sinbad (Ted Tetzlaff, 1955), she was one of the 127 women in ancient Baghdad who dazzled Dale Robertson as Sinbad - and of course the audiences.

On TV, she starred in episodes of such series as Climax! (1955) and Casablanca (1956). In the cinema, she starred as a female monster in the B-movie She Devil (Kurt Neumann, 1957). She played a TB victim injected with a serum turning her into a Mr. Hyde-like killer.

Then she was the love interest of Lex Barker in Jungle Heat (Howard W. Koch, 1957), shot on Kauai, Hawaii. A curiosity was her appearance in the Turkish film Karasu (Turgut Demirag, 1958). Following her work on these films, Blanchard began to focus increasingly on performing on television.

In the 1960–1961 television season, she starred as hotel-owner Kate O'Hara in the short lived Western series Klondike with James Coburn. She also guest-starred in episodes of Rawhide (1959-1961), 77 Sunset Strip (1961) and Perry Mason (1962).

Among her later films were the musical Don't Knock the Twist (Oscar Rudolph, 1962) with Chubby Checker and the horror film Twice-Told Tales (Sidney Salkow, 1963) starring Vincent Price. In 1963 she had a small but flamboyant role as the cheerful and likeable town madam Camille in the John Wayne Western McLintock! (Andrew V. McLaglen, 1963). It was her final film appearance.

Mari Blanchard was diagnosed with cancer. She retired, and acted only in a few TV programs when her cancer temporarily went into remission. Her last credited performance was in 1968, playing the part of Madame Gamar on the series It Takes a Thief. Following a struggle of seven years, Mari Blanchard died in 1970. She was only 43. In accordance with her wishes, her remains were cremated and scattered at sea.

Blanchard was married three times: to attorney Reese Hale Taylor, Jr. (1960-1961); George Shepard (1965-1966); and to photographer Vincent J. Conti (1967-1970). In the early to mid 1950s, she dated a string of men, including Greg Bautzer, once Joan Crawford's paramour. She dated Mel Torme before marrying photographer Vince Conti.


British card in the Greetings series. Photo: Universal-International.


French postcard offered by Les Carbones Korès Carboplane, no. 308. Photo: Universal International.

Sources: I.S. Mowis (IMDb), Hal Erickson (AllMovie), Brian J. Walker (Brian's Drive-in Theater), William Bjornstad (Find A Grave), Glamour Girls of the Silver Screen, Wikipedia and IMDb.

Louis Armstrong (1901-1971) was The King of the Jazz Trumpet. Armstrong, nicknamed Satchmo, is renowned for his charismatic stage presence and voice almost as much as for his trumpet playing. He recorded hit songs for five decades and composed dozens of songs that have become jazz standards. Armstrong was one of the most important creative forces in the early development and perpetuation of Jazz. With his superb comic timing and unabashed joy of life, Louis Armstrong also appeared in more than thirty films.


French postcard by Editions P.I., Paris, no. CK-289. Photo: Arthur Grimm / Ufa.


German postcard by ISV, no. H 37.

Born in the Battlefield

Louis Daniel Armstrong was born in New Orleans, Louisiana, in the Storyville District known as 'the Battlefield' in 1901. His parents were Mary Albert and William Armstrong. William abandoned the family shortly after, and Louis grew up poor in a single-parent household. He left school at the 5th grade to help support his family. He sang on street corners, sold newspapers and delivered coal.

Louis was 13 when he celebrated New Year's Eve on 31 December 1912 by running out on the street and firing a blank from a pistol that belonged to the current man in his mother's life. He  was arrested and placed in the Colored Waif's Home for boys. There, he learned to play the bugle cornet and the clarinet and joined the home's brass band.  Armstrong's first teacher Peter Davis taught him there to read music. After 18 months, Louis left the Home determined to become a musician.

The young Armstrong played in brass bands and riverboats in New Orleans, first on an excursion boat in September 1918. At 18, he got a job in the Kid Ory Band in New Orleans. Armstrong married Daisy Parker as his career as a musician developed. In 1922, he followed his mentor, Joe 'King' Oliver, to Chicago to play in the Creole Jazz Band. He made his first recordings with that band in 1923. While in Chicago, Armstrong networked with other jazz musicians, reconnecting with his friend, Bix Biederbecke, and made new contacts, which included Hoagy Carmichael and Lil Hardin.

Lil was a graduate of Fisk University and an excellent pianist who could read, write and arrange music. She encouraged and enhanced Louis' career, and they married in 1924. Armstrong became very popular and one of the genre's most sought after trumpeters. He travelled a great deal and spent considerable time in Chicago and New York. He first moved to the Big Apple in 1924 to join Fletcher Henderson's Orchestra. He stayed in New York for a while but moved back to Chicago in October of 1925.

Armstrong later went back to New York in 1929. Armstrong appeared on Broadway in Hot Chocolates, in which he introduced Fats Waller's Ain't Misbehavin', his first popular song hit. During that time, some of his most important and successful work was accomplished with his Hot Fives and Hot Sevens Bands. Armstrong's interpretation of Hoagy Carmichael's Stardust became one of the most successful versions of this song ever recorded, showcasing Armstrong's unique vocal sound and style and his innovative approach to singing songs that had already become standards. In 1931, Armstrong appeared in his first film, Ex-Flame. That year, Armstrong and Lil Hardin separated and later divorced in 1938.

Dale O'Connor at IMDb: "He made a tour of Europe in 1932. During a command performance for King George V, he forgot he had been told that performers were not to refer to members of the royal family while playing for them. Just before picking up his trumpet for a really hot number, he announced: 'This one's for you, Rex.'" After this Grand Tour of Europe, Satchmo became Armstrong's nickname. A London music magazine editor had written erroneously 'Satchmo' in an article (Armstrong's nickname was 'Satchelmouth') and the name stuck.

In 1937, Armstrong substituted for Rudy Vallee on the CBS radio network and became the first African American to host a sponsored, national broadcast. After his divorce, Louis married Alpha Smith in 1938. While maintaining a vigorous work schedule, as well as living and travelling back and forth to Chicago and California, Armstrong moved back to New York in the late 1930s and later married Lucille Wilson in 1942.


Dutch postcard by N.V. Int. Filmpers (I.F.P.), Amsterdam, no. 1035. Photo: Joel Elkins. Louis Armstrong in the 1955 version of the All Stars, with Trummy Young on trombone and vocals, and Edmond Hall on clarinet and vocals.


Dutch postcard by Uitg. Takken, Utrecht, no. 3024. Photo: MGM. Publicity still for High Society (Charles Walters, 1956) with Bing Crosby.


Dutch promotion card by Philips, no. GF 025 66/04.

One of the first truly popular African-American entertainers to 'cross over'

Louis Armstrong was also an influential singer, with his instantly recognisable gravelly voice. He demonstrated great mastery as an improviser, bending the lyrics and melody of a song for expressive purposes. He was also very skilled at scat singing.

Although his career as a recording artist dates back to the 1920s, when he made now-classic recordings with Joe 'King' Oliver, Bessie Smith and Jimmie Rodgers, as well as his own Hot Five and Hot Seven groups, his biggest hits as a recording artist came comparatively late in his life. Armstrong had nineteen Top Ten hits including When The Saints Go Marching In (1938), Mack the Knife (1955), Stompin' at the Savoy (1956) with Ella Fitzgerald, and What a Wonderful World (1967).

Armstrong's influence extends well beyond jazz, and by the end of his career in the 1960s, he was widely regarded as a profound influence on popular music in general. In 1964, Armstrong knocked The Beatles off the top of the Billboard Hot 100 chart with Hello, Dolly!, which gave the 63-year-old performer a U.S. record as the oldest artist to have a number one song.

Armstrong appeared in more than a dozen Hollywood films, usually playing a bandleader or musician. He appeared with Bing Crosby in the musical Pennies from Heaven (Norman Z. MacLeod, 1936), and with Mae West in Every Day's a Holiday (A. Edward Sutherland, 1937).

In the innovating musical Cabin in the Sky (Vincente Minnelli, Busby Berkeley, 1943) featuring an All Star, All Black cast, Louis played 'The Trumpeter' opposite Ethel Waters and Lena Horne. In 1947, he played himself opposite Billie Holiday in New Orleans (Arthur Lubin, 1947), which chronicled the demise of the Storyville district and the ensuing exodus of musicians from New Orleans to Chicago.

Armstrong also joined Danny Kaye and Virginia Mayo in the comedy A Song Is Born (Howard Hawks, 1948). The best parts of the film are the music scenes with Armstrong, Tommy Dorsey, Charlie Barnett, Lionel Hampton, and Benny Goodman, playing kick-arse Jazz. In The Glenn Miller Story (Anthony Mann, 1954), Armstrong jammed with Miller (James Stewart) and a few other noted musicians of the time.

His most familiar role was as the bandleader in the musical High Society (Charles Walters, 1956). He functions as a very partisan Greek Chorus , who tells you right up front who he's pulling for to win Grace Kelly and he helps musically along the way, performing a duet with Bing Crosby.

In The Five Pennies (Melville Shavelson, 1959), the story of the cornetist Red Nichols, Armstrong played himself as well as singing and playing several classic numbers. With leading actor Danny Kaye, Armstrong performed a duet of When the Saints Go Marching In, during which Kaye impersonated Armstrong.

He also appeared in several European films, including the Italian-French musical Saluti e baci/The Road to Happiness (Maurice Labro, Giorgio Simonelli, 1953) with Georges Guétary, the German musical Die Nacht vor der Premiere/The Night before the Premiere (Georg Jacoby, 1959) with Marika Rökk, and the Danish musical Kærlighedens melodi/The melody of love (Bent Christensen, 1959) with Nina and Frederik.

Armstrong was one of the first truly popular African-American entertainers to 'cross over', whose skin colour was secondary to his music in an America that was extremely racially divided at the time. He rarely publicly politicised his race, often to the dismay of fellow African Americans, but Armstrong was the only Black Jazz musician to publicly speak out against school segregation in 1957 during the Little Rock crisis. His artistry and personality allowed him access to the upper echelons of American society, then highly restricted for black men. Despite his fame, he remained a humble man and lived a simple life in a working-class neighbourhood.

Louis Armstrong remained married to Lucille Wilson until his death in 1971, a month away from what would have been his 70th birthday on 4 August. Embittered by the treatment of blacks in his hometown of New Orleans, he chose to be buried in New York City at the Flushing Cemetery, not too far from his home in Corona, Queens. He left his entire estate to his beloved wife, who died in 1983. Armstrong wrote two autobiographies. His house in Corona, where Armstrong lived for almost 28 years, was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1977. Today, it is a museum where fans can check out his residence and its belongings as a citizen of New York City.


German postcard by Kolibri-Verlag, Minden/Westf., no. 765. no. CK-289. Photo: Alfa / Gloria / Kiebig. Publicity still for La Paloma (Paul Martin, 1959).


Vintage postcard, no. 111.


German postcard by Rüdel-Verlag, Hamburg-Bergedorf, no. 1988. Photo: MGM. Publicity still for High Society (Charles Walters, 1956). The German title of the film is Die oberen Zehntausend (The top ten thousand).

Sources: Dale O'Connor (IMDb), Louis Armstrong Educational Foundation, Wikipedia and IMDb.

After his historical epic Sign of the Cross (1932), Cecil B. DeMille directed another ancient spectacle, Cleopatra (1934). His new star Claudette Colbert, fresh from her donkey milk bath in Sign of The Cross, played the politically shrewd, man-hungry queen of Egypt. In 48 BC, Cleopatra, facing palace revolt, welcomes the arrival of Julius Caesar (Warren William) as a way of solidifying her power under Rome. When Caesar, whom she has led astray, is killed, she transfers her affections to Marc Antony (Henry Wilcoxon) and dazzles him on a lavish barge. The film got five Oscar nominations, including one for Best Picture, and Victor Milner won the award for Best Cinematography.



Henry Wilcoxon as Marc Anthony and Gertrude Michael as Caesar's wife Calpurnia. French postcard by A.N., Paris, no. 961. Photo: Paramount. Publicity still for Cleopatra (Cecil B. deMille, 1934).


Claudette Colbert as Cleopatra and Henry Wilcoxon as Marc Anthony. French postcard by A.N., Paris, no. 962. Photo: Paramount. Publicity still for Cleopatra (Cecil B. DeMille, 1934).


Henri Wilcoxon as Marc Anthony. French postcard by A.N., Paris, no. 963. Photo: Paramount. Publicity still for Cleopatra (Cecil B. DeMille, 1934).


Warren William as Julius Caesar. French postcard by A.N., Paris, no. 965. Photo: Paramount. Publicity still for Cleopatra (Cecil B. DeMille, 1934).

Deadly and fascinating

Wikipedia: "On July 1, 1934, the Motion Picture Production Code began to be rigidly enforced and expanded by Joseph Breen had just taken effect. Talkie films made before that date are generally referred to as Pre-Code films. However, DeMille was able to get away with using more risque imagery than he would be able to do in his later productions. He opens the film with an apparently naked, but strategically lit slave girl holding up an incense burner in each hand as the title appears on screen."

Ron Oliver at IMDb: "Claudette Colbert is perfectly cast in the title role - deadly & fascinating, it's almost like watching a desert viper act. Exhibiting mega star wattage in arguably her best role, Colbert is one of the legendary actresses who could hold her own without being swallowed by the lavish costumes & sets which fill her every scene."

John O'Grady at IMDb: "Colbert is admittedly somewhat miscast (her face is altogether Parisienne), but she handles the part with considerable charm. Warren William, usually a very limited actor, is as good a Caesar as I have seen on film, commanding and uncomfortable by turns; while Henry Wilcoxon is the definitive Mark Antony, laughing, brawling, swaggering, crude and brooding. C. Aubrey Smith as Enobarbus, the last of the hardcore Roman republicans, is perfect. Victor Milner's cinematography is superb, if old-fashioned. There is one magnificent pullback shot aboard Cleopatra's barge, with more and more stuff entering the frame, which as pure cinema is worth more than all four hours of the Liz Taylor version for my money."

Tim Dirks at AMC Filmsite: "Unarguably, the Paramount Studios film is campy, grandiose and unreal and ludicrous historically - filled with DeMille's usual mixture of sin and sex. Sexually-suggestive costumes adorn most of the female characters."

Hal Erickson at AllMovie: "To emphasize the "contemporary" nature of the film, DeMille adds little modernistic touches throughout: The architecture of Egypt and Rome has a distinctly art-deco look; a matron at a social gathering clucks "Poor Calpurnia...well, the wife is always the last to know"; and, after Caesar's funeral, Mark Anthony is chided by an associate for "all that 'Friends, Romans, Countrymen' business!" Cleopatra's barge scene and her suicide from the bite of a snake marked two of the most memorable sequences in DeMille's career. Remarkably, for all the enormous sets and elaborate costumes, Cleopatra came in at a budget of $750,000 -- almost $40 million less than the 1963 Elizabeth Taylor remake."

Mario Gauci at IMDb: "The film features a number of great scenes: Caesar's murder (partly filmed in a POV (point of view) shot), following which is a delicious jibe at Antony's famous oratory during Caesar's funeral as envisioned by Shakespeare; the long - and justly celebrated - barge sequence, in which Antony (intent on teaching Cleopatra, whom he blames for Caesar's death, a lesson) ends up being completely won over by her wiles; Cleopatra's own death scene is simply but most effectively filmed."

Wikipedia: "The film is also memorable for the sumptuous art deco look of its sets (by Hans Dreier) and costumes (by Travis Banton), the atmospheric music composed and conducted by RudolphGeorge Kopp, and for DeMille's legendary set piece of Cleopatra's seduction of Antony, which takes place on Cleopatra's barge."

Robert Reynolds at IMDb: "This movie is a typical DeMille PRODUCTION, with all the strengths-gorgeous sets, costumes and a sort of grandeur to all the proceedings-as well as the weaknesses-the lavishness often comes at the expense of things like the story, acting and plot. There's no question that it's beautiful (although, interestingly enough, none of it's five nominations for Academy Awards was for Interior Decoration.)"


Henry Wilcoxon as Marc Anthony. Dutch postcard, promoting a visit to the American epic Cleopatra (Cecil B. DeMille, 1934). Photo: Paramount.


Dutch postcard, promoting a visit to the American epic Cleopatra (Cecil B. DeMille, 1934). Photo: Paramount. Credited on the card are Claudette Colbert (Cleopatra), Henry Wilcoxon (Marc Anthony) and Warren William (Julius Caesar). However, the guy on the right on this card is not Wilcoxon but Cleopatra's rival Pothinos (Leonard Mudie).


Dutch postcard. Photo: Paramount. Claudette Colbert as Cleopatra and Henry Wilcoxon as Marc Anthony in Cleopatra (Cecil B. DeMille, 1934).

Sources: Hal Erickson (AllMovie), Tim Dirks (AMC Filmsite), Wikipedia and IMDb.

American singer, actress, and vaudevillian Judy Garland (1922-1969) was one of the brightest, most tragic film stars of Hollywood's Golden Era. During a career that spanned 45 of her 47 years, Garland attained international stardom as an actress in musicals and dramas, with her records, and on the concert stage. She was nominated for the Oscar for Best Actress for A Star is Born (1954) and received a nomination for Best Supporting Actress for Judgment at Nuremberg (1961). With her warmth, spirit, and her rich and exuberant voice, Garland entertained devoted theatregoers with an array of musicals.


Belgian postcard by S.A. Victoria, Brussels, no. 639. Photo: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.


French postcard by Editions P.I., Paris, no. 273. Photo: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, 1950.

An orphaned girl on a farm in the dry plains of Kansas

Judy Garland was born Frances Ethel Gumm in 1922 in Grand Rapids, Minnesota, U.S. She was the youngest daughter of vaudevillians Ethel Marion (Milne) and Francis Avent Gumm. Only two, Garland began performing in vaudeville with her two older sisters Mary Jane Gumm and Virginia Gumm as 'The Gumm Sisters'.

Her family life was not a happy one, largely because of her mother's drive for her to succeed as a performer and also her father's closeted homosexuality. The Gumm family would regularly be forced to leave town owing to her father's illicit affairs with other men, and from time to time they would be reduced to living out of their automobile.

Her mother took Frances out of the The Gumm Sisters act and together they travelled across America where she would perform in nightclubs, cabarets, hotels and theatres solo. In 1935, Frances was signed by Louis B. Mayer, mogul of leading film studio MGM, after hearing her sing. It was then that her name was changed from Frances Gumm to Judy Garland, after a popular 1930s song 'Judy' and film critic Robert Garland. Tragedy followed two months later, when her father died of meningitis in November 1935.

Having been given no assignments with the exception of singing on radio, Judy faced the threat of losing her job following the arrival of Deanna Durbin. Knowing that they couldn't keep both of the teenage singers, MGM devised a short entitled Every Sunday (Felix E. Feist, 1936) which would be the girls' screen test. Judy was the outright winner and MGM kept her. Durbin moved to Universal.

Judy's  film debut was in Pigskin Parade (David Butler, 1936), in which she played a teenage hillbilly. Her career did officially kick off when she sang one of her most famous songs, 'You Made Me Love You', at Clark Gable's birthday party in February 1937. Louis B. Mayer finally paid attention to the talented songstress, and MGM set to work preparing various musicals with her.

All the work on these musicals took its toll on the young teenager, and she was given numerous pills by the studio doctors in order to combat her tiredness on set. Another problem was her weight fluctuation, but she was soon given amphetamines in order to give her the desired streamlined figure. This would produce the downward spiral that resulted in her lifelong drug addiction.

In 1939, Judy shot to stardom with The Wizard of Oz (Victor Fleming, 1939), in which she portrayed Dorothy, an orphaned girl living on a farm in the dry plains of Kansas who gets whisked off into the magical world of Oz on the other end of the rainbow. Her poignant performance and sweet delivery of her signature song, 'Over The Rainbow', earned Judy a special juvenile Oscar statuette in 1940 for Best Performance by a Juvenile Actor.


British postcard in the Picturegoer Series, London,, no. 1281. Photo: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Publicity still for Love Finds Andy Hardy (George B. Seitz, 1938) with Mickey Rooney, Ann Rutherford, Judy Garland and Lana Turner.


British postcard in the Picturegoer Series, London, no. 1178b. Photo: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.


Dutch postcard, no. 3114. Photo: MGM. Publicity still for Ziegfeld Girl (Robert Z. Leonard, Busby Berkeley, 1941) with Hedy Lamarr and Lana Turner.

A love affair between director and actress

Judy Garland was now taking an interest in men. After starring in her final juvenile performance in Ziegfeld Girl (Robert Z. Leonard, Busby Berkeley, 1941) alongside glamorous beauties Lana Turner and Hedy Lamarr, Judy got engaged to bandleader David Rose in May 1941, just two months after his divorce from Martha Raye. Despite planning a big wedding, the couple eloped to Las Vegas and married with just her mother Ethel and her stepfather Will Gilmore present. However, their marriage went downhill as, after discovering that she was pregnant in November 1942, David and MGM persuaded her to abort the baby in order to keep her good-girl image up. She did so and, as a result, was haunted for the rest of her life by her 'inhumane actions'. The couple separated in January 1943.

Garland made more than two dozen films with MGM, nine of which with Mickey Rooney. She played a vaudevillian during WWI in For Me and My Gal (Busby Berkeley, 1942). A big success was Meet Me in St. Louis (Vincente Minnelli, 1944), Director Vincente Minnelli highlighted Judy's beauty for the first time on screen, having made the period musical in colour. He showed off her large brandy-brown eyes and her full, thick lips and after filming ended in April 1944, a love affair resulted between director and actress and they were soon living together.

Vincente began to mold Judy and her career, making her more beautiful and more popular with audiences worldwide. He directed her in The Clock (Vincente Minnelli, 1945), and during the filming the couple announced their engagement. On 15 June 1945 Judy and Vincente married at her mother's home with her boss Louis B. Mayer giving her away and her best friend Betty Asher serving as bridesmaid. After their honeymoon in New York, Judy discovered that she was pregnant. Her first film after marrying Vincente Minnelli was The Harvey Girls (Vincente Minnelli, 1946). Then Judy gave birth to their daughter, Liza Minnelli.

After a postnatal depression, she spent much of her time recuperating in bed. She returned to work, to film The Pirate (Vincente Minnelli, 1948) with Gene Kelly. Judy's mental health was deteriorating and she began hallucinating things and making false accusations toward people, especially her husband, making the filming a nightmare. She then teamed up with Fred Astaire for the musical Easter Parade (Charles Walters, 1948), which resulted in a successful comeback despite having Vincente fired from directing the musical.

Afterwards, Judy's health deteriorated and she began the first of several suicide attempts. In May 1949, she was checked into a rehabilitation center, which caused her much distress. After being replaced by Betty Hutton on Annie Get Your Gun (George Sidney, 1950), Judy was suspended before making her final film for MGM, Summer Stock (Charles Walters, 1950). Then Judy received her third suspension and was fired by MGM, and her second marriage was also soon dissolved.

Having taken up with ruggedly handsome and streetwise entrepreneur Sidney Luft, Judy travelled to London to star at the legendary Palladium. She was an instant success and after her divorce to Vincente Minnelli was finalised on 29 March 1951 after almost six years of marriage, Judy travelled with Sid to New York to make an appearance on Broadway. With her new found fame on stage, Judy was stopped in her tracks in February 1952 when she became pregnant by Sid Luft. At the age of 30, she made him her third husband.

Her relationship with her mother had long since been dissolved by this point, and after the birth of her second daughter, Lorna Luft, on 21 November 1952, she refused to allow her mother to see her granddaughter. Ethel then died in January 1953 of a heart attack, leaving Judy devastated and feeling guilty about not reconciling with her mother before her untimely demise.


Belgian collectors card by Chocolaterie Clovis, Pepinster. Photo: Metro Goldwyn Mayer. Publicity still for Easter Parade (Charles Walters, 1948) with Fred Astaire. Collection: Amit Benyovits.


Dutch postcard, no. 3371. Photo: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.

A volatile, on-off relationship resulting in numerous divorce filings

Judy Garland was released from MGM in 1950, amid a series of personal struggles and erratic behaviour that had prevented her from fulfilling the terms of her contract. She signed a new film contract with Warner Bros. to star in the musical remake of A Star is Born (William A. Wellman, 1937), which had starred Janet Gaynor. After filming was complete Judy was yet again lauded as a great film star. She won a Golden Globe for her brilliant and outstanding performance as nightclub singer Esther Blodgett who turns into film star Vicki Lester. But she lost out on the Best Actress Oscar to Grace Kelly for her portrayal of the wife of an alcoholic star in The Country Girl (George Seaton, 1954).

Continuing her work on stage, Judy gave birth to son Joey Luft in 1955. She soon began to lose her millions of dollars as a result of her husband's strong gambling addiction. With hundreds of debts to pay, Judy and Sid began a volatile, on-off relationship resulting in numerous divorce filings. In 1961, at the age of 39, Judy returned to her ailing film career, this time to star in Judgment at Nuremberg (Stanley Kramer, 1961). She received an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress, but this time she lost out to Rita Moreno for her role in West Side Story (Robert Wise, 1961).

Her battles with alcoholism and drugs led to Judy's making headlines in newspapers, but she soldiered on. She made record-breaking concert appearances, released eight studio albums, and hosted her own Emmy-nominated television series, The Judy Garland Show (1963–1964). In 1965, Judy and Sid finally divorced after almost 13 years of marriage. By this time, Judy, now 41, had made her final film performance alongside Dirk Bogarde in I Could Go on Singing (Ronald Neame, 1963).

She married her fourth husband, Mark Herron, in 1965 in Las Vegas. The couple separated in April 1966 after five months of marriage, owing to his homosexuality. She then settled down in London, and she began dating disk jockey Mickey Deans in December 1968. They became engaged once her divorce from Mark Herron was finalised on 9 January 1969 after three years of marriage. She married Mickey, her fifth and final husband, in Chelsea, London.

Judy Garland continued working on stage, appearing several times with her daughter Liza. It was during a concert in Chelsea, London, that Judy stumbled into her bathroom late one night and died of an accidental overdose of barbiturates, on the 22nd of June 1969 at the age of 47. The day she died, there was a tornado in Kansas.


British postcard in the Picturegoer Series, London, no. 1280. Photo: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Publicity still for Love Finds Andy Hardy (George B. Seitz, 1938) with (back row) Cecilia Parker, Ann Rutherford, Judy Garland, Gene Reynolds, Lana Turner and (front row) Mary Howard, Lewis Stone, Fay Holden and Mickey Rooney.


Dutch postcard by Sparo (Gebr. Spanjersberg N.V., Rotterdam). Photos: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. The pictures stars are Judy Garland, Betty Hutton, Vivian Blaine (twice), Monica Lewis, Pier Angeli, Ann Blyth and Mario Lanza, Coleen Gray, and Jane Powell. The postcard must date from ca. 1951, when Blyth and Lanza starred together in The Great Caruso (Richard Thorpe, 1951).

Sources: Wikipedia and IMDb.

Columbia Pictures or Columbia is one of the 'Big Six' major American film studios, and was one of the 'Little Three' among the eight major film studios of Hollywood's Golden Age. Studio Mogul was the notoriously hard-driving and vulgar Harry Cohn. Initially Columbia had the worst reputation and smallest budgets, but in the late 1920s the studio began to grow, spurred by a successful association with director Frank Capra. In the 1930s, Columbia became one of the primary homes of the screwball comedy, and contract stars were Jean Arthur and Cary Grant. In the 1940s, Rita Hayworth became Columbia's premier star and Rosalind Russell, Glenn Ford, and William Holden also became major stars at the studio. Today, it has become the world's fifth largest major film studio and is a member of the Sony Pictures Motion Picture Group.


Rita Hayworth. Belgian postcard by Victoria, Brussels, no. 639. Photo: Columbia Pictures.


Cary Grant. British postcard in the Picturegoer Series, London, no. 735c. Photo: Columbia.


Adele Jergens. British postcard in Picturegoer Series, London, no. W 643. Photo: Columbia.


Claudette Colbert. Dutch postcard by J.S.A.. Photo: Columbia. Publicity still for Tomorrow is Forever (Irving Pichel, 1946).


Burt Lancaster. German postcard by Franz Josef Rüdel, Filmpostkartenverlag, Hamburg-Bergedorf, no. 858. Photo: Columbia-Film. Publicity still for From Here to Eternity (Fred Zinnemann, 1953).

The Corned Beef and Cabbage Studio

Columbia was founded in June 1918 as Cohn-Brandt-Cohn (CBC) Film Sales by brothers Jack and Harry Cohn and Jack's best friend Joe Brandt. Jack had worked for Carl Laemmle at Universal, Joe had been Laemmle’s executive secretary and Jack’s younger brother Harry, had also worked at Universal.They released their first feature film in August 1922. Brandt was president of CBC Film Sales, handling sales, marketing and distribution from New York along with Jack Cohn, while Harry Cohn ran production in Hollywood.

The studio's early productions were low-budget short subjects: 'Screen Snapshots', the 'Hall Room Boys' (the vaudeville duo of Edward Flanagan and Neely Edwards), and the Chaplin imitator Billy West. The start-up CBC leased space in a Poverty Row studio on Hollywood's famously low-rent Gower Street. Among Hollywood's elite, the studio's small-time reputation led some to joke that CBC stood for 'Corned Beef and Cabbage'. Brandt eventually tired of dealing with the Cohn brothers, and he sold his one-third stake to Harry Cohn, who took over as president.

In an effort to improve its image, the Cohn brothers renamed the company Columbia Pictures Corporation in 1924. Cohn remained head of production as well, thus concentrating enormous power in his hands. He would run Columbia for the next 34 years, the second-longest tenure of any studio chief, behind only Warner Bros.'Jack L. Warner. Even in an industry rife with nepotism, Columbia was particularly notorious for having a number of Harry and Jack's relatives in high positions. Humorist Robert Benchley called it the Pine Tree Studio, "because it has so many Cohns".

Columbia's product line consisted mostly of moderately budgeted features and short subjects including comedies, sports films, various serials, and cartoons. Columbia gradually moved into the production of higher-budget fare, eventually joining the second tier of Hollywood studios along with United Artists and Universal. Like United Artists and Universal, Columbia was a horizontally integrated company. It controlled production and distribution; it did not own any theatres.

Helping Columbia's climb was the arrival of an ambitious director, Frank Capra. Between 1927 and 1939, Capra constantly pushed Cohn for better material and bigger budgets. A string of hits he directed in the early and mid 1930s solidified Columbia's status as a major studio. In particular, It Happened One Night (Frank Capra, 1934) with Clark Gable and Claudette Colbert put Columbia on the map. It won the Academy Award for Best Film of 1934.

Until then, Columbia's very existence had depended on theatre owners willing to take its films, since as mentioned above it didn't have a theatre network of its own. Other Capra-directed hits followed, including Mr. Deeds Goes to Town (Frank Capra, 1936), the original version of Lost Horizon (Frank Capra, 1937) with Ronald Colman, You Can’t Take it With You (Frank Capra, 1938), which was Capra's highest-grossing picture at Columbia, and Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (Frank Capra, 1939), which made James Stewart a major star.

Capra but also Howard Hawks and others made some of the finest screwball comedies of the 1930s for Columbia: The Awful Truth (Leo McCarey, 1937), Holiday (George Cukor, 1938), and His Girl Friday (Howard Hawks, 1940), all starring Cary Grant. After Capra’s departure in 1939, Columbia languished because leading directors were reluctant to work for the notoriously hard-driving and vulgar Cohn.

In 1938, the addition of B. B. Kahane as Vice President would produce Charles Vidor's Those High Gray Walls (Charles Vidor, 1939), and The Lady in Question (Charles Vidor, 1940), the first joint film of Rita Hayworth and Glenn Ford. Kahane would later become the President of Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in 1959, until his death a year later.


Tullio Carminati and Grace Moore. British postcard in the Film Partners Series, London, no. P 151. Photo: Columbia. Publicity still for One Night of Love (Victor Schertzinger, 1934).


Claudette Colbert. Italian postcard by Rizzoli, Milano, 1937. Photo: Columbia.


Ronald Colman and Jane Wyatt. Italian postcard by Vecchioni & Guadagno, Roma. Photo: Columbia EIA. Publicity still for Lost Horizon (Frank Capra, 1937).


Marie McDonald. Dutch postcard by J.S.A. Photo: Columbia.


Sonja Henie. Dutch Postcard by J.S.A. Photo: Columbia F.B. / M.P.E.

Hollywood's Siberia for the less obedient stars

Columbia could not afford to keep a huge roster of contract stars, so Cohn usually borrowed them from other studios. At Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, the industry's most prestigious studio, Columbia was nicknamed 'Siberia, as Louis B. Mayer would use the loan out to Columbia as a way to punish his less-obedient signings. In the 1930s, Columbia signed Jean Arthur to a long-term contract, and after The Whole Town's Talking (John Ford, 1935), Arthur became a major comedy star. Ann Sothern's career was launched when Columbia signed her to a contract in 1936. Cary Grant signed a contract in 1937 and soon after it was altered to a non-exclusive contract shared with RKO.

Many theatres relied on Westerns to attract big weekend audiences, and Columbia always recognised this market. Its first cowboy star was Buck Jones, who signed with Columbia in 1930 for a fraction of his former big-studio salary. Over the next two decades Columbia released scores of outdoor adventures with Jones, Tim McCoy, Ken Maynard, Robert (Tex) Allen, and Gene Autry. Columbia's most popular cowboy was Charles Starrett, who signed with Columbia in 1935 and starred in 131 western features over 17 years.

At Harry Cohn's insistence the studio signed The Three Stooges in 1934. MGM had let the Stooges go but kept straight-man Ted Healy. The Stooges made 190 shorts for Columbia between 1934 and 1957. Columbia's short-subject department employed many famous comedians, including Buster Keaton, Charley Chase, Harry Langdon, and Hugh Herbert. Almost 400 of Columbia's 529 two-reel comedies were released to television between 1958 and 1961; and have since been released to home video.

In the early 1930s, Columbia distributed Walt Disney's famous Mickey Mouse cartoons. In 1933, the studio established its own animation house, under the Screen Gems brand. Columbia's leading cartoon series were Krazy Kat, Scrappy, The Fox and the Crow, and (very briefly) Li'l Abner. In 1949, Columbia agreed to release animated shorts from United Productions of America. These new shorts were more sophisticated than Columbia's older cartoons, and many won critical praise and industry awards.

According to Bob Thomas' book King Cohn, studio chief Harry Cohn always placed a high priority on serials. Beginning in 1937, Columbia entered the lucrative serial market, and kept making these episodic adventures until 1956, after other studios had discontinued them. The most famous Columbia serials are based on comic-strip or radio characters: Mandrake the Magician, The Shadow, Terry and the Pirates, Batman, and Superman, among many others.

Columbia also produced musical shorts, sports reels (usually narrated by sportscaster Bill Stern), and travelogues. Its 'Screen Snapshots' series, showing behind-the-scenes footage of Hollywood stars, was a Columbia perennial; producer-director Ralph Staub kept this series going through 1958.


Merle Oberon. Italian postcard by Rotalfoto, Milano, no. 46. Photo: Columbia C.E.I.A.D.


Burt Lancaster. Italian postcard by Bromofoto, no. 957. Photo: Columbia C.E.I.A.D.


Marta Toren. Italian postcard by B.F.F. Edit., no. 3048. Photo: Columbia C.E.I.A.D.


Vittorio Gassman. Italian postcard by Casa Editr. Ballerini & Fratini, Firenze (B.F.F. Edit.), no. 2962. Photo: Columbia C.E.I.A.D.


Marlon Brando. Italian postcard by B.F.F. Edit., no. 2980. Photo: Columbia C.E.I.A.D.

Columbia's efficient recycling policy

In the 1940s, Columbia propelled in part by their film's surge in audiences during the war, and also benefited from the popularity of its biggest star, Rita Hayworth. Columbia maintained a long list of contractees well into the 1950s: Glenn Ford, William Holden, Judy Holliday, The Three Stooges, Ann Miller, Jack Lemmon, Adele Jergens, Lucille Ball, Kerwin Mathews, Kim Novak, and others.

Harry Cohn monitored the budgets of his films, and the studio got the maximum use out of costly sets, costumes, and props by reusing them in other films. Many of Columbia's low-budget B-films and short subjects have an expensive look, thanks to Columbia's efficient recycling policy. Cohn was reluctant to spend lavish sums on even his most important pictures, and it was not until 1943 that he agreed to use three-strip Technicolor in a live-action feature.

Columbia's first Technicolor feature was the Western The Desperadoes, starring Randolph Scott and Glenn Ford. Cohn quickly used Technicolor again for Cover Girl (Charles Vidor, 1944), a Hayworth vehicle that instantly was a smash hit, and for the fanciful biography of Frédéric Chopin, A Song to Remember (Charles Vidor, 1945), with Cornel Wilde and Merle Oberon. Another biopic, The Jolson Story (Alfred E. Green, 1946) with Larry Parks, was started in black-and-white, but when Cohn saw how well the project was proceeding, he scrapped the footage and insisted on filming in Technicolor.

In 1948, the United States v. Paramount Pictures, Inc. anti-trust decision forced Hollywood motion picture companies to divest themselves of the theatre chains that they owned. Since Columbia did not own any theatres, it was now on equal terms with the largest studios, and soon replaced RKO on the list of the Big Five studios.

By 1950, Columbia had discontinued most of its popular series films like Boston Blackie, Blondie, The Lone Wolf, etc. Only Jungle Jim featuring Johnny Weissmuller, launched by producer Sam Katzman in 1949, kept going through 1955. Katzman contributed greatly to Columbia's success by producing dozens of topical feature films, including crime dramas, Science-Fiction stories, and Rock-'n'-Roll musicals. Columbia kept making serials until 1956 and two-reel comedies until 1957, after other studios had abandoned them.


Rita Hayworth. Italian postcard by Bromofoto, no. 284.


Rita Hayworth. Dutch postcard, Col. Int., no. 286. Photo: Columbia. Publicity still for Cover Girl (Charles Vidor, 1944).


Rita Hayworth. Spanish postcard, no. 4026. Photo: Robert Coburn / Columbia Pictures. Publicity still for Gilda (Charles Vidor, 1946).


Rita Hayworth. Vintage card by IBIS, no. 23. Photo: Robert Coburn / Columbia Pictures. Publicity still for Gilda (Charles Vidor, 1946). Costume by Jean Louis.


Rita Hayworth. German postcard by F.J. Rüdel Filmpostkartenverlag, Hamburg-Bergedorf, no. 423. Photo: Columbia. Publicity still for Affair in Trinidad (Vincent Sherman, 1952).

Backing independent producers and directors

As the larger studios declined in the 1950s, Columbia's position improved. This was largely because it did not suffer from the massive loss of income that the other major studios suffered from losing their theatres. Columbia backed various independent producers and directors, among them Elia Kazan, Fred Zinnemann, David Lean, Robert Rossen, Otto Preminger, and Joseph Losey.

The studio continued to produce 40-plus pictures a year, offering productions that often broke ground and kept audiences coming to cinemas such as its adaptation of the controversial James Jones novel, From Here to Eternity (Fred Zinnemann, 1953) with Burt Lancaster, On the Waterfront (Elia Kazan, 1954) with Marlon Brando, and The Bridge on the River Kwai (David Lean, 1957) with William Holden, Jack Hawkins and Alec Guinness. All three films won the Best Picture Oscar.

Columbia president Harry Cohn died of a heart attack in February 1958. By 1966, the studio was suffering from box-office failures, and takeover rumours began surfacing. After turning down releasing Albert R. Broccoli's Eon Productions James Bond films, Columbia had hired Broccoli's former partner Irving Allen to produce the Matt Helm series with Dean Martin. Columbia also produced a James Bond spoof, Casino Royale (Val Guest, a.o., 1967), in conjunction with Charles K. Feldman, which held the adaptation rights for that novel. The studio also offered old-fashioned fare like A Man for All Seasons (Fred Zinnemann, 1966) and Oliver! (Carol Reed, 1968).

Columbia came back with the more contemporary Easy Rider (Dennis Hopper, 1969) with Peter Fonda, Five Easy Pieces (Bob Rafelson, 1970) starring Jack Nicholson, and The Last Picture Show (Peter Bogdanovich, 1971). During the 1970s, the studio re-emerged with hits like Close Encounters of the Third Kind (Steven Spielberg, 1977), Tootsie (Sydney Pollack, 1982), and Gandhi (Richard Attenborough, 1982). Columbia was purchased by The Coca-Cola Company in 1982. That same year, Columbia helped launch a new motion-picture studio, Tri-Star Pictures, which was merged with Columbia in 1987 to form Columbia Pictures Entertainment, Inc. In 1989 Columbia was acquired by the Sony Corporation of Japan.

The Columbia Pictures logo, featuring a woman carrying a torch and wearing a drape (representing Columbia, a personification of the United States), has gone through five major revisions. Originally in 1924, Columbia Pictures used a logo featuring a female Roman soldier holding a shield in her left hand and a stick of wheat in her right hand. The logo changed in 1928 with the woman wearing a draped flag and torch. The woman wore the stole and carried the palla of ancient Rome, and above her were the words A Columbia Production. The current logo was created in 1992, when Scott Mednick was hired by Peter Guber to create logos for all the entertainment properties then owned by Sony Pictures. Mednick hired New Orleans artist Michael Deas, to digitally repaint the logo and return the woman to her a classic look.


Maureen O'Hara. Dutch postcard by Gebr. Spanjersberg N.V., Rotterdam, no. 2028. Photo: Columbia Film / Ufa.


Gloria Grahame. German postcard by Kolibri-Verlag, no. 032. Photo: Columbia. Publicity still for The Glass Wall (Maxwell Shane, 1953).


Ursula Thiess. German postcard by Kolibri-Verlag, no. 1240. Photo: Columbia. Publicity still for The Iron Glove (William Castle, 1954).


Jack Hawkins. Dutch postcard by Uitg. Takken, Utrecht, no. 8304. Photo: Columbia. Publicity still for The Bridge on the River Kwai (David Lean, 1957).


Jean Seberg. German postcard by WS-Druck, Wanne-Eickel, no. 334. Photo: Columbia / Filmpress Zürich.

Sources: Aurora (Once upon a screen), Encyclopaedia Britannica, Wikipedia and IMDb.

Dustin Hoffman (1937) is an Oscar–winning American actor with a career in film, television, and theatre since 1960. Short in stature and not typically handsome, Hoffman is known for his versatile portrayals of antiheroes and vulnerable or emotionally explosive characters. He has earned acclaim for his work in such films as The Graduate (1967), Kramer vs. Kramer (1979) and Rain Man (1988). Hoffman made his directorial debut with Quartet (2012).


French postcard, no. SL. 4037. The Academy Awards Ceremony 1989: Dustin Hoffman wins the Best Actor Oscar for Rain Man' (Barry Levinson, 1988), with co-star Tom Cruise.


American postcard by Coral-Lee, Rancho Cordova, no. CL/Personality # 113. Photo: Greg Gorman. Publicity still for Tootsie (Sydney Pollack, 1982).

A dedicated method actor

Dustin Lee Hoffman was born in Los Angeles, California, in 1937. His parents were Lillian and Harry Hoffman. His father was a furniture salesman and prop supervisor for Columbia Pictures. Although he is Jewish, Hoffman and his brother were raised in a relatively secular household. Hoffman graduated from Los Angeles High School in 1955.

Hoffman's acting career began at age 19, when he dropped out of music studies at California’s Santa Monica City College to pursue the stage at the Pasadena Playhouse. There, Hoffman befriended another young actor, Gene Hackman. Eventually, the two would both move to New York City where they lived together with Robert Duvall, all three of them looking for work in television and off-Broadway plays.

Hoffman studied at Actors Studio and became a dedicated Method actor. To make ends meet, he took odd jobs and the occasional bit role. Frustrated by his lack of greater success, Hoffman once even left acting to teach, but in 1960 he won a role in the off-Broadway production Yes Is for a Very Young Man. After A Cook for Mr. General (1961), however, he continued to struggle, and did not reappear onstage for several years, in the meantime studying with Lee Strasberg at the Actors' Studio and becoming a dedicated Method actor.

Slowly but surely, Hoffman began building a strong reputation through smaller roles in productions of Waiting for Godot (1964) and The Dumbwaiter (1964). He won a Best Actor Obie for his work in The Journey of the Fifth Horse (1966), and a Theatre World Award and a Drama Desk Award for Eh? (1966). Word of mouth soon reached Hollywood, and Hoffman made his film debut with a tiny role in The Tiger Makes Out (Arthur Hiller, 1967), alongside Eli Wallach. A leading role in the Italian-Spanish comedy Un Dollaro per Sette Vigliachi/Madigan's Millions (Giorgio Gentili, 1968) with Elsa Martinelli, followed later that same year. He played a witless government agent sent to Italy to find the million dollars that a murdered gangster (Cesar Romero) kept hidden.

In 1966, director Mike Nichols auditioned Hoffman for a lead role in the Broadway musical The Apple Tree, but rejected him because he could not sing well enough and gave Alan Alda the part. But Nichols was so impressed with Hoffman's overall audition he cast him as Benjamin Braddock, who returns to his wealthy parents' home in California after graduating from college, in The Graduate (Mike Nichols, 1967). Hoffman was 30 years old when he played the 21-year-old Benjamin who, in a search for a meaningful future, aimlessly drifts into an affair with a married woman (Anne Bancroft) who is the age of his parents. The successful social comedy struck a nerve with young audiences disenchanted with the American establishment, and Hoffman was launched as a star.

In 1969, Hoffman struck gold again with the gritty Midnight Cowboy (John Schlesinger, 1969), in which he played the part of Ratso Rizzo, a homeless man in New York City, who develops a friendship with an unsuccessful male prostitute (Jon Voight). Grim and downbeat in its depiction of a heartless New York City, the film was another unlikely success for Hoffman. It garnered him a second Oscar nomination. Also in 1969, Hoffman co-starred with Mia Farrow in John and Mary (Peter Yates, 1969). He was nominated for a Golden Globe Award and received a 1970 BAFTA Award for his role, although the film itself received mixed reviews. In 1970, he starred in Arthur Penn's Little Big Man, delivering a superb portrayal of an Indian fighter - a role which required him to age 100 years.


French postcard by Editions La Malibran, Paris, no. MC 9. Photo: publicity still for Midnight Cowboy (John Schlesinger, 1969).


Spanish-Canadian postcard by Bergas / Photos Vedettes, Charlesbourg, 1977.

One of his most iconic performances

On a roll in the 1970s, Dustin Hoffman starred in several acclaimed films, including Straw Dogs (Sam Peckinpah, 1971) in which he played a cowardly mathematician who violently defends his home, the box office hit Papillon (Franklin J. Schaffner, 1973) as a prisoner opposite Steve McQueen, and Lenny (Bob Fosse, 1974) as the legendary, self-destructive stand-up comedian Lenny Bruce. This stunning portrayal earned him a third Academy Award nomination.

Another highlight was the political thriller All the President's Men (Alan J. Pakula, 1976) about the Watergate scandal, which starred Hoffman and Robert Redford as the real-life journalists, Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward.

Hoffman next starred in the thriller Marathon Man (John Schlesinger, 1976), based on William Goldman's novel of the same name, opposite Laurence Olivier and Roy Scheider.

He finally won an Academy Award for his performance as a sympathetic father in Kramer vs. Kramer (Robert Benton, 1979), with co-star Meryl Streep also nabbing an Oscar. The film tells the story of a married couple's divorce and its impact on everyone involved, including the couple's young son.

In 1982, playing yet another antihero, Hoffman starred in the comedy Tootsie (Sydney Pollack, 1982) as Michael Dorsey, a down-and-out actor who must dress up as a woman to find steady employment on a daytime soap opera. Tootsie earned ten Academy Award nominations, including Hoffman's fifth nomination. The film grossed nearly $100 million during its theatrical release.

His two returns to the stage during the 1980s proved great triumphs for Hoffman. First was his much-lauded performance as Willy Loman in the Broadway revival of Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman (1984), which was adapted for television the following year and earned Hoffman an Emmy Award and a Golden Globe Award. Always determined to select a challenging variety of roles, he next appeared on stage in London as Shylock in Sir Peter Hall’s production of The Merchant of Venice (1989).

Then, Hoffman starred in the Hollywood smash Rain Man (Barry Levinson, 1988) alongside Tom Cruise. Hoffman's portrayal of an middle-aged autistic savant earned him a second Academy Award and remains one of his most iconic performances. Encyclopaedia Britannica: "Not unlike Hoffman’s earlier roles, Rain Man’s Raymond Babbitt is a difficult character to embrace because of his emotionless nature, but the actor elicits just the right amount of sympathy from an audience."


French postcard by Euro-Images, St. Jean de Vedas, no. CP 73. Photo: publicity still for All the President's Men (Alan J. Pakula, 1976).


Belgian postcard by Joepie / Raider Bounty. Photo: publicity still for Kramer vs. Kramer (Robert Benton, 1979) with Justin Henry.

Sexual harassment allegations

The 1990s brought Dustin Hoffman appearances in a series of big-budget films that proved largely disappointing at the box office. He returned in the revenge drama/legal thriller Sleepers (Barry Levinson, 1996) with Robert De Niro, Brad Pitt, Jason Patric, and Kevin Bacon.

Hoffman's next critically acclaimed role was in the biting political satire Wag the Dog (Barry Levinson, 1997). He played Stanley Motss, a neurotic, fame-hungry Hollywood producer who coconspires to fool the entire world into believing that the United States is at war with Albania, and scored his seventh Oscar nomination.

In 2004, Hoffman again exhibited his comedic prowess when he starred with Lily Tomlin in an offbeat movie about a husband-and-wife detective team that helps clients solve their existential problems, I Heart Huckabees (David O'Russell, 2004). Further cementing his new direction, he went on to appear as Ben Stiller's father in the broad comedies Meet the Fockers (Jay Roach, 2004) and Little Fockers (Paul Weitz, 2010). He also played a 243 year old owner or a strangely enchanted toy store in the children's fantasy Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium (Zach Helm, 2007).

Hoffman continued to star in blockbuster films like Stranger than Fiction (Marc Forster, 2006) with Will Ferrell, but also lent his voice to the computer-animated films Kung Fu Panda (Mark Osborne, John Stevenson, 2008) and The Tale of Despereaux (Sam Fell, Robert Stevenhagen, 2008). In 2012, at the age of 75, Hoffman made his debut as a film director with Quartet (Dustin Hoffman, 2012), an ensemble comedy about former opera singers residing in an English retirement home, with Maggie Smith and Michael Gambon.

In 2014 he joined the ensemble cast of Jon Favreau's critically acclaimed Chef (Jon Favreau, 2014). Two years later, he won the International Emmy Award for Best Actor for his work on Roald Dahl's Esio Trot (Dearbhla Walsh, 2015), based on a children’s book about a bachelor romancing his tortoise-loving neighbour (Judi Dench). In 2017 he starred opposite Adam Sandler in The Meyerowitz Stories (New and Selected) (Noah Baumbach, 2017), playing a sculptor preparing for a retrospective of his work in New York.

In the fall of 2017, after the Harvey Weinstein sexual harassment allegations rocked Hollywood, Hoffman became one of the actors forced to account for past behaviour. Writer Anna Graham Hunter, who was 17 when she interned on the set of the TV Movie Death of a Salesman (Volker Schlöndorff, 1985), recounted the older actor asking about her sex life and groping her. In December, a new round of reports surfaced in which five women accused Hoffman of sexual assault or harassment, including accounts of the actor exposing himself and forced sexual activity. Hoffman denied.

Apart from his successful professional work, Hoffman married Anne Byrne in 1969. He adopted her daughter, Karina, from a previous marriage, and in 1970 their second daughter, Jenna, was born. After more than 10 years of marriage, Hoffman and Anne divorced in 1980. Soon after, he married attorney Lisa Gottsegen. They would go on to have four children: Jacob Edward, Rebecca Lillian, Maxwell Geoffrey and Alexandra Lydia.


Romanian postcard by Casa Filmului Acin. Photo: publicity still for Kramer vs. Kramer (Robert Benton, 1979), with Justin Henry.


Romanian postcard by Casa Filmului Acin.

Sources: Jason Ankeny (AllMovie), Encyclopaedia Britannica, Biography.com,Wikipedia and IMDb.

Hoot Gibson (1892-1962) was a rodeo champion and pioneering cowboy star of silent Westerns. With his easy combination of light, breezy, boyish charm comedy and riding abilities, Hoot filled a gap between the austere William S. Hart and the flamboyant Tom Mix and appealed both to adults (especially women) and kids. During the 1920s, he was one of the most popular children's matinee heroes, ranking second only to Mix, and one of Universal's top paid stars. In his real life, however, he had an expensive love for fast cars, motorcycles and airplanes and lead a rather painful rags-to-riches-and-back-to-rags career.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 713/1, 1925-1926. Photo: Roman Freulich / Unifilman (Universal).


British postcard in the Picturegoer Series, London, no. 66a.

Horse Crazy

Hoot Gibson was born Edmund Richard Gibson in 1892, in Tekamah, Nebraska. As a child he grew up 'horse crazy' and received his first pony at the age of two and a half. His family moved to California when he was seven.

At age 13, the adventurous youth ran away from home and joined a circus for a time. At B-Westerns.com, Hoot later recalled: "First job I got was on the Postal Telegraph. I was then 15. I rode that for about three months and liked it fairly well. I got a job at the Owl Drug Co., delivering drugs and packages to the different homes throughout southern California or that part of Los Angeles. That is where I got the name of Hoot. It came from Owl and later the boys started calling me Hoot Owl, then it got down to Hoot and Hoot has stuck with me ever since."

Later work included punching cows in both Wyoming and Colorado. While working as a horse wrangler, Hoot developed a strong, active interest in the rodeo scene. In 1907 he signed a four-year contract with the Dick Stanley-Bud Atkinson Wild West Show, which toured throughout the US and later Australia. By 1910 Hoot started his film career with the Selig Polyscope Co. as one of the industry's first stuntmen. He was paid $2.50 for performing stunts, training horses and doubling for Selig stars.

Film director Francis Boggs was looking for experienced cowboys and stunt doubles to appear in his Western short Pride of the Range (Francis Boggs, 1910) starring Tom Mix. Gibson and pal Art Acord did riding and stunting jobs for the film. Gibson made a second film for Boggs, The New Superintendent (Francis Boggs, 1911) with Herbert Rawlinson. Hoot lost a solid Hollywood contact in Boggs, however, when the director and his working partner, producer William Nicholas Selig, were both shot in October, 1911, by a mentally disturbed employee. Selig was injured, but Boggs was killed.

Gibson also found stunt work in such prolific Western shorts as The Two Brothers (David Wark Griffith, 1910), starring Henry Walthall, and His Only Son (Jack Conway, 1912). Acting for Gibson was then a minor sideline, and he continued to forge a name for himself on the rodeo circuit with his pal Art Acord. In 1912, at age 20, he won the title 'All-Around Champion Cowboy' at the famed annual Pendleton (Oregon) Round-Up. He also won the steer-roping World Championship at the Calgary Stampede.

While on the circuit, he met fellow rodeo rider Rose August 'Helen' Wenger. They eventually married and she took on the marquee name of Helen Gibson. She even found film stunt work herself and eventually was chosen to replace Helen Holmes as star of the popular film serial The Hazards of Helen (J. Gunnis Davis a.o., 1914) during mid-filming. Hoot himself had the job doubling Helen Holmes and doing the stunts from horses to trains in the Universal cliffhanger.

Hoot picked up new connections in the film industry with Western star Harry Carey and director John Ford. With Ford, Gibson developed a lasting friendship and working relationship. Gibson gained some momentum as a secondary player in a few of their films, including Cheyenne's Pal (1917), Straight Shooting (1917), The Secret Man (1917) and A Marked Man (1917).

With the outbreak of World War I, however, Gibson's film career was put on hold. He joined the US Army, eventually attaining the the rank of sergeant while serving with the Tank Corps, and was honourably discharged in 1919. He returned immediately to Universal and was able to restart his career.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 553/1, 1919-1924. Photo: Unfilman / Roman Freulich.

A certain boyish charm

At Universal, Hoot Gibson quickly worked his way up to co-star status in a series of short Westerns, often directed by John Ford. The two-reelers usually co-starred either Pete Morrison or Hoot's wife Helen, or sometimes both. Films such as The Fighting Brothers (John Ford, 1919), The Black Horse Bandit (Harry Harvey, 1919), Rustlers (John Ford, 1919), Gun Law (John Ford, 1919), The Gun Packer (John Ford, 1919) and By Indian Post (John Ford, 1919) eventually led to his solo starring success.

During this prolific period, he was also directed by George Holt in The Trail of the Holdup Man (1919), Phil Rosen in The Sheriff's Oath (1920) and Lee Kohlmar in The Wild Wild West (1921). Around this time, Hoot and Helen divorced. In the early 1920s, Hoot went on to marry another Helen, vaudeville actress Helen Johnson. They had one child, Lois Charlotte Gibson, born in 1923. The couple divorced in 1927.

By 1921, the demand for cowboy pictures was so great, Gibson began receiving offers for leading roles. Superstardom came with the Western Action (John Ford, 1921), which was taken from The Three Godfathers story. It starred Hoot, Francis Ford and J. Farrell MacDonald as a trio of outlaws on the lam who find a baby. Action propelled Gibson to fame and fortune and he remained at Universal for the next 10 years.

Boyd Magers and Bill Russell at B-Westerns.com: "What made Gibson so popular over the years? He was not what one might call handsome, being a little on the homely side, nor did he cut a dashing figure on horseback, although he could ride like a demon. Neither was he a polished scrapper of the Bob Steele school of fisticuffs, but could mix it up with the best of them. He mostly never wore a gun in the standard cowboy hero way, instead shoved it in his belt or boot. So what made this cowboy hero one of the greats? You could call it character, a certain boyish charm, or simply a naturalness that appealed to the western fan. He had a contagious smile, and while most heroes had a sidekick who provided the comedy routine, Hoot was his own best sidekick."

During his Universal years, Gibson starred in such classics as the exciting The Ridin' Kid from Powder River (Edward Sedgwick, 1924), the humorous Chip of the Flying U (Lynn Reynolds, 1926) and the more serious and dramatic The Flaming Frontier (Edward Sedgwick, 1926) with Dustin Farnum, he would occasionally step out of his Western roles for a non-Western feature. By 1925 Hoot Gibson was making approximately $14,500 a week and spending it about as fast as he was making it.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 5020/1, 1930-1931. Photo: Universal. Publicity still for The Galloping Kid (Nat Ross, 1922).


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 5417/2, 1930-1931. Photo: Universal.

Airplanes as a large, expensive passion

Hoot Gibson successfully made the transition to talkies and, in 1930, married popular Jazz-era actress Sally Eilers, a third party to his previous divorce. The couple made three features together: The Long, Long Trail (Arthur Rosson, 1929), Trigger Tricks (B. Reeves Eason, 1930) and Clearing the Range (Otto Brower, 1931). When she found celluloid success on her own with the Oscar-winning Bad Girl (Frank Borzage, 1931), Sally decided to split from Hoot professionally and personally. They divorced in 1933.

Hoot lost his Universal contract in 1930, which signified the start of his decline. During the early 1930s, he secured contracts with the Poverty Row outfits Allied Pictures and First Division Pictures, but the quality of his films suffered. Hoot had already begun to feature race cars and airplanes in his films such as The Flyin' Cowboy (B. Reeves Eason, 1928) and The Winged Horseman (B. Reeves Eason, Arthur Rosson, 1929).

Gary Brumburgh at IMDb: "Airplanes in particular became a large, expensive passion of his. In 1933 he crashed his biplane during a National Air Race in Los Angeles, which had pitted him against another cowboy star, Ken Maynard. Fortunately, he survived his injuries."

With the advent of talking films, singing cowboys such as Gene Autry and Roy Rogers were becoming the new rage, and both Hoot and Tom Mix felt the kick. Yet he managed a couple of comebacks by pairing up with others stars. He joined old silent film teammate Harry Carey and 'Guinn Big Boy Williams' in the 'Three Mesquiteers' Western Powdersmoke Range (Wallace Fox, 1935), and was billed second to Ray Corrigan in the Republic serial The Painted Stallion (Alan James, Ray Taylor, William Witney, 1937).

Gary Brumburgh: "Hoot left films and toured with the Robbins Brothers and Russell Brothers circuses during 1938 and 1939 before retiring from show business altogether. His multiple divorces and reckless spending habits had taken their toll on his finances. For a time he found work in real estate before Monogram Pictures offered the stocky-framed actor a chance to return in 1943. Hoot teamed up with cowboy star Ken Maynard in the popular 'Trail Blazers' series, and the duo were later joined by Bob Steele. Chief Thundercloud replaced a difficult Maynard on a couple of the films, but by the end of the series Gibson and Steele were riding alone together."

The nearly dozen films in the series began with Wild Horse Stampede (Alan James, 1943) and ended with Trigger Law (Vernon Keays, 1944), the latter being his last hurrah in films. Hoot then returned to real estate. By the time he appeared as a surprise guest on the popular sitcom I Married Joan (1952) starring Joan Davis, his Western features of the 1930s and 1940s, as well as those of Maynard, Steele and others were a large staple of films seen by a TV audience that couldn't get enough Western fare.

He did a favour for old friend John Ford by appearing in a cameo role in the director's The Horse Soldiers (John Ford, 1959), starring John Wayne and William Holden. His last film spotting was a guest cameo in the 'Rat Pack' film Ocean's Eleven (Lewis Milestone, 1960).

Hoot married a fourth and final time in 1942, to 22 year old yodeler and actress Dorothea Dunstan. This marriage took hold and lasted for 20 years until his death. By the 1960s Gibson was on the verge of financial collapse after a series of bad investments.

Gary Brumburgh: "Diagnosed with cancer in 1960, rising medical costs forced him to find any and all work available. He was relegated at one point to becoming a greeter at a Las Vegas casino and, for a period, worked at carnivals. It was an unhappy end for a cowboy who brought so much excitement and entertainment to children and adults alike."

In 1962, Hoot Gibson died of cancer at the Motion Picture Country Home in Woodland Hills, California, just a couple of weeks after his 70th birthday. He was interred in the Inglewood Park Cemetery in Inglewood, California.


French postcard by in the Les Vedette de Cinéma series by A.N., Paris, no. 237. Photo: Universal Film.


Austrian postcard by Iris-Verlag, no. 5547. Photo: Universal-Film.

Sources: Gary Brumburgh (IMDb), Boyd Magers and Bill Russell (B-Westerns), Wikipedia and IMDb.

American model and actress Suzy Parker (1932–2003) was known in the 1950s as the most photographed woman in the world and is now considered as the very first Supermodel. The red-headed beauty defined glamour in the 1950s and in 1956, at the height of her modelling career, became the first model to earn $100,000 per year. During the late 1950s and early 1960s, Parker also became the glamorous star of several Hollywood productions.


Italian postcard by Rotalfoto, Milano, no. 89.


German postcard by Krüger, no. 902/10. Photo: Terb Agency.

The signature face of Chanel

In 1932, Suzy Parker was born Cecilia Ann Renee Parker in Long Island City, New York, to George and Elizabeth Parker. George disliked the name Cecilia and called her Susie, a name which Parker would retain throughout her life. A French Vogue photographer later changed the spelling to Suzy.

Parker's family moved to Highland Park, New Jersey, and then to Florida. When Parker was 15, sister Dorian (a.k.a. Leigh Parker), herself one of the top models of the era, introduced her to Eileen Ford. In the period just after World War II, models were becoming celebrities and Suzy would become even more famous than Dorian.

A photo of the 15-year-old appeared that year in Life magazine and one of her first magazine advertisements was for DeRosa Jewelry. While still in high school in Jacksonville, Fla., she modelled in the summers for Ford Models, and after graduation went to work full time for the agency. Although she still lived with her parents in Florida, she stayed in New York City with Dorian when she had modelling assignments there.

Dorian introduced Parker to her fashion-photographer friends, Irving Penn, Horst P. Horst, John Rawlings, and a young Richard Avedon. Parker became Avedon's muse and the so-called signature face of the Coco Chanel brand. Along with other models like Dovima and Lisa Fonssagrives, Parker signified a postwar world of stylish promise for all. She was the first model to earn $200 per hour and $100,000 per year (ca. 900,000 today). Vogue declared her one of the faces of the confident, post-war American woman.

She worked non-stop for labels as Revlon, Hertz, Westinghouse, Max Factor, Bliss, DuPont, Simplicity, Smirnoff, and Ronson shavers. Parker also was on the covers of about 70 magazines around the world, including Vogue, Elle, Life, Look, and Paris Match. In the mid-1950s she abandoned being a cover girl for a few years to be a photographer herself, apprenticing with Henri Cartier-Bresson in Paris and working for the French edition of Vogue.


German postcard by Krüger, nr. 902/78.


Italian postcard by Rotalfoto, Milano, no. N 131.

Icy sophistication as trademark

Suzy Parker's next step was a Hollywood career. Photographer Richard Avedon recommended her for a fashionable cameo in Funny Face (Stanley Donen, 1957), starring Audrey Hepburn and Fred Astaire.

Douglas Martin in the New York Times: "Parker's trademark in photographs and later on the movie screen was icy sophistication, often likened to that of Grace Kelly, but in person she exuded a girl-next-door prettiness and a sort of wacky loquaciousness. Audrey Hepburn's role in Funny Face, as a fast-talking beatnik who somewhat unwillingly becomes a world-famous model, was inspired by her".

Suzy herself was on screen for just two minutes in a musical number described as 'Think Pink number'. But director Stanley Donen then gave her a leading role in his comedy Kiss Them for Me (Stanley Donen, 1957), opposite Cary Grant and Jayne Mansfield. However, the film was a disappointment and Parker's acting got negative reviews.

Parker got better reviews for her next appearances in the dramas Ten North Frederick (Philip Dunne, 1958) with Gary Cooper, and The Best of Everything (Jean Negulesco, 1959). During the shooting of the British war film A Circle of Deception (Jack Lee, 1960), she met future husband Bradford Dillman. Her later films include Flight from Ashiya (Michael Anderson, 1964) with Yul Brynner, and Chamber of Horrors (Hy Averback, 1966).

She also played dramatic roles in TV shows such as Burke's Law (1963) plus appearances as herself on a number of quiz shows such as I've Got a Secret. Her most famous television appearance was in a 1963 episode of Twilight Zone in which she played six different parts. Parker's last role was in a 1970 episode of Night Gallery.

She did, in a way, make one other film 'appearance' in The Beatles' documentary film Let It Be (Michael Lindsay-Hogg, 1970), in which the band performed their song Suzy Parker. The song, one of the few credited as written by all four Beatles, was part of their Academy Award-winning score for the original songs they performed in the film.

Suzy Parker was married three times. In 1950, she married her high-school sweetheart, Ronald Staton, and divorced him in 1953. In 1955, Parker married French journalist Pierre de la Salle with whom she had a daughter, Georgia. They divorced in 1961. In 1963 she became Suzy Parker Dillman after marrying Bradfor Dillman.

After a car accident in 1964, Parker mostly retired from modelling and focused on her family. She had three more children with Bradford Dillman: daughter Dinah (born 1965) and sons Charlie (1967) and Christopher (1969). The family lived in Bel Air, Los Angeles, until Dinah was bitten by a rattlesnake in the yard and almost died. They then moved to Montecito in the Santa Barbara area, where Suzy Parker remained until her death in 2003. She was 69.


Italian postcard by B.F.F. Edit. (Ballerini & Fratini, Firenze), no. 3634. Photo: 20th Century Fox. Publicity still for Ten North Frederick (Philip Dunne, 1958).


Romanian postcard by Casa Filmului ACIN. Photo: publicity still for Ten North Frederick (Philip Dunne, 1958) with Gary Cooper.

Sources: Douglas Martin (New York Times), Wikipedia and IMDb.

American singer and actress Lillian Roth (1910-1980) was a Broadway star and Hollywood actress. Among her films were Ernst Lubitsch's The Love Parade (1929), Cecil B. DeMille's Madam Satan (1930), and the Marx Brothers' second film, Animal Crackers (1930). She rebelled against the pressure of her domineering stage mother and reacted to the death of her fiance by becoming an alcoholic. After a 16-year struggle with alcoholism she made a remarkable return to stardom. Her life story was told in the biopic I'll Cry Tomorrow (1955) starring Susan Hayward.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 5548/1, 1930-1931. Photo: Paramount. Collection: Didier Hanson.

Taken for a ride by the president

Lillian Roth was born Lillian Rutstein in Boston, Massachusetts, in 1910. She was the daughter of Katie (née Silverman) and Arthur Rutstein. She had a younger sister, Anne, and the family was Jewish.

She was given her first name in honor of singer Lillian Russell. Her daunting stage parents groomed Lillian and Anne for stardom at an early age. In 1916, when Lillian was five and Anne three, the family moved to New York City to be near the various casting offices. Her mother took her to Educational Pictures, a major film distribution company, where she became the company's trademark, symbolised by a living statue holding a lamp of knowledge. In her autobiographical book, I’ll Cry Tomorrow, she writes of being molested by the artist that was hired to create the logo. 

Lillian attended the Professional Children’s School with classmates Ruby Keeler and Milton Berle. In 1917, the six-year-old made her Broadway debut in The Inner Man, a production of the famous  Shubert brothers, who are responsible for the establishment of Broadway as the hub of the theatre industry in the United States. Her film debut came as an extra in Pershing's Crusaders (1918), a  semi-documentary on American troops in France in the First World War. She was rewarded with casting in another Shubert production called Shaving with the billing 'Broadway's Youngest Star.'

Throughout her childhood Roth’s father’s alcoholism resulted in his periodic lengthy separations from the family. As a result, her ambitious mother molded her and her younger sister Anne into vaudeville headliners billed as 'Lillian Roth and Co.' or 'The Roth Kids'.  A vaudeville tour on the Keith-Orpheum circuit,  a chain of vaudeville and movie theatres, made both of the girl's famous. Her theme song became 'When the Red, Red Robin (Comes Bob, Bob, Bobbin' Along)'.

One of the most exciting moments for her came when she met U.S. President Woodrow Wilson. The President and Mrs Wilson attended their vaudeville act in Washington D.C. According to her autobiography, the enamoured president took Lillian and her sister for a ride around the block in his open touring car.

She appeared in Artists and Models in 1923, but was soon transferred to the Chicago company of the show because New York legal authorities considered her too young to be in a 'risqué' show. She went on to make Revels with Frank Fay. During production for the show, she told management she was 19 years of age despite being only 13 at the time.

In 1927, when Roth was 17, she made the first of three Earl Carroll Vanities. She enhanced her image as a wild party girl and flapper and she introduced the ribald song Drizzle, Drizzle, The Party's a Fizzle, O! What A Night to Love'. This was soon followed by a leading role in Midnight Frolics, a Florenz Ziegfeld production. Variety and New York City newspapers praised Roth’s singing voice and stage personality. Her next step was to go to Hollywood...


French postcard by Cinémagazine-Edition (CE), Paris, no. 795. Photo: Paramount. Publicity still for The Love Parade (Ernst Lubitsch, 1929) with Lupino Lane.

One of the oddest films made

In 1929, Lillian Roth signed a seven-year contract with Paramount Pictures. Her film  career coincided with the beginning of the sound film. First she appeared as Lulu in Ernst Lubitsch's musical comedy The Love Parade (Ernst Lubitsch, 1929) starring Maurice Chevalier and Jeanette MacDonald. Lubitsch's first sound film was a huge box-office hit.

Then she played another supporting role in the Operetta The Vagabond King (Ludwig Berger, 1930) which was photographed entirely in two-colour Technicolor. The film told the story of the renegade French poet François Villon, played by Dennis King. The film was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Art Direction. Then followed the all-star revue Paramount on Parade (1930), directed by several directors including Edmund Goulding, Dorothy Arzner, and Ernst Lubitsch, and Honey (Wesley Ruggles, 1930) in which she introduced her signature song 'Sing, You Sinners'.

A curiosity is the musical extravaganza Madam Satan (Cecil B. DeMille, 1930) with Reginald Denny and Kay Johnson. According to Wikipedia it is "one of the oddest films DeMille made and certainly one of the oddest MGM made during its 'golden age'." Thematically, DeMille attempted to return to the boudoir comedies genre that had brought him success at the box office 10 years earlier.

Roth also appeared in Sea Legs (Victor Heerman, 1930) with Jack Oakie, and in Animal Crackers (Victor Heerman, 1930) the second film of the Marx Brothers. In this comedy mayhem and zaniness ensue when a valuable painting goes missing during a party in honour of famed African explorer Captain Jeffrey T. Spaulding (Groucho Marx). It was a critical and commercial success.

Tings seemed to be running smoothly for her. Then the sudden death of her fiance David Lyons, who died of tuberculosis, drove Lillian into deep despair. She found liquor to be a calming sensation, which led in the following years to a full-scale addiction.

She took over Ethel Merman's stage role in the film version of Take a Chance (Monte Brice, Laurence Schwab, 1933), singing 'Eadie Was a Lady'. After leaving Paramount, she had a supporting role at Warner Bros. in the women's prison film Ladies They Talk About (Howard Bretherton, William Keighley, 1933) with Barbara Stanwyck.


Dutch postcard by N.V. De Faam, Breda. Photo: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Publicity still for Madam Satan (Cecil B. DeMille, 1930).

As bad as it was it was good

Lilian Roth headlined the Palace Theatre in New York City and performed in the Earl Carroll Vanities in 1928, 1931, and 1932. She continued to make strides as a singer in an era when so much was being set to music.

By the end of the 1930s, her career was over and she disappeared from the theatre scene. Her private life was in scrambles decimated by alcoholism. She acknowledged that she had earned over one million dollars, and lost it all. Lillian with suicidal tendencies, became a common drunk which led to failed marriages. In 1945, she committed herself to a New York mental institution, but the treatment did not provide a permanent cure for her illness.  Finally, her friends and Alcoholic Anonymous were her salvation.

In the late 1940s she reemerged as a singer again doing club work. A sober Lillian appeared across the country and then Australian and New Zealand. She returned again to Hollywood with a successful booking at Ciro's. In 1953, she appeared on a special episode of the TV series This Is Your Life with Ralph Edwards. In response to her honesty in relating her story of alcoholism, she received more than 40,000 letters.

This overwhelming response encouraged her to write her autobiography, which described open and touchingly her struggle against alcoholism and mental illness. I'll Cry Tomorrow, written with author-collaborators Mike Connolly and Gerald Frank, was an instant sensation, selling more than 100,000 copies in a few months. A toned-down version of it was made into the hit film I'll Cry Tomorrow (Daniel Mann, 1955) with Susan Hayward, who was nominated for an Oscar and won the Best Actress award at the Cannes Film Festival. The book would sell worldwide more than seven million copies in twenty languages, and the film renewed the public interest in Roth.

In 1958, Lillian Roth published a second book, Beyond My Worth. Roth had managed to re-invent herself as a major concert and nightclub performer. She appeared at venues in Las Vegas and New York's Copacabana and was a popular attraction in Australia.

In 1962, she was featured as Elliott Gould's mother in the Broadway musical I Can Get It for You Wholesale, in which Barbra Streisand made her Broadway debut. Despite the acclaim for Streisand, producer David Merrick realised that Roth's name still sold tickets, and he elevated her to above-title star billing after the show's opening, with Gould, Streisand, and Sheree North listed below. Roth remained with the show for its full run of 301 performances and recorded the cast album for Columbia Records. She was also featured as Mrs. Brice in the national touring company of Funny Girl in 1964, again getting top billing.

Roth was married five times: to aviator William C. Scott, New York Judge Benjamin Shalleck, Eugene J. Weiner, Edward Goldman, and Thomas Burt McGuire. She divorced her first husband in 1932 after 13 months of marriage.

Roth met her last husband, Thomas Burt McGuire, scion of Funk and Wagnalls Publishing Company at an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting (Roth joined Alcoholics Anonymous in 1946). The Catholic McGuire affected her in such a way both spiritually and emotionally that Roth converted to Catholicism in 1948. The two wed and McGuire managed Roth until September 1963, when she received a note from him stating that their marriage was finished. McGuire left Roth for another man and according to Roth, after withdrawing all funds from their joint bank account.

Roth returned to Broadway in 1971 in the John Kander and Fred Ebb musical 70, Girls, 70, which had a short run. She played a pathologist in the horror film Alice, Sweet Alice/Communion (Alfred Sole, 1976), Brooke Shields' feature film debut. Her last film was Boardwalk (Stephen Verona, 1979), with Lee Strasberg, Ruth Gordon, and Janet Leigh. In 1980, Lillian Roth died from a stroke in New York City. She was 69. The inscription on her marker in Mount Pleasant Cemetery in Westchester County, New York reads: 'As bad as it was it was good.'

At The American Vaudeville, Klaudia Kendall writes: "Roth was representative of the aesthetics of the tail-end of the Jazz age, with her vampire makeup, pale skin, and dark hair. As a performer, Roth blurred the lines between a comedienne and a serious actress, and expanded her use of humor and hardships into her biography while simultaneously using her stardom as an outlet to help those affected by alcoholism and to spread awareness about the destructive nature that the substance had on her own life. Although Roth was subject to both physical and emotional hardship in her career as a vaudeville star, she has remained in the public’s memory as both an advocate for the previously unheard, a beauty, a star in her own right and a woman of mystery."


French postcard by Cinémagazine-Edition (CE), Paris, no. 816. Photo: Paramount. Publicity still for Take a Chance (Monte Brice, Laurence Schwab, 1933).

Sources: Klaudia Kendall (The American Vaudeville),  Donald Greyfield (Find A Grave), Gary Brumburgh (IMDb), Bonnie Rothbart Stark (Jewish Women's Archive), Barron H. Lerner (The New York Times), Wikipedia and IMDb.

The Ten Commandments (1956) was director and producer DeMille's last and most successful film, a partial remake of his 1923 silent film of the same title. It was filmed on location in Egypt, Mount Sinai and the Sinai Peninsula, shot in VistaVision with colour by Technicolor. The film dramatises the biblical story of the life of Moses, an adopted Egyptian prince who becomes the deliverer of his real brethren, the enslaved Hebrews, and therefore leads the Exodus to Mount Sinai, where he receives, from God, the Ten Commandments. Charlton Heston played Moses, Yul Brynner played his jealous half-brother Rameses II, and Anne Baxter the Egyptian throne princess Nefretiri.


Dutch postcard by Gebr. Spanjersberg N.V., Rotterdam, no. 5183. Photo: Paramount. Publicity still for The Ten Commandments (Cecil B. DeMille, 1956) with Charlton Heston as Moses. Moses' robe was hand-woven by Dorothea Hulse, one of the world's finest weavers. She also created costumes for The Robe (Henry Koster, 1953), as well as textiles and costume fabrics for Samson and Delilah (Cecil B. DeMille, 1949), David and Bathsheba (Henry King, 1951), and other films.


French postcard by Editions P.I., Paris, no. 830. Offered by Les Carbones Korès "Carboplane". Photo: Paramount. Publicity still for The Ten Commandments (Cecil B. DeMille, 1956).


Dutch postcard by Gebr. Spanjersberg N.V., Rotterdam, no. 5185. Photo: Charlton Heston as Moses in The Ten Commandments (Cecil B. DeMille, 1956), released in Dutch as De Tien Geboden.

Put on Earth to do God’s will

Based on the Holy Scriptures, with additional dialogue by several other hands, The Ten Commandments (Cecil B. DeMille, 1956) tells the story of Moses, leader of the Hebrews, considered to have been a prophet by Jews, Christians and Muslims. He is thought to have lived in Egypt, in or around the 14th century BC.

The older he became, the more Cecil B. DeMille was convinced that he had been put on Earth to do God’s will. He decided to remake The Ten Commandments, in response, he claimed, to scores of imploring letters: “The world needs a reminder, they said, of the Law of God.”

Charlton Heston, who had previously worked with DeMille in The Greatest Show on Earth (Cecil B. DeMille, 1952), won the part of Moses after he impressed DeMille at his audition with his knowledge of ancient Egypt.

The films follows Moses from the time he was discovered in the bull rushes as an infant by the Pharaoh's daughter, to his long, hard struggle to free the Hebrews from their slavery at the hands of the Egyptians.

Heston was also chosen to be the voice of God in the form of a burning bush, toned down to a softer and lower register. As soon as Heston announced to DeMille that his wife Lydia was pregnant, Heston's newborn son, Fraser (1955), was cast by DeMille. Fraser Heston was three months old during filming.

Edward G. Robinson was cast as Dathan, Yvonne De Carlo as Sephora, Debra Paget as Lilia, and John Derek as Joshua. The film features Sir Cedric Hardwicke as Sethi, Nina Foch as Bithiah, Martha Scott as Yoshebel, Judith Anderson as Memnet, and Vincent Price as Baka.

For the large crowd shots, at least 14,000 extras and 15,000 animals were used.


Dutch postcard by Gebr. Spanjersberg N.V., Rotterdam, no. 5184. Photo: Charlton Heston and Yvonne de Carlo in The Ten Commandments (Cecil B. deMille, 1956), released in Dutch as De Tien Geboden.


French postcard by Editions P.I., Paris, no. 831. Photo: Paramount. Publicity still for The Ten Commandments (Cecil B. DeMille, 1956). For his pursuit of the Israelites, Yul Brynner in his role as Rameses II wears the blue Khepresh helmet-crown, which the pharaohs wore for battle.


Dutch postcard by Uitg. Takken, no. AX 3871. Photo: Paramount. Publicity still for The Ten Commandments (Cecil B. DeMille, 1956).

The most eventful 219 minutes ever recorded

In 1957, The Ten Commandments was nominated for seven Oscars, including Best Picture. John P. Fulton, head of the special effects department at Paramount, won the Academy Award for his effects. Fulton’s effects included the building of Sethi’s Jubilee treasure city, the Burning Bush, the fiery hail from a cloudless sky, the Angel of Death, the composites of the Exodus, the Pillar of Fire, the giving of the Ten Commandments, and the highlight, the parting of the Red Sea.

The at the time incredibly expensive production (budget: $13 million) grossed $122.7 million at the box office. It was re-released in 1966 and 1972, and one more time in 1989. The liberties taken with the biblical story of Exodus nor its nearly four-hour length has had any effect on its popularity. According to Guinness World Records, in terms of theatrical exhibition The Ten Commandments (1956) is the seventh most successful film of all-time when the box office gross is adjusted for inflation.

During production, DeMille had customarily spread out prints of paintings by Lawrence Alma-Tadema to inform his set designers on the look he wanted to achieve. However, in terms of accuracy about Moses and his time, The Ten Commandments is patchy.

Alex von Tunzelmann in The Guardian: “It's amazing how much the fashions of New Kingdom Egypt seem to resemble those of 1956. DeMille can just about be forgiven the makeup, because ancient Egyptians did indeed paint their eyelids, lips and nails, but he is pushing it by dressing dancing girls in fluorescent green bikinis. At least the spectacular scenes filmed on location in Egypt and Sinai, with thousands of extras, lend the whole thing a sense of authenticity.”

Hal Erickson at AllMovie: “DeMille's The Ten Commandments may not be the most subtle and sophisticated entertainment ever concocted, but it tells its story with a clarity and vitality that few Biblical scholars have ever been able to duplicate. It is very likely the most eventful 219 minutes ever recorded to film - and who's to say that Nefertiri (Anne Baxter) didn't make speeches like, "Oh, Moses, Moses, you splendid, stubborn, adorable fool"?”

During the production in Egypt, Cecil B. DeMille had a colossal heart attack. The doctor insisted that he spend the next two weeks flat on his back in an oxygen tent, then recuperate for several weeks after that. Typically, DeMille took no notice and was back at work the next morning.

He finished filming The Ten Commandments on the day after his 74th birthday. But although he lived for another five years, his health never recovered. On 20 January 1959 his doctor paid him a visit and suggested he should go straight into hospital. “No,” DeMille told him. “I think I’ll go to the morgue instead.” He died the next day.


Dutch postcard by Gebr. Spanjersberg N.V., Rotterdam, no. 5193. Photo: Charlton Heston, Nina Foch, and Martha Scott in The Ten Commandments (Cecil B. DeMille, 1956), released in Dutch as De Tien Geboden.


Dutch postcard by Gebr. Spanjersberg N.V., Rotterdam, no. 5187. Photo: Edward G. Robinson as Dathan in The Ten Commandments (Cecil B. DeMille, 1956), released in Dutch as De Tien Geboden.


Dutch postcard by Uitg. Takken, no. AX 3881. Photo: Paramount. Publicity still for The Ten Commandments (Cecil B. DeMille, 1956) with Charlton Heston, Yul Brynner, Sir Cedric Hardwicke and Anne Baxter.


Trailer The Ten Commandments (1956). Source: You Tube Trailers (YouTube).

Sources: Hal Erickson (AllMovie), John Preston (The Telegraph), Alex von Tunzelmann (The Guardian), Wikipedia, and IMDb.

American film actor Mickey Rooney (1920-2014) had one of the longest careers in cinematic history. As a child, he first appeared on film in 1926 and he made his last appearance in 2014. As a teenager, Rooney was a superstar playing Andy Hardy in a series of 15 films in the 1930s and 1940s that epitomised American family values. With Judy Garland, he became a successful song-and-dance team. Rooney's breakthrough-role as a dramatic actor came in Boys Town (1938) opposite Spencer Tracy as Father Flanagan.The popularity of his films made Rooney the biggest box-office draw in 1939, 1940 and 1941.


British postcard in the Picturegoer Series, London, no. 902a. Photo: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.


British postcard in the Picturegoer Series, London, no. 1280. Photo: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Publicity still for Love Finds Andy Hardy (George B. Seitz, 1938) with (back row) Cecilia Parker, Ann Rutherford, Judy Garland, Gene Reynolds, Lana Turner and (front row) Mary Howard, Lewis Stone, Fay Holden and Mickey Rooney.


British postcard in the Picturegoer Series, London, no. 1281. Photo: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Publicity still for Love Finds Andy Hardy (George B. Seitz, 1938) with Ann Rutherford, Judy Garland and Lana Turner.

The popular all-American teenager

Mickey Rooney was born Joe Yule Jr. in 1920 in Brooklyn, New York. He was the son of Scottish-born vaudevillian/actor Joe Yule and Missouri-born Nell Ruth (née Carter) Pankey. Mickey first took the stage in his parents vaudeville act at 17 months old, wearing a specially tailored tuxedo. His parents divorced in 1923, when Mickey was three years old.

In 1925 Mickey came to Hollywood to audition as one of Hal Roach's Rascals for the Our Gang series, but Mickey's mother declined over a dispute over salary. Mickey then made his first film appearance in the short silent comedy Not to Be Trusted (Tom Buckingham, 1926), when he was four years old.He played the character Mickey McGuire for the first time in the bubbly comedy Orchids and Ermine (Alfred Santell, 1927) with Colleen Moore. The following year, he played the lead in the first Mickey McGuire short film, Mickey's Circus (Albert Herman, 1927). It was in this popular film series that he took the stage name Mickey Rooney.

Rooney reached new heights with A Family Affair (George B. Seitz, 1937) with Lionel Barrymore, the film that introduced the country to Andy Hardy, the popular all-American teenager. This beloved character appeared in nearly 20 films and helped make Rooney the top star at the box office in 1939, 1940 and 1941.

Rooney also proved himself an excellent dramatic actor as a delinquent in Boys Town (Norman Taurog, 1938) starring Spencer Tracy as Father Edward Flanagan, an advocate of child rights. In 1938, Rooney was awarded a Juvenile Academy Award.

Teaming up with Judy Garland, Rooney also appeared in a string of musicals, including Babes in Arms (Busby Berkeley, 1939) the first teenager to be nominated for an Oscar for Best Actor in a leading role, Strike Up the Band (Busby Berkeley, 1940), Babes on Broadway (Busby Berkeley, 1941), and Girl Crazy (Norman Taurog, Busby Berkeley, 1943). He and Garland immediately became best of friends. He also appeared with Elizabeth Taylor in National Velvet (Clarence Brown, 1944).

During World War II, Mickey Rooney served 21 months in the U.S. Army, five of them with the Third Army of Gen. George S. Patton. He attained the rank of sergeant and won a Bronze Star, among other decorations. Rooney helped to entertain the troops and worked on the American Armed Forces Network.

He returned to Hollywood and starred in Love Laughs at Andy Hardy (Willis Goldbeck, 1946), did a remake of the James Cagney film The Crowd Roars (Howard Hawks, 1932) called Killer McCoy (Roy Rowland, 1947) and portrayed composer Lorenz Hart in the musical Words and Music (Norman Taurog, 1948).


Belgian postcard by Victoria, Brussels, no. 639. Photo: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.


Belgian collector's card by Kwatta, Bois d'Haine, no. C. 172. Photo: MGM. Publicity still for Summer Holiday (Rouben Mamoulian, 1948) with Gloria DeHaven.


American postcard. Photo: MGM (Metro Goldwyn Mayer).

One of Hollywood's most enduring stars

Mickey Rooney appeared in Andy Hardy Comes Home (Howard W. Koch, 1958), together with his son Teddy Rooney portraying Andy Hardy Jr. Andy Hardy, now a grown man with a wife and children, returns to his hometown on a business trip and finds himself getting mixed up in local politics. In the late 1950s and early 1960s Rooney did a nightclub comedy act with comic Joey Forman.

He also appeared in Breakfast at Tiffany's (Blake Edwards, 1961), starring Audrey Hepburn and George Peppard. Rooney played Hepburn's Japanese neighbour, Mr. Yunioshi. A sign of the times, Rooney played the part for comic relief which he later regretted feeling the role was offensive. He once again showed his incredible range in the dramatic role of a boxing trainer with Anthony Quinn and Jackie Gleason in Requiem for a Heavyweight (Ralph Nelson, 1962). He followed it up with the comedy It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World (Stanley Kramer, 1963), starring Spencer Tracey.

Rooney regularly worked in European productions, such as the Italian comedy L'arcidiavolo (Errore Scola, 1966) with Vittorio Gassman, British crime comedy Pulp (Mike Hodges, 1972) with Michael Caine, and the Spanish thriller Juego sucio en Panamá/Ace of Hearts (Tulio Demicheli, 1975).

In the late 1960s and 1970s Rooney showed audiences and critics alike why he was one of Hollywood's most enduring stars. He gave an impressive performance in Francis Ford Coppola's The Black Stallion (Carroll Ballard, 1979), which brought him an Academy Award nomination as Best Actor in a Supporting Role. He also turned to the stage in 1979 in Sugar Babies with Ann Miller, and was nominated for a Tony Award. During that time he also portrayed the Wizard in The Wonderful Wizard of Oz with Eartha Kitt at New York's Madison Square Garden, which also had a successful run nationally.

Rooney appeared in four television series: The Mickey Rooney Show (1954-1955), a comedy sit-com in 1964 with Sammee Tong called Mickey, One of the Boys (1982) with Dana Carvey and Nathan Lane, and The Adventures of Black Stallion (1990-1993). In 1981, Rooney won an Emmy Award for his portrayal of a mentally challenged man in Bill (Anthony Page, 1981). The critical acclaim continued to flow for the veteran performer, with Rooney receiving an honorary Academy Award.

Later, he also appeared in such films as Erik the Viking (Terry Jones, 1989) with Tim Robbins, Night at the Museum (Shawn Levy, 2006) with Ben Stiller and The Muppets (James Bobin, 2011) with Amy Adams.

Rooney's personal life, including his frequent trips to the altar, has proved to be just as epic as his on-screen performances. His first wife was one of the most beautiful women in Hollywood, actress Ava Gardner, but his final marriage to Jan Rooney was longer than those of all his other seven wives combined.

In 2012 when he permanently and legally separated from his eighth wife, Rooney chose to permanently reside with his stepson Mark Rooney and Mark's wife Charlene Rooney. They moved to the Hollywood Hills for him. After his death, his eight surviving children said in a statement that they were barred from seeing Rooney during his final years.

Mickey Rooney passed away in 2014 in North Hollywood, Los Angeles. The 93-years-old had at least three future projects that he was going to perform in. His acting career had lasted for 89 years and Rooney's 339 film credits span ten consecutive decades: 1920s-2010s. He is interred at Hollywood Forever Cemetery in Los Angeles, CA.


British postcard in the Picturegoer Series, London, no. 902c. Photo: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.


Dutch postcard by 't Sticht, Utrecht, no. 3201. Photo: MGM (Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer).


Dutch postcard by Uitgeverij J. Sleeding N.V., Amsterdam, no. S 94. Photo: MGM.

Sources: Wikipedia and IMDb.

The credits of United Artists Corporation (UA) include Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton classics, Stanley Kubrick's Paths of Glory, the James Bond films, the best work of Billy Wilder, hits like High Noon (1952), The Magnificent Seven (1960), West Side Story (1962), Best Picture Oscar winners like Marty (1955), One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975), Annie Hall (1977), Rain Man (1986), etc. The American studio was founded in 1919 by director D. W. Griffith, and stars Charlie Chaplin, Mary Pickford, and Douglas Fairbanks, then already heavyweights in the rapidly growing film industry. All four were seeking to gain financial and artistic control over producing and distributing their films, rather than being dependent upon commercial studios. United Artists quickly gained prestige in Hollywood, thanks to the success of the films of its stars. Over the ensuing century, UA was repeatedly bought, sold, and restructured, but it survived.


Charlie Chaplin, Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks. French postcard in the Les Vedettes de Cinéma series by A.N., Paris, no. 85. Photo: United Artists.


William S. Hart. French postcard by A.N. in the Les Vedettes de Cinéma series, Paris, no. 32. Photo: Film Paramount.


A rare portrait of the famous American film director D.W. Griffith. Swedish postcard by Förlag Nordisk Konst, Stockholm, no. 922.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, Berlin, no. 689/1, 1919-1924. Photo: Terra-Film, Berlin. Publicity still of Katherine Griffith and Mary Pickford in the film Pollyanna (Paul Powell, 1920), released in Germany as Sonne im Herzen (Sunshine in her Heart).


German postcard by Ross Verlag, Berlin, no. 40/4. Photo: IFA / United Artists. Publicity still for The Thief of Bagdad (Raoul Walsh, 1924), featuring Douglas Fairbanks and with Julanne Johnston as the Princess.

The inmates are taking over the asylum

In the spring of 1919, four of the most popular figures in the American cinema, director David Wark Griffith, Mary Pickford, Charlie Chaplin and Douglas Fairbanks incorporated United Artists as a joint venture. Each held a 25 percent stake in the preferred shares and a 20 percent stake in the common shares of the joint venture, with the remaining 20 percent of common shares held by lawyer and adviser William Gibbs McAdoo. The idea for the venture originated with Fairbanks, Chaplin, Pickford and cowboy star William S. Hart a year earlier. Already Hollywood veterans, the four stars talked of forming their own company to better control their own work.

They were spurred on by established Hollywood producers and distributors who were tightening their control over actor salaries and creative decisions, a process that evolved into the studio system. With the addition of Griffith, planning began, but Hart bowed out before anything was formalised. The four partners, with advice from McAdoo (son-in-law and former Treasury Secretary of then-President Woodrow Wilson), formed their distribution company. Hard-nosed executives were immensely sceptical right from the outset at the idea that artists and film-makers could run a studio. When he heard about their scheme, Richard A. Rowland, head of Metro Pictures, was quoted saying "The inmates are taking over the asylum."Richard Thomson in The Guardian: "It was a great line, but it was also an unfair assertion that the business was a crazy house - and thus beyond control. In fact, the idea was common sense, and that is why it has never gone away."

The original terms called for each star to produce five pictures a year. By the time the company was operational in 1921, feature films were becoming more expensive and polished, and running times had settled at around ninety minutes (eight reels). The original goal was thus abandoned. UA's first film, His Majesty, the American (Joseph Henabery, 1919), written by and starring Douglas Fairbanks, was a success. Mary Pickford gave UA plenty of product - Pollyanna (Paul Powell, 1920), Little Lord Fauntleroy (Alfred E. Green, Jack Pickford, 1921) and Tess of the Storm Country (John S. Robertson, 1922). Fairbanks delivered The Three Musketeers (Fred Niblo, 1921), Robin Hood (Allan Dwan, 1922) and the epic fantasy, The Thief of Bagdad (Raoul Walsh, 1924).

In addition, the UA logo carried the Griffith masterpieces Broken Blossoms (David Wark Griffith, 1919), Way Down East (David Wark Griffith, 1920) and Orphans of the Storm (David Wark Griffith, 1921), all starring Lillian Gish. The reputation of UA was growing. However, funding for films was limited. Without selling stock to the public like other studios, all United had for finance was weekly prepayment instalments from theatre owners for upcoming films. As a result, production was slow, and the company distributed an average of only five films a year in its first five years.

By 1924, Griffith had dropped out, and the company was facing a crisis. The alternatives were to either bring in others to help support a costly distribution system or concede defeat. Veteran producer Joseph Schenck was hired as president. He had produced pictures for a decade, and brought commitments for films starring his wife, Norma Talmadge, his sister-in-law, Constance Talmadge, and his brother-in-law, Buster Keaton. A few years later, UA could claim Sparrows (William Beaudine, 1926) in which Mary Pickford rescues a band of orphans from a swampy labour camp, Keaton's The General (Clyde Bruckman, Buster Keaton, 1927), Douglas Fairbanks in The Gaucho (F. Richard Jones, 1927) with Lupe Velez, and Gloria Swanson's production of Sadie Thompson (Raoul Walsh, 1928).

Inevitably, given that its founders were titans of the silent era, UA struggled to make the transition to sound film. Fairbanks and Keaton had faded away. Pickford concentrated on producing after she retired from acting. But Charles Chaplin created a perfect blend of comedy and melodrama in City Lights (Charles Chaplin, 1931), followed by his most socially engaged film, Modern Times (Charles Chaplin, 1936). Contracts were signed with independent producers, most notably Samuel Goldwyn, and Howard Hughes with his Hell's Angels (Howard Hughes, 1930) with Ben Lyon. UA also benefited from such newcomers as Alexander Korda, producing in England but breaking into the American market with The Private Life of Henry VIII (Alexander Korda, 1933) with Charles Laughton, The Scarlet Pimpernel (Harold Young, 1934) with Leslie Howard and Merle Oberon, and Things to Come (William Cameron Menzies, 1936). And in the mid-1930s, UA was reporting profits of over a million dollars a year.

In 1933, Schenck organised a new company with Darryl F. Zanuck, called Twentieth Century Pictures, which soon provided four pictures a year, forming half of UA's schedule. Schenck formed a separate partnership with Pickford and Chaplin to buy and build theatres under the United Artists name. They began international operations, first in Canada, and then in Mexico. By the end of the 1930s, United Artists was represented in over 40 countries. When he was denied an ownership share in 1935, Schenck resigned. He set up 20th Century Pictures' merger with Fox Film Corporation to form 20th Century Fox. Al Lichtman succeeded Schenck as company president. Other independent producers distributed through United Artists in the 1930s included Walt Disney Productions, Hal Roach, and Walter Wanger. In 1935 UA concluded a deal with David Selznick when he went independent. But as the years passed, and the dynamics of the business changed, these producing partners drifted away.


The cast of Way Down East (D.W. Griffith, 1920). British postcard by Cinema Art, London. From left to right, the actors George Neville, Edgar Nelson, Burr McIntosh, Kate Bruce, Richard Barthelmess, Lillian Gish, Lowell Sherman, Vivia Ogden, Creighton Hale, Mary Hay and Porter Strong.


Gloria Swanson. German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 3096/2, 1928-1929. Photo: United Artists. Publicity still for Sadie Thompson (Raoul Walsh, 1928).


Ronald Colman and Juliet Compton. British postcard in the Filmshots series by Film Weekly. Photo: United Artists. Publicity still for The Masquerader (Richard Wallace, 1933).


Leslie Howard and Merle Oberon. British postcard in the Film Partners Series, London, no. P 150. Photo: London Films. Publicity still for The Scarlet Pimpernel (Harold Young, 1934).


Vivien Leigh. British postcard in the Picturegoer Series, London, no. W. 350. Photo: David O'Selznick Production / Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Publicity still for Gone with the Wind (Victor Fleming, 1939).

A focal point for independent producing

In the late 1930s, United Artists turned a profit. Goldwyn was providing most of the output for distribution. He sued United several times for disputed compensation leading him to leave to RKO. Disney also went to RKO and Wanger to Universal Pictures. MGM's 1939 hit Gone with the Wind was supposed to be a UA release except that David O'Selznick wanted Clark Gable, who was under contract to MGM, to play Rhett Butler. Also that year, Fairbanks died. But the following year, Selznick's Rebecca (Alfred Hitchcock, 1940) did win the Best Picture Oscar, in a field where four other UA films were nominated - the Walter Wanger production Foreign Correspondent (Alfred Hitchcock, 1940), The Great Dictator (Charles Chaplin, 1940), Wanger's The Long Voyage Home (John Ford, 1940), and Sol Lesser's Our Town (Sam Wood, 1940). At that peak, UA had no studio and no theatres, but it was a focal point for independent producing, with over 20 films a year and a domestic gross exceeding $10m.

In 1941, Pickford, Chaplin, Disney, Orson Welles, Goldwyn, Selznick, Alexander Korda, and Wanger — many of whom were members of United Artists - formed the Society of Independent Motion Picture Producers (SIMPP). Later members included Hunt Stromberg, William Cagney, Sol Lesser, and Hal Roach. The Society aimed to advance the interests of independent producers in an industry controlled by the studio system. SIMPP fought to end ostensibly anti-competitive practices by the seven major film studios — Loew's (MGM), Columbia Pictures, Paramount Pictures, Universal Pictures, RKO Radio Pictures, 20th Century Fox, and Warner Bros./First National — that controlled the production, distribution, and exhibition of motion pictures.

In 1942, SIMPP filed an antitrust suit against Paramount's United Detroit Theatres. The complaint accused Paramount of conspiracy to control first-and subsequent-run theatres in Detroit. This was the first antitrust suit brought by producers against exhibitors that alleged monopoly and restraint of trade. In 1948, the U.S. Supreme Court Paramount Decision ordered the major Hollywood movie studios to sell their theatre chains and to end certain anti-competitive practices. This court ruling ended the studio system. By 1958, SIMPP achieved many of the goals that led to its creation, and the group ceased operations.

In the 1940s, United Artists became embroiled in lawsuits with Selznick over his distribution of some films through RKO. Selznick considered UA's operation sloppy, and left to start his own distribution arm. Cinema attendance continued to decline as television became more popular. Needing a turnaround, Pickford and Chaplin hired Paul V. McNutt, a former governor of Indiana, as chairman and Frank L. McNamee as president. McNutt did not have the skill to solve UA's financial problems and the pair was replaced after only a few months. On February 16, 1951, lawyers-turned-producers Arthur B. Krim of Eagle-Lion Films and Robert Benjamin came to Pickford and Chaplin, the surviving founders, with a proposal: let them take over United Artists for five years. If, at the end of those years, UA was profitable, they would earn an option to buy it. The aging stars agreed, and so began the busiest and richest period in the company’s history.

UA flourished and carried some remarkable films, all of which had reason to be grateful for the extra independence they enjoyed. In taking over UA, Krim and Benjamin created the first studio without an actual studio. Fox Film Corporation president Spyros Skouras extended United Artists a $3 million loan through Krim and Benjamin's efforts.Primarily acting as bankers, they offered money to independent producers. UA leased space at the Pickford/Fairbanks Studio but did not own a studio lot. Thus UA did not have the overhead, the maintenance, or the expensive production staff at other studios. They had two hits, The African Queen (John Huston, 1951) with Humphrey Bogart and Katharine Hepburn, and High Noon (Fred Zinnemann, 1952) with Gary Cooper and Grace Kelly, turning a profit in their first year. Among their first clients were Sam Spiegel and John Huston, whose Horizon Productions gave UA one major hit, The African Queen (John Huston, 1951) and a substantial success, Moulin Rouge (John Huston, 1952) with José Ferrer.

Other clients were Stanley Kramer,Otto Preminger, Hecht-Hill-Lancaster — a production company Burt Lancasterfounded with his agent, Harold Hecht, and the writer-producer James Hill— , and actors newly freed from studio contracts and seeking to produce or direct their own films. It resulted in prestige productions like The Man With the Golden Arm (Otto Preminger, 1955) starring Frank Sinatra and Kim Novak, The Defiant Ones (Stanley Kramer, 1958) with Tony Curtis and Sidney Poitier, and Marty (Delbert Mann, 1955) which gave United Artists its first best-picture Oscar.

With the instability in the film industry due to theatre divestment, the business was considered risky. In 1955, film attendance reached its lowest level since 1923. Chaplin sold his 25 percent share during this crisis to Krim and Benjamin for $1.1 million, followed a year later by Pickford who sold her share for $3 million. In these years, Stanley Kubrick made two of his important early films for the studio, The Killing (Stanley Kubrick, 1956) and Paths of Glory (Stanley Kubrick, 1957), with Kirk Douglas. Another interesting film was Charles Laughton’s sublime, heartfelt homage to D.W. Griffith, Night of the Hunter (Charles Laughton, 1955), starring Robert Mitchum.

In 1957, United Artists went public with a $17 million stock and debenture offering. The company was averaging 50 films a year. In 1958, UA acquired Ilya Lopert's Lopert Pictures Corporation, which released foreign films that attracted criticism or had censorship problems. In 1959, after failing to sell several pilots, United Artists offered its first ever television series, The Troubleshooters, and later released its first sitcom, The Dennis O'Keefe Show. In the cinema there were successes with Witness for the Prosecution (Billy Wilder, 1957), and Some Like It Hot (Billy Wilder, 1959), starring Marilyn Monroe, Jack Lemmon and Tony Curtis.


Lupe Velez. French postcard by Europe, no. 470. Photo: Regal Film United Artists.


Carmen Miranda. British postcard in 'The People' series by Show Parade Picture Service, London, no. P. 1051. Photo: Virgil Apger / United Artists.


Charles Boyer. French postcard by Erpé, no. 666. Photo: United Artists. Publicity still for Algiers (John Cromwell, 1938).


Charles Chaplin. Dutch postcard. Sent by mail in the Netherlands in 1948. Photo: publicity still for The Great Dictator (Charles Chaplin, 1940).


Yvonne De Carlo. German postcard by Kolibri-Verlag, no. 1363. Photo: United Artists. Publicity still for Fort Algiers (Lesley Selander, 1953).

The end of the great days

In the 1960s, mainstream studios fell into decline and some were acquired or diversified. UA prospered while winning 11 Academy Awards, including five for Best Picture, adding relationships with the Mirisch brothers, Billy Wilder, Joseph E. Levine and others. In 1961, United Artists released West Side Story (Robert Wise, 1961), which won a record ten Academy Awards including Best Picture. Because United Artists did not feel constrained by the moral strictures of the Production Code, it was able to move quickly as social mores changed in the 1960s. In those heady days it released films like The Apartment (Billy Wilder, 1960), Tom Jones (Tony Richardson, 1963), and The Manchurian Candidate (John Frankenheimer, 1962), films with a sexual and political edge that the more conservative majors could not equal.

UA's television division was responsible for shows such as Gilligan's Island, The Fugitive,Outer Limits, and The Patty Duke Show. The television unit had begun to build up a profitable rental library, including Associated Artists Productions, owners of Warner Bros. pre-1950 features, shorts and cartoons and 231 Popeye cartoon shorts purchased from Paramount Pictures in 1958, becoming United Artists Associated, its distribution division.

In 1963, UA released two Stanley Kramer films, It's A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (Stanley Kramer, 1963) with Spencer Tracy, and A Child Is Waiting (John Cassavetes, 1963) with Burt Lancaster and  Judy Garland. In 1964, UA introduced U.S. film audiences to The Beatles by releasing A Hard Day's Night (Richard Lester, 1964) and Help! (Richard Lester, 1965). At the same time, it backed two expatriate North Americans in Britain, who had acquired screen rights to Ian Fleming's James Bond novels. For $1 million, UA backed Harry Saltzman and Albert Broccoli's Dr. No in 1963 and launched the James Bond franchise. The franchise outlived UA's time as a major studio, continuing half a century later. Other successful projects backed in this period included the Pink Panther series, which began in 1964, and Spaghetti Westerns, which made a star of Clint Eastwood.

On the basis of its film and television hits, in 1967, Transamerica Corporation purchased 98 percent of UA's stock. Transamerica selected David and Arnold Picker to lead its studio. UA debuted a new logo incorporating the parent company's striped T emblem and the tagline "Entertainment from Transamerica Corporation". UA released another Best Picture Oscar winner in 1967, In the Heat of the Night (Norman Jewison, 1967) starring Sidney Poitier, and a nominee for Best Picture, The Graduate (Mike Nichols, 1967), an Embassy production that UA distributed overseas. In 1970, UA lost $35 million; thus the Pickers were pushed aside for the return of Krim and Benjamin. Other successful pictures included the screen version of Fiddler on the Roof (Norman Jewison, 1971). However, the film version of Man of La Mancha (Arthur Hiller, 1972) with Peter O'Toole and Sophia Loren, was a failure. New talent was encouraged, including Woody Allen, Robert Altman, Sylvester Stallone, Saul Zaentz, Miloš Forman, and Brian De Palma. In 1973, United Artists took over the sales and distribution of MGM's films in Anglo-America.

In 1975, Harry Saltzman sold UA his 50 percent stake in Danjaq, the holding-company for the Bond films. UA was to remain a silent partner, providing money, while Albert Broccoli took producer credit. Danjaq and UA remained the public co-copyright holders for the Bond series, and the 2006 Casino Royale (Martin Campbell, 2006) remake shares the copyright with Columbia Pictures. UA released One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (Milos Forman, 1975) with Jack Nicholson, which won the Best Picture Academy Award and earned $56 million. UA followed with the next two years' Best Picture Oscar winners, Rocky (John G. Avildsen, 1976) and Annie Hall (Woody Allen, 1977). 

However, Transamerica was not pleased with UA's releases such as Midnight Cowboy (John Schlesinger, 1969) and the sexually explicit Ultimo tango a Parigi/Last Tango in Paris (Bernardo Bertolucci, 1972) with Marlon Brando, that were rated X by the Motion Picture Association of America. In these instances, Transamerica demanded the byline 'A Transamerica Company' be removed on the prints and in all advertising. At one point, the parent company expressed its desire to phase out the UA name and replace it with Transamerica Films. Krim tried to convince Transamerica to spin off United Artists, but he and Transamerica's chairman could not come to an agreement.

Finally in 1978, following a dispute with Transamerica chief John R. Beckett over administrative expenses, UA's top executives, including chairman Krim, president Eric Pleskow, Benjamin and other key officers walked out. Within days they announced the formation of Orion Pictures, with backing from Warner. The departures concerned several Hollywood figures enough that they took out an ad in a trade paper warning Transamerica that it had made a fatal mistake in letting them go. Transamerica inserted Andy Albeck as UA's president. UA remained courageous and enterprising, reflected in Coming Home (Hal Ashby, 1978), Apocalypse Now (Francis Coppola, 1979)  and Raging Bull (Martin Scorsese, 1980) starring Robert de Niro.

United had its most successful year with four hits in 1979: Rocky II (Sylvester Stallone, 1979), Manhattan (Woody Allen, 1979), Moonraker (Lewis Gilbert, 1979), and The Black Stallion (Carroll Ballard, 1979). The  new leadership had also agreed to back Heaven's Gate (1980), the pet project of director Michael Cimino. Cimino was regarded as a genius after The Deer Hunter (Michael Cimino, 1978) starring Robert de Niro. Initially set to cost about $6m, it ended up at least five times as expensive. Long before its release, it became a laughing stock and the worst example of Hollywood extravagance. This led to the resignation of Albeck who was replaced by Norbert Auerbach. United Artists recorded a major loss for the year due almost entirely to this fiasco. In 1980, Transamerica decided to exit the film making business, and put United Artists on the market.

That was the end of the great days. In 1981, TransAmerica sold the shell of UA to MGM, itself in free fall. In 1983 the two studios were merged to become MGM/UA Entertainment. In 1988, UA released another Best Picture winner, Rain Man (Barry Levinson, 1988), starring Tom Cruise and Dustin Hoffman. Somehow, United Artists remained the maverick studio until the 1990s, when it became a financial football, kicked around by various bankers, promoters and avaricious studios. The current United Artists company exists as a successor to the original as a provider of digital content, in addition to handling most of its post-1952 in-house library and other content it has since acquired.

Next year, United Artists will turn 100, having survived countless transformations and takeovers since the company released its first feature in 1919. David Thomson in The Guardian: "So it's time enough to propose one large birthday wish - that the jokes about the idiots and the asylum be retired, and the lesson learned, that the most creative people in the picture business should do all they can to look after each other. No one else is going to do it."


George Chakiris. Spanish postcard by Archivo Bermejo, no. C. 65, 1963. Photo: United Artists. Publicity still for West Side Story (Robert Wise, 1961).


Burt Lancaster. German postcard by Ufa, Berlin-Tempelhof, no. CK-156. Photo: Sam Lévin.


John Lennon and George Harrison of The Beatles. Spanish postcard by Oscarcolor, no. 347.


British postcard by Hotstamp Free Postcards, 1998. Image: United Artists. Caption: Too sexy for his fur. The colour of Cool Pink Panther.


French postcard, no. SL. 4037. The Academy Awards Ceremony 1989: Dustin Hoffman wins Best Actor Oscar for Rain Man' (Barry Levinson, 1988), with co-star Tom Cruise.

Sources: David Thomson (The Guardian), Geoffrey Macnab (The Independent), Dave Kehr (The New York Times), History.com, Encyclopaedia Britannica, and Wikipedia.

American actress and dancer Virginia Mayo (1920-2005) is best known for her series of splashy Technicolor musicals with Danny Kaye, including the delightful The Secret Life of Walter Mitty (1947). She personified the quintessential voluptuous Hollywood beauty, like a pin-up painting coming to life. Audiences flocked to cinemas just to see her blonde hair and classic looks on-screen in Technicolor. Going against stereotype, Mayo played unsympathetic gold-digger Marie Derry in the Oscar winning drama The Best Years of Our Lives (1946). Later she was a sluttish gun moll opposite James Cagney in White Heat (1949), and Burt Lancaster's leading lady in The Flame and the Arrow (1950). It made Mayo Warner Brothers biggest box office money maker in the late 1940s.


Dutch postcard, no. 3522. Photo: Warner Bros.


Vintage postcard by GM. Photo: Warner Bros.


Dutch postcard by Van Leer's Fotodrukindustrie N.V., Amsterdam, no. 251. Photo: Warner Bros.


Spanish postcard by Archivo Bermejo, no. 4. Photo: Warner Bros, no. 3522. Photo: Warner Bros.


Dutch postcard by Takken, Utrecht, no. 694. Photo: Warner Bros.

An obvious ravishing beauty

Virginia Mayo was born Virginia Clara Jones in 1920 in St. Louis, Missouri. She was the daughter of a newspaper reporter Luke Jones and his wife, Martha Henrietta (née Rautenstrauch) Jones. The family had a rich heritage in the St. Louis area: Virginia's great-great-great-grandfather served in the American Revolution and later founded the city of East Saint Louis, Illinois, in 1797.

Virginia was interested in show business from an early age. Her aunt operated acting school and Virginia began taking acting and dance lessons at the age of six. After graduating from high school in 1937, she became a member of the St. Louis Municipal Opera. Impressed with her ability, performer Andy Mayo, recruited her to appear in his vaudeville act.

Still using her real name of Virginia Jones, she worked for three years in vaudeville with the Mayo Brothers, Mayo and his partner, Nonnie Morton. They did a performing horse act: 'Pansy the Horse' was comprised of Morton and Mayo and Virginia was the ringmaster and comedic foil for Pansy. They also appeared together in some short films.

In 1941 Jones, now known by the stage name Virginia Mayo, got another career break as she appeared on Broadway with Eddie Cantor in Banjo Eyes. After being spotted by an MGM talent scout during this Broadway revue, she was signed to a contract by movie mogul Samuel Goldwyn. Goldwyn only made a few films a year and would usually loan out the actors he had under contract to other producers.

David O. Selznick gave Virginia Mayo a screen test, but decided she wouldn't fit into films. She was slightly cross-eyed and had to be carefully photographed. Goldwyn, however, believed that her talent as an actress was there and producer Samuel Bronston cast her in a small role in Jack London (Alfred Santell, 1943) opposite her later husband Michael O'Shea. Later that same year, she had a walk-on part in Follies Girl (William Rowland, 1943) starring Wendy Barrie. Goldwyn gave her a bit part in Up in Arms (Elliott Nugent, 1944), starring Danny Kaye in his film debut. Then RKO borrowed her for a supporting role in a musical, Seven Days Ashore (John H. Auer, 1944).

Believing there was more to her than her obvious ravishing beauty, producers thought it was time to give her bigger and better roles. In 1944 she was cast as Princess Margaret in The Princess and the Pirate (David Butler, 1944), with comedian Bob Hope. It was a spoof of pirate movies and earned over $3 million at the box office. A year later she appeared in Wonder Man (H. Bruce Humberstone, 1945) as the leading lady of Danny Kaye. The film was very popular and so was the radiantly beautiful blonde star.

Her roles may have been coming in slow, but with each one her popularity with audiences rose. Virginia was cast in two more films in 1946, The Kid from Brooklyn (Norman Z. McLeod, 1946), again with Danny Kaye, and The Best Years of our Lives (William Wyler, 1946). She went against previous stereotype, and played the unsympathetic, gold-digger Marie Derry who becomes Dana Andrews' unfaithful wife. For this supporting role she received good notices. The film became the highest-grossing film in the US since Gone with the Wind (Victor Fleming, 1939).


Vintage postcard, no. 4080. Photo: Warner Bros.


Dutch postcard by DRC, no. F 151. Photo: Warner Bros.


German collectors card in the series E - Filmstars der Welt 2. Band by Greilings-sammelbilder, no. 163. Photo: Hamann / Meyerpress.


Spanish postcard, no. 240/4224. Photo: Archivo Bermejo.


Dutch postcard. Photo: Warner Bros.

The scheming, cheating wife of a homicidal killer

Virginia Mayo finally struck pay-dirt in 1947 with a plum assignment in the well-received in the fantasy-comedy The Secret Life of Walter Mitty (Norman Z. McLeod, 1947) as the gorgeous Rosalind van Hoorn, who uses clumsy, daydreaming Walter Mitty (Danny Kaye) to escape from her pursuer. Walter unintentionally gets involved with a dangerous ring of spies that are seeking a black book with notes about a hidden treasure. Her next film together with Kaye, A Song is Born (Howard Hawks, 1948), was a box office disappointment.

Warner Bros ended up taking over her contract from Goldwyn. Mayo got some of the best reviews of her career in James Cagney's return to the gangster genre, White Heat (Raoul Walsh, 1949), as Verna, the scheming, cheating wife of homicidal killer Cody Jarrett (Cagney). She was in another huge hit The Flame and the Arrow (Jacques Tourneur, 1950) as Burt Lancaster's love interest.

The striking beauty had still more plum roles in the 1950s. She starred in the Film Noir Backfire (Vincent Sherman, 1950) opposite Gordon MacRae. She co-starred again with James Cagney and a young Doris Day in The West Point Story (Roy Del Ruth 1950), singing and dancing with Cagney, and was Gregory Peck's leading lady in Captain Horatio Hornblower (Raoul Walsh, 1951), Warners most popular film of the year. She costarred with Kirk Douglas in his first Western, Along the Great Divide (Raoul Walsh, 1951).

Parts in the musical She's Working Her Way Through College (H. Bruce Humberstone, 1952) with Ronald Reagan, a biopic of pioneer Jim Bowie The Iron Mistress (Gordon Douglas, 1952) featuring Alan Ladd, and the action-adventure South Sea Woman (Arthur Lubin, 1953) with Burt Lancaster, showed she was still a force to be reckoned with. Although her vocals were always dubbed, she enjoyed doing musicals like She's Working Her Way Through College because she got to dance.

Virginia Mayo co-starred with Rex Harrison and George Sanders in King Richard and the Crusaders (David Butler, 1954) She was Paul Newman's first on-screen leading lady, in the Biblical Epic The Silver Chalice (Victor Saville, 1954). But the film was a notorious flop. She was Cleopatra in the guilty pleasure The Story of Mankind (Irwin Allen, 1957), which tries and fails to jam the entire history of humankind into 100 minutes.

As the decade ended, Virginia's career began to slow down. She began guest starring on television shows such as Conflict (1957), Wagon Train (1958), The Loretta Young Show/Letter to Loretta (1958), and Lux Playhouse (1959). Mayo and her husband made a pilot for a TV series McGarry and His Mouse (Norman Tokar, 1960), which was not picked up. She went to Italy to make the Peplum La rivolta dei mercenari/Revolt of the Mercenaries (Piero Costa, 1961) opposite Spanish actor Conrado San Martin. She had four film roles in the 1960s and four more in the following decade.

Mayo appeared on stage in shows like That Certain Girl (1967) and Barefoot in the Park (1968). She continued to act on stage for the rest of her career, mostly in dinner theatre and touring shows. She guest starred on TV shows such as Burke's Law (1965), Daktari (1967), Santa Barbara (1984) and The Love Boat (1986). Among her last films were the horror films Evil Spirits (Gary Graver, 1990) starring Karen Black, and The Man Next Door (Rod C. Spence, 1997).

Virginia Mayo Mayo died of pneumonia and complications of congestive heart failure at a nursing home in Thousand Oaks, Los Angeles, in 2005. She was 84. In 1947 she had married actor Michael O'Shea and remained with him until his death in 1973. The couple had a daughter, Mary Catherine O'Shea, in 1953.


French postcard by Edition P.I., Paris, no. 260. Photo: Warner Bros


Dutch postcard by Takken, Utrecht, no. 610. Photo: Warner Bros. Publicity still for Captain Horatio Hornblower (Raoul Walsh, 1951) with Gregory Peck.


German postcard by Kolibri-Verlag, no. 1254. Photo: Warner Bros. Publicity still for King Richard and the Crusaders (David Butler, 1954).


Spanish postcard by F.A.G., no. 440. Photo: Universal. Publicity still for Congo Crossing (Joseph Pevney, 1956) with George Nader.


Italian postcard by Casa Editrice Ballerini & Fratini, Firenze (B.F.F.), no. 3198. Photo: RKO Radio Films.

Sources: Hal Erickson (AllMovie), Denny Jackson (IMDb), Wikipedia and IMDb.

American stage and film actress Virginia Valli (1895–1968) was an established star at Universal during the mid 1920s. She worked with such directors as John Ford, King Vidor, Howard Hawks and the young Alfred Hitchcock. Her motion picture career had started in 1915 at the Chicago-based Selig Polyscope Company and lasted until the beginning of the sound film era of the early 1930s.


British Real Photograph postcard.


Austrian postcard by Iris Verlag. Photo: Fox Film.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 3077/1, 1928-1929. Photo: Max Munn Autrey / Fox.


Spanish postcard.

John Ford

Virginia Valli, originally Virginia McSweeney, was born in Chicago, Illinois, in 1895 according to Wikipedia (in 1896 according to IMDb or in 1898 according to AllMovie). She studied dancing and worked as a stenographer before becoming an actress. She started acting in Milwaukee at a theatre stock company.

According to AllMovie, she made her screen debut with the Chicago-based Selig Polyscope Company in 1915. From 1916, she acted in some 18 films at the Essanay Studios in Chicago. There she made her debut in a minor part in the serial The Strange Case of Mary Page (J. Charles Haydon, 1916) with Henry B. Walthall and Edna Mayo, but quickly she played all the female leads of the Essanay productions.

After that, she acted at the studios of World Film, Fort Lee, New Jersey, such as The Black Circle (Frank Reicher, 1919) with Creighton Hale. However, when features came along, Valli was reduced to supporting parts. By 1920, Valli had moved to California to act in films by Fox, Vitagraph and others. By that time she had already adopted the name of Virginia Valli.

A major part she had in the Metro Pictures film The Man Who (Maxwell Karger, 1921) with Bert Lytell and Lucy Cotton, and scripted by June Mathis. On the film's success, Metro then put matinee idol Lytell and Valli in a string of popular melodramas, including the boxing drama The Right That Failed (Bayard Veiller, 1922).

In 1922-1924, Virginia Valli did several films for Universal. She had a major part in John Ford's melodrama The Village Blacksmith (1922), based on Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's  poem. She also appeared in the Northwoods melodrama The Storm (Reginald Barker, 1922) with House Peters, and in The Shock (Lambert Hillyer, 1923), in which crippled blackmailer Lon Chaney falls in love with the daughter of his banker victim, combined with the San Francisco earthquake.

Other memorable titles were The Signal Tower (Clarence Brown, 1924) with Wallace Beery, Wild Oranges (King Vidor, 1924), The Confidence Man (Victor Heerman, 1924) with Thomas Meighan, and Up the Ladder (Edward Sloman, 1925) with Margaret Livingston.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 556/1, 1919-1924. Photo: Roman Freulich / Unfilman.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 711/2, 1925-1926. Photo: Unifilman.


Italian postcard by G.B. Falci, Milano, no. 126. Photo: Fox Film Corp. Publicity still for Paid to Love (1927) with George O'Brien.


Austrian postcard by Iris-Verlag, no. 5121. Photo: Fox-Film. Publicity still for Paid to Love (Howard Hawks, 1927) with George O'Brien.

Alfred Hitchcock

Virginia Valli travelled to Europe to star in the German-British co-production The Pleasure Garden (1925), the first film directed by Alfred Hitchcock, when he was 25. Valli was at the height of her career  – she was glamorous, famous, and very popular. That a Hollywood star like her was coming to Europe to make a film was an event. Location shooting for The Pleasure Garden was done in Italy and Germany.

The film follows the love lives of two dancers at a London nightspot, called 'Pleasure Garden'. Dancer Patsy Brand (Valli)  helps Jill (Carmelita Geraghty) to get a job at the nightspot. Via Jill's fiancee Hugh (John Stuart) she meets Levet (Miles Mander) and eventually marries him. They sail for Italy on a honeymoon. Levett and Hugh then go on a trip to one of the British colonies. Jill, meanwhile, has dropped Hugh for a rich prince who spoils her and she has become distant to Patsy. When Patsy receives notice that her husband is ill, she travels after him, but discovers he has an affair with a native woman. Patsy, instead, takes care of a really ill Hugh, which Levet doesn't like...

Hal Erickson at AllMovie: "Filmed on a very tight budget, The Pleasure Garden never betrays its parsimonious nature. And though it cannot be labelled a 'typical' Hitchcock picture, it contains enough clever pictorial touches to indicate that the man in the director's chair was definitely someone to conjure with. To quote the reviewer of the London Daily Express: 'His work is of a uniformly high quality; there are times when it is great, times when the onlooker says to himself 'That is perfect'.'"

The Pleasure Garden was produced by Michael Balcon and Erich Pommer. It was Balcon who hired Valli as star of the film, being one of the first Hollywood stars to come to Europa for filming. Her co-star Carmelita Geraghty was also American.

Virginia Valli continued appearing in Hollywood films throughout the decade. She had no long-lasting contracts with majors, so she played at all major and minor studios in the 1920s. In 1925 Valli acted in the drama The Man Who Found Himself (Alfred E. Green, 1925) with Thomas Meighan. The Famous Players-Lasky production was carried out in the studio of Long Island, New York.

Among her later films were also the highlights Stage Madness (Victor Schertzinger, 1927) with Tullio Carminati, the romantic comedy  Paid To Love (Howard Hawks, 1927), with George O'Brien and  William Powell, and the comedy-drama Evening Clothes (Luther Reed, 1927), with Adolphe Menjou.

Tony Fontana at IMDb: "While she had no trouble adjusting to sound in The Isle of Lost Ships (1929), which she made at First National, her big salary and declining appeal both conspired to end her film career. Unable to find a suitable studio, she would make her last film The Last Zeppelin (1930) at Tiffany Studios." However, her last film was Night Life in Reno (Raymond Cannon, 1931), a low-budget production from small-scale Artclass Pictures.

Another view from Hans Wollstein at AllMovie: "Usually considered a victim of sound, Valli actually registered well in her first talkie, Mr. Antonio (1929), and although she was considered a bit stiff and "too English" in The Isle of Lost Ships (1929), her voice recorded well. But no longer in the first bloom of youth by 1930, Valli found herself in a no-win position and chose to retire after Night Life in Reno (1931)".

Virginia Valli had been married from 1921 till 1927 to George Demarest Lamson. In 1931, she wed film actor Charles Farrell, a marriage that lasted until her death. After the wedding, she retired to live in Beverly Hills before moving to Palm Springs. There she had an intense social life for years. For over three decades she ran the popular Palm Springs star hang-out The Raquet Club, which opened on Christmas Day in 1934. Husband Charles Farrell eventually served as mayor of Palm Springs from 1948 until 1954.

Virginia Valli suffered a stroke in 1966, and died two years later, in Palm Springs. She was buried in Welwood Murray Cemetery in that city. Valli did not have children.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, Berlin, no. 1848/1, 1927-1928. Photo: Fox.


French postcard by Cinémagazine-Edition, Paris, no. 291.


French postcard by A.N., Paris in the Les Vedettes de Cinéma series, no. 45. Photo: Universal Film.

Sources: Hal Erickson (AllMovie), Hans J. Wollstein (AllMovie), Tony Fontana (IMDb), Wikipedia (English, Spanish, and Italian) and IMDb.

American film star Bette Davis (1908-1989) was one of the greatest actors in world cinema history. She dared to play unsympathetic, sardonic characters and was reputed for her performances in a range of film genres, from contemporary crime melodramas to historical and period films and occasional comedies. Her greatest successes were her roles in romantic dramas.


British postcard in the Picturegoer Series, London, no. W 3. Photo: Warner Bros.


British Real Photograph postcard. Photo: Warner Bros. / Vitaphone Pictures.


British postcard. Photo: Warner Bros. Publicity still for The Letter (William Wyler, 1940).

Emphasising her distinctive eyes

Ruth Elizabeth Davis was born in 1908, in Lowell, Massachusetts, to Ruth Augusta (Favor) and Harlow Morrell Davis, a patent attorney. Her parents divorced when she was 10. She and her younger sister Barbara were raised by their mother. Her early interest was dance. To Bette, dancers led a glamorous life, but then she discovered the stage, and gave up dancing for acting. To her, it presented much more of a challenge.

After graduation from Cushing Academy, a prep school in Ashburnham, Massachusetts, Davis was refused admittance to Eva Le Gallienne's Manhattan Civic Repertory. She enrolled in John Murray Anderson's Dramatic School where everyone (including classmate Lucille Ball) regarded her as the star pupil. After a 1928 summer season with director George Cukor's stock company in Rochester, N.Y. (where she worked with future co-star - and rival - Miriam Hopkins), Davis went on to New York. Her Broadway debut was in Broken Dishes (1929) and she also appeared in Solid South.

In 1930, Davis moved to Hollywood and signed a contract with Universal. Her first film was the drama Way Back Home (William A. Seiter, 1931). Her early films for Universal were unsuccessful or she only had a small role, such as in James Whale's Waterloo Bridge (1931). Davis later recalled Universal Pictures executive Carl Laemmle Jr. complaining: "She's got as much sex appeal as Slim Summerville".

Davis was preparing to return to New York when actor George Arliss chose her for the female lead in the Warner Brothers picture The Man Who Played God (John G. Adolfi, 1932), which would be her 'break' in Hollywood. Warner Bros. signed her a five-year (Wikipedia) either a seven-year contract (IMDb). Her first film with them had been Seed (John M. Stahl, 1931), starring John Boles.

The role of the vicious and slatternly Mildred Rogers in RKO's Of Human Bondage (John Cromwell, 1934) earned Davis her first major critical acclaim. She had a significant number of write-in votes for the Best Actress Oscar, but didn't win. For her role as a troubled actress in Dangerous (Alfred E. Green, 1935), she won her first Oscar. With this success under her belt, she began pushing at Warner for stronger and more meaningful roles.

In 1936, she was suspended without pay for turning down a role that she deemed unworthy of her talent. She went to England, where she had planned to make films, but was stopped by Warner Bros. because she was still under contract to them and they did not want her to work anywhere. Although she sued to get out of her contract, she lost a well-publicised legal case.

Still, Warner began to take her more seriously after that, and the lawsuit marked the beginning of the most successful period of her career. In Marked Woman (Lloyd Bacon, 1937), she played a prostitute in a contemporary gangster drama inspired by the case of Lucky Luciano. For her role she was awarded the Volpi Cup at the 1937 Venice Film Festival. Her next picture was Jezebel (William Wyler, 1938) with Henry Fonda, and during production Davis entered a relationship with director William Wyler. The film was a success, and Davis' performance as a spoiled Southern Belle earned her a second Academy Award.

In 1939 alone, Davis starred in Dark Victory (Edmund Goulding, 1939), Juarez (William Dieterle, 1939) with Paul Muni, The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex (Michael Curtiz, 1939) with Errol Flynn, and The Old Maid (Edmund Goulding, 1939) with Miriam Hopkins. Dark Victory (became one of the highest grossing films of the year, and the role of Judith Traherne brought her an Academy Award nomination. The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex was her first colour film. To play the elderly Elizabeth I of England, Davis shaved her hairline and eyebrows. Davis was now Warner Bros.' most profitable star, and she was given the most important of their female leading roles. Her image was considered with care; she was often filmed in close-ups that emphasised her distinctive eyes.


French postcard by Editions Chantal, Paris, no. 636. Photo: Warner Bros.


Dutch postcard, no. 550. Photo: Warner Bros.

Labelled 'Box Office Poison'

Until the late 1940s, Bette Davis was one of American cinema's most celebrated leading ladies, known for her forceful and intense style. Davis gained a reputation as a perfectionist who could be highly combative, and confrontations with studio executives, film directors and co-stars were often reported.

After The Letter (William Wyler, 1940), William Wyler directed Davis for the third time in Lillian Hellman's The Little Foxes (1941), but they clashed over the character of Regina Giddens. Taking a role originally played on stage by Tallulah Bankhead, Davis felt Bankhead's original interpretation was appropriate and followed Hellman's intent, but Wyler wanted her to soften the character. Davis refused to compromise.

Davis's forthright manner, clipped vocal style and ubiquitous cigarette contributed to a public persona which has often been imitated and satirised. In 1941, she became the first female president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and a year later, she was the co-founder of the Hollywood Canteen.

Her best films include the women's picture Now Voyager (Irving Rapper, 1942) and Watch on the Rhine (Herman Shumlin, 1943). She was nominated for an Academy Award 5 years in a row, in 1939, 1940, 1941, 1942 and 1943. In 1947, at the age of 39, Davis gave birth to a daughter, Barbara Davis Sherry (known as B.D.). The father, her third husband William Grant Sherry, later divorced her to marry their child's governess Marion Richards.

Bette Davis made many successful films in the 1940s, but each picture was weaker than the last. In 1949, Davis was so unhappy over being cast in Beyond the Forest (King Vidor, 1949) with Joseph Cotten that she threatened Warner Bros. studio chief Jack L. Warner that she would walk off the production with the film only half finished. Warner was forced to cancel her contract and Davis completed the film, ending 18 years with the studio.

By the time, her box office appeal had noticeably dropped and she was labelled 'Box Office Poison'. Then producer Darryl F. Zanuck offered her the role of the ageing theatrical actress Margo Channing in All About Eve (Joseph L. Mankiewicz, 1950). During production, she had a romantic relationship with her leading man, Gary Merrill, which led to her fourth marriage. Her career went through several of such periods of eclipse. In 1961 she even placed a now famous Job Wanted ad in the trade papers. Later, Davis admitted that her success had often been at the expense of her personal relationships. Married four times, she was once widowed and thrice divorced, and raised her children as a single parent.

Later successes include the Grand Guignol horror film What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (Robert Aldrich, 1962) with Joan Crawford, and the follow-up Hush… Hush, Sweet Charlotte (Robert Aldrich, 1964) with Olivia de Havilland. Reportedly, Joan Crawford and Davis had feuded for years, some of it instigated by publicists and studio heads. During the making of What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962), Bette had a Coca-Cola machine installed on the set due to Crawford's affiliation with Pepsi (she was the widow of Pepsi's CEO). Joan got her revenge by putting weights in her pockets when Davis had to drag her across the floor during certain scenes. While promoting the film, Davis told one interviewer that when she and Crawford were first suggested for the leads, Warner studio head Jack L. Warner replied: "I wouldn't give a plugged nickel for either of those two old broads." Recalling the story, Davis laughed at her own expense. The following day, she received a telegram from Crawford: "In future, please do not refer to me as an old broad!".

Bette Davis' final years were marred by a long period of ill health, but she continued acting until shortly before her death from breast cancer, with more than 100 films, television and theatre roles to her credit. She was the first person to accrue 10 Academy Award nominations for acting, and in 1977, she was the first woman to receive a Lifetime Achievement Award from the American Film Institute. In 1979 she won a Best Actress Emmy for Strangers: The Story of a Mother and Daughter (Milton Katselas, 1979) with Gena Rowlands. One of her last films was Lindsay Anderson's film The Whales of August (1987), in which she played the blind sister of Lillian Gish.

Bette Davis died in 1989, of metastasised breast cancer, in Neuilly-sur-Seine, Hauts-de-Seine, France. A lot of her fans refused to believe it. She reportedly left an estate valued between $600,000 and $1 million, consisting mainly of a condominium apartment she owned in West Hollywood. 50% of her estate went to her son, Michael Merrill, and the remaining 50% went to her secretary and companion, Kathryn Sermack. Her daughter, Barbara Merrill aka B.D. Hyman, was left nothing due to her tell-all book My Mother's Keeper about life with her mother. (Davis wrote the book This 'n That in response to her daughter's book.) And IMDb notes that Bette Davis's false eyelashes were auctioned off after her death, fetching a price of $600.


Belgian collectors card by Chocolaterie Clovis, Pepinster. Collection: Amit Benyovits.


British postcard by Athena International, London, no. 9244. Illustration: Oscar da Costa.

Sources: Hal Erickson (AllMovie), Wikipedia and IMDb.

Beautiful, brassy Barbara Lang (1928–1982) was an American actress and singer. During the 1950s she was one of the many B-level blondes in Hollywood who were promoted as the new Marilyn Monroe. However, Lang appeared in only three films.


German postcard by ISV, Sort V 6.

Faith performing a miracle

Barbara Lang was born as Barbara Jean Bly in 1928 in Hollywood, California, U.S. She was the daughter of Los Angeles nose drop bottler Leonidis Stannage Bly and his wife Esther W., nee Kaufman, former silent movie dancer Maureen Knight.

Barbara worked a number of jobs before she broke into the entertainment industry. She sold jewellery in a Los Angeles department store and was a part-time fashion model at the age of seventeen. She was also a pianist and singer for a time in a cocktail lounge.

Lang suffered an attack of poliomyelitis in late 1953. She spent three weeks in the polio ward of Los Angeles General Hospital. Lang was told that she might never walk again. She turned to the Bible during this time and reportedly credited faith for performing a miracle. Shortly after being stricken, her legs and facial muscles were paralysed, and she had difficulty speaking. After many months of treatment she was able to walk again. The lingering effects of her illness robbed her of much of her stamina and she would tire easily for the rest of her life.

Recovered from polio, Lang went into television work. She first came to the attention of Hollywood producers with appearances in Death Valley Days (1955–1956), a TV series featuring true stories of the old American West, particularly the Death Valley area. Reportedly, half a dozen film studios vied to sign Lang after her TV performances.

She chose for Metro Goldwyn Mayer and was assigned to drama lessons. The starlet's first role was a bit part in Hot Summer Night (David Friedkin, 1957), starring Leslie Nielsen.

As a new star for MGM, Lang played the feminine lead in the Film Noir House of Numbers (Russell Rouse, 1957), co-starring with Jack Palance. In the film, Palance plays two similar-looking brothers: Bill and his younger brother Arnie Judlow. Bill is a good citizen, trying to help his ex-professional boxer brother, Arnie, convicted of murder, escape from San Quentin State Prison to return to Arnie's wife, Ruth, played by Lang. It was filmed inside San Quentin Prison and in Mill Valley, California.

Bethany Cox at IMDb: “While the story is less than perfect, there are some twists that keep it from being a standard thriller and there is some low-key suspense. The prison escape scheme is at times pretty ingenious. The characters maintain interest and the chemistry between the actors is continually good.”


German postcard by ISV, B 11. Photo: MGM. Still for House of Numbers (Russell Rouse, 1957).


German / French postcard by ISV / Huit, no. B 6. Photo: MGM.

A Chicago showgirl called Ginger D'Amour

In the classy, exciting Film Noir Party Girl (Nicholas Ray, 1958), Barbara Lang played the supporting part of Ginger D'Amour, a Chicago showgirl of the 1930s.

Bruce Eder at AllMovie: “Party Girl is regarded by many Nicholas Ray fans as the most beautiful looking of all of his movies. Shot in CinemaScope and color, and starring Cyd Charisse (with Robert Taylor, it gave cinematographer Robert J. Bronner one of the best showcases he ever had for his work, and was a treat to the eye of the viewer, a veritable explosion of color and motion for many of its best sequences.”

A huge disappointment then for Barbara was when she lost out on the co-starring role opposite Elvis Presley in Jailhouse Rock (Richard Thorpe, 1957). After being initially named by the studio for the part, Judy Tyler was given the coveted role instead.

Lang would make only three films, but her TV credits are numerous. She appeared in episodes of The Thin Man (1957), Maverick (1958), The Bob Cummings Show (1958), 77 Sunset Strip (1959), Lawman (1959), Tightrope (1959), and The Outlaws (1960).

In November 1958, Lang won an annulment of her two-year marriage to actor Alan Wells, who had been her co-star in Death Valley Days. The decree was granted on grounds that Wells married Lang in Ensenada, Mexico, ten months before his divorce from actress Claudia Barrett was final.

Gary Brumburgh at IMDb: “With her annulment from Wells finalized in 1958 and a career going into an abrupt tailspin, Barbara attempted suicide in 1959 with an overdose of sleeping pills. She recovered but her career did not.”

Wells was her second husband. The first had been William McCorkle (1946-1952; divorced), and her final husband would be John George (1967-1972; divorced). She had two daughters, Pam and Cheryl. At age 54, Barbara Lang died in 1982 in Los Angeles, reportedly from pneumonia.


Italian postcard by Casa Editr. Ballerini & Fratini, Firenze, no. 3671. Photo: MGM. Publicity still for House of Numbers (Russell Rouse, 1957).


German postcard by ISV, no. B 10. Photo: MGM. Publicity still for House of Numbers (Russell Rouse, 1957).

Sources: Bruce Eder (AllMovie), Gary Brumburgh (IMDb), Glamour Girls of the Silver Screen, AllMovie, Wikipedia, and IMDb.

The American historical drama Cleopatra (Joseph L. Mankiewicz, 1963) chronicles the struggles of Cleopatra, the young Queen of Egypt, to resist the imperial ambitions of Rome. It achieved notoriety for its massive cost overruns and production troubles, which included changes in director and cast, a change of filming locale, sets that had to be constructed twice, lack of a firm shooting script, and personal scandal around co-stars Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton. Cleopatra almost bankrupted 20th Century Fox, but was also the highest-grossing film of 1963, and it won four Academy Awards, and was nominated for five more, including Best Picture.


Elizabeth Taylor. Belgian postcard by SB (Uitgeverij Best), Antwerpen (Antwerp). Photo: still for Cleopatra (Joseph L. Mankiewicz, 1963).


Rex Harrison, Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton. Vintage postcard. Image: poster art work for Cleopatra (Joseph l. Mankiewicz, 1963).


German postcard by ISV, no. A.104. Photo: 20th Century Fox. Elizabeth Taylor in the epic Cleopatra (Joseph Manckiewcz, 1963).

The triumph and tragedy of a legendary queen

Cleopatra (Joseph Mankiewcz, 1963) was based on a screenplay adapted by Mankiewicz, Ranald MacDougall and Sidney Buchman from a book by Carlo Maria Franzero. It tells the story of the legendary Queen Cleopatra VII of Egypt (Elizabeth Taylor), who experiences both triumph and tragedy as she attempts to resist the imperial ambitions of Rome.

In 48 B.C., Julius Caesar (Rex Harrison) has beaten Pompey the Great in a brutal civil war for control of the Roman Republic and pursues Pompey from Pharsalia to Egypt. Caesar learns that Pompey has fled to neutral Egypt, hoping to enlist the support of the young teenage Pharaoh Ptolemy XIII (Richard O'Sullivan).

Ptolemy, now supreme ruler of Egypt after deposing his older sister, Cleopatra, attempts to gain favour with Caesar by presenting the conqueror with the head of Pompey, borne by his governors, Pothinos (Grégoire Aslan) and Achillas (John Doucette). Caesar is not pleased. For him, it is a sorry end for a worthy foe.

To win Caesar's support from her brother, the young Cleopatra hides herself in a rug, which her servant Apollodorus (Cesare Danova), disguised as a rug peddler, presents to Caesar as a gift from Cleopatra. When a suspicious Caesar unrolls the rug, he finds Cleopatra herself concealed within. The Roman is immediately infatuated; banishing Ptolemy, he declares Cleopatra Egypt's sole ruler and takes her as his mistress.

The ambitious Cleopatra uses her charms to manipulate Caesar and to establish her authority. A year later, she bears him the son he never had, Caesarion, and strives that their son will take his rightful place in Rome. Cleopatra can almost taste Egypt's long-awaited union with Rome, and the formation of a mighty empire. Caesar, however, must return to Italy for his triumph.

Two years pass before the two see each other again. After he is made dictator for life, Caesar sends for Cleopatra. She arrives in Rome in a lavish procession and wins the adulation of the Roman people. On the Ides of March in 44 B.C., the Senate is preparing to vote on whether to award Caesar additional powers for the Republic. Despite warnings from his wife Calpurnia (Gwen Watford) and Cleopatra, he is confident of victory. However, he is stabbed to death by various senators. Octavian (Roddy McDowall), Caesar's nephew, is named as his heir, not Caesarion. Cleopatra returns home to Egypt leaving Rome in turmoil.

Two years later in 42 B.C., Caesar's assassins, among them Cassius (John Hoyt) and Brutus (Kenneth Haigh), are killed at the Battle of Philippi. The powerful Roman general Marc Antony (Richard Burton) establishes a Second Triumvirate government with Octavian and Lepidus. Antony will take control of the eastern provinces including Asia Minor and Syria. In 38 B.C., when Mark Antony, Caesar's protege, beholds the beautiful Cleopatra aboard her elaborate barge at Tarsus, he is smitten and becomes both her lover and military ally.

Octavian uses their affair in his smear campaign against Antony. When Antony returns to Rome to address the situation brewing there, Octavian traps him into a marriage of state to Octavian's sister, Octavia (Jean Marsh). The marriage satisfies no one. Cleopatra is infuriated. Antony, tiring of his Roman wife, soon returns to Egypt and divorces Octavia. IN Egypt, he marries Cleopatra in a public ceremony. It leads the two lovers to a personal and political demise.

Shocked and insulted, the Senators who had previously stood by Antony abandon their hero and vote for war. Octavian murders the Egyptian ambassador, Cleopatra's tutor Sosigenes (Hume Cronyn), on the Senate steps. Sensing Antony's weakness, Octavian attacks and defeats his forces at Actium in 31 B.C. Alarmed, Cleopatra withdraws her fleet and seeks refuge in her tomb. Realising Anthony and her son are death, she arranges to be bitten by a poisonous asp.

In the final shot, Octavian and Agrippa enter Cleopatra's temple afterwords to see her dead, dressed in a gold funeral robe with her two handmaidens, also bitten by the same venomous snake that Cleopatra allowed herself to get bitten, dying by her side. Octavian also finds a last letter from Cleopatra requesting to be buried with Marc Antony.


Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor. German postcard by Filmbilder-Vertrieb Ernst Freihoff, Essen, no. AX 5536. Photo: publicity still for Cleopatra (Joseph L. Mankiewicz, 1963).


Elizabeth Taylor and Hume Cronyn. Czech postcard by UPF, Praha / Press Photo. Photo: publicity still for Cleopatra (Joseph L. Mankiewicz, 1963).


Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor. Czech postcard by UPTF Pressfoto, Praha (Prague), no. S 206/7. Photo: publicity still for Cleopatra (Joseph L. Mankiewicz, 1963).

The most expensive film ever made

As the story of Cleopatra had proved a hit for silent-screen legend Theda Bara with Cleopatra (J. Gordon Edwards, 1917), and for Claudette Colbert with Cleopatra (Cecil B. De Mille, 1934), 20th Century Fox executives hired veteran Hollywood producer Walter Wanger in 1958 to shepherd a new remake into production. Although the studio originally sought a relatively cheap production of $2 million, Wanger envisioned a much more opulent epic, and in mid-1959 successfully negotiated a higher budget of $5 million.

Rouben Mamoulian was assigned to direct and Elizabeth Taylor was awarded a record-setting contract of $1 million. Filming began in England but in January 1961 Taylor became so ill that production was shut down. Sixteen weeks of production and costs of $7 million had produced just ten minutes of film. Fox was reimbursed by the insurance company and Mamoulian was fired.

Joseph L. Mankiewicz was brought on to the production after Mamoulian's departure and the set moved to Cinecittà, outside of Rome. Peter Finch and Stephen Boyd left the production owing to other commitments and were replaced by Rex Harrison and Richard Burton.

During filming, Taylor met Richard Burton and the two began an adulterous affair. The scandal made headlines worldwide, since both were married to others, and brought bad publicity to the already troubled production. Mankiewicz was later fired during the editing phase, only to be rehired to reshoot the opening battle scenes in Spain.

The cut of the film which Mankiewicz screened for the studio was six hours long. This was cut to four hours for its initial premiere, but the studio demanded (over the objections of Mankiewicz) that the film be cut once more, this time to just barely over three hours to allow theatres to increase the number of showings per day. Mankiewicz unsuccessfully attempted to convince the studio to split the film in two in order to preserve the original cut. These were to be released separately as Caesar and Cleopatra followed by Antony and Cleopatra.

Cleopatra ended up costing $31 million, making it the most expensive film ever made at the time, and almost bankrupted 20th Century Fox. It was also the highest-grossing film of 1963, earning box-office of $57.7 million in the United States (equivalent to $461 million now), yet lost money due to its production and marketing costs of $44 million (equivalent to $352 million now), making it the only film ever to be the highest-grossing film of the year to run at a loss. Cleopatra later won four Academy Awards, and was nominated for five more, including Best Picture which it lost to the British adventure-comedy Tom Jones (Tony Richardson, 1963).

On May 21, 2013, the restored film was shown at a special screening at the 2013 Cannes Film Festival, to commemorate its 50th anniversary. It was later released as a 50th-anniversary version available on DVD and Blu-ray. Unfortunately Fox had long ago destroyed all of the trims and outs from negatives to save costs, preventing the release of traditional outtakes.

Derek Armstrong at All Movie: "Cleopatra is an interesting study in contradictions, as both a dud that won five Oscars and a lavish production that wastes most of its time on scenes of talking heads. Unfortunately, it's also not a 246-minute movie that breezes by; any modern viewer brave enough to sit through its four hours will feel the passage of every minute, with little ultimate reward for the time spent. The leads all acquit themselves admirably, especially Rex Harrison as Caesar, but viewers better acquainted with these characters through Shakespeare's lyrical language will lament the all-too-ordinary and sometimes anachronistic dialogue that comprises Joseph L. Mankiewicz's film. Elizabeth Taylor shines like the star she was, jumping in and out of dozens of ornate costumes, many of which hug her figure tightly, in a way that was provocative at the time. But she's a little too petulant and melodramatic to ultimately be taken seriously."

D.B DuMonteil at IMDb calls the film a 'visual poem, a feast for the eye and for the mind': "it was one of the most underrated Hollywood epics. First of all,it's only partially an epic: most of the scenes are intimate,generally two characters who are constantly tearing each other apart. Joseph L. Mankiewicz, one of the most intelligent director of his time, rewrote the dialogue during the shooting, night after night, and the results are stunning, considering the difficulties he encountered with his budget and his stars. Cleopatra's dream is perfectly recreated, much better than in De Mille's version."


Elizabeth Taylor. German postcard by Filmbilder-Vertrieb Ernst Freihoff, Essen, no. 824. Photo: Cleopatra / Centfox. Publicity still for Cleopatra (Joseph L. Mankiewicz, 1963).


German postcard by Kolibri-Verlag, Minden/Westf., no. 1657. Photo: Centfox. Publicity still for Cleopatra (Joseph L. Mankiewicz, 1963).


German postcard by Kolibri-Verlag, Minden/Westf., no. 1866. Photo: Centfox. Publicity still for Cleopatra (Joseph L. Mankiewicz, 1963).


German postcard by Kolibri-Verlag, Minden/Westf., no. 2163. Photo: Centfox. Publicity still for Cleopatra (Joseph L. Mankiewicz, 1963).


German postcard by Kolibri-Verlag, Minden/Westf., no. 2312. Photo: Centfox. Publicity still for Cleopatra (Joseph L. Mankiewicz, 1963).


Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor. Czech collectors card by Pressfoto, Praha (Prague), no. S 229/2 769. Photo: a 1962 set photo of Cleopatra (Joseph L. Mankiewicz, 1963).


Costume of Richard Burton in Cleopatra (Joseph Mankiewicz, 1963), Cinécitta, Roma. Photo: Ivo Blom.


Portrait of Cleopatra. Hellenistic age. Found at the Via Labicana, Rome (1886). Centrale Montemartini Rome, Machine Hall. Photo: Ivo Blom.

Sources: Derek Armstrong (AllMovie), D.B DuMonteil (IMDb), Wikipedia and IMDb.

Blonde, slim Vera-Ellen (1921-1981) was one of the most vivacious and vibrant musical film talents to glide through Hollywood in the 1940s and 1950s. Whether performing solo or dueting with the best male partners of her generation, including Fred Astaire, Gene Kelly and Donald O'Connor, Vera-Ellen gave life to some of the most extraordinary dance routines ever caught on film. She was a dance sensation in a string of light-hearted but successful films. Vera-Ellen retired from acting in the late 1950s.


German postcard by Kunst und Bild, Berlin, no. A 320. Photo: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.


Dutch postcard, no. 553. Photo: M.G.M. (Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer). Publicity still for On the Town (Stanley Donen, Gene Kelly, 1949).


French postcard, no. 1. Photo: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Publicity still for On the Town (Stanley Donen, Gene Kelly, 1949) with Gene Kelly.

Blessed with a sweet, apple blossom appeal and elfin charm

Vera-Ellen Westmeyer Rohe was born of German descent in Norwood, an enclave of the larger city of Cincinnati, Ohio in 1921. Vera-Ellen was the only child of Martin F. Rohe, a piano dealer, and Alma Catherine Westmeier. She was given a hyphen in her name because her mother had a dream when she was expecting that she would have a baby-girl named Vera-Ellen. Later, she told  interviewer Gene Handsaker that she liked simple screen monikers like Margo and Annabella and refused to adopt a synthetic last name for the cinema.

Some sources incorrectly indicate that she was born in 1926. Gary Brumburgh explains at IMDb: "Blessed with a sweet, apple blossom appeal and elfin charm, Vera-Ellen's movie career started to take shape in 1945. Supposedly her mother thought that since her daughter looked much younger than she was, it might be wise to shave five years off of her age in order to promote the dancing teen sensation image."

Vera-Ellen began dancing at the age of 9 (some sources say 10). She was rather frail and studied dancing to build up her body. At age 13 she was a winner on the Major Bowes Amateur Hour and embarked upon a professional career.

At age 18, Vera-Ellen made her Broadway debut with the Jerome Kern/Oscar Hammerstein musical Very Warm for May in 1939. She toured with the Ted Lewis Band and became one of the youngest Rockettes at Radio City Music Hall. Vera-Ellen eventually broke into Broadway musicals, dancing with Ray Bolger in By Jupiter (1942) and in the revival of A Connecticut Yankee (1943).

She was only 24 years old when she was spotted by film producer Samuel Goldwyn who cast her in Wonder Man (H. Bruce Humberstone, 1945) opposite Danny Kaye in his film debut. Wonder Man (1945) and another Danny Kaye vehicle, The Kid from Brooklyn (Norman Z. McLeod, 1946), were both hits and people soon fell in love with the lovely lady's fresh-faced innocence.

A hard-working, uncomplicated talent, she paired famously with Gene Kelly in MGM's Words and Music (Norman Taurog, 1948) in which their 'Slaughter on Tenth Avenue' number was a critical highlight. The landmark musical On the Town (Stanley Donen, Gene Kelly, 1949), in which she played Miss Turnstiles and the apple of Kelly's eye, served as the pinnacle of her dancing work on film.



Dutch postcard by DRC, no. F 167 Photo: M.G.M. (Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer).


Dutch card. Photo: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.


Dutch postcard, no. AX 232. Sent by mail in 1952. Photo: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.

The woman of a thousand dance moves

The versatile and acrobatic Vera-Ellen could be counted on to perform any kind of dancing requested - tap, toe, jazz, adagio - whether solo or with partners and/or props. She became the woman of a thousand dance moves. Her light singing voice, however, was usually dubbed.

According to Hal Erickson at AllMovie: "In a moment of weakness, Vera-Ellen agreed to co-star in the Marx Brothers' valedictory film Love Happy (David Miller, 1949), where she was 'rewarded' with some of her worst-ever costumes and camera angles."

Vera Ellen went on to appear twice with Fred Astaire, in Three Little Words (Richard Thorpe, 1950) and The Belle of New York (Charles Walters, 1952), both example of MGM's musical unit at the height of its powers. She also shared dance steps with the Donald O'Connor in Call Me Madam (Walter Lang, 1953). Craig Butler at AllMovie: "O'Connor is a delight throughout, as is Vera Ellen as his love interest. Their duets, 'It's a Lovely Day Today' and 'Something to Dance About', are highlights."

The blockbuster and evergreen White Christmas (Michael Curtiz, 1954) is usually considered her best-remembered film in which she co-starred with Bing Crosby, Danny Kaye and Rosemary Clooney. Craig Butler: "Considering the amount of talent involved, it's surprising - and rather a shame - that White Christmas is only an enjoyable little trifle rather than a truly classic movie musical. (...) But pay special attention to Clooney's creamy, entrancing rendition of the beautiful 'Love, You Didn't Do Right by Me'; this is a genuinely superior musical performance. Throw in such other treats as 'Blue Skies' and 'Count Your Blessings Instead of Sheep', as well as the amusing antics of Kaye, the laid-back playing of Crosby, and the effervescent dancing of Vera-Ellen, and most people will be more than willing to sit through the corny script."

Gary Brumbrugh at IMDb: "Musicals went out of vogue by the late 50s and, as Vera-Ellen was practically synonymous with musicals, her career went into a sharp decline. But that was only one reason. A light acting talent, she might have continued in films in dramatic roles, as she had in the movie Big Leaguer (Robert Aldrich, 1953) with Edward G. Robinson, but dark, outside influences steered her away altogether. Personal unhappiness and ill health would quickly take their toll on her." 

Vera's film career ended with the British musical Let's Be Happy (Henry Levin, 1957) co-starring Tony Martin. It was an updated remake of Jeannie (Harold French, 1941), one of the most likable British comedies of the 1940s.


Dutch postcard, no. ax 240-157. Photo: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.


Belgian postcard, no. 752. Photo: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.


Vintage collectors card, no. K 17. Photo: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.

A lithe and lovely presence who deserved a better personal life

On TV Vera-Ellen appeared in variety shows such as The Colgate Comedy Hour, and The Dinah Shore Chevvy Show. She also starred in the successful 1955 Las Vegas dancing revue.

It was later discovered that, due to the dancer's compulsive dieting obsession, she had silently battled anorexia throughout much of the 1950s before anyone was even aware or doctors had even coined the term or devised treatments. Moreover, she had developed severe arthritis which forced an early retirement.

In order to combat it, she reverted back to taking dance lessons again. The worst blows suffered, however, was in her personal life. Her two marriages failed. Her first husband was a fellow dancer, Robert Hightower, to whom she was married from 1941 to 1946. Her second husband was millionaire oil-man Victor Rothschild of the Rothschild family. They were married from 1954 to their 1966 divorce.

While married to Rothschild, she gave birth to a daughter, Victoria Ellen, who died at three months of age from Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) in 1963. Following the death of her only child, she withdrew from public life and became a virtual recluse in her house in the Hollywood Hills.

Little was heard for decades until she had died at the University of California at Los Angeles Medical Center in 1981, of cancer. She was 60 years old. Author David Soren wrote a book, Vera-Ellen: the Magic and the Mystery, about her life.

Gary Brumburgh: "Perhaps less remembered today compared to several of the big stars that shared the stage with her, Vera-Ellen was a lithe and lovely presence who deserved a better personal life than she got. Nevertheless, she has provided true film lovers with a lasting legacy and can easily be considered one of Hollywood's finest dancing legends."


German postcard by Ufa/Film-Foto, Berlin-Tempelhof, no. FK 975. Photo: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.


French postcard by Edition P.I., Paris, offered by Les Carbones Korès Carboplane, no. 26F, 1953. Photo: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.

Sources: Gary Brumburgh (IMDb), David Westman (IMDb), Hal Erickson (AllMovie), Craig Butler (AllMovie), Gene Handsaker (Altoona Tribune), Kit and Morgan Benson (Find A Grave), New York Times,  Wikipedia and IMDb.