The German silent film Das Dreimäderlhaus/The House of Three Girls (Richard Oswald, 1918) tells with about a love affair of the young composer Franz Schubert in Vienna in 1826 and his attempts to assert himself as a composer. Das Dreimäderlhaus was based on a homonymous operetta, first performed in 1916 and using Schubert's music. The film is now considered as lost.


German postcard by Rotophot in the Film Sterne series, no. 536/3. Photo: Richard-Oswald-Film. Publicity still for Das Dreimäderlhaus/The House of Three Girls (Richard Oswald, 1918), with Julius Spielmann as Franz Schubert. Right of Spielmann stands Conrad Veidt, who plays Baron Schober, while the tall, sturdy man on the left may be Wilhelm Diegelmann (Tschöll). The three daughters are played by Sybile Binder, Käthe Oswald, and Ruth Werner.


German postcard by Rotophot in the Film Sterne series, no. 536/4. Photo: Richard-Oswald-Film. Publicity still for Das Dreimäderlhaus/The House of Three Girls (Richard Oswald, 1918), with Julius Spielmann as Franz Schubert. The woman could be Sybille Binder, who plays Schubert's love interest Hannerl.

Three love affairs and a misunderstanding

Das Dreimäderlhaus/The House of Three Girls (Richard Oswald, 1918) was based on a homonymous operetta, first performed in 1916 and using Franz Schubert's music. Successful English-language operetta adaptations were made such as 'Chanson d'amour' (1921), 'Blossom Time' (1921) and 'Lilac Time' (1922)

The story deals with the love affairs of the three daughters of court glassmaker Christian Tschöll with Franz Schubert (Julius Spielmann) and two of his friends. One of them is the painter Moritz von Schwind (Eynor Ingesson).

Under the lilac tree Tschöll (Wilhelm Diegelmann) agrees to the marriage of his three daughters with the three young men, but while Schubert's friends marry, a misunderstanding prevents marriage between Schubert and Hannerl (Sybille Binder).

Schubert's circle of friends includes also the young Baron Franz von Schober (Conrad Veidt), against whose maneuvers his girlfriend Grisi (Anita Berber) warns Hannerl. Hannerl instead thinks Grisi warns her against Schubert, so she marries Schober instead, and Schubert is left alone.

In 1958, a new film version was made, Das Dreimäderlhaus (Ernst Marischka, 1958) with Karlheinz Böhm as Franz Schubert


German postcard by Rotophot in the Film Sterne series, no. 536/5. Photo: Richard-Oswald-Film. Publicity still for Das Dreimäderlhaus/The House of Three Girls (Richard Oswald, 1918), with Julius Spielmann as Franz Schubert (the man with spectacles here) and behind him, Sybile Binder as Hannerl.


German postcard by Rotophot in the Film Sterne series, no. 536/5. Photo: Richard-Oswald-Film. Publicity still for Das Dreimäderlhaus/The House of Three Girls (Richard Oswald, 1918), with Anita Berber and Julius Spielmann.


German postcard by Rotophot in the Film Sterne series, no. 536/7. Photo: Richard-Oswald-Film. Publicity still for Das Dreimäderlhaus/The House of Three Girls (Richard Oswald, 1918). The three sisters from the title, presented here, are played by Sybille Binder, Käthe Oswald, and Ruth Werner.

Sources: IMDb

American actor Conrad Nagel (1897-1970) was a tall, blue-eyed matinee idol of the 1920s. He successfully made the transition to sound film.


German postcard by Ross Verlag Foreign, no. 3785/1, 1928-1929. Photo: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Publicity still for The Mysterious Lady (Fred Niblo, 1928).


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 3787/3, 1928-1929. Photo: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM). Publicity still for The Mysterious Lady (Fred Niblo, 1928) with Greta Garbo.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 4902/1, 1929-1930. Photo: Metro Goldwyn Mayer. Publicity still for The Hollywood Revue of 1929 (1929) with Anita Page.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 5113/1, 1930-1931. Photo: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM). Publicity still for The Kiss (Jacques Feyder, 1929) with Greta Garbo.


Italian postcard, no. 165. Foto: Ebany.

The Prince Consort

Conrad Nagel was born in 1897 in Keokuk, Iowa, USA as John Conrad Nagel. Conrad was the son of a musician father, Frank Nagel, and a mother, Frances (née Murphy), who was a locally praised singer. Nagel's mother died early in his life, and he always attributed his artistic inclination to growing up in a family environment that encouraged self-expression. His father became dean of the music conservatory at Highland Park College and when Nagel was three, the family moved to Des Moines, Iowa.

After graduating from Highland Park College at Des Moines, Nagel left for California to pursue a career in the relatively new medium of motion pictures where he garnered instant attention from the Hollywood studio executives. He made his film debut in Little Women (Harley Knoles, 1918), the second film adaptation of the Louisa May Alcott story. Nagel got favourable reviews for his role as Laurie.

From 1918 to 1962, Nagel was also active on Broadway. His breakout role came in the film The Fighting Chance (Charles Maigne, 1920), opposite Swedish actress Anna Q. Nilsson.

During the 1920s, he became a popular matinee idol thanks to such films as Cecil B. DeMille's Fool's Paradise (1921) and Saturday Night (1922) with Leatrice Joy. He showed an unpretentious all-American charm. Nagel was nicknamed 'the Prince Consort', because of his numerous romantic leads opposite stars like Gloria Swanson, Bebe Daniels and Pola Negri.

In 1927, Nagel starred alongside Lon Chaney Sr., Marceline Day, Henry B. Walthall and Polly Moran in the now lost horror film, London After Midnight (Tod Browning, 1927). Among his best known films are The Mysterious Lady (Fred Niblo, 1928) and The Kiss (Jacques Feyder, 1929), in which he appeared opposite Greta Garbo.

Nagel' career was waning, but he became invaluable to MGM and Warner Bros. by assisting them on passing judgement on their contract players regarding the suitability of their voices for the film microphone. He was an expert thanks to his stage background, and his diction was superb. His salary was raised to $2500 a week and he was loaned out to other studios for a sum of $30,000 for his services in aiding the transition to 'talkies'.


French postcard in the Les Vedettes de Cinéma series by A.N., Paris, no. 218. Photo: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.


Austrian postcard by Iris Verlag, no. 728. Photo: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Film. Conrad Nagel in The Only Thing (Jack Conway, 1925).


Austrian postcard by Iris-Verlag, no. 885. Photo: Warner Bros. Postcard possibly for the period piece Glorious Betsy (Alan Crossland, 1928), in which Nagel plays Jerome Bonaparte.


French postcard by Europe, no. 705. Photo: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.


Dutch postcard, no. 180. Photo: Universal. Genevieve Tobin and Nagel played together in Free Love (Hobart Henley, 1930) and A Lady Surrenders (John M. Stahl, 1930).

A decidedly bland performer

Conrad Nagel was one of the 36 founders of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS), and from 1932 to 1933, he was the president of the Academy. He was also a founding member of the Screen Actors Guild (SAG).

In his study 'Silent Players', Anthony Slide writes: "He probably deserves more praise for founding the Academy and as a spokesman for Actors' Equity than as an actor, for he was a decidedly bland performer, so innocuous as to almost blend in with the sets of many of his features."

During the 1930s, he appeared in little known productions as the action films The Ship from Shanghai (Charles Brabin, 1930), and Kongo (William J. Cowen, 1932) with Walter Huston. He spent the next several decades in high-profile films as a character actor.

Nagel hosted the Academy Awards in 1930, 1932 and again in 1953, this time alongside Bob Hope. He was awarded a Special Oscar in 1947 for his work on the Motion Picture relief Fund. Towards the end of his film career, Nagel acted as host for radio and TV shows.

Conrad Nagel died in 1970 in his Manhattan apartment in New York. He was married to Ruth Helms, actress Lynn Merrick and Michael Coulson Smith. All marriages ended in a divorce. He had two children, Ruth Margaret (1920) with first wife, Ruth) and Michael (late 1950s) with third wife Michael.

The last of his 109 feature films had been A Stranger in My Arms (Helmut Käutner, 1959). Anthony Slide: "Curiously, despite the length of his career, the number of features in which he appeared, and the major studios for which he worked, Conrad Nagel did not appear in one film that might be regarded as a classic."


French postcard by Editions Cinémagazine, no. 232.


British postcard, no. 6 of a fifth series of 25 cinema stars issued with Sarony Cigarettes. Photo: Metro Goldwyn Mayer.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 3787/4, 1928-1929. Photo: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Publicity still for The Mysterious Lady (Fred Niblo, 1928) with Greta Garbo. Collection: Joanna.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 3924/1, 1928-1929. Photo: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Conrad Nagel and Greta Garbo in the silent spy story The Mysterious Lady (Fred Niblo, 1928), based on the novel 'Der Krieg im Dunkel' by Ludwig Wolff.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 4270/1, 1929-1930. Photo: Metro Goldwyn Mayer.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 6444/1, 1931-1932. Photo: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Publicity still for Hell Divers (George W. Hill, 1931).


French postcard by Europe, no. 885. Photo: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.

Sources: Anthony Slide (Silent Players), Wikipedia and IMDb.

Cyd Charisse (1921-2008) was born to be a dancer. She became one of the top female dancers in the golden era of the musical. Her films include Singin' in the Rain (1952), The Band Wagon (1953), Brigadoon (1954) and Silk Stockings (1957). She was one of the few actresses to have danced with both Fred Astaire and Gene Kelly.


Dutch postcard. Photo: M.G.M. Publicity still for Singin' in the Rain (Stanley Donen, Gene Kelly, 1952) with Gene Kelly.


French postcard by Kunst und Bild, Berlin, no. A 1167. Photo: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Publicity still for Brigadoon (Vincente Minnelli, 1954).


Spanish postcard by Royal Books, Barcelona, 1993. Photo: Eric Carpenter. Publicity still for Meet Me in Las Vegas (Roy Rowland, 1956) .


Dutch postcard by P. Moorlag, Heerlen, sort. 1/8.

A Girl Called Sid

Cyd Charisse was born Tula Ellice Finklea in 1921 (some sources say 1922) in Amarillo, Texas. Her Baptist jeweller father encouraged her to begin her ballet lessons for health reasons. She was frail and sickly at the time and had a bout with polio.

During a family vacation in Los Angeles when she was 12, her parents enrolled her in ballet classes at a school in Hollywood. One of her teachers was a handsome young dancer and dance instructor, named Nico Charisse.

She joined the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo at age 13 and became a member of the corps de ballet at age 14. With the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo, she toured the United States and Europe, adopting the name Felia Sidorova.

In Paris, Nico and Cyd married when she was 18. After World War II broke out the company disbanded and the Charisse couple moved to Hollywood. In 1942, they had a son, Nicky.

Charisse got her start in Hollywood when Ballet Russe star David Lichine was hired by Columbia for a ballet sequence in the musical film Something to Shout About (Gregory Ratoff, 1943). She was billed now as Lily Norwood. The same year, she played a Russian dancer in Mission to Moscow (1943), directed by Michael Curtiz.

In 1945, she was hired to dance with Fred Astaire in Ziegfeld Follies (Vincente Minelli a.o., 1945), and that uncredited appearance got her a seven-year contract with MGM. Producer Arthur Freed preferred the name Charisse to Norwood and changed the spelling of her nickname Sid to Cyd. The nickname originated from her little brother. Initially, he could not say sister and called her Sid.

Her first speaking part was supporting Judy Garland in The Harvey Girls (George Sidney, 1946). Her dark looks initially had her cast as ethnic beauties. She was cast as Ricardo Montalban's fiancee in the film Fiesta (Richard Thorpe, 1947), and as a Polynesian in the Esther Williams' musical On an Island with You (Richard Thorpe, 1948).

In 1947, Charisse’s marriage to Nico Charisse ended in divorce. She married singer Tony Martin in 1948.


Spanish postcard by Ediciones J.R.N., no. 35/7.


Italian postcard by Bromostampa, Torino/Milano.


French postcard by Editions P.I., Paris, no. 422. Photo: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, 1953.


German postcard by Kunst und Bild, Berlin, no. A 961. Photo: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.

Dancing with Kelly or Astaire

Cyd Charisse appeared in a number of musicals over the next few years, but it was the celebrated Broadway Melody ballet finale with Gene Kelly in Singin' in the Rain (Gene Kelly, Stanley Donen, 1952) that gave her her big break. She appeared in only one of the film’s many indelible dance sequences, but one was enough, and she was both sultry vamp and diaphanous dream girl. Written by Betty Comden and Adolph Green and directed by Gene Kelly and Stanley Donen, the film established her as one of Hollywood’s most glamorous and seductive talents.

A year later followed her great performance in The Band Wagon (Vincente Minnelli, 1953), where she danced with Fred Astaire in the acclaimed Dancing in the Dark number. I was her first starring role. Robert Berkvist in The New York Times: "Astaire played a fading Hollywood song-and-dance man hoping to make a comeback on Broadway and who finds himself cast in a show opposite a snooty ballerina (Ms. Charisse). The couple do not see eye-to-eye until they take a nighttime carriage ride through a moonlit Central Park and wind up embracing languorously to the strains of ”Dancing in the Dark.” One of the most famous sequences from the film, if not in the history of dance on film, is 'The Girl Hunt Ballet,' in which Ms. Charisse plays the vamp to Astaire’s private-eye stage character."

In Brigadoon (Vincente Minnelli, 1954), adapted from the 1947 Broadway show by Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe, Gene Kelly and Van Johnson played American tourists who stumble on a mysterious Scottish village that materialises only once every 100 years. Kelly falls hard for a beautiful villager, Fiona (Charisse). She co-starred again with Kelly in It's Always Fair Weather (Gene Kelly, Stanley Donen, 1956).

In 1957 she rejoined Astaire in the film version of Silk Stockings (Rouben Mamoulian, 1957), a musical remake of Ninotchka (Ernst Lubitsch, 1939), with Charisse taking over Greta Garbo's role. She had a slightly unusual serious acting role in Party Girl (Nicholas Ray, 1958), where she played a showgirl who became involved with gangsters and a crooked lawyer.

As the 1960s dawned, musicals faded from the screen, as did her career. She made appearances on television and performed in a nightclub revue with her second husband, Tony Martin. At 70, she made her Broadway debut in Grand Hotel. Her last film appearance was in That's Entertainment! III (Bud Friedgen, Michael J. Sheridan, 1994) as one of the onscreen narrators of a tribute to the great MGM musical films.

Cyd Charisse died at age 87 of a heart attack in 2008 in Los Angeles, California. She had two sons: Nicholas Charisse (1942) and Tony Martin Jr. (1950).


Belgian postcard. Photo: M.G.M. Jimmy Durante, Peter Lawford, Esther Williams, Cyd Charisse, Ricardo Montalban and Xavier Cugat in On an Island with You (Richard Thorpe, 1948).


Belgian Collectors Card by Kwatta, Bois d'Haine, no. C. 36. Photo: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Collection: Geoffrey Donaldson Institute.


Belgian Collectors Card by Kwatta, Bois d'Haine, no. C. 37. Photo: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Collection: Geoffrey Donaldson Institute.


German postcard by Kolibri-Verlag, no. 1253. Photo: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Publicity still for Sombrero (Norman Foster, 1953).

Sources: Robert Berkvist (The New York Times),  Tony Fontana (IMDb), Wikipedia and IMDb.

Last Wednesday, 1 May 2019, Alessandra Panaro (1939-2019), an Italian former film actress of the late 1950s and early 1960s, passed away. She is best known for Luchino Visconti's crime drama Rocco e i suoi fratelli/Rocco and His Brothers (1960).


Italian postcard by Bromofoto, Milano, no. 1649. Photo: G.B. Poletto / Titanus. Alessandra Panaro in Cerasella (Raffaello Matarazzo, 1959).


Italian postcard by Bromofoto, Milano, no. 1309.


Italian postcard by Bromofoto, Milano, no. 1310.

The Young Love Interest

Alessandra Panaro was born in Rome, Italy in 1939. Panaro began her film career in 1954 with Il barcaiole di Amalfi/The boatman of Amalfi (Mino Roli, 1954) starring Mario Vitale.

One of her next films was the Italian drama Gli innamorati/Wild Love (1955) directed by Mauro Bolognini. The film, starring Antonella Lualdi and Franco Interlenghi, was entered into the 1956 Cannes Film Festival.

In a considerable number of romantic comedies she played the young love interest. Examples are the big hit Poveri ma belli/Girl in a Bikini (1956) and the sequels Belle ma povere/ Poor Girl, Pretty Girl (1957) and Poveri milionari (1959). All were directed by Dino Risi and starred Marisa Allasio, Maurizio Arena, Renato Salvatori, Lorella De Luca and Panaro.

On TV she co-hosted with Lorella De Luca the show Il Musichiere/The musicians in 1957. In 1957 she also played the leading role in the comedy Lazzarella by Carlo Ludovico Bragaglia, a film based on a popular song written by Domenico Modugno and Riccardo Pazzaglia.

She played Totò’s daughter in the satire Totò, Peppino e le fanatiche/Toto, Peppino and the Fanatics (Mario Mattoli, 1958) with Peppino De Filippo. And she played Nora, the girlfriend of Bruno (Mario Girotti - the future Terence Hill) in the film Cerasella (Raffaello Matarazzo, 1959) featuring Claudia Mori.


Italian postcard by Casa Edit. Ballerini & Fratini, Firenze (B.F.F.). Photo: G.B. Poletto / Titanus


East-German postcard by VEB Progress Film-Vertrieb, Berlin, no. 1439, 1961. Alessandra Panaro and Johnny Dorelli in Totò, Peppino e le fanatiche/Toto, Peppino and the Fanatics (Mario Mattoli, 1958).


Italian postcard by Rotalfoto, Milano, no. 805.

Marked by inflamed passions

Alessandra Panaro’s best known film is the beautiful drama Rocco e i suoi fratelli/Rocco and His Brothers (Luchino Visconti, 1960). Set in Milan, it tells the story of an immigrant family from the South, led to the industrial North by the matriarch (Katina Paxinou).

Presented in five distinct sections, the film weaves the story of Vincenzo (Spiros Fócas), Simone (Renato Salvatori), Rocco (Alain Delon), Ciro (Max Cartier) and Luca (Rocco Vidolazzi) as they struggle to adapt to life in the large and impersonal city of Milan.

In typical fashion for a director known for helping build Italian neo-realism, the film ends with no substantive resolution, but with clouds of doom hanging over the family. Panaro played Ciro’s fiancee Franca.

Elbert Ventura at AllMovie: “Painted with bold strokes and marked by inflamed passions, Rocco and His Brothers holds you in rapt attention despite its sprawling story. Visconti punctuates the Parondis' struggles with two harrowing scenes of ritualized violence that profoundly change the family and underscore the operatic determinism of Visconti's vision.

The movie's visceral intensity is matched only by the elegance and intelligence of the mise-en-scène, with its fine compositions, graceful camera moves, and evocative black-and-white cinematography. A work of overpowering power and stark beauty, Rocco and His Brothers stands as a vivid masterpiece from one of cinema's great artists.”


Italian postcard, no. 464.


Italian postcard by Rotalfoto, Milano, no. 746.


Italian postcard by Rotalphoto, Milano, no. 723.

Beautiful virgin Queen

During the golden age of the European genre film, Alessandra Panaro played roles in each popular genre. She often used the more American sounding pseudonym Topsy Collins.

She co-starred in Peplums – the Italian sword-and-sandal adventure films - like Le Baccanti/The Bacchantes (Giorgio Ferroni, 1960) with Pierre Brice, and Ulisse contro Ercole/Ulysses Against Hercules (Mario Caiano, 1962) starring Georges Marchal. She played the beautiful virgin Queen Medea, Gordon Scott's heroic Prince Glaucus' love interest, in Ercole contro Molock/Hercules Against Moloch (Giorgio Ferroni, 1963).

In Germany she appeared in the Karl May Western Der Schatz der Azteken/The Treasure of the Aztecs (Robert Siodmak, 1965) with Lex Barker. One of her last films was the Spaghetti Western 30 Winchester per El Diablo/30 Winchesters for El Diablo (Gianfranco Baldanello, 1965) starring Carl Möhner.

After finishing her film career she returned to the screen with her old colleague Lorella de Luca in the film comedy La madama/The Madam (Duccio Tessari, 1976) starring Christian De Sica and Carole André.

33 years later she made another guest appearance in an episode of the Brazilian TV series A Grande Família/The Large Family (2009). Her final screen appearance was in the Italian film La notte è piccola per noi/The Night is Small for us (Gianfrancesco Lazotti, 2016) with Cristiana Capotondi and Philippe Leroy.

Panaro was married twice, first to Italian-Egyptian banker Jean-Pierre Sabet who died in 1983, and then to actor Giancarlo Sbragia, who died in 1994. Alessandra Pannaro passed away in Geneva, Switzerland. She was 79.


Italian postcard by Turismofoto.


Trailer for Rocco e i suoi fratelli/Rocco and His Brothers (1960). Source: Our Man In Havanna (YouTube).


Leader for 30 Winchester per El Diablo/30 Winchesters for El Diablo (1965). Source: John Huston1 (YouTube).

Sources: Elbert Ventura (AllMovie), Wikipedia (Italian, German and English), and IMDb.

Universum-Film Aktiengesellschaft (Ufa) was a major German film company headquartered in Babelsberg, near Berlin. From 1917 through to the end of the Nazi era, Ufa produced and distributed hundreds of films. Ufa has recorded unsurpassed artistic successes with silent films such as Fritz Lang's Metropolis (1926) and Frau im Mond/Woman in the Moon (1929) and Joe May's Asphalt (1929). In 1930, the company enjoyed worldwide success with Der blaue Engel/The Blue Angel, directed by Joseph von Sternberg, and starring Emil Jannings and Marlene Dietrich. In 1942, as a result of the Nazi policy of 'forcible coordination' known as 'the Gleichschaltung', Ufa and all of its competitors, including Tobis, Terra, and Bavaria Film, were bundled together with foreign film production companies Nazi-controlled to form the super-corporation UFA-Film GmbH (UFI), with headquarters in Berlin.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, Berlin, no. 675/2, ca. 1924. Photo: Decla-Ufa-Film. Publicity still for Die Nibelungen: Siegfried (Fritz Lang, 1924). Siegfried (Paul Richter) and Alberich in the fog meadow.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 62/2. Photo: Parufamet / Ufa. Still with Emil Jannings as Mephisto and Yvette Guilbert as Marthe in Faust (F.W. Murnau, 1926).


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 131/8. Photo: Ufa. Still from Der Kongress Tanzt/The Congress Dances (Erik Charell, 1931) with Paul Hörbiger.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 143/1. Film title in three languages. Photo: Ufa. Publicity still for the Ufa-comedy Ein blonder Traum (Paul Martin, 1932), with Willy Fritsch and Willi Forst as window cleaners. Sets by Erich Kettelhut.


German postcard by Film-Foto-Verlag, no. A 3728/1, 1941-1944. Photo: V. Swolinski / Ufa. Publicity still for Munchhausen/The Adventures of Baron Munchausen (Josef von Baky, 1943) with Hans Albers and Brigitte Horney.

A direct response to foreign competition in film and propaganda

Universum-Film Aktiengesellschaft (Ufa, also written as UFA) was established on 18 December 1917, as a direct response to foreign competition in film and propaganda. Ufa was founded by a consortium headed by Emil Georg von Stauß, a former Deutsche Bank board member.

An early step towards the founding of UFA was taken on 13 January 1917 with the creation of the Bild- und Filmamt (Bufa) by Germany's Supreme Army Command. Formed as a reaction to the perceived advantage of Germany's enemies in the realm of film propaganda, Bufa's task was to make use of film for the purposes of psychological warfare.

However, the plans envisaged by the German General Staff – especially those of Erich Ludendorff– went far beyond the creation of Bufa. Ludendorff foresaw a large-scale, state-controlled film corporation that would serve national interests. In this spirit, Universum-Film AG (Ufa) was founded as a consolidation of private film companies on 18 December 1917 in Berlin. The company's starting capital amounted to 25 million Reichsmark: among the contributors were the German government, the War Ministry and Deutsche Bank.

Prior to establishing the company, the General Staff had initially considered taking over the Deutsche Lichtbild-Gesellschaft (DLG), which had been founded in 1916. This agency, however, was far too much under the influence of heavy industry and, in particular, of Alfred Hugenberg, chairman of Krupp. Hugenberg would later take over Ufa in 1927.

Three main film companies formed the nucleus of UFA from the end of 1917: Messter Film, owned by Oskar Messter, a dominant German producer; PAGU (Projektions Union), originally formed by Paul Davidson in Frankfurt, with the Tempelhof Studios in Oberlandstraße in Berlin-Tempelhof and in Weissensee; and the Union-Theater chain of some 50 cinemas; and the entire German operation of Nordisk Film (founded in 1906 by Ole Olsen) including Nordische Films, the production company Oliver-Film of German producer David Oliver, cinemas, and a distribution company, was bought by Ufa in 1918.

Soon more companies joined Ufa: Joe May's May-Film company, with film duplicating plant and glass-house studios at Weissensee Studios (next door to PAGU); Greenbaum-Film (previously Vitascope), Deutsche Bioscope (founded by Greenbaum in 1902) wich had merged in March 1920 with Erich Pommer's German branch of Éclair (Deutsche Éclair) to form Decla-Bioscop, taken over by Ufa in October 1921.

Ufa continued to sign production agreements with various independent producers, including Deulig (previously Deutsche Lichtbild-Gesellschaft), Cserépy Film, founded by Arzén von Cserépy, merged with UFA in 1922: Gloria-Film AG, founded by Hanns Lippmann; Heinrich Bolten-Baeckers' BB-Film; Rex-Film, founded in 1917 by Lupu Pick, Fern-Andra Vertriebsgesellschaft, Ossi-Oswalda-Film contracted to UFA from 1925; and the distributor Hansa-Film


German postcard by Ross Verlag, Berlin. Photo: Union Film. Publicity still for Sumurun (Ernst Lubitsch, 1920) with Pola Negri,Paul Wegener and Jenny Hasselquist.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 627/8. Photo: Union. Pola Negri in Madame Dubarry (Ernst Lubitsch, 1918).


German postcard by Ross Verlag, Berlin, no. 645/3. Photo: Union Film. Publicity still for Anna Boleyn (Ernst Lubitsch, 1920) with Emil Jannings and Henny Porten.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 678/4. Photo: Decla-Ufa-Film. Publicity still for Die Nibelungen: Siegfried (Fritz Lang, 1924). Caption: Siegfried bathes in the dragon's blood. After slaying the dragon, Siegfried (Paul Richter) bathes in the dragon's blood, which will make him invulnerable. Incidentally, a leaf falls on his back, creating Siegfried's one weak spot (his Achilles heel). When the vain and arrogant Paul Richter refused to strip for this scene, Lang called in the not so pretty Rudolf Klein-Rogge (Etzel - Attila - in the film), who immediately undressed and played the scene, to the dismay of Richter, as people now would identify Klein-Rogge's behind as his.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, Berlin, no. 671/8. Photo: Decla-Ufa-Film. Publicity still for Die Nibelungen 2: Kriemhilds Rache/Die Nibelungen: Kriemhild's Revenge (Fritz Lang, 1924). Kriemhild (Margarete Schön) has got the deathblow. In the back, King Hetzel (Rudolf Klein-Rogge) looks on in astonishment.

Ideal conditions for the conquest of the German market

After World War I, Ufa had ideal conditions for their conquest of the German market. Germany had been – and continued to be – largely cut off from film imports due to the war.

The mission of Ufa at the time of its founding was the production of films – feature films, documentaries, cultural films and weekly headline (newsreel) films – designed to function as propaganda for Germany abroad. However, after mounting tensions between the company's founding members, Deutsche Bank was able to prevail and implement their approach to film production as a business rather than for military objectives. Instead of propaganda films, Ufa now produced elaborate entertainment films such as Sumurun (Ernst Lubitsch, 1920) with Paul Wegener and Pola Negri.

In addition to his turbulent comedies, Ernst Lubitsch staged a series of million-dollar historical films. His Madame DuBarry(Ernst Lubitsch, 1919) with Pola Negri, Emil Jannings and Harry Liedtke was celebrated in Europe and the United States exuberantly. When Lubitsch shot Anna Boleyn/Anne Boleyn (Ernst Lubitsch, 1920) with Jannings and Henny Porten in the Tempelhof studio in the fall of 1920, Reich President Friedrich Ebert paid his respects to the forex messenger: "A prestige film to show foreign countries what the German film industry has made progress."

In 1921, Ufa was already producing the lion's share of German feature films, and in that same year it was privatised. Starting in 1922, large ateliers in Neubabelsberg (today's Babelsberg Studio) and on Oberlandstraße in Berlin-Tempelhof were made available for film production. In 1926, the facilities were expanded by means of the construction of the largest studio hall in Europe at the time.

In 1923, after Decla-Bioscop AG and others were taken over, Erich Pommer became head of all production operations and discovered and fostered many stars, including Emil Jannings, Pola Negri, Conrad Veidt and Lya de Putti. Ufa became a modern multi-national company and media conglomerate. Very aware of Hollywood, Ufa tried to emulate it, rival with it, or differentiate itself from it. Focused on principles of product differentiation and niche marketing, Ufa deliberately created an art cinema and super-productions for export (the latter specifically designed and budgeted to break into the American market), while it looked to domestic cinema based on popular genres and stars for its economic foundation.

Ufa thus became a leader in the time of the German Expressionism, experienced a further boom and emerged as a direct competitor to Hollywood with films such as Das Cabinet des Dr. Caligari/The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (Robert Wiene, 1920) with Werner Krauss, Dr. Mabuse, der Spieler/Dr. Mabuse the Gambler (Fritz Lang, 1922) starring Rudolf Klein-Rogge, Die Nibelungen (Fritz Lang, 1924) with Paul Richter, and Varieté/Variety (E.A. Dupont, 1925).

In 1924, Erich Pommer created the most artistically fruitful partnership of the German silent film: director Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau, film poet Carl Mayer, cinematographer Karl Freund and the architects Robert Herlth and Walter Röhrig. Their first joint film was Der Lezte Mann/The Last Laugh (F.W. Murnau, 1924), with Emil Jannings in the lead role. "Please invent something new, even if it should be crazy," Pommer had asked, and the film makers came up with the 'entfesselte Kamera' (unleashed camera), which was used here for the first time to develop a consistent cinematic narrative. Two years later, the same team created another masterpiece, Faust (F.W. Murnau, 1926) with Gösta Ekman and Camilla Horn.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 697/2. Photo: Ufa. Publicity still for Der letzte Mann/The Last Laugh (F.W. Murnau, 1924). Emil Jannings as a proud hotel doorman who looses his self-esteem and that of others when he is reduced to a toilet man, working in the basement of the hotel.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, Berlin, no. 24/13. Photo: Ufa. Publicity still for Wege zu Kraft und Schönheit/Ways to Strength and Beauty (Nicholas Kaufmann, Wilhelm Prager, 1925). Pictured are members of the Gymnastik Schule Hedwig Hagemann in Hamburg. Collection: Didier Hanson.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 48/2. Photo: Ufa. Willy Fritsch in the German silent film Ein Walzertraum/The Waltz Dream (Ludwig Berger, 1925), based on the Oscar Strauss operetta.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 989/6. Photo: Ufa. Publicity still for Kampf um die Scholle/Struggle for the Soil (Erich Waschneck, 1925) with Hans Hermann.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 66/6. Photo: Ufa. Publicity still for Faust (1926) with Gösta Ekman and Camilla Horn.

Severe miscalculations

After the stabilisation of the German currency starting in November 1923, the German film industry in general entered a period of crisis: foreign sales stalled due to low profit margins and the German market became profitable once again for American film giants. The resulting concentration on a few large German film companies, which came together to unite production, distribution and presentation under one Ufa's managers made severe miscalculations with regard to two large-scale productions, Die Nibelungen (Fritz Lang, 1924) and Metropolis (Fritz Lang, 1926).

In 1925, financial pressures compelled UFA to enter into distribution agreements with American studios Paramount and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer to form Parufamet. The joint distribution company was supposed to distribute 60 films a year in Germany, 20 each from Paramount, Ufa and MGM. However, the agreement brought just the opposite of salvation: the financial fiasco of Metropolis (Fritz Lang, 1926) and the devastating company report for the years 1926/27 marked the low point of the Ufa Crisis.

In March 1927, with the company facing bankruptcy, Alfred Hugenberg– Chairman of the German National People's Party and owner of the Scherl-Gruppe, a powerful media corporation – bought the company. The new General Director was Ludwig Klitzsch; Hugenberg himself took over the chairmanship of the supervisory board; his deputy was banker Emil Georg von Stauß. At first, nothing changed in Ufa's production policy. In 1928, Erich Pommer was replaced as head of production by Ernst Hugo Correll, who led the company through the transition to sound film or 'talkies'.

Within two years Ludwig Klitzsch turned the wreck of the Ufa back into the flagship of the German film industry. In tough negotiations, Klitzsch managed to ease the barely-fulfillable conditions of the Parufamet contract, and he rehired Erich Pommer, restoring Ufa’s previous high standards to Babelsberg. Pommer returned to Berlin in 1928, but did not resume his old position but produced films as an independent within Ufa. Ufa gained an advantage over smaller companies in the realm of sound film production as a result of a contract with Tobis-Klangfilm, which simplified the licensing situation for Ufa.

The Ufa’s first 'one-hundred-percent' sound film, Melodie des HerzensMelody of the Heart (Hanns Schwarz, 1929), with Dita Parlo and Willy Fritsch, premiered on 16 December 1929, and shortly after that Der blaue Engel/The Blue Angel (Josef von Sternberg, 1930) marked an early highlight of Ufa’s sound film production. Emil Jannings, who had won the first Oscar in Hollywood in 1927, was supposed to be the star of the film — but the real star turned out to be the little-known Marlene Dietrich, who turned her back on Germany and Ufa the day after the premiere and absconded to Hollywood.

Liebeswalzer/Waltzes of Love (Wilhelm Thiele, 1929), a form of film operetta with the celebrated 'Traumpaar' (dream couple) Lilian Harvey and Willy Fritsch, set the tone for Ufa’s early sound films. By letting the song and dance scenes develop out of the plot, he anticipated an important element of subsequent Hollywood musicals. With  Wilhelm Thiele, the brothers Kurt and Robert Siodmak, the screenwriters Billy Wilder and Robert Liebmann, and the composers Werner Richard Heymann and Friedrich Hollaender, Erich Pommer had mustered a new team of young talents. All of them — of necessity — would soon be headed for careers in Hollywood.

Ufa produced in the following years many comedies and operettas, including Die Drei von der Tankstelle/The Three from the Filling Station (Wilhelm Thiele, 1930) with Willy Fritsch, Lilian Harvey and Oskar Karlweis, Einbrecher/Burglars (Hanns Schwarz, 1930), also with Fritsch and Harvey, Der Kongreß tanzt/The Congress dances (Erik Charell, 1931), again with Fritsch and Harvey, and Conrad Veidt, Der Mann, der seinen Mörder sucht/The Man in Search of His Murderer (Robert Siodmak, 1931) with Heinz Rühmann and Lien Deyers, Bomben auf Monte Carlo/Bombs on Monte Carlo (Hanns Schwarz, 1931) starring Hans Albers, Anna Sten and Heinz Rühmann, Meine Frau, die Hochstaplerin/My Wife, the Impostor (Kurt Gerron, 1931) with Rühmann and Käthe von Nagy, Es wird schon wieder besser/Things Are Getting Better Already (Kurt Gerron, 1932) with Dolly Haas, and Ich und die Kaiserin/The Empress and I (Friedrich Hollaender, 1933) with Lilian Harvey and Mady Christians.

Among the most successful Ufa directors in the silent era and early sound period were Ludwig Berger, Paul Czinner, Wilhelm Dieterle, Ewald André Dupont, Karl Grune, Fritz Lang, Ernst Lubitsch, Joe May, Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau, Arthur Robison, Hanns Schwarz, Paul L. Stein, and Wilhelm Thiele.



German postcard by Ross Verlag, Berlin, no. 71/1. Photo: Ufa / Parufamet. Publicity still for Metropolis (Fritz Lang, 1927) with Brigitte Helm as the good Maria. Collection: Didier Hanson.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, Berlin, no. 71-4. Photo: Ufa / Parufamet. Publicity still for Metropolis (Fritz Lang, 1927). Collection: Amsterdam EYE Filmmuseum.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 104/3, 1925-1935. Photo: Ufa. Publicity still for Ungarische Rhapsodie/Hungarian Rhapsody (Hanns Schwarz, 1928) with Willy Fritsch and Dita Parlo.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 131/7. Photo: Ufa. Conrad Veidt (Count Metternich) and Lil Dagover (Countess) in Der Kongress tanzt/The Congress dances (Erik Charell, 1931).


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 6983/1. Photo: Ufa. Willi Forst, Lilian Harvey and Willy Fritsch in the musical comedy Ein blonder Traum/Happy Ever After (Paul Martin, 1932).

Transferred to the Nazi Party

In 1933, Alfred Hugenberg, transferred Ufa to the Nazi Party. He became Minister of the Economy, Agriculture and Nutrition in Hitler's cabinet. Ufa experienced a new commercial boom in the Nazi era, not least due to the government's protectionist measures, which freed the company from bothersome domestic and foreign competition, sometimes even incorporating their production facilities and staff. On top of that, by occupying almost all of Europe, the Nazi regime also provided Ufa with new sales markets, as well as placing distribution outlets in such 'neutral' countries as the United States.

In the spring of 1933, Ufa fired its Jewish employees ”due to the national revolution”. Erich Pommer was fired as well and emigrated to Paris in May. Ufa productions such as the patriotic submarine film Morgenrot/Dawn (Vernon Sewell, Gustav Ucicky, 1933) became a symbol of the 'new times' touted by the Nazi regime. In 1933, before open propaganda was increasingly replaced by sheer entertainment with ideological overtones, Goebbels celebrated the Ufa propaganda film Hitlerjunge Quex/Hitler Youth Quex (Hans Steinhoff, 1933) as a milestone.

Between 1933 and 1942, the following were house directors at Ufa: Carl Boese, Eduard von Borsody, Peter Paul Brauer, Karl Hartl, Georg Jacoby, Gerhard Lamprecht, Herbert Maisch, Paul Martin, Karl Ritter, Reinhold Schünzel (until 1936), Detlef Sierck a.k.a. Douglas Sirk (until 1937), Hans Steinhoff, Robert A. Stemmle, Viktor Tourjansky, Gustav Ucicky and Erich Waschneck.

One of the best known and most notorious films of this period was the Nazi propaganda film Triumph des Willens/Triumph of the Will (1935), directed, produced, edited, and co-written by Leni Riefenstahl. It chronicles the 1934 Nazi Party Congress in Nuremberg, which was attended by more than 700,000 Nazi supporters. Hitler commissioned the film and served as an unofficial executive producer. Riefenstahl's techniques—such as moving cameras, aerial photography, the use of long focus lenses to create a distorted perspective, and the revolutionary approach to the use of music and cinematography—have earned Triumph of the Will recognition as one of the greatest propaganda films in history.

By 1938, after taking over foreign film production facilities in France, Belgium and other countries, one third of Ufa's sales came from abroad. Ufa's economic boom made it possible to further expand the so-called 'star system,' which had already been developed in the silent film era. The highest paid Ufa stars in the Nazi era were Hans Albers and Zarah Leander. Veit Harlan was the highest-earning director.

In addition, as a result of the nationalist German spirit that already dominated the company, Ufa was perfectly suited to serve the goals of National Socialist propaganda in film. Hugenberg had made Ufa openly available for Joseph Goebbels' propaganda machine, even though Hugenberg was removed from his post as Minister shortly thereafter (June 1933) under pressure from Hitler. In an act of anticipatory obedience to the Nazi regime, Ufa management fired several Jewish employees on 29 March 1933. In the summer of 1933, the Nazi regime created the Film Chamber of the Reich, which adopted regulations officially excluding Jewish filmmakers from all German studios.

In 1936, Germany's first film institute was founded in the form of the Ufa-Lehrschau set up by Hans Traub at the Babelsberg Film Complex. Goebbels systematically brought Ufa and all other media companies under the control of his Propaganda Ministry.


Leni Riefenstahl. German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 4803/1, 1929-1930. Photo: Atelier Jacobi, Berlin. Collection: Egbert Barten.


Anna Sten. German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 6372/1, 1931-1932. Photo: Ufa.


German postcard. by Ross Verlag, no. 7039/1, 1932-1933. Photo: Ufa. Hans Albers in Der weiße Dämon/The White Demon (Kurt Gerron, 1932).


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 7848/1, 1932-1933. Photo: Ufa. Heinz Rühmann in Ich und die Kaiserin/The Empress and I (Friedrich Hollaender, 1933). Collection: Geoffrey Donaldson Institute.


Veit Harlan. German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 7753/1, 1935. Photo: Robertson, Berlin. Collection: Didier Hanson.

Catching up with the Americans in colour film

On 18 March 1937, the Hugenberg Company was forced to sell all of its Ufa shares for 21.25 million Reichsmark to Cautio Treuhand GmbH, a quasi-governmental holding company that answered to Goebbels. This move meant that Ufa was effectively nationalised.

Emil Georg von Stauß was named Chairman of the Supervisory Committee, Ludwig Klitzsch remained General Director, and Carl Opitz was named Press Officer. In May, an art committee headed by Carl Froelich– but in fact controlled by Goebbels – was founded. This committee proceeded to have a direct influence on Ufa's production planning; it also severely curtailed the work of production head Ernst Hugo Correll. In 1939, Correll was fired after refusing to join the Nazi Party.

At the time of its nationalisation, among the production facilities belonging to Ufa were 27 film studios, nine of which were in Neubabelsberg (Potsdam-Babelsberg), and seven of which were in Berlin-Tempelhof, including three that belonged to Carl Froelich-Film GmbH in name only. UFA also had two dubbing studios, a mixing studio, two animation studios, two ateliers for advertising films, one for cartoons and a small training atelier.

The release of the Technicolor film The Wizard of Oz (Victor Fleming, 1939) in the United States was a heavy influence for Nazi Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels. By 1940 the German research laboratory Agfa was producing its own version of coloured film that had “caught up with the Americans in [colour cinematography]” according to Goebbels’ diary.

The first German feature film to be made in colour, and one of the most expensive films produced during the Third Reich was the musical comedy Frauen sind doch bessere Diplomaten/Women Are Better Diplomats (Georg Jacoby, 1941), starring Marika Rökk, Willy Fritsch and Aribert Wäscher. It was based on a novel by Hans Flemming. The film was among the most popular German films of the early war years.

In 1941, Goebbels ordered the production of another colour film, Münchhausen (Josef von Baky, 1943) starring Hans Albers, in order to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the Ufa. The Jubiläumsfilm, or anniversary film, was commissioned by Goebbels, and Reichsfilmdramaturg Fritz Hippler was chosen to oversee the film's production. Hippler hired author Erich Kästner for the screenplay, a decision met with controversy as several of Kästner's previous works such as Fabian were banned after 1933 when the Nazi party began heavy censorship of the arts.

The production of Münchhausen began in 1941 with an initial budget of over 4.5 million Reichsmarks that increased to over 6.5 million, after Goebbels’ intentions to “surpass the special effects and color artistry” of Alexander Korda's Technicolor film The Thief of Bagdad (Ludwig Berger, Michael Powell, Tim Whelan, 1940). The budget for the film allowed Von Báky and his production staff nearly limitless opportunities to display the superlative nature of Kästner's vision of Baron von Münchhausen. Münchhausen represented the pinnacle of the Volksfilm style of propaganda designed to entertain the masses and distract the population from the war, borrowing the Hollywood genre of large budget productions with extensive colourful visuals.

On 10 January 1942, Ufa officially became the subsidiary of UFA-Film GmbH (UFI), into which all German film production was merged. Other companies were dissolved or integrated into UFA at the time, including Bavaria Film, Berlin-Film, Terra Film and Tobis AG, which became additional production units. Film production in the captured nations was also brought under its aegis.

At this point, the UFA staff hierarchy was reorganized according to the Nazi Führer principle. The coordination of individual sub-groups of the UFI Corporation was the job of the newly appointed Reich Film Director-General. The production heads worked for the administrative director general and were responsible for the overall planning of annual programming and content design all the way up to the actual shooting of the film: these heads were also responsible for giving instructions to the film line producers and directors. It was subsequently fully nationalised in mid-1944.

Remarkable films from these years are the comedy Die Feuerzangenbowle/The Punch Bowl (Helmut Weiss, 1944), starring Heinz Rühmann, and the perfidious propaganda film Kolberg (Veit Harlan, 1945), starring Kristina Söderbaum and Heinrich George. One of the last films of the Third Reich, it was intended as a Nazi propaganda piece to bolster the will of the German population to resist the Allies. It was the most expensive Ufa film of all times, costing 8.5 million marks, and premiered on 30 January 1945.

The poetic love story Unter den Brücken/Under the Bridges, filmed on the rivers around Potsdam, was directed by Helmut Käutner and starred Hannelore Schroth, Carl Raddatz and Gustav Knuth. The film drama uses poetic realism to portray the everyday lives and romances of two Havel boatmen. Unter den Brücken was shot in Berlin during the summer of 1944, but was not released until after the defeat of Nazi Germany. It premiered in Locarno in September 1946, and wasn't released in Germany until 1950. It is now seen as one of the maserpieces of the German war time cinema.


Marika Rökk. German postcard by Film-Foto-Verlag, no. A 3707/1, 1941-1944. Photo: Baumann.


German postcard by Film-Foto-Verlag, no. A 3728/2, 1941-1944. Photo: von Stwolinski / Ufa. Hans Albers in the film Münchhausen/The Adventures of Baron Munchhausen (Josef von Baky, 1943).


Heinrich George. German postcard by Film-Foto-Verlag, no. 3417/1, 1941-1944. Photo: Paul Moser, Berlin.


Kristina Söderbaum. German Postcard by Film Foto Verlag, no. A 3790/1. Photo: Baumann / Ufa.


Carl Raddatz and Hannelore Schroth. German postcard by Film-Foto-Verlag, no. 3954/1, 1941-1944. Photo: Baumann / Ufa.

Occupied by the Red Army

In late April 1945, the UFA ateliers in Potsdam-Babelsberg and Berlin-Tempelhof were occupied by the Red Army. All activities in the film industry were placed under strict licensing regulations and all films were subject to censorship. The Soviet military government, which was in favour of a speedy reconstruction of the German film industry under Soviet supervision, incorporated the Babelsberg ateliers into DEFA, subsequently the GDR's state film studio, on 17 May 1946.

In contrast, the main film-policy goal of the Allied occupying forces, under American insistence, consisted in preventing any future accumulation of power in the German film industry. The Western powers also had more interest in opening up the German film market for their own products rather than in letting the national film industry regain its foothold. Thus the reorganisation of Germany's film industry outside the Soviet zone was very slow.

After the privatisation of Bavaria and UFA in 1956 in West-Germany, the company was restructured to form Universum Film AG and taken over by a consortium of banks. In 1964, Bertelsmann's Chief Representative, Manfred Köhnlechner, acquired the entire Universum Film AG from Deutsche Bank, which had previously been the main UFA shareholder and which had determined the company's business policy as head of the shareholders' consortium.

Köhnlechner bought UFA, which was strongly in debt, on behalf of Reinhard Mohn for roughly five million Deutschmarks. Köhnlechner: "The question came up as to why not take the entire thing, it still had many gems." Only a few months later, Köhnlechner also acquired the UFA-Filmtheaterkette, a film theatre chain, for almost eleven million Deutschmarks.

In 1997, UFA and the Luxembourgish rival CLT established the joint venture CLT-UFA, which, following the takeover of British rival Pearson TV, was restructured as RTL Group in 2000. Today, UFA GmbH (UFA) works as a subsidiary of RTL Group's production division FremantleMedia, which had been formed out of Pearson TV, and is responsible for all production activities of Bertelsmann and FremantleMedia in Germany.

Until August 2013, eight subsidiaries operated under the UFA umbrella: UFA Fernsehproduktion, UFA Entertainment, Grundy UFA, Grundy Light Entertainment, UFA Cinema, Teamworx, Phoenix Film and UFA Brand Communication. In August 2013, UFA underwent an organisational restructuring that simplified the company down to three production divisions. From then on, UFA Fiction, UFA Serial Drama and UFA Show & Factual are the three units responsible for production. In February 2019, Universum (UFA) was sold to Kohlberg Kravis Roberts.


Truus van Aalten. German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 5321/1, 1930-1931. Photo: Ufa.


Else Elster. German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 6755/1, 1931-1932. Photo: Ufa.


Hertha Thiele. German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 6999/1, 1931-1932. Photo: Ufa.


Renate Müller. German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 7278/3, 1932-1933. Photo: Ufa.


Viktor de Kowa. German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 8909/1, 1933-1934. Photo: Ufa.


German postcard by Ross Verlag. no. 9128/1, 1935-1936. Photo: Ufa. Adolf Wohlbrück (Anton Walbrook) in Zigeunerbaron/The Gypsy Baron (Karl Hartl, 1935).


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 9172/3, 1935-1936. Photo: Ufa. Willy Fritsch in Amphitryon/Amphitryon - Happiness from the Clouds (Reinhold Schünzel, 1935).


Peter Bosse. German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 9845/1, 1935-1936. Photo: Ufa.


Grethe Weiser. German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. A 2897/1, 1939-1940. Photo: Ufa / Baumann.


Zarah Leander. German postcard by Film-Foto-Verlag, no. G 124, 1941-1944. Photo: Foto Quick / Ufa.

Sources: Wikipedia, Filmportal.de (German) and IMDb.

American actress Shelley Winters (1920-2006) appeared in dozens of films, as well as on stage and television. She was a major film presence for six decades, and turned herself from a Blonde Bombshell into a widely-respected actress who won two Oscars, for The Diary of Anne Frank (1959) and A Patch of Blue (1965). Less known, Winters also appeared in several European films, including Alfie (1966) and Roman Polanski's Le Locataire (1976).


Italian postcard by Bromofoto, Milano, no. 273.


Italian postcard by Bromofoto, Milano, no. 316. Photo: Universal International.


Italian postcard by Bromofoto, Milano, no. 830. Photo: Universal International.

The limitations of the Blonde Bombshell role

Shelley Winters was born Shirley Schrift in St. Louis, Missouri, in 1920. She was the daughter of Rose (née Winter), a singer with The Muny, and Jonas Schrift, a designer of men's clothing; her parents were Jewish immigrants. Her family moved to Brooklyn, New York when she was three years old.

Winters studied at The New School in New York City, where she appeared in high school plays. Her first film was What a Woman! (Irving Cummings, 1943) starring Rosalind Russell. Throughout the 1940s, she mostly played bit roles and studied in the Hollywood Studio Club.

In the late 1940s, she shared an apartment with another newcomer, Marilyn Monroe. Winters achieved stardom with her breakout performance as the the party girl waitress who ends as the victim of insane actor Ronald Colman in A Double Life (George Cukor, 1947).

She quickly ascended in Hollywood with leading roles in The Great Gatsby (Elliott Nugent, 1949) with Alan Ladd, and Winchester 73 (Anthony Mann, 1950), opposite James Stewart. Universal Pictures built her up as a Blonde Bombshell but she quickly tired of the role's limitations.

She washed off her makeup and played against type to set up Elizabeth Taylor's beauty in A Place in the Sun (George Stevens, 1951), still a landmark American film. Her performance brought Winters acclaim and a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actress.

Throughout the 1950s, Winters continued to star in films, including Meet Danny Wilson (Joseph Pevney, 1952) as Frank Sinatra's leading lady, and most notably in Charles Laughton's Night of the Hunter (1955), with Robert Mitchum and Lillian Gish.

In Great Britain she played in the Christopher Isherwood adaptation I Am a Camera (Henry Cornelius, 1955) opposite Julie Harris and Laurence Harvey, and in Italy in Mambo (Robert Rossen, 1954) opposite Silvana Mangano and her second husband Vittorio Gassman.

She also returned to the stage on various occasions during this time, including a Broadway run in 'A Hatful of Rain' (1955–1956), opposite future, third husband Anthony Franciosa. Although she was now in demand as a character actress, Winters continued to study her craft. She attended Charles Laughton's Shakespeare classes and worked at the Actors Studio, both as student and teacher.


Belgian collectors card by De Beukelaer, Anvers, no. A 7. Photo: Universal International.


Belgian postcard, no. 17. Caption: Sally Winters (sic).


Belgian postcard, no. 163. Photo: Universal.


Belgian postcard, no. 652.


Belgian postcard, no. 1052. Photo: R.K.O. Publicity still for Behave Yourself! (George Beck, 1951) with Farley Granger.

The fading, alcoholic former starlet

In 1960, Shelley Winters won an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress for The Diary of Anne Frank (George Stevens, 1959), and six years later, she won another Oscar, in the same category, for A Patch of Blue (Guy Green, 1965). She donated her Oscar for The Diary of Anne Frank to the Anne Frank House in Amsterdam.

Notable roles during the 1960s included her lauded performance as the man-hungry Charlotte Haze in Stanley Kubrick's Lolita (Stanley Kubrick, 1962); starring opposite Michael Caine in Alfie (Lewis Gilbert, 1966), and as the fading, alcoholic former starlet Fay Estabrook in Harper (Jack Smight, 1966).

The following decade she could be seen in The Poseidon Adventure (Ronald Neame, 1972) as the ill-fated Belle Rosen (for which she received her final Oscar nomination), and in Next Stop, Greenwich Village (Paul Mazursky, 1976).

Winters also starred in interesting European films like Roman Polanski’s thriller Le Locataire/The Tenant (1976) with Isabelle Adjani, and Mario Monicelli’s drama Un borghese piccolo piccolo/A Very Little Man (1977) with Alberto Sordi.

She also returned to the stage during the 1960s and 1970s, most notably in Tennessee Williams''Night of the Iguana'. She appeared in such cult films as Wild in the Streets (Barry Shear, 1968), Bloody Mama (Roger Corman, 1970) and Whoever Slew Auntie Roo? (Curtis Harrington, 1971). She also starred in the Broadway musical 'Minnie's Boys' (1970) as Minnie Marx, the mother of Groucho, Harpo, Chico, Zeppo, and Gummo Marx.

During her 50 years as a widely known personality, Winters was rarely out of the news. Her stormy marriages, her romances with famous stars, her forays into politics, and feminist causes kept her name before the public. She delighted in giving provocative interviews and seemed to have an opinion on everything.

That led to a second career as a writer. She recalled her conquests in her autobiographies, like 'Shelley Also Known As Shirley', and wrote of a yearly rendezvous she kept with William Holden, as well as her affairs with Sean Connery, Burt Lancaster, Errol Flynn, Farley Granger and Marlon Brando.

Winters gained significant weight later in life, but lost much of it for (or before) an appearance at the 1998 Academy Awards telecast, which featured a tribute to Oscar winners past and present. In a recurring role in the 1990s, Winters played the title character's grandmother on the ABC sitcom Roseanne.

Her final film roles were supporting ones: she played a restaurant owner and mother of an overweight cook in Heavy (James Mangold, 1995), with Liv Tyler and Debbie Harry, and as an aristocrat in The Portrait of a Lady (Jane Campion, 1996), starring Nicole Kidman and John Malkovich. Her final film was the Italian comedy La bomba (Giulio Base, 1999) with her former husband Vittorio Gassman (whose last film this was too) and his son Alessandro Gassman.

Winters was married four times; her husbands were: Captain Mack Paul Mayer, whom she married on New Year's Day, 1942; they divorced in October 1948. Winters wore his wedding ring up until her death, and kept their relationship very private. In 1952, she married Vittorio Gassman. They divorced in 1954 and had one child, Vittoria (1953), a physician, who practices internal medicine at Norwalk Hospital in Norwalk, Connecticut. She was Winters' only child. Later husbands were Anthony Franciosa (1957-1960) and long-time companion Gerry DeFord, whom she married hours before her death in 2006.

Shelley Winters died at the age of 85 on 14 January 2006, of heart failure at the Rehabilitation Centre of Beverly Hills.


Belgian collectors card by Kwatta, Bois-d'Haine, no. C. 335. Photo: MGM. Publicity still for My Man and I (William A. Wellman, 1952).


British postcard in the Picturegoer Series, London, no. W 817. Photo: Universal-International.


Dutch postcard by DRC, no. F 210. Photo: M.G.M.


Italian postcard, no. 575.


German postcard by Kunst und Bild, Berlin, no. A 133. Photo: Universal International.

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

Temperamental and beautiful Viviane Romance (1912-1991) played dozens of flirts, femme fatales and fallen women in black & white classics of the French cinema of the 1930s and 1940s.


French postcard by Viny, no. 12. Photo: Paris Film. Publicity still for Naples au baiser de feu/Naples Under the Kiss of Fire (Augusto Genina, 1937).


French postcard by Editions P.I., Paris, no. 13.


French postcard by P.I., Paris, no. 2. Publicity still for Carmen (Christian-Jaque, 1944).

French postcard by Ed. Chantal, Rueil, no. 24. Photo: Discina. Publicity still for Carmen (Christian-Jaque, 1944).


French postcard by Ed. Chantal, Rueil, no. 554 B. Photo: Sirius. Publicity still for Cartacalha, reine des gitans/Cartacalha (Léon Mathot, 1942).

Miss Paris

Viviane Romance was born Pauline Arlette Ortmans in 1912 in Roubaix, France.

At 13, she made her debut as a bit player at the Théâtre Sarah-Bernhardt, then did some modelling work, and at 14, she joined the troupe at the Moulin Rouge in Paris. She also performed the 'Can-can' at the legendary Parisian nightclub Bal Tabarin. In 1930, Viviane was elected Miss Paris, and caused a small scandal because she had a child.

She made her film debut with a cameo role in Paris-girls (Henry Roussell, 1929) with Fernand Fabre. She appeared in several films over the next few years, including La Chienne/The Bitch (Jean Renoir, 1931), Liliom (Fritz Lang, 1934), and Zouzou (Marc Allégret, 1934). Opposite Jean Gabin, she played in La Bandera/The Bandage (Julien Duvivier, 1935).

Princesse Tam Tam/Princess Tam Tam (Edmond T. Gréville, 1935) was a French adaptation of G.B. Shaw'sPygmalion with Josephine Baker as a beautiful native African woman, who is ‘westernised’ by a handsome writer and then introduced to high society as an exotic princess.

Viviane Romance made a strong impression in La belle équipe/The Good Crew (Julien Duvivier, 1936) as the sensual Gina who plots the destruction of Jean Gabin’s character because he refuses to make love to her. La belle équipe constituted a milestone in the French Cinema. From this time on Romance was regarded as one of France's leading film actresses and an insurance at the box office.


French postcard by Editions P.I., Paris, no. 126. Photo: Discina.


French postcard by SERP, Paris, no. 41. Photo: Studio Harcourt.


French postcard by EPC, no. 166. Photo: A.C.E.


French postcard by Editions P.I., Paris, no. 13.


French postcard by Viny, no. 24. Photo: Star.

Fallen Women With Hearts of Gold

Viviane Romance reportedly was offered a Hollywood film contract, but she rejected. She preferred to make films in her native France and many noted directors asked her to. However, she also resided for many years in Italy where she made several Italian language films in the 1950s.

Throughout her career she played dozens of exotic femme fatales, courtesans, vamps and fallen women with hearts of gold. Among her best films during the occupation of France were Angélica/Blood Red Rose (Jean Choux, 1940), and the excellent melodrama Vénus aveugle/Blind Venus (Abel Gance, 1941). She also starred in the title role of Carmen (Christian-Jaque, 1944), a French-Italian version of the famous opera by Georges Bizet.

After the war followed the dark thriller Panique/Panic (Julien Duvivier, 1946) based on a novel by Georges Siménon, Passion (Georges Lampin, 1951) and the anthology film Les Sept péchés capitaux/The Seven Deadly Sins (Yves Allégret, 1952). Her last film from this period was Pitié pour les vamps/Pity for the Vamps (Jean Josipovici, 1956).

She went into production with her then-husband Clément Duhour, but without much success. After 1956 her acting roles were few, and she suffered considerable financial hardship. In 1962, she starred with Jean Gabin in the suspenser Mélodie en sous-sol/Any Number Can Win (Henri Verneuil, 1962).

Eventually she re-appeared on television in the early 1970s. In 1973 she made one final film appearance in the thriller Nada/The Nada Gang (Claude Chabrol, 1974), answering a special request by director Claude Chabrol. It was her 65th film.

She published her memoirs, Romantique à mourir in 1986. Viviane Romance died of cancer in 1991 in Nice, France. She had married and divorced three times. Her spouses were actor Georges Flamant, actor Clément Duhour and director Jean Josipovici.


French collectors card by Massilia. Photo: Paris Film Production. Publicity still for Naples au baiser de feu/Naples Under the Kiss of Fire (Augusto Genina, 1937).


French postcard by Editions P.I., Paris, no. 37. Sent by mail in 1944. Photo: Star.


French postcard by Erpé, no. 509. Photo: Star.


French postcard by A.C.E., no. 138.


Vintage collectors card, no. A 62.


French postcard by Edit. Chantal, Rueil, no. 554-S. Photo: R.A.C. Publicity still for Le joueur/The Player (Gerhard Lamprecht, Louis Daquin, 1938).


Italian postcard. Photo:Scalera. Viviane Romance and Georges Flamant in Rose di sangue/Angélica (Jean Choux, 1939), based on the novel 'Les compagnons d'Ulysse' by Pierre Benoît.


German postcard. Photo: IFA-Film. Publicity still for Carmen (Christian-Jaque, 1945).


French postcard, no. 554. Photo: Films Derby. Collection: Didier Hanson.


French postcard by Editions du Globe, Paris, no. 161. Photo: Studio Harcourt.


French postcard by Editions O.P., Paris, no. 314. Photo: Teddy Piaz.


Dutch postcard by Takken, no. 1923.


French postcard by Editions P.I., Paris, no. 454. Photo: Sam Lévin.

Sources: Hal Erickson (AllMovie), I.S.Mowis (IMDb), Yvan Foucart (Les gens du cinema - French), Wikipedia, and IMDb.

The Red Shoes (Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger, 1948) is one of the best films about ballet thanks to the vision of its directors. The ballets, 'The Red Shoes ballet' by Sir Robert Helpmann and 'The Shoemaker' by Leonide Massine, are magnificently staged. The glorious Technicolor cinematography by Jack Cardiff is tremendous. Moira Shearer with her red hair and peaches and cream skin projects a refined presence in the film that is hard to forget. Cinematography, music, acting and ballet combined make a timeless classic with a vivid look that 70 years after, still appears fresh and glamorous.


Moira Shearer. British postcard by 'The People' Show Parade Picture Service, London, no. P. 1041. Photo: J. Arthur Rank Organisation Ltd.


British postcard in the Picturegoer Series, London, no. W. 649. Photo: J. Arthur Rank Organisation Ltd. Moira Shearer in The Red Shoes (Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger, 1948).


British postcard in the Picturegoer Series, London, no. W. 650. Photo: J. Arthur Rank Organisation Ltd. Moira Shearer and Robert Helpmann in The Red Shoes (Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger, 1948).

Torn between Lermontov's demands and those of her heart

The Red Shoes (Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger, 1948) is basically a fairy tale loosely based on a Hans Christian Andersen story. Emeric Pressburger's story appears simple at first glance, but is a challenging study of the value and purpose of art, and of aestheticism as a creed.

At a performance by the Ballet Lermontov at Covent Garden Opera House, music student Julian Craster (Marius Goring) is in attendance to hear the ballet score 'Heart of Fire', composed by his teacher, Professor Palmer. Separately present is Victoria 'Vicky' Page (Moira Shearer), a young, unknown dancer from an aristocratic background, with her aunt, Lady Neston. As 'Heart of Fire' progresses, Julian recognises the music as one of his own compositions.

During the performance, Professor Palmer receives an invitation to an after-ballet party at Lady Neston's residence, also asking charismatic Boris Lermontov (Anton Walbrook), the company impresario, to attend. Julian leaves the performance in disillusionment at his professor's plagiarism of his music. Lermontov and Vicki meet, and he invites her to a rehearsal of the company.

Julian has written to Lermontov to explain the circumstances behind Heart of Fire, but then tries to retrieve the letter. Lermontov's assistant Dimitri thwarts all attempts by Julian to gain entry to Lermontov's suite, but finally Lermontov gives Julian an audience. Julian says that he wishes to retrieve his letter before Lermontov has seen it, except that Lermontov has already read the letter.

Lermontov asks Julian to play one of his own works at the piano. After hearing Julian play, he hires him as a répétiteur for the company orchestra and assistant to the company's conductor, Livingstone Montague. Lermontov realises that Julian was the true composer of 'Heart of Fire'.

Julian and Vicky arrive for work at the Ballet Lermontov on the same day. Later, Vicky dances with Ballet Rambert in a matinee performance of Swan Lake at the Mercury Theatre, Notting Hill Gate, in a production with a company led by Marie Rambert (who appears in the film as herself in a wordless cameo). Watching this performance, Lermontov realises her potential and invites Vicky to go with Ballet Lermontov to Paris and Monte Carlo. He decides to create a starring role for her in a new ballet, 'The Red Shoes', for which Julian is to provide the music.

Under the authoritarian rule of Lermontov, his proteges realise the full promise of their talents, but at a price: utter devotion to their art and complete loyalty to Lermontov himself. Under his near-obsessive guidance, Vicky is poised for superstardom, but earns Lermontov's scorn when she falls in love with Julian. Vicky leaves the company and marries Craster, but still finds herself torn between Lermontov's demands and those of her heart.

At the 21st Academy Awards, The Red Shoes won awards for Best Original Score and Best Art Direction. It also had nominations for Best Picture, Best Original Screenplay and Best Film Editing.


British postcard in the Picturegoer Series, London, no. W. 651. Photo: J. Arthur Rank Organisation Ltd. Moira Shearer in The Red Shoes (Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger, 1948).


British postcard in the Picturegoer Series, London, no. W. 653. Photo: J. Arthur Rank Organisation Ltd. Moira Shearer, Robert Helpmann and Leonide Massine in The Red Shoes (Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger, 1948).


British postcard in the Picturegoer Series, London, no. W. 654. Photo: J. Arthur Rank Organisation Ltd. Moira Shearer, Robert Helpmann and Leonide Massine in The Red Shoes (Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger, 1948).


British Real Photo postcard by Rotary Photographic Company, London, no. F.S. 20. Caption: [Leonide] Massine conducts a class with the Principals and the Corps de Ballet in the Rehearsal Room at Covent Garden for the film The Red Shoes.

Sources: Wikipedia and IMDb.

American film actress and former top model Kim Basinger (1953) won an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress in L.A. Confidential (1997). Her other films include Never Say Never Again (1983), Nine ½ Weeks (1986), Batman (1989), and 8 Mile (2002). She was married to actor Alec Baldwin from 1993 to 2001.


French postcard, no. C 324. Photo: publicity still for Never Say Never Again (Irvin Kershner, 1983). The tiger print one piece Basinger wears in Never Say Never Again (1983)'s final scene was given to her by the Playboy organisation.


French postcard by Editions F. Nugeron, Paris, no. 2. Photo: Collection de l'École de Cinéma CAMIRIS. Publicity still for Nine ½ Weeks (Adrian Lyne, 1986) with Mickey Rourke.


French postcard by Editions F. Nugeron, no. 18. Photo: Collection de l'École de Cinéma CAMIRIS, Lyon. Kim Basinger in Nadine (Robert Benton, 1987).


French postcard by Editions Mercuri, no. 88. Photo: Warner Bros inc. Photo: publicity still for Batman (Tim Burton, 1989) with Michael Keaton.


British postcard by Heroes Publishing Ltd., London, no. SPC2429. Kim Basinger in Batman (Tim Burton, 1989).

Financial success came along with new found fame

Kimila Ann Basinger was born in 1953, in Athens, Georgia. She comes from an entertainment background. Her father was a musician, who played big-band jazz and her mother was a dancer, who had performed water ballet in several Esther Williams movies.

As a schoolgirl, she was very shy. To help her overcome this, her parents had Kim study ballet from an early age. At 16, Basinger branched out into beauty pageants. She won the title of Junior Miss Georgia and competed at the national Junior Miss event in New York City.

While in New York, Basinger caught the eye of a modelling agent at the Ford Modeling Agency. She soon landed a contract and first gained fame as a model for Breck Shampoo. At the age of 20, Kim was a top model commanding $1,000 a day. Throughout the early 1970s, she appeared on dozens of magazine covers and in hundreds of ads.

In the mid-1970s, Basinger moved to Los Angeles to pursue a career in acting. She landed a number of small parts at first, making guest appearances on such shows as Charlie's Angels. In 1978, Basinger starred in the TV movie Katie: Portrait of a Centerfold. She portrayed Lorene Rogers in the Miniseries From Here to Eternity (1979) and its short-lived spin-off series the following year.

In 1980, she married make-up artist Ron Snyder (they divorced in 1989). Basinger made her film debut in the Western drama Hard Country (David Greene, 1981) with Jan-Michael Vincent. Two years later, her career started to skyrocket with the James Bond film Never Say Never Again (Irvin Kershner, 1983) starring Sean Connery and with Basinger as the 'Bond girl'.

More major film projects soon followed, including The Natural (Barry Levinson, 1984) with Robert Redford, and the steamy romance 9 1/2 Weeks (Adrian Lyne, 1986) with Mickey Rourke. She played a small-town Texan beauty in Nadine (Robert Benton, 1987). Her breakout role was as photojournalist Vicki Vale in the blockbuster hit Batman (Tim Burton, 1989) with Michael Keaton.

Kim was a last-minute replacement for Sean Young. This took her to a career high. Financial success also came along with her new found fame. But Basinger became known for her unusual business decisions. In 1989, she and some other investors bought the town of Braselton, in her native Georgia, for $20 million. Basinger sought to make the community near Atlanta a tourist destination, but she ended up selling it five years later as she faced personal bankruptcy.


Vintage postcard, no. X 142. Photo: publicity still for Nine ½ Weeks (Adrian Lyne, 1986) with Mickey Rourke.


French postcard in the Collection Cinéma by Studio Magazine, no. PSM 399. Photo: Christophe D'Yvoire.


British postcard, no. 1003.


British postcard by New Line, no. 146.

One of Hollywood's most attractive yet volatile couples

While making The Marrying Man (Jerry Rees, 1991), Kim Basinger fell for her co-star Alec Baldwin. The pair wed in 1993, becoming one of Hollywood's most attractive yet volatile couples. Basinger and Baldwin welcomed their only child together in 1995. They named their daughter Ireland. Kim took some time off to stay at home with her child.

Basinger's career had floundered a bit. In 1993, she found herself in an intense legal battle after breaking a verbal agreement to appear in Jennifer Lynch's Boxing Helena (1993). The court sided with the film's producers, ordering the actress to pay millions for breach of contract. The case was later overturned on appeal.

In 1997, Basinger gave one of her greatest performances in L.A. Confidential (Curtis Hanson, 1997) opposite Kevin Spacey and Russell Crowe. She starred as a high-end prostitute with an intentional resemblance to actress Veronica Lake in this 1950s crime drama. She won an Academy Award for her work on the film.

Despite this acclaim, Basinger soon appeared in more headlines than film roles. She filed for divorce from her husband Alec Baldwin in 2001 and spent years locked in a bitter custody dispute over their daughter.

After her divorce, Kim Basinger took on few acting roles. She reteamed with L.A. Confidential director Curtis Hanson for the rap drama 8 Mile (Curtis Hanson, 2002) in which she played the mother of Eminem. Two years later, she co-starred with Jeff Bridges in The Door in the Floor (Tod Williams, 2004) and with Chris Evans and Jason Statham in the thriller Cellular (David R. Ellis, 2004).

Basinger's later films include Charlie St. Cloud (Burr Steers, 2010) with Zac Efron, and Grudge Match (Peter Segal, 2013) with Robert De Niro and Sylvester Stallone. She has also made a return to modelling, signing with IMG Models in 2013.

Kim Basinger is a strict vegetarian, who devoted energy to animal rights issues and posed for anti-fur advertisements of PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals).

Recently, she appeared in the film The Nice Guys (Shane Black, 2016) with Russell Crowe and Ryan Gosling and the Fifty Shades of Grey (Sam Taylor-Johnson, 2015) sequels Fifty Shades Darker (James Foley, 2017) and Fifty Shades Freed (James Foley, 2018) with Dakota Johnson and Jamie Dornan.


French postcard by Sonis, no. C 62. Photo: Warner Bros inc. Photo: publicity still for Batman (Tim Burton, 1989).


Italian postcard by Teletutto in the Le più belle del mondo series, no. 7.


British postcard, no. MM 196.


Belgian postcard in 'De 50 mooiste vrouwen van de eeuw' (The 50 most beautiful women of the century) series by P magazine, no. 20. Photo: Sante D'Orazio / Outline.


Spanish postcard in the Collecciòn 'Estrellas cinematográficas' by Cacitel, no. 39.


Vintage postcard, no. X238.

Sources: Biography.com, Wikipedia and IMDb.

DEFA was the state-owned film studio of the German Democratic Republic (GDR - East Germany). DEFA was an abbreviation for 'Deutsche Film AG' (German Film Corporation), reminiscent of the corporate name Ufa. It existed from 1946 to its liquidation in 1990 – nearly 45 years, longer than the GDR itself. The DEFA fostered a wide range of artistic developments. Alongside the ongoing production of light entertainment, it made films in the style of socialist realism, fairy tales and literary adaptations, staunchly antifascist films and Easterns (Indianerfilme) with a political subtext, as well as productions which took a critical view of contemporary social issues and provoked conflicts and bans.


East-German postcard by VEB Progress Film-Vertrieb, Berlin, no. 7/319. 1957. Photo: DEFA.

Rebellious, gravel-voiced actress, chanteuse and author Hildegard Knef (1925-2002) was one of the most important film stars of post-war Germany. She had her breakthrough in the first film released after World War II in East Germany, Die Mörder sind unter uns/The Murderers Are Among Us (Wolfgang Staudte, 1946), produced by the DEFA. Her powerful performance as a Holocaust survivor amid the ruins of postwar Berlin made her immediately a star. Over 4 million East-Germans went to the cinema to see it.


German postcard by Starfoto Hasemann. Photo: DEFA. Publicity still for Freies Land/A Free Country (Milo Harbich, 1946).

Fritz Wagner (1915-1982) was a handsome German star in the European cinema of the 1940s and 1950s. From 1938 to 1976, he appeared in more than sixty films and TV productions. After the war, he played a leading role in the drama Freies Land/A Free Country (Milo Harbich, 1946) the second film of the newly founded DEFA studio in the Soviet occupation zone which later became East Germany. The propaganda film portrayed the effects of land reforms brought in by the Soviet authorities. It would be the only DEFA film until the mid-1950s that dealt with the hardships of East-Germany's rural life, and was heavily influenced by the Italian Neorealism of that time. Most people in the film weren't professional actors but farmers. The film proved to be very unsuccessful on its release. For the DEFA, he also played a leading role in the war drama Die Brücke/The Bridge (Arthur Pohl, 1949), and in Der Kahn der fröhlichen Leute/The boat of the happy people (Hans Heinrich, 1950) which sold more than 4,100,000 tickets.


East-German postcard by VEB Progress Filmvertrieb, no. 620/64. Photo: DEFA / Neufeld. Publicity still for Figaros Hochzeit/The Marriage of Figaro (Georg Wildhagen, 1949).

Austrian Angelika Hauff (1922–1983) played the lead in several post-war German and Austrian films. For the DEFA, she appeared in three films, including the box office hit Figaros Hochzeit/The Marriage of Figaro (Georg Wildhagen, 1949) with Willy Domgraf-Fassbaender and Sabine Peters. It was based on the opera 'The Marriage of Figaro' by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Lorenzo da Ponte, which was itself based on the play 'The Marriage of Figaro' by Pierre Beaumarchais. Hauff plays the chambermaid Susanna, around whom the men fight. The film was the first opera film made by DEFA and it was a huge success with 5,479,427 tickets sold.

A primary means of re-educating the German populace

The DEFA was officially founded on 17 May 17, 1946 in the former Althoff Studios in Potsdam-Babelsberg, part of the Soviet Occupied Zone in eastern Germany. It was the first film production company in post-war Germany. While the other Allies, in their zones of occupation, viewed a rapid revival of a German film industry with suspicion, the Soviets valued the medium as a primary means of re-educating the German populace as it emerged from twelve years of Nazi rule. The Soviet Military Administration (SMAD) handed over the license to 'Filmaktiv', a group of committed filmmakers and German Communist Party (KPD) members.

However, Wolfgang Staudte had already begun work on DEFA's first film, Die Mörder sind unter uns/The Murderers Are Among Us (1946) a few days days earlier. The first DEFA production was also Germany's very first post-war film. Staudte's film launched a long-term DEFA policy: in its style, content and ideology, it was a reaction against the propaganda films of Nazi Germany, a tactic which was to be especially successful in the DEFA's early classics. Stylistically, Die Mörder sind unter uns carried on the expressionist lighting tradition of the 1920s.

In Freies Land/Free Land (1946), Milo Harbich tried to synthesise stylistic elements of Soviet revolutionary film with didactic sermons on land reform. Kurt Maetzigs first feature film, Ehe im Schatten/Marriage in the Shadows (Kurt Maetzig, 1947), tells the story of married actors driven to suicide by the Nazis' anti-Semitic persecution, based on the fate of Joachim Gottschalk and his wife. The film was shown in all four occupation zones and drew more than ten million viewers in three years. Wolfgang Staudte's Rotation (1949) took a new approach to early 20th century German history by showing the lives of proletarian families, a contrast to the bourgeois perspective which had hitherto predominated.

The original board of directors consisted of Alfred Lindemann, Karl Hans Bergmann, and Herbert Volkmann, with Hans Klering as administrative Secretary. Klering, a former graphic designer, also designed DEFA's logo. On 13 August 1946, the company was officially registered as a joint-stock company (German: Aktiengesellschaft). By the end of the year, in addition to the Staudte film, it had completed two other feature films using the former Tobis studio facilities in Berlin and the Althoff Studios in Babelsberg. Subsequently, its principal studio was the Babelsberg Studio built by Ufa in the 1920s.

The DEFA was controlled by the Soviets. On 14 July 1947, the company officially moved its headquarters to the Babelsberg Studio, and on 13 November 1947, the company's 'stock' was taken over by the Socialist Unity Party or SED, which had originally capitalised DEFA, and pro-Soviet German individuals. Soviets Ilya Trauberg and Aleksandr Wolkenstein joined Lindemann, Bergmann and Volkmann on the board of directors, and a committee was established under the auspices of the Socialist Unity Party to review projects and screen rushes.

In July 1948, Lindemann was dismissed from the board of directors because of alleged 'financial irregularities' and replaced briefly by Walter Janka. In October 1948, the SED was instrumental in replacing Janka, Volkmann and Bergmann as corporate directors with official party members Wilhelm Meissner, Alexander Lösche and Grete Keilson. In December, the death of Trauberg and the resignation of Wolkenstein resulted in two more Soviets in their stead, Aleksandr Andriyevsky and Leonid Antonov.

In 1948, the division of Germany into zones controlled by the Soviet Union and by the Western Allies came into effect. The SED eventually became openly Communist, with a strong Stalinist orientation. On 23 May 1949, the Allies' Germany officially became the Federal Republic of Germany (commonly known as West Germany), and on 7 October 1949, the Soviet zone officially became the German Democratic Republic (East Germany). All DEFA interests were incorporated into the new nation as its 'people's' film monopoly according to the strictures of Stalinist Communism and socialist realism, and effectively an arm of the government.

In 1949 director Kurt Maetzig and the writer Friedrich Wolf exposed the close connections between the Nazis and the giant chemical company IG Farben in the film  Der Rat der Götter/The Council of the Gods (Kurt Maetzig, 1950). Wolfgang Staudte's Der Untertan/Man of Straw (1951) was a scathing satire of German philistinism based on the novel by Heinrich Mann. The film was banned in West Germany for years.

This era at the DEFA came to a close around 1950, when the cultured, more liberal Soviet film officers and inspectors left the country after the founding of the GDR. The DEFA was taken over by German Stalinists like hardliner Sepp Schwab, who was appointed director-general of DEFA on 23 June 1950.


East-German postcard by VEB Progress Film-Vertrieb, no. no. 4213/447, 1957. Photo: DEFA / Wunsch. Publicity still for Das singende, klingende Bäumchen/The Singing Ringing Tree (Francesco Stefani, 1957).

Christel Bodenstein (1938) appeared in many DEFA productions and is best known for her leading role as princess in the fairytale film Das singende, klingende Bäumchen/The Singing Ringing Tree (Francesco Stefani, 1957). The story, written by Anne Geelhaar, was based on a variation of 'Hurleburlebutz' by the Brothers Grimm. Bodenstein played a beautiful but selfish and haughty princess who rejects the proposal of a wealthy prince (Eckart Dux). After its release in East Germany, the film sold almost 6 million tickets in the country of about 17 million.


East-German postcard by VEB Progress Filmvertrieb, no. 966, 1959. Retail price: 0,20 DM. Photo: DEFA / Dassdorf. Publicity still for Reportage 57 (János Veiczi, 1959).

German actor Manfred Krug (1937) was often cast as a socialist hero in DEFA films of the former GDR. He also became known in East-Germany as a jazz singer. In 1977, he returned to West-Germany, where he became a popular TV star.


East-German postcard by VEB Progress Filmvertrieb, Berlin, no. 1329 F, 1960. Photo: Kurt Wunsch.

Doris Abesser (1935–2016) appeared since 1956 in several films by the DEFA and became one of the studio’s most popular stars. She worked with important directors like Frank Beyer, Heiner Carow and Kurt Maetzig. After the film Der Frühling braucht Zeit/Spring Takes Time (Günter Stahnke, 1965) was banned, the promising film career of the fresh and girly actress stalled.


East-German postcard by VEB Progress Film-Vertrieb, Berlin, no. 1649, 1961. Retail price: 0,20 DM. Photo: Schütt / DEFA.

Angelica Domröse (1941) was one of the most famous film and stage actresses of former East Germany. She became a superstar through her role as the young mother Paula in the cult classic Die Legende von Paul und Paula/The Legend of Paul and Paula (Heiner Carow, 1973).



East-German postcard by VEB Progress Filmvertrieb, Berlin, no. 1684, 1962. Photo: Georg Meyer-Hanno.

Gisela May(1924-2016) was the first lady of the political song and a German national treasure. She was famous for her work at Bertolt Brecht's theatre group, the Berliner Ensemble. She was a diseuse (singing actress) in the tradition established by Lotte Lenya and Marlene Dietrich, and expert interpreter of the work of Brecht, Kurt Weill, Hanns Eisler, Kurt Tucholsky, and Jacques Brel. She also appeared in several DEFA productions and a few international films.

The definition of desirable and acceptable themes for films becoming narrower

Hans Michael Bock at Filmportal.de: "The DEFA was based on the kind of traditional studio structure used in the Ufa and in Hollywood of the 1930s, but with one crucial difference: in Hollywood and even in Nazi Germany a number of production companies existed in competition, while in the GDR there was only one, and it was controlled by state and party functionaries, with the Hauptverwaltung Film playing the crucial role from 1954 onward. The official policy was to hire no directors or screenwriters tainted by association with National Socialist propaganda films. However, those who had worked in a 'merely' technical capacity during that period were welcome."

In the tradition of all major studios, the DEFA Studios in Potsdam-Babelsberg (the former 'Ufa city') had professionals in nearly all branches of the film industry on its payroll: screenwriters, directors, scenographers, cameramen, technicians and even an ensemble of actors. The result was a high level of technical expertise, especially in the field of set design, where the old German tradition of masters and apprentices continued to flourish.

On the other hand, artistic freedom and risk-taking was limited. As Soviet-Communist-Stalinist influences took hold at DEFA, the definition of desirable and acceptable themes for films became narrower. In June 1947, a film writer's conference held in Potsdam produced general agreement that the 'new' German cinema would disavow both subjects and stylistic elements reminiscent of those seen on German screens during, and prior to, the Nazi era. By 1949, expectations for scripts were codified around a small number of topics, such as '[re-]distribution of land' or 'the two-year plan'. As in the Soviet Union, the excessive control placed by the state on authors of screenplays, as against other literary works, discouraged many competent writers from contributing to East German film.

In 1951, Das Beil von Wandsbek/The Axe of Wandsbek (Falk Harnack, 1951), based on Arnold Zweig's novel written in exile, was banned . The DEFA production was not released until 1962, heavily edited. Erwin Geschonneck's nuanced portrayal of a butcher who becomes a Nazi executioner was out of step with the official policy of depicting moral issues in black and white. With the ban on Das Beil von Wandsbek, a brief five-year period which had produced several classics of German cinema drew to a close.

Screenwriters could find their efforts rejected for ideological reasons at any stage in script development, if not from the outset. The Cold War only made the Communist leaders tighten their grip on 'their' films. The DEFA's production reached an absolute statistical nadir in 1952 and 1953, with only five films produced in each year. As a result, between 1948 and 1953, when Stalin died, the entire film output for East Germany, excluding newsreels and non-theatrical educational films, amounted to fewer than 50 titles.

The best-known film made in this period was Kurt Maetzig's two-part Thälmann – Sohn seiner Klasse / Führer seiner Klasse/Thälmann – Son of His Class / Leader of His Class (1953-1955) – a propagandistic portrait of the German Communist leader who was active in the 1920s and 1930s.

Early on the DEFA made a policy of presenting the GDR as heir to Germany's best cultural traditions. In this spirit it produced adaptations of familiar fairy tales and filmed German literary classics such as Emilia Galotti (1957), Kabale und Liebe/Intrigue and Love (1959), Die schwarze Galeere/The Black Galley (1962) and Minna von Barnhelm (1962), all by theatre director Martin Hellberg.

The popular fairy-tale films include Paul Verhoeven's Das kalte Herz/Heart of Stone/The Cold Heart (1950), DEFA's first colour film, Wolfgang Staudte's Die Geschichte vom kleinen Muck/The Story of Little Mook (1953) and Das tapfere Schneiderlein/The Brave Little Tailor (Helmut Spieß, 1956). This tradition of fairy-tale and children's films was successfully carried on to the very end of the DEFA.

In the 1960s, DEFA produced the popular Eastern Die Söhne der großen Bärin/The Sons of Great Bear (Josef Mach, 1965), based on the novel by Lieselotte Welskopf-Henrich. It starred Serbian actor Gojko Mitić as the Sioux Tokei-itho. This spawned a number of sequels. The Eastern was the typical Eastern Bloc countries' take on the Western. It was notable for inverting Western cliches by portraying the native Americans as the 'good guys', and the American army as the 'baddies'


East-German postcard by VEB Progress Film-Vertrieb, Berlin, no. 1910, 1963, Retail price: 0,20 DM. Photo: DEFA / Pathenheimer.

Armin Mueller-Stahl (1930) is a German film actor, painter, writer and musician. He started his career as a socialist matinee-idol in the GDR. At 50, he had to emigrate to West-Germany where he found work with such major film directors as Rainer Werner Fassbinder. Later he had a successful career in Hollywood as well.


East-German postcard by VEB Progress Film-Vertrieb, no. 2265, 1965. Retail price: 0,15 MDN. Photo: Schwarzer.

German actor, film director and screenwriter Ulrich Thein (1940–1995) appeared in 44 films and television shows between 1952 and 1995. His film Romanze mit Amélie/Romance with Amelie (Ulrich Thein, 1982) was entered into the 32nd Berlin International Film Festival.


East-German postcard by VEB Progress Film-Vertrieb, Berlin, no. 2401, 1966. Retail price: 0,15 MDN. Photo: Hans-Joachim Kundt. Publicity still for Die Söhne der grossen Bärin/The Sons of Great Bear (Josef Mach, 1966).

Serbian actor Gojko Mitić (1940) was the most famous Indian in Eastern Europe. The handsome star played in numerous Westerns from East-Germany between 1966 and 1984. He also worked as a director, stuntman, and author.


East-German postcard by VEB Progress Film-Vertrieb, Berlin, no. 2.551, 1966. Retail price: 0,20 DM. Photo: Pathenheimer / DEFA. Publicity still for Die Söhne der großen Bärin/The Sons of Great Bear (1965).

Kati Székely (1941) appeared in the first Indians film of the DEFA, Die Söhne der großen Bärin/The Sons of Great Bear (Josef Mach, 1965), based on the novel by Lieselotte Welskopf-Henrich. She played the sister of the young Dakota Indian chief Tokei-ihto (Gojko Mitic). One of her other major films was the first film about the Berlin wall … Und deine Liebe auch/... And your love too (1962, Frank Vogel) with Armin Mueller-Stahl. After marrying Jürgen Frohriep, she gave up acting and studied psychology.


East-German postcard by VEB Progress Film-Vertrieb, Berlin, no. 221/69. Photo: publicity still for Spur des Falken/Trail of the Falcon (Gottfried Kolditz, 1968).

Rolf Hoppe (1930) played villains in many ‘Osterns’ by the DEFA. An example is Spur des Falken/Trail of the Falcon (Gottfried Kolditz, 1968), starring Gojko Mitic as the Indian hero. Hoppe also appeared in other Mitic films, Weiße Wölfe/White Wolves (Konrad Petzold, Bosko Boskovic, 1969), one of the most popular DEFA films ever, and Tödlicher Irrtum/Fatal Error (Konrad Petzold, 1970), also with Armin Müller-Stahl. In 1971, Hoppe was awarded the National Prize of East Germany for artistic achievement.

A large pool of outstanding actors

DEFA is associated with a host of important and influential directors, including Frank Beyer, Wolfgang Staudte, Kurt Maetzig, Konrad Wolf, and Heiner Carow. Yet it was difficult to become a director without following a strictly predefined path which included attending the Babelsberg Film Academy, founded in 1954 as the Deutsche Hochschule für Filmkunst (German Academy for Film).

At the same time, the DEFA managed to get many of the country's major writers involved in film projects: Christa Wolf, Klaus Schlesinger, Fritz Rudolf Fries. Others like Günther Rücker and Jurek Becker worked as freelance or salaried screenwriters. With a large pool of outstanding actors at its disposal (most of them from East Berlin theatres), the DEFA produced first-rate film actors, some of whom – such as Manfred Krug,Armin Mueller-Stahl, Angelica Domröse and Jutta Hoffmann– became stars whose popularity endured even after their defection to the west.

East Germany's most popular star was Erwin Geschonneck. As a communist in Nazi Germany, he was forced to emigrate, only to be extradited to the Nazis by the USSR, after which he survived several years in a concentration camp. After the war he worked with Bertolt Brecht at the Berliner Ensemble. On several occasions he used his influence to lift the prohibition on blacklisted films (his own included).

In the 1980s the GDR opened its film market to western productions, one of the major factors leading to a crisis at the DEFA. Finally, the end came with the fall of the Berlin Wall and the reunification of Germany. In 1992, DEFA was officially dissolved and its combined studios sold to a French conglomerate, Compagnie Générale des Eaux, later Vivendi Universal. On 13 October 1993, the last feature film with the DEFA signet, Novalis - Die blaue Blume/Novalis - the Blue Flower (Herwig Kipping, 1993), celebrated its premiere.

In 2004, a private consortium acquired the studios. The films produced at the DEFA studios after World War II included approximately 950 feature films, 820 animated films, more than 5,800 documentaries and newsreels. Some 4,000 foreign language films were dubbed into German, which were acquired by the privatised version of the former East German film distribution monopoly, Progress Film. The DEFA estate is presently administered by the DEFA Foundation.


East-German card by VEB Progress Filmvertrieb, Berlin, no. 134/69, 1969. Photo: Uhlenhut.

As a student, Jaecki Schwarz (1946) had his breakthrough with his lead role in the war film Ich war neunzehn/I was nineteen (Konrad Wolf, 1968). With his non-convential acting style and his dry humour, he became a popular actor in dozens of DEFA films and East-German TV productions.


East-German postcard by VEB Progress Film-Vertrieb, Berlin, no. 17/72, 1971. Retail price: 0,20 DM. Photo: DEFA. Publicity still for Eolomea (1971) with Cox Habbema and Ivan Adonov.

Cox Habbema (1944-2016) was a Dutch actress, stage director, writer and former managing director of the Municipal Theatre in Amsterdam. From 1969 till 1984 she mainly lived and worked in East-Berlin, where she appeared in several DEFA films.


Big East-German postcard by VEB Progress Filmvertrieb, Berlin, no. 163/73, 1971. Retail price: 0,50 M. Photo: Linke.

Tall and lean Winfried Glatzeder (1945) was one of the most popular film stars of former East Germany. He played the charming, gawky Paul in the GDR cult-film Die Legende von Paul und Paula/The Legend of Paul and Paula (Heiner Carow, 1973).


East-German postcard by VEB Progress Film-Vertrieb, Berlin, no. 143/72. Photo: Blasig. Publicity still for Es ist eine alte Geschichte/It Is an Old Story (Lothar Warneke, 1972).

Katharina Thalbach(1954) is one of Germany's most respected stage actresses mostly working in Hamburg and Berlin. With her half-brother Benjamin, she played in the DEFA film Es ist eine alte Geschichte/It is an old story (Lothar Warneke, 1972). In 1975, she appeared in another DEFA production Lotte in Weimar (Egon Günther, 1975), starring Lilli Palmer and based on the novel by Thomas Mann. In December 1976, she left East Germany together with longtime companion Thomas Brasch and daughter Anna after the expulsion of songwriter Wolf Biermann. Internationally, she became known for her part in Die Blechtrommel/The Tin Drum (1979), Volker Schlöndorf’s award-winning film adaptation of the novel by Günter Grass. She has also directed since the late 1980s.


East-German postcard by VEB Progress Film-Verleih, Berlin, no. 147/75. Photo: DEFA.

Nina Hagen (1955) is known for her theatrical vocals and is often referred to as the ‘Godmother of Punk' due to her prominence during the punk and new wave movements in the late 1970s and early 1980s. During her 40-years-career she appeared in several European films, including several East-German films and TV films sometimes alongside her mother Eva-Maria Hagen. She appeared in Heiraten/Weiblich/Marrying/Female (Christa Kulosa, 1975), Heute ist Freitag/Today is Friday (Klaus Gendries, 1975), Liebesfallen/Love Traps (Werner W. Wallroth, 1976) and Unser stiller Mann/Our Quite Man (Bernhard Stephan, 1976). Her career in the GDR was cut short after her stepfather Wolf Biermann's East German citizenship was withdrawn from him in 1976.


Romanian postcard by Casa Filmului Acin, no. 43080.

American actor, singer and political activist Dean Reed (1938–1986) was one of the most unusual European film stars ever. While he was unknown at home in the US, he was a superstar in communist Eastern Europe. Over the years ‘the Red Elvis’ played in 23 films, including a series of Easterns fro the DEFA. His third wife, German actress Renate Blume(1944) appeared in more than 70 films and television shows since 1964. Her film debut Der geteilte Himmel/Divided Heaven (Konrad Wolf, 1964) was an international success and later she co-starred in Easterns with Gojko Mitic and Dean Reed.

Sources: Hans-Michael Bock (Filmportal.de) and Wikipedia.

Blue-eyed American actor Henry Fonda (1905-1982) exemplified not only integrity and strength, but an ideal of the common man fighting against social injustice and oppression. He is most remembered for his roles as Abe Lincoln in Young Mr. Lincoln (1939), Tom Joad in The Grapes of Wrath (1940), for which he received an Academy Award Nomination, and more recently, Norman Thayer in On Golden Pond (1981), for which he received an Oscar for Best Actor in 1982. Notably he also played against character as the villain Frank in Sergio Leone's classic Spaghetti Western Once upon a time in the West (1968). Fonda is considered one of Hollywood's old-time legends and his lifelong career spanned almost 50 years.


British Art Photo postcard, no. 171.


British postcard in the Picturegoer Series, London, no. 1032a. Photo: Walter Wanger.


French postcard by Editions E.C., Paris, no. 65.

Tongue-tied personality

Henry Jaynes Fonda was born in Grand Island, Nebraska in 1905. His parents were Elma Herberta (Jaynes) and William Brace Fonda, who worked in advertising and printing and was the owner of the W. B. Fonda Printing Company in Omaha, Nebraska. His distant ancestors were Italians who had fled their country around 1400 and moved to Holland, presumably because of political or religious persecution. In the early 1600s, they crossed the Atlantic and were among the early Dutch settlers in America. They established a still-thriving small town in upstate New York named Fonda, named after patriarch Douw Fonda, who was later killed by Indians.

In 1919, young Henry was a first-hand witness to the Omaha race riots and the brutal lynching of Will Brown. This enraged the 14-years-old Fonda and he kept a keen awareness of prejudice for the rest of his life. Following graduation from high school in 1923, Henry got a part-time job in Minneapolis with the Northwestern Bell Telephone Company which allowed him at first to pursue journalistic studies at the University of Minnesota. In 1925, having returned to Omaha, Henry reevaluated his options and came to the conclusion that journalism was not his forte, after all.

For a while, he tried his hand at several temporary jobs, including as a mechanic and a window dresser. At age 20, Fonda started his acting career at the Omaha Community Playhouse, when his mother's friend Dodie Brando (mother of Marlon Brando) recommended that he try out for a juvenile part in You and I, in which he was cast as Ricky. Then he received the lead in Merton of the Movies and realised the beauty of acting as a profession. It allowed him to deflect attention from his own tongue-tied personality and create stage characters relying on someone else's scripted words. The play and its star received fairly good notices in the local press. It ran for a week, and for the rest of the repertory season, Henry advanced to assistant director which enabled him to design and paint sets as well as act.

A casual trip to New York, however, had already made him set his sights on Broadway. In 1926, he moved to the Cape Cod University Players, where he met his future wife Margaret Sullavan. His first professional role was in The Jest, by Sem Benelli. James Stewart joined the Players a few months after Fonda left, but he would become his closest lifelong friend. In 1928, Fonda went east to New York to be with Margaret Sullavan, and to expand his theatrical career on Broadway.

His first Broadway role was a small one in A Game of Love and Death with Alice Brady and Claude Rains. Henry played leads opposite Margaret Sullavan, who became the first of his five wives in 1931. They broke up in 1933. In 1934, he got a break of sorts, when he was given the chance to present a comedy sketch with Imogene Coca in the Broadway revue New Faces. That year, he also hired Leland Hayward as his personal management agent and this was to pay off handsomely. Major Broadway roles followed, including New Faces of America and The Farmer Takes a Wife. The following year he married Frances Seymour Brokaw with whom he had two children: Jane Fonda and Peter Fonda, also to become film stars.


French postcard by Erpé, no. 30. Photo: Paramount.


British postcard in the Film Partners Series, London, no. P 193. Photo: Paramount. Publicity still for You Only Live Once (Fritz Lang, 1937) with Sylvia Sidney.


British postcard in the Picturegoer Series, London, no. 1032. Photo: Paramount. Publicity still for The Trail of the Lonesome Pine (Henry Hathaway, 1936).

You'll be fonder of Fonda

The 29-year old Henry Fonda was persuaded by Leland Hayward to become a Hollywood actor, despite initial misgivings and reluctance on Henry's part. Independent producer Walter Wanger, whose growing stock company was birthed at United Artists, needed a star for The Farmer Takes a Wife (Victor Fleming, 1935) opposite Janet Gaynor.

I.S. Mowis at IMDb: “With both first choice actors Gary Cooper and Joel McCrea otherwise engaged, Henry was the next available option. After all, he had just completed a successful run on Broadway in the stage version. The cheesy publicity tag line for the picture was "you'll be fonder of Fonda", but the film was an undeniable hit.”

Wanger, realising he had a good thing going, next cast Henry in a succession of A-grade pictures which capitalised on his image as the sincere, unaffected country boy. Pick of the bunch were the Technicolor outdoor Western The Trail of the Lonesome Pine (Henry Hathaway, 1936) with Sylvia Sidney, and the gritty Depression-era drama You Only Live Once (Fritz Lang, 1937) with Henry as a back-to-the-wall good guy forced into becoming a fugitive from the law by circumstance).

Then followed the screwball comedy The Moon's Our Home (William A. Seiter, 1936) with ex-wife Margaret Sullavan, the excellent pre-civil war-era romantic drama Jezebel (William Wyler, 1938) featuring Bette Davis, and the Western Jesse James (Henry King, 1939) starring Tyrone Power. Fonda rarely featured in comedy, except for a couple of good turns opposite Barbara Stanwyck and Gene Tierney - with both he shared an excellent on-screen chemistry - in The Mad Miss Manton (Leigh Jason, 1938), The Lady Eve (Preston Sturges, 1941) and the successful Rings on Her Fingers (Rouben Mamoulian, 1942).

Henry gave his best screen performance to date in Young Mr. Lincoln (John Ford, 1939), a fictionalised account of the early life of the American president as a young lawyer facing his greatest court case. Henry made two more films with director John Ford: the pioneering drama Drums Along the Mohawk (1939) with Claudette Colbert, and The Grapes of Wrath (1940), an adaptation of John Steinbeck's novel about an Oklahoma family who moved west during the Dust Bowl. In his career-defining role as Tom Joad, Fonda played the archetypal grassroots American trying to stand up against oppression. His relationship with Ford would end on the set of Mister Roberts (John Ford, Mervyn LeRoy, 1955) when he objected to Ford's direction of the film. Ford punched Fonda and had to be replaced.


Dutch postcard by 't Sticht, Utrecht, no. 3601. Photo: R.K.O. Radio Films.


French postcard by Editions P.I., Paris, offered by Les Carbones Korès, no. 510. Photo: Paramount, 1954.


Italian postcard by B.F.F. Edit., no. 2255. Photo: RKO Radio.

One of the most active and most vocal liberal Democrats in Hollywood

The Grapes of Wrath (John Ford, 1940) set the tone for Henry Fonda’s subsequent career. In this vein, he gave a totally convincing, though historically inaccurate, portrayal in the titular role of The Return of Frank James (Fritz Lang, 1940), a rare example of a sequel improving upon the original. He projected integrity and quiet authority whether he played lawman Wyatt Earp in My Darling Clementine (John Ford, 1946) or a reluctant posse member in The Ox-Bow Incident (William A. Wellman, 1943). In between these two films, Fonda enlisted in the Navy to fight in World War II, and served in the Navy for three years.

He then starred in The Fugitive (John Ford, 1947), and Fort Apache (John Ford, 1948), as a rigid Army colonel, along with John Wayne and Shirley Temple in her first adult role. The following years, he did not appear in many films. Fonda was one of the most active, and most vocal, liberal Democrats in Hollywood. During the 1930s, he had been a founding member of the Hollywood Democratic Committee, formed in support of President Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal agenda. In 1947, in the middle of the McCarthy witch hunt, he moved to New York, not returning to Hollywood until 1955.

His son Peter Fonda writes in his autobiography Don't Tell Dad: A Memoir (1999) that he believes that Henry's liberalism caused him to be gray-listed during the early 1950s. Fonda returned to Broadway to play the title role in Mister Roberts for which he won the Tony Award as best dramatic actor. In 1979, he won a second special Tony, and was nominated for a Tony Award for Clarence Darrow (1975). Later he played a juror committed to the ideal of total justice in 12 Angry Men (Sidney Lumet, 1957) which he also produced, and a nightclub musician wrongly accused of murder in The Wrong Man (Alfred Hitchcock, 1956).

During the next decade, he played in The Longest Day (Ken Annakin, Andrew Marton a.o., 1962), How the West Was Won (John Ford, Henry Hathaway, George Marshall, 1962) and as a poker-playing grifter in the Western comedy A Big Hand for the Little Lady (Fielder Cook, 1966) with Joanne Woodward. A big hit was the family comedy Yours, Mine and Ours (Melvillle Shavelson, 1968), in which he co-starred with Lucille Ball. The same year, just to confound those who would typecast him, he gave a chilling performance as one of the coldest, meanest stone killers ever to roam the West, in Sergio Leone's Western epic C'era una volta il West/Once Upon a Time in the West (1968) opposite Charles Bronson and Claudia Cardinale.

With James Stewart, he teamed up in Firecreek (Vincent McEveety, 1968), where Fonda again played the heavy, and the Western comedy The Cheyenne Social Club (Gene Kelly, 1970). Despite his old feud with John Ford, Fonda spoke glowingly of the director in Peter Bogdanovich's documentary Directed by John Ford (1971). Fonda had refused to participate until he learned that Ford had insisted on casting Fonda as the lead in the film version of Mr. Roberts (1955), reviving Fonda's film career after concentrating on the stage for years.

Illness curtailed Fonda’s work in the 1970s. In 1976, Fonda returned in the World War II blockbuster Midway (Jack Smight, 1976) with Charlton Heston. Fonda finished the 1970s in a number of disaster films with all-star casts: the Italian killer octopus thriller Tentacoli/Tentacles (Ovidio G. Assonitis, 1977), Rollercoaster (James Goldstone, 1977) with Richard Widmark, the killer bee action film The Swarm (Irwin Allen, 1978), the global disaster film Meteor (Ronald Neame, 1979), with Sean Connery, and the Canadian production City on Fire (Alvin Rakoff, 1979), which also featured Shelley Winters and Ava Gardner.

His final screen role was as an octogenarian in On Golden Pond (Mark Rydell, 1981), in which he was joined by Katharine Hepburn and his daughter Jane. It finally won him an Oscar on the heels of an earlier Honorary Academy Award. Too ill to attend the ceremony, Henry Fonda died soon after at the age of 77. He left left a lasting legacy matched by few of his peers. His later wives were Susan Blanchard (1950-1956), Leonarda Franchetti (1957-1961) and Shirlee Fonda (1965- till his death in 1982). With Blanchard he had a daughter, Amy Fishman (1953). His grandchildren are the actors Bridget Fonda, Justin Fonda, Vanessa Vadim and Troy Garity.


Italian postcard by Bromofoto, Milano, no. 1165. Photo: Warner Bros.


Romanian postcard by Casa Filmului Acin. Photo: publicity still for Warlock (Edward Dmytryk, 1959).


American postcard by Coral-Lee, Rancho Cordova, no. CL/Personality # 92. Photo: Tony Korody / Sygma. Publicity still for Battle of Midway (Jack Smight, 1976).

Sources: Laurence Dang (IMDb), I.S. Mowis (IMDb), Wikipedia, and IMDb.

After achieving modest fame as an ice skater in her native Czechoslovakia, Vera Hruba (1923-2003) was brought to Hollywood by Republic Pictures head Herbert J. Yates, who hoped to turn her into the next Sonja Henie. After featuring her in two Ice-Capades films, he added 'Ralston' to her name and tried to pass her off as a leading lady.


Vintage card. Photo: Republic Pictures.


Vintage card. Photo: Republic Pictures.

Figure Skating Champion in Czechoslovakia

Věra Helena Hrubá was born in Prague, Czechoslovakia (now Czech Republic) in 1923. Her age and date of birth were often uncertain; various sources gave her birth year as 1919, 1920, 1921, and 1923. Her accurate date of birth is 12 July 1923, as verified by the social security death index as well as her burial records at Santa Barbara Cemetery, Santa Barbara, California.

Her father, Rudolf Hruba, was a wealthy jeweller and president of the Jewels Association. Her brother later became a film producer in the United States under the name of Rudy Ralston. Vera studied ballet as a child and turned to ice skating when she was 10 years old.

As a figure skater, she represented Czechoslovakia in competition under her birth name Věra Hrubá. She competed at the 1936 European Figure Skating Championships and placed 15th. Later that season, she competed at the 1936 Winter Olympics in Garmisch-Partenkirchen in Nazi Germany, where she placed 17th. Hrubá also competed at the 1937 European Figure Skating Championships and placed 7th.

In 1937, she toured the United States in ice revues. RKO offered her a screen test, but she refused because she was getting married. Her engagement to a half-Jewish boy dissolved when his parents did not consent to his wedding a Catholic.

Vera Hruba escaped her native Czechoslovakia in March 1939 on the last plane out before the Nazis closed the borders in Czechoslovakia. Via Paris, she and her mother travelled by ship to New York. Later her brother and father followed them. In 1946 she would become an American citizen.

Hubra became part of the 'Ice Vanities' and toured America. When the show came to California, Republic Pictures representatives saw the show and loved it. Republic put everyone under contract and made Ice-Capades (Joseph Santley, 1941) which was so successful they made a follow-up, Ice-Capades Revue (Bernard Vorhaus, 1942), the following year.


Czech postcard by Ceskoslovenské filmové naklatefstvi (CSFN), Praha, no. 69. Photo: Republic Pictures.


British postcard in the Celebrity Autograph Series, London, no. 188. Photo: Republic. Publicity still for Timberjack (Joseph Kane, 1955).

Golden Turkey Award

Vera Hruba moved to Hollywood with her mother and signed a long-term contract in 1943 with Republic Pictures. She chooses Ralston, from the breakfast cereal, as her screen name. She was advertised by Republic as skating “out of Czechoslovakia into the hearts of America.” During her early film career she was known as Vera Hrubá Ralston and later as Vera Ralston.

Ralston’s films weren’t just skating musical comedies. Her first film under the new contract was the Sci-Fi thriller The Lady and the Monster (George Sherman, 1944) with Erich von Stroheim and Richard Arlen. It was the first version of Curt Siodmak's often filmed Science Fiction novel 'Donovan's Brain', about the living brain of millionaire Donovan who possesses the mind of scientist Richard Arlen to clear his illegitimate son who has been wrongly convicted of murder. Critics said Ralston was wooden and complained of her Czech accent.

Hruba normally played an immigrant girl, because of her limited English skills. Among the 27 films Ralston starred in were Storm Over Lisbon (George Sherman, 1944) with again Erich von Stroheim, the Western Dakota (Joseph Kane, 1945) with John Wayne, I, Jane Doe (John H. Auer, 1948) with Ruth Hussey and John Carrol, and The Fighting Kentuckian (George Waggner, 1949), also with John Wayne. Joseph Kane directed her 11 times.

Late 1947, Republic studio head Herbert Yates leaves his wife and four adult children to be with her. He's 67; she's 27. Her father doesn't approve of the relationship and returns to Prague. In 1952 Ralston married Yates. He used his position to obtain roles for Ralston, such as in A Perilous Journey (R.G. Springsteen, 1953) with David Brian, and Fair Wind to Java (Joseph Kane, 1953) with Fred MacMurray. In 1956, he was sued by two studio shareholders for using company assets to promote his wife and having given her brother producer status at a salary far beyond industry worth.

Vera Ralston retired from films in 1958, the year Yates was deposed as head of the studio. Reportedly only 2 of her 20 films had made money. The 85-year-old Herbert Yates died in 1966, leaving his $8 million estate to Ralston (other sources say the estate was $10 million or more and she inherited half of it). She suffered a nervous breakdown shortly thereafter, then remarried in 1973 to Charles L. Alva, a Santa Barbara businessman, and lived quietly in southern California.

Vera Ralston died in 2003, in Santa Barbara, California, after a long battle with cancer. She was 79. The authors of the book 'The Golden Turkey Awards' nominated her for the dubious honour of 'The Worst Actress of All Time', along with Candice Bergen and Mamie Van Doren. They all lost to Raquel Welch.


Belgian postcard by Nieuwe Merksemsche Chocolaterie S.P.R.L., Merksem (Anvers). Photo: Republic.


Red McCarthy and Vera Hruba in finale of Ice-Capades (1941). Source: Carl Moseley (YouTube).


Trailer for The Lady and the Monster (1944). Source: Ivot Kuzo (YouTube).

Sources: Ray Hamel (IMDb), Jessica Pickens (Comet over Hollywood), The Glamour Girls of the Silver Screen, Wikipedia and IMDb.

Yesterday, Doris Day (1922-2019) has died at her California home at the age of 97. The legendary actress and singer with her blonde hair and blue eyes performed with several big bands before going solo in 1947. In the 1950s, she made a series of popular film musicals, including Calamity Jane (1953) and The Pajama Game (1957). 'Que Será, Será!' became her theme song. With Rock Hudson, she starred in the box office hit Pillow Talk (1959). On TV, she appeared in the sitcom The Doris Day Show (1968-1973). Day died early on Monday surrounded by her close friends at her home in Carmel Valley.


Dutch postcard by Takken / 't Sticht, no. AX 343. Photo: Warner Bros. Doris Day and Szöke Szakall in Tea for Two (David Butler, 1950), the first film for which Doris Day received top-billing.


Dutch card. Photo: Warner Bros. Doris Day and Kirk Douglas in Young Man with a Horn (Michael Curtiz, 1950).


Dutch postcard by Takken, Utrecht, no. 748. Photo: Warner Bros. Doris Day in On Moonlight Bay (Roy Del Ruth, 1951).


Dutch postcard by Takken, Utrecht, no. 810. Photo: Warner Bros. Doris Day with Danny Thomas in I'll See You in My Dreams (Michael Curtiz, 1951).


Dutch postcard by Uitg. Takken, Utrecht, no. AX 4240. Photo: Universal International. Publicity still for Pillow Talk (Michael Gordon, 1959). Collection: Geoffrey Donaldson Institute.

Audiences took to her bubbly personality

Doris Mary Ann Kappelhoff was born in 1922, in Cincinnati, Ohio, to Alma Sophia (Welz), a housewife, and William Joseph Kappelhoff, a music teacher and choir master. Her mother named her after her favourite silent film star, Doris Kenyon. She had two brothers, Richard, who died before she was born and Paul, a few years older.

For many years it was uncertain whether she was born in 1922 or 1924, with Day herself reportedly believing her birth year was the latter and giving her age accordingly. It wasn't until April 3, 2017, her 95th, not 93rd, birthday, that her birth certificate was found by the Associated Press, which confirmed she was born in 1922.

Her parents divorced while she was still a child and she lived with her mother. Like most little girls, Doris liked to dance. At fourteen, she formed a dance act with a boy, Jerry Doherty, and they won $500 in a local talent contest. She and Jerry took a brief trip to Hollywood to test the waters. They felt they could succeed, so she and Jerry returned to Cincinnati with the intention of packing and making a permanent move to Hollywood.

Tragically, the night before Doris was to move to Hollywood, her car was hit by a train and she badly injured her right leg. The accident ended the possibility of a dancing career. She spent her next years wheelchair-bound, but during this time began singing on the radio. Observing her daughter sing Alma decided Doris should have singing lessons. She engaged a teacher, Grace Raine. After three lessons, Raine told Alma that young Doris had "tremendous potential". Raine was so impressed that she gave Doris three lessons a week for the price of one. Years later, Day said that Raine had the biggest effect on her singing style and career.

At age 17, Day had her first professional jobs as a vocalist, on the WLW radio program 'Carlin's Carnival', and in a local restaurant, Charlie Yee's Shanghai Inn. While performing for the radio, she was approached by band leader Barney Rapp. He felt that her name, Kappelhoff, was too harsh and awkward and that she should change her name to something more pleasant. The name 'Day' was suggested by Rapp from one of the songs in Doris' repertoire, 'Day by Day'. She didn't like the name at first, feeling that it sounded too much like a burlesque performer.

While she was performing in Barney Rapp's band, she met trombonist Al Jorden, and they married in 1941. The marriage was extremely unhappy and there were reports of Jordan's alcoholism and abuse of the young star. They divorced within two years, not long after the birth of their son Terrence Jorden called Terry. Despondent and feeling his life had little meaning after the much publicised divorce, Jorden later committed suicide.

After working with Rapp, Day worked with bandleaders Jimmy James, Bob Crosby, and Les Brown. The years touring with Les Brown & His Band of Renown, she later called 'the happiest times in my life'. In 1941, Day appeared as a singer in three Soundies (three-minute film clips containing a song, dance and/or band or orchestral number) with the Les Brown band. Her first hit recording was 'Sentimental Journey' in 1945. It became an anthem of the desire of World War II demobilising troops to return home. In 1946, Doris married saxophone player and former child actor George Weidler, but this union lasted less than a year. After leaving Brown to embark on a solo career, she recorded more than 650 songs from 1947 to 1967.

Day's agent talked her into taking a screen test at Warner Bros. The executives there liked what they saw and signed her to a contract. Her first starring role was in Romance on the High Seas (Michael Curtiz, Busby Berkeley, 1948), with Jack Carson and Janis Paige. The next year, she made two more films, My Dream Is Yours (Michael Curtiz, 1949) and It's a Great Feeling (David Butler, 1949). Audiences took to her beauty, terrific singing voice and bubbly personality, and she turned in fine performances in the films she made - in addition to several hit records.


Dutch postcard by Takken / 't Sticht, no. AX 631. Photo: Warner Bros. Szöke Szakall and Doris Day in Lullaby of Broadway (David Butler, 1951).


Big Belgian Collectors Card, no. F 44. Photo: Warner Bros.


Belgian postcard, no. 1051. Photo: Warner Bros.


Belgian postcard, no. 1151. Photo: Warner Bros.


Dutch postcard by Takken, Utrecht, no. 4457. Photo: MGM. David Niven and Doris Day in Please Don't Eat the Daisies (Charles Walters, 1960).

Dating Ronald Reagan

Doris Day made three films for Warner Bros. in 1950 and five more in 1951. She co-starred with Gordon MacRae in five nostalgic period musicals: Tea for Two (David Butler, 1950), The West Point Story (Roy Del Ruth, 1950) with James Cagney and Virginia Mayo, On Moonlight Bay (Roy Del Ruth, 1951), Starlift (Roy Del Ruth, 1951), and By the Light of the Silvery Moon (David Butler, 1953).

Her most commercially successful film for Warner was I'll See You in My Dreams (1951), which broke box-office records of 20 years. The film is a musical biography of lyricist Gus Kahn, played by Danny Thomas. It was Day's fourth film directed by Michael Curtiz.

One of her few dramatic roles was in Storm Warning (Stuart Heisler, 1951) with Ginger Rogers and Ronald Reagan. She briefly dated Ronald Reagan - with whom she also co-starred in The Winning Team (1952) - shortly after his divorce from Jane Wyman when she and Reagan were contract players at Warner Bros.

Doris Day met and married Martin Melcher in 1951. He adopted her young son Terry and became her manager.

In 1953, Doris starred in Calamity Jane (David Butler, 1953), which was a major hit. She performed 'Secret Love in the film, which won the Academy Award for Best Original Song. Several more hits followed including Lucky Me (Jack Donohue, 1954), Love Me or Leave Me (Charles Vidor, 1955) with James Cagney.

Alfred Hitchcock had seen her dramatic role in Storm Warning and choose her to play Jo McKenna opposite James Stewart in his re-make The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956). In the film she sang the song 'Que Será, Será!', which became an evergreen and won the Academy Award for Best Original Song.

In 1959, Day entered her most successful phase as a film actress with a series of romantic comedies. Her best-known film is probably the first one, Pillow Talk (Michael Gordon, 1959) with Rock Hudson and Tony Randall. For her performance she received an Academy Award nomination for Best Leading Actress. She later co-starred with Hudson and Randall again in Lover Come Back (Delbert Mann, 1961), and Send Me No Flowers (Norman Jewison, 1964). In all three, Day and Hudson played love interests while Randall played Hudson's close friend.


Dutch postcard. Photo: Warner Bros.


Dutch postcard by DRC, no. 147. Photo: Warner Bros. Caption: Doris Day and her mother Alma.


Dutch postcard. Photo: Warner Bros.


Dutch postcard by Takken, Utrecht, no. 814. Photo: Warner Bros.


Dutch postcard. Photo: Warner Bros.

Number one at the box office

Doris Day started out the 1960s with the hit Please Don't Eat the Daisies (Charles Walters, 1960) in which her co-star was David Niven. In 1962, Day appeared with Cary Grant in the comedy That Touch of Mink (Delbert Mann, 1962), the first film in history ever to gross $1 million in one theatre (Radio City Music Hall). During 1960 and the 1962 to 1964 period, she ranked number one at the box office.

Despite her successes at the box office, the late 1950s and early 1960s were a difficult period for Day. In 1958, her brother Paul had died. Around this time, her husband, who had also taken charge of her career, made deals for her to star in films she didn't really care about, which led to a bout with exhaustion.

The 1960s weren't to be a repeat of the previous busy decade. She made less films, but the ones she did make were successful: Do Not Disturb (Ralph Levy, 1965) with Rod Taylor, and The Glass Bottom Boat (Frank Tashlin, 1966).

By the late 1960s, the sexual revolution of the baby boomer generation had refocused public attitudes about sex. Times had changed, but Day's films had not. Where Were You When the Lights Went Out? (Hy Averback, 1968) and With Six You Get Eggroll (Howard Morris, 1968) with Brian Keith, would be her final features.

In 1968, her husband Martin Melcher suddenly died. Between 1956 and his death, he had produced 18 of her films. A shocked Day discovered she was millions of dollars in debt. Melcher and his business partner Jerome Bernard Rosenthal had squandered virtually all of her considerable earnings, but she was eventually awarded $22 million by the courts in a case against Rosenthal.


Dutch postcard by Takken, Utrecht, no. 287. Photo: Warner Bros.


Dutch postcard by Takken, no. 335. Photo: Warner Bros.


Dutch postcard by DRC, no. F 52. Photo: Warner Bros.


Vintage collectors card, no. F 129. Photo: Warner Bros.


Belgian postcard, no. KF 45. Photo: Warner Bros.

A light and fluffy sitcom

After Martin Melcher's death, Doris Day never made another film. She professed not to have known that he had negotiated a multimillion-dollar deal with CBS to launch her own TV series, The Doris Day Show, the following fall. Day hated the idea of performing on television, but felt obligated to do it and needed the work to help pay off her debts. The show became successful and lasted from 1968 until 1973.

The Doris Day Show was a light and fluffy sitcom, which changed formats and producers almost every season. Originally it was about widow Doris Martin and her two young sons (Philip Brown and Todd Stark) who left the big city for the quiet and peace of her family's ranch, which was run by her dad Buck (Denver Pyle) and ranchhand Leroy (James Hampton). Later Doris, Buck and sons Billy and Toby moved to San Francisco, where Doris got a job as a secretary to bumbling magazine publisher Michael Nicholson (McLean Stevenson). In Season Three, the Martin family moved into an apartment above the Paluccis' Italian restaurant, and Doris began writing features for Today's World magazine. Finally, the kids, family, Nicholson, the Paluccis' and all other cast members vanished, and Doris became a single staff writer for Today's World, where her new boss was Cy Bennett (John Dehner).

After her series went off the air, Doris Day only made occasional TV appearances. She did two television specials, The Doris Mary Anne Kappelhoff Special (1971) and Doris Day Today (1975). She also appeared on the John Denver TV show (1974). In 1976, she married for the fourth time, to Barry Comden, 12 years her junior. They had met at the Beverly Hills Old World Restaurant where he was the maitre d'. The couple divorced in 1982. Comden complained that Day preferred the company of her dogs more than him.

From then on Doris devoted her life to animals. During the location filming of The Man Who Knew Too Much (Alfred Hitchcock, 1956) she had seen how camels, goats and other 'animal extras' in a marketplace scene were being treated. It began her lifelong commitment to preventing animal abuse. For years, she ran the Doris Day Animal League in Carmel, a resort town a little south of San Francisco.

In the 1985–1986 season, Day returned to the screen with her own television talk show, Doris Day's Best Friends, on CBN. The network cancelled the show after 26 episodes, despite the worldwide publicity it received. Much of that came from her interview with Rock Hudson, in which a visibly ill Hudson was showing the first public symptoms of AIDS. Hudson would die from the syndrome a year later.

Her son Terry Melcher had become a music producer and composer who worked with The Beach Boys, Bobby Darin and The Byrds. With Terry and a partner, she co-owned the Cypress Inn in Carmel, a small inn built in a Mediterranean motif. Terry died of melanoma in 2004, aged 62.

In June 2004 she was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by George W. Bush. She did not attend the White House award ceremony because of her intense fear of flying. In 2006, she received a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award.

In a rare interview with The Hollywood Reporter on 4 April 2019, a day after her 97th birthday, Day talked about her work on the Doris Day Animal Foundation, founded in 1978. On the question of what her favourite film was, she answered Calamity Jane: "I was such a tomboy growing up, and she was such a fun character to play. Of course, the music was wonderful, too—'Secret Love,' especially, is such a beautiful song."

As per her last wishes, there was no funeral or graveside service. Doris Day was cremated and her ashes scattered in Carmel, California.


Dutch postcard. Photo: Warner Bros.


Belgian postcard. Photo: Warner Bros.


Big Italian postcard in the Artisti di Sempre series by Rotalfoto, Milano, no. 341.


Italian postcard by Rotalfoto, Milano, no. N 27.


German postcard by Krüger, no. 902/143. Photo: Terb Agency / UFA.

Sources: Wikipedia and IMDb.

In the the silent German drama Die Fürstin von Beranien/The Princess of Berania (Ernst Reicher, 1918), heartthrob Bruno Kastner plays a prince who falls for the princess of Berania, played by Stella Harf. But in this story the couple does not live happy ever after...


German postcard by Photochemie, Berlin, no. K. 2329. Photo: Alba-Film. Stella Harf and Bruno Kastner in Die Fürstin von Beranien/The Princess of Berania (Ernst Reicher, 1918).


German postcard by Photochemie, Berlin, no. K. 2330. Photo: Alba-Film. Stella Harf and Bruno Kastner in Die Fürstin von Beranien (Ernst Reicher, 1918).


German postcard by Photochemie, Berlin, no. K. 2331. Photo: Alba-Film. Stella Harf and Bruno Kastner in Die Fürstin von Beranien (Ernst Reicher, 1918).


German postcard by Photochemie, Berlin, no. K. 2332. Photo: Alba-Film. Stella Harf and Bruno Kastner in Die Fürstin von Beranien (Ernst Reicher, 1918).


German postcard by Photochemie, Berlin, no. K. 2334. Photo: Alba-Film, Berlin. Stella Harf and Bruno Kastner in Die Fürstin von Beranien (Ernst Reicher, 1918).

A Last Sidestep

In Die Fürstin von Beranien/The Princess of Berania (Ernst Reicher, 1918), Bruno Kastner starred as prince Heinrich von Waldstein aka Dr. Heinrich von Wald. Director Ernst Reicher's wife, Stella Harf, played the title role, princess Elisabeth Maria von Beranien.

Prince Ernst von Beranien (Leopold von Ledebur) announces his daughter Elisabeth will become crown princess. She asks for a last sidestep, and as a 'common countess', she is granted to take a holiday in the mountains, though escorted by the stern countess Elvira (Frida Richard) and her daughter Kitty.

The princess meets and falls in love with the sympathetic Dr. Heinrich von Wald, but when he proposes to her she flees, as the class difference would never permit such a marriage.

When her father dies, Elisabeth agrees to become the next ruler and must pick a husband of her class, her father's favourite Duke Rudolph (Kurt von Möllendorf). The military party opposes and rather sees her married to prince Von Waldstein. They assault the castle but when the prince and princess meet they recognise each other as the winter sports lovers.

Then the plot takes an unusal, tragic shift. Heinrich is captured but released. During a last farewell of Heinrich at Elisabeth's balcony, the guard misunderstands the situation and shoots him, mortally. After Heinrich's death Elisabeth marries her father's favourite.

Die Fürstin von Beranien premiered in April 1918 at the Berlin cinema Tauentzienpalast. The script was written by Richard Hutter. Sets were designed by future director Manfred Noa, and cinematography was done by Hans Bloch.


German postcard by Verlag Hermann Leiser, Berlin, no. 3267. Photo: Alba-Film. Stella Harf and Bruno Kastner in Die Fürstin von Beranien (Ernst Reicher, 1918).


German postcard by Verlag Hermann Leiser, Berlin, no. 3266. Photo: Alba-Film. Stella Harf and Leopold von Ledebur in Die Fürstin von Beranien (Ernst Reicher, 1918).


German postcard by Verlag Hermann Leiser, Berlin, no. 3256. Photo: Alba-Film. Bruno Kastner in Die Fürstin von Beranien (Ernst Reicher, 1918).


German postcard by Verlag Hermann Leiser, Berlin, no. 3254. Photo: Alba-Film. Stella Harf and Bruno Kastner in Die Fürstin von Beranien (Ernst Reicher, 1918).

Source: Wikipedia (German) and IMDb.

Romy Schneider and Horst Buchholz were one of the most beloved 'Traumpare' (dream couples) of the German cinema of the 1950s. Their most successful film together was the romantic drama Monpti/Love from Paris (Helmut Käutner, 1957), situated in, oui!, Paris.


Dutch postcard by Gebr. Spanjersberg, Rotterdam, no. 1012. Photo: Ufa. Romy Schneider and Horst Buchholz in Monpti (Helmut Käutner, 1957).


German postcard by Franz Josef Rüdel, Filmpostkartenverlag, Hamburg-Bergedorf, no. 2268. Photo: NDF / Herzog / Vogelmann; NDF / Herzog / Brünjes. Publicity stills for Monpti (Helmut Käutner, 1957) with Romy Schneider and Horst Buchholz.


Dutch postcard by Int. Filmpers, Amsterdam, no. 1221. Photo: Cont Press / Heinz Fremke. Caption: Special picture made at the premiere of Monpti. A film based on the novel 'Monpti' issued in 15 languages in a total edition of 2.000.000 copies. Author: Gabor von Vasary.


Dutch postcard by Gebr. Spanjersberg, Rotterdam, no. 1027. Photo: Ufa. Publicity still for Monpti (Helmut Käutner, 1957) with Romy Schneider. Sadly, a former owner of this postcard cut the sides off.


Dutch postcard by Gebr. Spanjersberg N.V., Rotterdam (Licency holder for Universum-Film Aktiengesellschaft, Berlin-Tempelhof), no. 1003. Photo: Ufa. Publicity still for Monpti (Helmut Käutner, 1957).

A cat and mouse play-like erotic relationship 

Monpti/Love from Paris (Helmut Käutner, 1957) is a cheerful, yet melancholic love story set in Paris that ends tragically.

Horst Buchholz plays a young, starving art student from Budapest who meets Anne-Claire (Romy Schneider), a pretty, French girl on a bench in the Luxembourg park in Paris.

Anne-Claire is a 17-year old seamstress, who pretends to be of rich family in order to crash society. In reality, she is poor and orphaned. She falls in love with the Hungarian artist whom she calls Monpti (short for Mon petit – My little one).

She tells him that she comes from a wealthy family and has a private chauffeur, and even takes Monpti to a family church funeral and points out all her relatives, even telling which ones are not on speaking terms.

A cat and mouse play-like erotic relationship starts. Monpti has no time for women of wealth. Sensing a challenge, Anne-Claire pursues Monpti, keeping her true identity a secret. But when he learns the truth, he hits her in the open street, takes a cab, and drives away.

What starts as a light-hearted romp unexpectedly deepens into tragedy.Anne-Claire tries to follow him but runs into a car. In the background of many scenes we have seen the couple who overrun Anne-Claire, and their shallow emotions were recurrently contrasted with the genuine love of the young couple.

Monpti sees Anne-Claire one last time, lying in the hospital. Monpti promises he will marry her, but Anne-Claire dies a little while later from her injuries. In a dream, Monpti sees her in a wedding dress.


Dutch postcard by Gebr. Spanjersberg, Rotterdam, no. 1016. Photo: Ufa. Romy Schneider and Horst Buchholz in Monpti (Helmut Käutner, 1957).


Dutch postcard by Gebr. Spanjersberg, Rotterdam, no. 1019. Photo: Ufa. Romy Schneider and Horst Buchholz in Monpti (Helmut Käutner, 1957).


Dutch postcard by Gebr. Spanjersberg, Rotterdam. Photo: Ufa. Romy Schneider and Horst Buchholz in Monpti (Helmut Käutner, 1957).


Dutch postcard by Gebr. Spanjersberg, Rotterdam. Photo: Ufa. Romy Schneider and Horst Buchholz in Monpti (Helmut Käutner, 1957).


Dutch postcard by Gebr. Spanjersberg, Rotterdam, no. 1022. Photo: Ufa. Romy Schneider and Horst Buchholz in Monpti (Helmut Käutner, 1957).


Dutch postcard by Gebr. Spanjersberg, Rotterdam, no. 1024. Photo: Ufa. Romy Schneider and Horst Buchholz in Monpti (Helmut Käutner, 1957).


Dutch postcard by Gebr. Spanjersberg, Rotterdam, no. 1025. Photo: Ufa. Romy Schneider and Horst Buchholz in Monpti (Helmut Käutner, 1957).

The turning point for Romy Schneider

In 1957, Romy Schneider and Horst Buchholz were Germany's biggest film stars. They had teamed up the year before in Robinson Soll nicht sterben/The Girl and the Legend (Josef von Báky, 1957) which dealt with author Daniel Defoe's childhood. Horst Buchholz had also been the hero of the German version of Julien Duvivier's Marianne de Ma Jeunesse/Marianne of My Youth (1955).


The young and fascinating Romy grew in popularity in the wake of the Sissi saga. Monpti (English-language title Love From Paris) was the first time she had left the costume- and Heimatfilms. Monpti became the turning point which explained her further evolution. It was not yet Orson Welles or Luchino Visconti but it was a step in the right direction.

Montpi was directed by Helmut Käutner and produced by Harald Braun. It was filmed in the Bavaria Filmstudios and on location in Paris. The scenes often take place in the Luxembourg gardens in the Latin Quarter. The cinematographer was Heinz Pehlke, who used different techniques to convey the mood of the film, including using a concealed camera to capture the sights and sounds of Paris.

Helmut Käutner was influenced by the French director Julien Duvivier whose Sous le ciel de Paris/Under the Sky of Paris (1951) and other films revolved around the whims of fate, with a voice over. Monpti is narrated by a wry, all-knowing Bistro customer, who functions as a sort of keyhole peeper in a cabaret-like farce. The old Bistro customer is played by director Käutner himself.

Marcin Kukuczka at IMDb: "MONPTI is a nice underrated film about simplicity, youthful joy, pure affection that all young people may get through when they only want to. It's also a wonderful insight into a change introduced in cinema. Highly recommended!"

J.J. Gittes at IMDb: "The film is completely dazzling, and as some say this is Käutner's biggest coup de main, though I'm not so sure myself, I definitely cannot disagree. Monpti left me a bit dumbfounded, gasping for air, as it's as fast as seemingly innocent while going through the motions in a nether-land somewhere between Andrzej Zulawski's Possession (1981) and Ernst Marischka's Sissi (1955). Definitely one-of-its-kind, this is a testament to the 50s as a disjointed decade stuck between the 40s and 60s, on a planet of its own. "


Dutch postcard by Uitg. Takken, Utrecht, no. AX 3168. Photo: Filmex N.V. Romy Schneider and Horst Buchholz in Monpti (Helmut Käutner, 1957).


Dutch postcard by Uitg. Takken, Utrecht, no. AX 3175. Photo: Filmex N.V. Romy Schneider in Monpti (Helmut Käutner, 1957).


Dutch postcard by Uitg. Takken, Utrecht, no. AX 3177. Photo: Filmex N.V. Romy Schneider in Monpti (Helmut Käutner, 1957).


Dutch postcard by Uitg. Takken, Utrecht, no. AX 3179. Photo: Filmex N.V. Romy Schneider and Horst Buchholz in Monpti (Helmut Käutner, 1957).


West-German postcard by Ufa/Film-Foto, Berlin-Tempelhof, no. FK 3674. Photo: Ringpress / Vogelmann / NDF / Herzog Film. Mara Lane in Monpti/Love from Paris (Helmut Käutner, 1957).


German postcard by Ufa. Photo: Vogelmann / NDF / Herzog-film. Olive Moorefield in Monpti (Helmut Käutner, 1957).


Director and actor Helmut Käutner. German postcard by Photo-Kitt, München, no. 504. Photo: Kurt Julius / Camera Film.

Sources: Wikipedia and IMDb.

May McAvoy (1899-1984) was an American actress of the silent screen, best known as Esther in the classic epic Ben-Hur (Fred Niblo, 1925).


German postcard by Ross Verlag, Berlin, no. 708/1, 1925-1926. Photo: Transocean-Film-Co, Berlin.


Austrian postcard by Iris Verlag, no. 715/3. Photo: Fanamet / Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Ramon Novarro and May McAvoy in Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ (Fred Niblo, 1925).


German postcard by Ross Verlag, Berlin, no. 1042/1, 1927-1928. Photo: Phoebus Film.

Petite and Independent

May McAvoy was born in New York City in 1899, within a well-to-do family that owned and operated a livery stable.

May left school at the age of 17 to act in her first role in the film Hate by Walter Richard Stahl. From then she had small parts, even uncredited roles in films, for various Californian film companies, until she did a few films for the J. Stuart Blackton Company.

J. Stuart Blackton, the co-founder of and regular director at Vitagraph, had started his own production company in 1917. After two smaller parts in films for the company, she got her first lead in The House of the Tolling Bell (J. Stuart Blackton, 1920), a mystery film about a haunted house. Blackton let her star again, again opposite Bruce Gordon, in The Forbidden Valley (J. Stuart Blackton, 1920).

In 1921 she acted e.g. in Chester M. Franklin's A Private Scandal, which script had been purposely written by Hector Turnbull for McAvoy. The film was the first of a series of seven films at Realart Pictures, in which McAvoy constantly starred, directed either by Frank O'Connor or William Desmond Taylor. The apparent success of these films convinced Paramount to lure her away with a contract. Petite as she was, McAvoy was independent enough to defend her interests.

In 1922 May McAvoy started to act at Paramount/ Famous Players-Lasky, where she already had done an occasional film in the past. It was William C. DeMille who mostly directed her at Paramount: in Clarence (1922), starring Wallace Reid and Agnes Ayres, Grumpy (1923), starring Theodore Roberts, Only 38 (1923), in which she herself had the lead, and The Bedroom Window (1924), another starring role with Malcolm McGregor and Ricardo Cortez as her co-stars. It was probably McAvoy's last film for Paramount.

In 1923 May McAvoy got into a row with director-producer Cecil B. DeMille, because she refused the role in his film Adam's Rib, as it meant her hair would be bobbed and she had to show partial nudity. Instead, she complained parts she wanted were given to other actresses: to Betty Bronson in Peter Pan and to Betty Compson in Little Minister. After she had been suspended, she bought off her contract and started freelancing.


French postcard in the Les Vedettes de Cinéma series by A.M., Paris, no. 24. Photo: Film Paramount.


French postcard in Les Vedettes de Cinéma series by A.N., Paris, no. 36. Photo: Paramount.


French postcard by Editions Cinémagazine, Paris, no. 186. Photo: Apeda.

MGM's classic super production

Freelancing didn't mean a fallback at all, as May McAvoy managed to play memorable parts in e.g. The Enchanted Cottage (John S. Robertson, 1924) starring and produced by Richard Barthelmess, Tessie (Dallas M. Fitzgerald, 1925) and in particular Lady Windermere's Fan (Ernst Lubitsch, 1925) with Ronald Colman.

McAvoy replaced Gertrude Olmstead in her best known silent film, MGM's classic super production Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ(Fred Niblo 1925). McAvoy played Esther, the love interest of the title character, played by Ramon Novarro. Her former rival at Paramount, Betty Bronson, would play the small part of the Virgin Mary.

Two years after, McAvoy had an important part in what is often credited as the first sound feature, The Jazz Singer (Alan Crossland 1927), which, actually, was a part-talkie, in which most actors, including McAvoy, did not talk yet. She played Mary, girlfriend of the male lead, played by singer-actor Al Jolson.

Afterward, May McAvoy did act in all-talkie movies, such as The Lion and the Mouse (Lloyd Bacon, 1928), and The Terror (Roy Del Ruth, 1928), shot at Warner's studio in Burbank with failing technology, distorting her voice. Not so much because of her voice, but on request of her new (1929) husband, Maurice Cleary, banker and treasurer of United Artists, she withdrew to private life and took care of their son, Patrick (1932-2012).

Despite some sources write they remained married until his death, Wikipedia has convincing proof they divorced in 1940. It also explains that in 1940 McAvoy went back to the set, but had to satisfy with bit parts. Hollywood was not kind to its former stars. Still, until 1959 she had small parts, even uncredited ones - her last part being an extra in the remake of Ben-Hur (1959) by William Wyler, himself a former assistant-director on the silent version.

May McAvoy died in 1984, in Los Angeles, as the consequence of a heart attack one year earlier. She was interred in the Holy Cross Cemetery in Culver City. May McAvoy has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 1731 Vine Street.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 133/7 Photo: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Ramon Novarro and May McAvoy in Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ (Fred Niblo, 1925).


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 133/10 Photo: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Ramon Novarro and May McAvoy in Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ (Fred Niblo, 1925).


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 133/11. Photo: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Ramon Novarro, Claire McDowell and May McAvoy in Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ (Fred Niblo, 1925).


British Real Photograph postcard, no. 81. Photo: Warner Bros.

Sources: Dave Lobosco (A Trip Down Memory Lane), Wikipedia (English and German), and IMDb.

The Gaumont British Picture Corporation (GB) was a company that produced and distributed films and operated a cinema chain in the United Kingdom. In the 1930s, it was the largest film company in the UK, employing 16,000 people. Among the studio's best known films are two of Alfred Hitchcock's classic British thrillers, The 39 Steps (1935) and The Lady Vanishes (1938). Major stars of the studio were Jessie Matthews, Robert Donat, Madeleine Carroll, Conrad Veidt, Jack Hulbert, Cicely Courtneidge, Gordon Harker, and many others. Gaumont and its subsidiary Gainsborough produced 721 films.


British postcard, no. 159b. Photo: Gaumont-British.

Saucer-eyed, long-legged Jessie Matthews (1907-1981) was a gamine, graceful dancer, with a sweet, pure-toned singing voice, and waif-like sex appeal, who embodied 1930s style. For most of the decade, she was the most popular musical star in England.


British postcard in the Picturegoer Series, no. 717. Photo: Gaumont-British.

Gordon Harker (1885-1967) was a popular English film actor who specialised in Cockney roles. Throughout the 1930s and 1940s, he seemed to appear in every crime film produced in England, including four directed by Alfred Hitchcock.


British postcard by Raphael Tuck & Sons, no. 14. Photo: Gaumont-British.

Cicely Courtneidge (1893–1980) was an elegantly knockabout comedienne. For 62 years, she formed a husband and wife team with comedian Jack Hulbert on stage, radio, TV and in the cinema. During the 1930s she also starred in eleven British films and one disastrous American production.


British postcard by Raphael Tuck & Sons 'Real Photograph', no. 15. Photo: Gaumont-British.

Jack Hulbert (1892-1978) was a popular comedian of the 1930s with a trademark chiselled chin. In his musicals he often appeared with his wife Cicely Courtneidge.


British postcard by Raphael Tuck & Sons in the Real Photograph Series, no. 7-8. Photo: Gaumont-British.

Madeleine Carroll (1906–1987) was a blonde beauty of ladylike demeanour. The first of Alfred Hitchcock's ‘ice-cool blondes’ was immensely popular in the 1930s and 1940s, and was nicknamed 'The Queen of British Cinema'.

Gaumont Film production

Gaumont-British was founded by Frenchman Leon Gaumont in 1898 as the British subsidiary of the French Gaumont Film Company. The first studio was established at Freeman's Cricket Field in Dulwich. The first director was Alfred Collins. Many successful films, like A Runaway Match (Alfred Collins, 1903), Lost! A Leg of Mutton (Alfred Collins, 1906), Curfew Shall Not Ring To-night (Arthur Gilbert, 1907), and Napoleon and the English Sailor (Alfred Collins, 1908) with Herbert Darnley, were made at Dulwich, and England was at the time the chief supplier of films for the American market.

Gaumont invented the Chronophone and the Chronochrome. The Chronophone involved a synchronised gramophone disc sounding together with the silent picture, to produce a talking picture as early as 1902. The Chronochrome, introduced in 1913, was an equally successful attempt at reproduction in natural colours by the simultaneous projection of three pictures through a coloured screen in green, red and purple violet.

Gaumont recorded several important topical events. Gaumont decided that production must be undertaken on a far larger scale in England than ever before. More extensive studios were necessary, and the first British building solely for the purpose of film production was erected with the most modern equipment and laboratories on the same site at Lime Grove in Shepsherd's Bush. The first automatic film printing works set up at Lime Grove for world-wide trade in 1912.

In 1913 Gaumont distributed the first feature length film in England. It was the Messter Film production Richard Wagner/The Life of Richard Wagner (Carl Froelich, William Wauer, 1913), with an elaborate musical setting provided by the London Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Sir Landon Ronald.

George Pearson directed for Gaumont-British the four part serial Ultus, the Man from the Dead (George Pearson, 1915) starring Aurele Sydney a.k.a. Aurelio Sidney. The film was so successful that a series of Ultus pictures was made. This series was followed by Sally Bishop (George Pearson, 1916) with Marjorie Villis, Aurele Sydney and Peggy Hyland.

During the First World War, the British Government took over the building and the studio was used for research and propaganda purposes, although film production was permitted to continue part-time. Thus the Shepherd's Bush Studios not only assisted in the propagation of the war, but also provided entertainment for a warweary public such as a film version of H. G. Wells's The First Men in the Moon (Bruce Gordon, J.L.V. Leigh, 1919).

After the war, the British industry appeared completely crushed.


British postcard in the Picturegoer Series, no. 1193. Photo: Gaumont-British.

Derrick De Marney (1906–1978) was a handsome and versatile English stage and film actor. Today, he is best known for his starring role as Robert Tisdall, wrongly accused of murder in Alfred Hitchcock's Young and Innocent (1937).


British postcard, no. 162 A. Photo: Gaumont-British.

As a teenager Nova Pilbeam played in two Alfred Hitchcock classics, The Man Who Knew Too Much (1934) and Young and Innocent (1937). In 1948 she vanished from the British cinema.


British postcard in the Picturegoer Series, London, no. 1033. Photo: Gaumont-British.

Peter Lorre (1904–1964) with his trademark large, popped eyes, his toothy grin and his raspy voice was an American actor of Jewish Austro-Hungarian descent. He was an international sensation as the psychopathic child murderer in Fritz Lang’s M (1931). He later became a popular actor in a two British Hitchcock films and in a series of Hollywood crime films and mysteries.


British postcard in the Picturegoer Series, London, no. 880b. Photo: Gaumont-British.

Blue-eyed blonde Anna Lee (1913-2004) was a British-born American actress. She started her career in British films and earned the title 'Queen of the Quota Quickies'. In 1939, she moved to Hollywood with her husband, director Robert Stevenson.


British postcard by Raphael Tuck & Sons in the Real Photograph Series, no. 176. Photo: Gaumont-British.

Herbert Marshall (1890-1966), was a popular English cinema and theatre actor. He overcame the loss of a leg in World War I to enjoy a long career in Hollywood, first as a romantic lead opposite stars like Marlene Dietrich and Greta Garbo, later as a fine character actor.

Gainsborough and Gaumont

The British subsidiary of Gaumont became independent in 1922 when Leon Gaumont sold the control of the company to Isidore Ostrer. Born in 1889 to a humble Jewish family in Whitechapel, Ostrer had made his first fortune in textiles during World War 1, then he established a private bank, and in 1922 he took over the Gaumont film company fand renamed it Gaumont British.

Ostrer engaged his four brothers to run the company with him. He made his brother Maurice Ostrer director of both the corporation and the sister company Gainsborough studios, where Maurice acted in the capacity of executive film producer. Brother Mark Ostrer was the chairman, who oversaw the 343 cinemas, theatres, dance halls, and restaurants owned, controlled or managed by the corporation and associated companies.

Fourth brother, Harry Ostrer, who had been a school teacher, worked with scripts. His daughter became 'the Gainsborough lady', who nodded her head at the beginning of each film. The fifth brother, David Ostrer, worked in distribution. Years later, his son, Bertram Ostrer, produced a few films independently, including Dentist in the Chair (Don Chaffey, 1960) starring Bob Monkhouse, Dentist on the Job (C.M. Pennington-Richards, 1961), and Captain Nemo and the Underwater City (James Hill, 1969) with Robert Ryan.

The first film under the Gainsborough banner was released in 1924. Four years later, Gainsborough Pictures Limited was established as one of the associated production companies within the Gaumont-British Picture Corporation Limited. During this period films were produced under both banners, Gaumont and Gainsborough. The Gaumont banner was dropped in 1938, and all films produced from 1938 to 1950 were under the Gainsborough banner. (Next week, EFSP will do a post on Gainsborough).

In 1927 a leading silent film studio, the Ideal Film Company, merged with Gaumont. After a few years, sound film arrived. The film industry was immensely boosted by the arrival of talkies in 1929, and cinema attendance also rose because of audiences' need for mental escape from the bad economic times and the growing troubles in Europe.

Maurice Elvey was directing High Treason (Maurice Elvey, 1929) with Benita Hume and Basil Gill. when sound film arrived and the film had to be turned into a 'talkie' under difficult conditions. Sound-proofing had to be done while the film was actually being made.

In the summer of 1931, during Victor Saville's direction of the sound film version of Hindle Wakes (Victor Saville, 1931) with Sybil Thorndike and John Stuart, the new condenser microphone of British Acoustic was first used. Since that date all Gaumont-British productions used this apparatus.


British postcard issued with Sarony Cigarettes, no. 67 of a second series of 42 Cinema Stars. Photo: Gaumont. Publicity still for High Treason (Maurice Elvey, 1929) with Basil Gill.


British postcard by Raphael Tuck & Sons, London, no. 50-S. Photo: Gaumont-British. Ivor Novello in Love and Let Love/Sleeping Car (Anatole Litvak, 1933).


British Real Photograph postcard in the Film Partners series, no. P 121. Photo: Gaumont-British. Brian Aherne and Victoria Hopper in The Constant Nymph (Basil Dean, 1933).


British postcard by Raphael Tuck & Sons in the Real Photograph Series, no. 27-B. Photo: Gaumont-British. Publicity still for The Good Companions (Victor Saville, 1933) with a.o. John Gielgud (third from left), A.W. Baskcomb (fifth from left) and Jessie Matthews (third from right).


British handcoloured postcard in the Film Partners Series, no PC 236. Photo: Gaumont-British. Derrick De Marney and Nova Pilbeam in Young and Innocent/The Girl Was Young (Alfred Hitchcock, 1937).


British postcard by Raphael Tuck & Sons (Real Photograph), no. 166. Photo: Gaumont-British.

Tall and good-looking Matheson Lang (1879-1948) was a Canadian-born stage and film actor and playwright. He is best known for his Shakespearean roles in British productions of Hamlet, Macbeth, and Romeo and Juliet and for his role as Mr. Wu in the early 20th century. He was one of the first major stars of the British theatre who acted in a silent film and during the 1920s, he became a popular film star in Great Britain.

Gaumont British

Gaumont-British (GB) moved into its decade of glory, the 1930s. GB dominated the British film industry with its large chain of cinemas and its vast studio complex at Lime Grove. The company employed 16,000 people. Amongst the directors were Victor Saville, Walter Forde, William Thiele, Anthony Asquith, Sinclair Hill, and Alfred Hitchcock. Several other internationally known names were added later.

Alfred Hitchcock directed eleven films for Gaumont and Gainsborough. Before his directing debut, he adapted the screenplays for three Gainsborough films in 1924 and 1925. He then directed five Gainsborough films in 1926 and 1927. After a six year absence, he directed five Gaumont films between 1934 and 1937, including his adaptation of The 39 Steps (Alfred Hitchcock, 1935), starring Robert Donat and Madeleine Carroll. In 1938, Hitchcock directed one more Gainsborough film, The Lady Vanishes (Alfred Hitchcock, 1938) with Margaret Lockwood and Michael Redgrave.

The list of actors and actresses on contract by GB in were of equal distinction, including Jack Hulbert,Cicely Courtneidge, Gordon Harker, John Stuart, Belle Chrystall, Renate Müller, Fred Kerr, Sonnie Hale, and Edmund Gwenn.

Early in 1932, GB quietly took over Baird Television Ltd. which had become financially precarious. As a result, Baird Television received a badly-needed infusion of capital which enabled it to hire scientists with expertise in the new technology of electronic television, and to move to the Crystal Palace where a fully equiped television studio and ultra short wave transmitter was set up.

After a boardroom coup in 1933, Nigel Ostrer's position as managing director became nominal. Under the new arrangement he did research on large-screen and colour television. The Ostrers felt that television could be part of his film empire, with live telecasts of sporting events being shown on cinema screens as an accompaniment to the main feature film.

In the United States, Gaumont-British had its own distribution operation for its films until December 1938, when it outsourced distribution to 20th Century Fox.

At the outbreak of the Second World War, all television was shut down. GB came under scrutiny by a Board of Trade enquiry and Ostrer also felt threatened by the possibility of German invasion. In 1940 he was named on the infamous Nazi death list of people they thought to be a danger, including Winston Churchill, J.B. Priestly and Noel Coward.

In 1941, rival film magnate J. Arthur Rank of the Rank Organisation bought Gaumont-British and its sister company Gainsborough Pictures. Isidore Ostrer moved to the USA for the war years and though he eventually returned to Britain he never made a major comeback in the film industry. His business interest returned to the textile industry in which he had started many years earlier. He lived on until 1975 in semi-seclusion.


British collectors card by De Reszke Cigarettes, no. 9. Photo: Gaumont-British. Jessie Matthews in Waltzes from Vienna (Alfred Hitchcock, 1934).


British postcard by De Reszke Cigarettes, no. 21. Photo: Gaumont-British.

Evelyn Laye (1900–1996) was one of England's most popular stars of musical revue and operetta during the 1920s. She did a few screen appearances in both London and Hollywood, including in the classic musical Evensong (Victor Saville, 1934).


British postcard by De Reszke Cigarettes, no. 32. Photo: Gaumont-British. Madeleine Carroll in The Dictator/Loves of a Dictator (Victor Saville, 1935).


British postcard by De Reszke Cigarettes, no. 33. Photo: Gaumont-British. Conrad Veidt in Jew Süss (Lothar Mendes, 1934).


British postcard by Art Card, no. 80. Photo: Gaumont-British. This card dates from the years Lilli Palmer played in Alfred Hitchcock's Secret Agent (1936).

Gaumont cinemas

Gaumont-British developed or acquired large 'super-cinemas' such as the New Victoria (later Gaumont and finally Odeon) in Bradford opened in 1930, the Gaumont in Manchester opened in 1935, and the Gaumont State Cinema in Kilburn, London, opened in 1937.

The coporation also took over many smaller cinemas across the country, eventually owning 343 properties. One such property was the Holderness Hall in Hull, built by the pioneering William Morton in 1912 and managed by him until 1930 when he could no longer compete.

Many of the Gaumont cinemas had a theatre organ for entertainment before the show, in the intervals, or after the show. The name 'Gaumont' was adopted to describe the style of the flat-top organ console case (originally for the Pavilion Theatre, Shepherd's Bush), for some Compton organs built from October 1931 to 1934.

In 1941, after the take-over by Rank, all Gaumont cinemas were rebranded as Odeon cinemas. Cinema exhibition in the UK was characterised by alignments between exhibitors and distributors. After the Odeon and Gaumont takeovers, Rank had access to the product of 20th Century Fox, Paramount, Disney, Columbia, Universal, United Artists and its own film productions. Rival ABC had only Warner Brothers, MGM and its own ABPC productions but both also took films from smaller distributors.

With ample supply of product, Rank maintained the separate Odeon and Gaumont release pattern for many years. Some Odeon cinemas were renamed Gaumont when transferred to Gaumont release. As attendances declined during the 1950s many cinemas on all circuits were closed and eventually, the booking power of the Gaumont circuit declined. In January 1959 Rank restructured its exhibition operation and combined the best Gaumonts and the best Odeons in a new Rank release, while the rest were given a new 'National' release.

In 1961, Paramount objected to Rank consigning its Dean Martin comedy All in a Night's Work (Joseph Anthony, 1961) to the national circuit and henceforth switched its allegiance to the ABC circuit. With the continuing decline in attendances and cinema numbers, the National release died on its feet and henceforth there were two release patterns, Rank and ABC.

There was no reason to perpetuate the Gaumont name and in towns that lost their Odeon, the Gaumont was usually renamed Odeon within a couple of years of the latter's closure. Even so, the Gaumont name continued to linger until, in January 1987, the last Gaumont, in Doncaster, was renamed Odeon.


British postcard by Raphael Tuck & Sons' Real Photograph, no. 42-S. Photo: Gaumont-British.

A.W. Baskcomb (1880-1939) is best remembered for his creation of the part of ‘Slightly’ in the very first stage production of J.M. Barrie's Peter Pan (1904). He created a major character out of an underwritten part and went on to play it for seven years. At the end of his career he became briefly a popular film star.


British postcard by Raphael Tuck & Sons'Real Photograph, London, no. 30-S. Photo: Gaumont-British.

British actor Ralph Lynn (1882-1962) was a tweedy, dark-haired comedian who made a stage career out of playing monocled silly ass twits. He was a veteran performer of London's highly popular Aldwych Repertory Theatre farces, and he and fellow members Tom Walls and Robertson Hare successfully took many of their stylized productions to the big screen in the 1930s.


British postcard by Raphael Tuck & Sons, Real Photograph Postcard, no. 178. Photo: Gaumont-British.

English actor Tom Walls (1883-1949) was a popular character player on stage and in films, and also worked as a film director. He is indelibly associated with the popular Aldwych Theatre farces of the 1920s and 1930s and was one of the most influential figures in British comedy.


British postcard in the Picturegoer Series, no. 947a. Photo: Gaumont-British.

Robertson Hare (1891-1979) was an English actor, who came to fame in the Aldwych farces between 1923 and 1933. Bald, short and fussy, Hare made his career in character roles, often as a figure of put-upon respectability.


British Real Photograph postcard by Raphael Tuck & Sons, no. 19-S. Photo: Gaumont-British. Gordon Harker in Love On Wheels (Victor Saville, 1932).

Sources: Nigel Ostrer (The Ostrers and Gaumont British), Wikipedia and IMDb.

American film and television actress Sheree North (1932–2005) was one of 20th Century-Fox's intended successors to Marilyn Monroe. But North became her own woman in a varied and sometimes bumpy 40+ year film, stage and TV career.


French postcard by Editions du Globe, Paris, no. 553. Photo: 20th Century Fox.

A brush with scandal

Sheree North was born Dawn Shirley Crang in 1932 in Los Angeles. She was the daughter of June Shoard and Richard Crang. Following her mother's remarriage to Edward Bethel, she was known as Dawn Shirley Bethel.

North began taking dance lessons at age 6. At age 10 she danced in several USO shows during WWII. At age 13 she lied about her age so she could become a chorus girl. In 1948, she married Fred Bessire. She bore her first child at age 17 in 1949, and continued dancing in clubs under the stage name Shirley Mae Bessire.

North made her film debut as an uncredited extra in the Red Skelton comedy Excuse My Dust (Roy Rowland, 1951). She was discovered in a Santa Monica night club by a famous choreographer who cast her as a chorus girl in the film Here Come the Girls (Claude Binyon, 1953), starring Bob Hope. Around that time, she adopted the stage name Sheree North.

She made her Broadway debut in the musical Hazel Flagg. For her performance, she won a 1953 Theatre World Award. She reprised her role in the film version, Living It Up (Norman Tautog, 1954) with Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis. In 1954, North signed a four-year contract with 20th Century-Fox.

In March 1954, North had a brush with scandal when it was revealed that she had earlier danced a 'Tiger Dance' in a bikini in an 8 mm erotic film. Fox capitalised on the publicity as the studio previously had with Marilyn Monroe's nude calendar posing in 1952. She became Fox's alternative to MM. When she was pictured on the cover of the 21 March 1955, issue of Life magazine, the headline read, "Sheree North Takes Over From Marilyn Monroe".

She appeared in such Box Office friendly entertainments as the musicals How to be very, very popular (Nunnally Johnson, 1955) with Betty Grable in her final role, and The Best Things in Life are Free (Michael Curtiz, 1956) with Gordon MacRae, Dan Dailey and Ernest Borgnine, as well as the comedy The Lieutenant wore Skirts (Frank Tashlin, 1956) with Tom Ewell.

Fox later signed Jayne Mansfield in 1956 and North was pushed aside by the studio. She appeared in four more forgettable Fox films - The Way to the Gold (Robert D. Webb, 1957), No Down Payment (Martin Ritt, 1957) with Joanne Woodward, In Love and War (Philip Dunne, 1958), and Mardi Gras (Edmund Goulding, 1958) with Pat Boone. Her contract was not renewed after 1958.


German postcard by ISV, no. A 27. Photo: 20th Century Fox. Publicity still for The Best Things in Life Are Free (Michael Curtiz, 1956).

Usually playing a tough, sexy dame or hard edge, world-weary type

Sheree North's career stalled. She made occasional appearances on TV over the next 10 years, in such programs as Gunsmoke (1963), The Virginian (1964-1966), Burke's Law (1963-1965), The Big Valley (1966), The Fugitive (1965-1967), and more.

North joined the stage cast of 'I Can Get It for You Wholesale' in 1962, which featured Elliott Gould and introduced Barbra Streisand. North took over for Shirley Knight in a Los Angeles production of 'Dutchman', which coincided with the 1965 Watts riots. The production was controversial and was blamed by conservatives for inciting unrest. It was picketed, ads were blocked from the newspapers and North's car was set on fire. Despite that, the production ran for a year.

From 1959 to 1968, she appeared in only one feature film, the low budget Sci-Fi flick Destination Inner Space (Francis D. Lyon, 1966) with Scott Brady.

In 1968 she began her longtime association with director Don Siegel, appearing in a supporting role in the cop drama Madigan (Don Siegel, 1968) with Richard Widmark and Henry Fonda. Siegel went on to cast in her in some of her best screen roles.

She usually played a tough, sexy dame or hard edge, world-weary type. That meant a slew of strippers, hookers, widows, cocktail waitresses, trampy housewives, etc. North's other work with Siegel included the brassy forger Jewell Everett in Charley Varrick (Don Siegel, 1973), John Wayne's former flame Serepata in The Shootist (Don Siegel, 1973) and a brainwashed Soviet spy/housewife in Telefon (Don Siegel, 1977).

With Elvis Presley, North played in one of his final films, The Trouble With Girls (Peter Tewksbury, 1969).


Vintage postcard.

Blanche Devereaux's sister Virginia

From 1969 to the late 1970s, Sheree North was an in-demand supporting player on the big screen. She played a nameless waitress/stripper who sleeps with Gene Hackman in John Frankenheimer's forgotten gem The Gypsy Moths (1969), and a former romantic interest of Burt Lancaster, now trying to save her common-law fugitive husband in the Western Lawman (Michael Winner, 1971).

Then followed such roles as a security guard's drug dealing wife in The Organization (Don Medford, 1971) with Sidney Poitier as Virgil Tibbs, the slutty wife of Bill McKinney in the crime drama classic The Outfit (John Flynn, 1973), and the sexy hairdresser Myrna in Breakout (Tom Gries, 1975) with Charles Bronson.

Through the 1980s and 1990s, she made numerous appearances on TV and appeared in an occasional feature film like Maniac Cop (William Lustig, 1988) and Defenseless (Martin Campbell, 1991), starring Barbara Hershey.

In her later career, she was best known for playing Babs, Kramer's (Michael Richards) mom, on Seinfeld (1995-1998). Her many other TV credits include: Lou Grant's girlfriend with 'spunk' on The Mary Tyler Moore Show (1970), Alias Smith and Jones (1972), Kung Fu (1973), McMillan & Wife (1973), Baretta (1977), Matlock (1986) and The Golden Girls (1985-1989), as Blanche Devereaux's (Rue McClanahan) sister, Virginia.

She also played Norma Jean Baker's unbalanced mom in Marilyn: The Untold Story (Jack Arnold, John Flynn, 1980), Her appearances on Marcus Welby, M.D. (1969) and Archie Bunker's Place (1979) netted her Emmy Nominations. North's last onscreen role came in John Landis' black comedy Susan's Plan (1998), starring Nastassja Kinski.

Sheree North was married four times, to Phillip Alan Norman, Dr. Gerhardt Ralph Sommer, John M. 'Bud' Freeman and Frederick Arnold Bessire Jr. and she had two daughters, Dawn Jeanette Bessire (1949) and Erica Eve Sommer (1959), from different marriages. Emmy Award-winning film title designer Phill Norman had been her companion from 1981 and they married in 2003, two years before her death. Sheree North died during cancer surgery in 2005. She was 73.


Sheree North's 'original Tiger Dance', which created a scandal in 1954. Source: Stone Marble AcMa (YouTube).

Sources: Scott Rollins (The Scott Rollins Film and TV Trivia Blog), Wikipedia and IMDb

Harris Glenn Milstead, better known by his stage name Divine (1945-1988), was an American actor, singer, and drag queen. He was closely associated with the independent filmmaker John Waters. Divine became the international icon of bad taste cinema.


American postcard by Portfolio, N.Y., N.Y., no P 402. Photo: Christopher Makos. Caption: Divine, 1978.


American postcard by Portfolio, N.Y., N.Y., no SC 5. Photo: Francesco Scavullo. Caption: Divine, New York, 1978.


Dutch promotion card by Europop, Haarlem. Photo: Francesco Scavullo, 1978.

Taboo in conventional American society

Harris Glenn Milstead was born in 1945 in Baltimore, Maryland to a conservative middle-class family. His parents were Harris Bernard Milstead and Frances Milstead (née Vukovich). Their only child, his parents lavished almost anything that he wanted upon him, including food. He became overweight, a condition he lived with for the rest of his life.

Divine preferred to use his middle name, Glenn, to distinguish himself from his father, and was referred to as such by his parents and friends. When he was 17, his parents sent him to a psychiatrist, where he first realised his sexual attraction to men as well as women, something then taboo in conventional American society. In 1963, he began attending the Marinella Beauty School, where he learned hair styling and, after completing his studies, gained employment at a couple of local salons, specialising in the creation of beehives and other upswept hairstyles. Milstead developed an early interest in drag while working as a women's hairdresser. He eventually gave up his job and for a while was financially supported by his parents, who catered to his expensive taste in clothes and cars. They reluctantly paid the many bills that he ran up financing lavish parties where he would dress up in drag as his favourite celebrity, actress Elizabeth Taylor. By the mid-1960s he had embraced the city's countercultural scene.

His friend from high school, John Waters gave him the name 'Divine' and the tagline of 'the most beautiful woman in the world, almost'. Waters later remarked that he had borrowed the name Divine from a character in Jean Genet's novel Our Lady of the Flowers (1943). Along with his friend David Lochary, Divine joined Waters' acting troupe, the Dreamlanders (which also included Mary Vivian Pearce and Mink Stole), and adopted female roles for their experimental short films. The first film was Roman Candles (John Waters, 1966), which was shown 'triple projected' on three 8mm projectors running simultaneously but was never released commercially. Divine starred in drag as a smoking nun. Other short films were Eat Your Makeup (John Waters, 1968), and The Diane Linkletter Story (John Waters, 1969), filmed on Sunday afternoons. Again in drag, he took a lead role in Waters' first full-length film, Mondo Trasho (John Waters, 1969) as an unnamed blonde woman who drives around town and runs over a hitchhiker. In their review of the film, the Los Angeles Free Press exclaimed that "The 300-pound (140 kg) sex-symbol Divine is undoubtedly some sort of discovery."

In 1970, he travelled to San Francisco, California, a city which had a large gay subculture that attracted Divine, who was then embracing his homosexuality. Divine played the role of Lady Divine, the operator of an exhibit known as 'The Cavalcade of Perversion' who turns to murdering visitors in Waters's film Multiple Maniacs (John Waters, 1970). The film contained several controversial scenes, notably one which involved Lady Divine masturbating using a rosary while sitting inside a church. In another scene, Lady Divine kills her boyfriend and proceeds to eat his heart; in actuality, Divine bit into a cow's heart which had gone rotten from being left out on the set all day. At the end of the film, Lady Divine is raped by a giant lobster named Lobstora, an act that drives her into madness; she subsequently goes on a killing spree in Fell's Point before being shot down by the National Guard. Due to its controversial nature, Waters feared that the film would be banned and confiscated by the Maryland Censor Board, so avoided their jurisdiction by only screening it at non-commercial venues, namely rented church premises. Multiple Maniacs was the first of Waters's films to receive widespread attention, as did Divine. KSFX remarked that "Divine is incredible! Could start a whole new trend in films."

Following his San Francisco sojourn, Divine returned to Baltimore and participated in Pink Flamingos (John Waters, 1972). Designed by Waters to be an exercise in poor taste, the film featured Divine as Babs Johnson, living in a pink trailer with her egg-eating grandmother, chicken-loving son and voyeuristic daughter. Babs claims to be 'the filthiest person alive' and she is forced to prove her right to the title from challengers, Connie (Mink Stole) and Raymond Marble (David Lochary). In one scene, the Marbles send Babs a turd in a box as a birthday present, and in order to enact this scene, Divine defecated into the box the night before. The final scene in the film proved particularly infamous, involving Babs eating fresh dog feces. Divine later told a reporter: "I followed that dog around for three hours just zooming in on its asshole," waiting for it to empty its bowels so that they could film the scene. The scene became one of the most notable moments of Divine's acting career, and he later complained of people thinking that "I run around doing it all the time". The film proved a hit on the U.S. midnight movie circuit, became a cult classic, and established Divine's fame within the American counterculture.


American postcard by American Postcard Company, no. 894. Photo: Bob Adams / New Line Cinema. Divine in Pink Flamingos (John Waters, 1972).


American postcard by American Postcard Company, 1982. Photo: Lawrence Irvine / New Line Cinema. Divine in Pink Flamingos (John Waters, 1972).


American postcard by The American Postcard Co. Inc., no. 895, 1982. Photo: Bruce Moore / New Line Cinema Corp. Divine, Cookie Mueller, and Susan Walsh in Female Trouble (John Waters, 1974). Caption: Divine as Dawn Davenport and Her Sisters in Crime, from Female Trouble by John Waters.

The stereotype of simply being a female impersonator

Divine returned to San Francisco, where he and Mink Stole starred in a number of small-budget plays at the Palace Theater as part of drag troupe The Cockettes, including 'Divine and Her Stimulating Studs', 'Divine Saves the World', 'Vice Palace', 'Journey to the Center of Uranus' and 'The Heartbreak of Psoriasis'. In 1974, Divine returned to Baltimore to film Waters's next motion picture, Female Trouble (John Waters, 1974), in which he played the lead role.

Divine was unable to appear in Waters's next feature, Desperate Living (John Waters, 1977), despite the fact that the role of Mole McHenry had been written for him. This was because he had returned to working in the theatre as the scheming prison matron Pauline in Tom Eyen's play 'Women Behind Bars' and its sequel,'The Neon Woman'.

While in London in 1978, Divine attended as the guest of honour at the fourth Alternative Miss World pageant, a 'mock' event founded by Andrew Logan in 1972 in which 'drag queens'– including men, women and children – competed for the prize. The event held in a circus tent on Clapham Common in South London was filmed by director Richard Gayer. His film, Alternative Miss World (Richard Gayer, 1980), premiered at the Odeon in London's Leicester Square as well as featuring at the Cannes Film Festival, both events which were attended by Divine.

Continuing his cinematic work, he starred in Polyester (John Waters, 1981) as Francine Fishpaw. Unlike earlier roles, Fishpaw was not a strong female but a meek and victimised woman who falls in love with her dream lover, Todd Tomorrow, played by Tab Hunter. The film was released in 'Odorama', accompanied by 'scratch 'n' sniff' cards for the audience to smell at key points in the film.

In 1981, Divine embarked on a career in the disco industry by producing a number of Hi-NRG tracks, most of which were written by Bobby Orlando. He achieved international chart success with hits like 'You Think You're a Man', 'I'm So Beautiful', and 'Walk Like a Man', all of which were performed in drag.

The next Divine film, Lust in the Dust (Paul Bartel, 1985), reunited him with Tab Hunter and was Divine's first film not directed by John Waters. Set in the Wild West during the nineteenth century, the film was a sex comedy that starred Divine as Rosie Velez, a promiscuous woman who works as a singer in saloons and competes for the love of Abel Wood (Tab Hunter) against another woman (Lainie Kazan). A parody of the Western Duel in the Sun (King Vidor, 1946), the film was a moderate critical success.

Divine followed this production with a very different role, that of gay male gangster Hilly Blue in Trouble in Mind (Alan Rudolph, 1985), starring Kris Kristofferson and Keith Carradine. The script was written with Divine in mind. Although not a major character in the film, Divine had been eager to play the part because he wished to perform in more male roles and leave behind the stereotype of simply being a female impersonator. Reviews of the film were mixed, as were the evaluations of Divine's performance.


German postcard in the series Die Leidenschaften des Rosa von Praumheim by Gebr. König Postkartenverlag, Köln (Cologne), no. 10/10. Photo: Michael Oblowitz. Divine and Tally Brown in Tally Brown, New York (Rosa von Praunheim, 1979).


American postcard by American Postcard Company, no. 3896, 1998. Photo: New Line Cinema. Publicity still for Polyester (John Waters, 1981). Caption: Tab Hunter as "Todd Tomorrow" and Divine as "Francine Fishpaw" in John Waters' Polyester, 1981.


American postcard by American Postcard Company, no. 3900, 1998. Photo: New Line Cinema. Publicity still for Polyester (John Waters, 1981). Caption: Divine as "Francine Fishpaw," and STIV BATORS as "Bo-Bo Belsinger" in John Waters'Polyester, 1981. The film introduced "ODORAMA" which allowed the audience to share in 10-of the more penetrating odors that plagued poor "Francine".

His breakthrough into mainstream cinema

Divine reunited with John Waters for Hairspray (John Waters, 1988), which represented his breakthrough into mainstream cinema. Set in Baltimore during the 1960s, Hairspray revolved around self-proclaimed "pleasantly plump" teenager Tracy Turnblad (Ricki Lake) as she pursues stardom as a dancer on a local television show and rallies against racial segregation.

As he had in Female Trouble, Divine took on two roles in the film, one of which was female and the other male. The first of these, Edna Turnblad, was Tracy's loving mother; the other was the racist head of the station that airs the 'Corny Collins show'. Hairspray was only a moderate success upon its initial theatrical release, earning a modest gross of $8 million. However, it managed to attract a larger audience on home video in the early 1990s and became a cult classic.

Divine's final film role was in the low-budget comedy horror Out of the Dark (Michael Schroeder, 1989), produced with the same crew as Lust in the Dust. Appearing in only one scene within the film, he played the character of Detective Langella, a foulmouthed policeman investigating the murders of a killer clown. Out of the Dark would be released the year after Divine's death.

On 7 March 1988, three weeks after Hairspray was released nationwide, Divine was staying at the Regency Plaza Suites Hotel in Los Angeles. He was scheduled to film a guest appearance the following day as Uncle Otto on the Fox network's television series Married... with Children in the second season wrap-up episode. Shortly before midnight, he died in his sleep, at age 42, of an enlarged heart (according to Wikipdia) or respiratory failure caused by sleep apnoea (according to IMDb). It was probably a combination.

Described by People magazine as the 'Drag Queen of the Century', Divine has remained a cult figure, particularly within the LGBT community, and has provided the inspiration for fictional characters, artworks, and songs. Various books and documentary films devoted to his life have also been produced, including 'Divine Trash' (1998) and 'I Am Divine' (2013), written by Divine's manager and friend Bernard Jay. Frances Milstead subsequently cowrote her own book about Divine, entitled 'My Son Divine' (2001), with Kevin Heffernan and Steve Yeager. His mother's continued relationship with the gay community was later documented in the film Frances: A Mother Divine (Tim Dunn, Michael O'Quinn, 2010).


American postcard by American Postcard Company, no. 3897, 1998. Photo: Bob Adams / New Line Cinema. Publicity still for Polyester (John Waters, 1981). Caption: Divine as "Francine Fishpaw," in John Waters'Polyester, 1981. The film introduced "Odorama" which allowed the audience to share in 10-of the more penetrating odors that plagued poor "Francine".


American postcard by Fotofolio, New York. Photo: Greg Gorman. Caption: Divine, Los Angeles, 1984. N.B. Proceeds from the sale of this card benefitted the American foundation for AIDS research.


Pink Flamingos Trailer, introduced by John Waters. Source: gaymoviereviews (YouTube).

Sources: Wikipedia and IMDb.