Ross Verlag Postcards, Part 7: Curiosities

Today, we present the seventh and final part of our Ross Verlag tribute. Around 1930, Ross seemed to be everywhere. Not only in Germany, but in every European country film fans bought Ross star postcards to send them to their friends and their family or to collect them in an album. Ross started to produce postcards in Great Britain and in France, Edition Ross. And you could collect all kind of Ross cards, very small cards and big cards in a XXL format. You also could find them in the magazine Das Programm von Heute. So for this epilogue post we chose 20+ of our favourite Ross curiosities.


German postcard by Rotophot in the Film Sterne series, no. 566/8. Photo: May Film. Mia May in the first part of Veritas vincit (Joe May, 1919). Before he founded Ross Verlag in 1919, Heinrich Ross worked for Rotophot and its Film Sterne series. In fact Film Sterne and Ross Verlag were part of the same series of cards, so the Ross Verlag numbering continued on from where Film Sterne ended. What can make it difficult to follow is that the portrait and film scene cards were seen as two separate series in the beginning. The Film Sterne film scene cards began at #500 and continued on until #568, and then the Ross Verlag name took on from there with the film scene cards until #700.


Ressel Orla. German postcard by Verlag W.J. Morlins / Ross Verlag, Berlin, no. 9010/3. Photo: Karl Schenker.


German postcard by W. Morlins / Ross Verlag, no. 651/1. Photo: Karl Schenker. Otto Gebühr as crown prince Friedrich (Frederick, the future Frederick the Great), and Albert Steinrück as his father Friedrich Wilhelm I in the Fridericus Rex trilogy (Arzén von Cserépy, 1922-1923).


Vilma Banky. German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 3482/2, 1928-1929. Photo: United Artists. Collection: Joanna.


Greta Nissen and Charles Farrell. British postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 3917/1, 1928-1929. Photo: Fox. Publicity still for Fazil (Howard Hawks, 1928).


Lars Hanson. British postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 3971/1, 1928-1929. Photo: Ufa.


Rudolph Valentino. German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 4987/2, 1929-1930. Photo: Paramount. Publicity still for Blood and Sand (Fred Niblo, 1922).


Maurice Chevalier. French postcard by Edition Ross, no. 5545/2. Photo: Paramount.


Greta Garbo. French postcard by Edition Ross, no. 5597/1, 1930-1931. Photo: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 709. Photo: Ufa. Publicity still for Zwei Herzen und ein Schlag/Two Hearts Beat as One (Wilhelm Thiele, 1932) with Lilian Harvey and Wolf Albach-Retty. Collection: Geoffrey Donaldson Institute.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 714, 1932. Photo: Ufa. Hoppla! Jetzt komm ich was a song from the comedy film Der Sieger/The Winner (Hans Hinrich, Paul Martin, 1932) with Hans Albers.


Marlene Dietrich. German collectors card by Ross Verlag. Photo: Paramount.


Anneliese Uhlig. Small German collectors card by Ross. Photo: Ufa.


Lil Dagover and Carl de Vogt. German collectors card by Ross Verlag for the album Vom Werden deutscher Filmkunst. Teil I. Der stumme Film (Cigaretten-Bilderdienst Altona-Bahrenfeld 1935). Photo: publicity still for Die Spinnen/The Spiders (Fritz Lang, 1919).


German collectors card by Ross Verlag for the album Vom Werden deutscher Filmkunst. Teil I. Der stumme Film (Cigaretten-Bilderdienst Altona-Bahrenfeld 1935). Photo: Luciano Albertini in Der Mann auf dem Kometen (Alfred Halm, 1925). The silent film is set in Berlin. This image combines two moments in the film. Towards the end of the film Luciano uses a ladder to save a baby put on an old factory chimney pipe which is about to be exploded. The church is a typical example of Wilhelminian architecture, the site may be somewhere in the old Stadmitte of Berlin where most Albertini films were shot when filmed in Berlin. Problem Moslem refers to a cigarette brand.


German collectors card by Ross Verlag for the album Vom Werden deutscher Filmkunst. Teil I. Der stumme Film (Cigaretten-Bilderdienst Altona-Bahrenfeld 1935). Photo: Ufa. Werner Krauss in the classic German film Geheimnisse einer Seele (G.W. Pabst, 1926).


Paul Wegener. German cigarette card in the series Unsere Bunten Filmbilder by Ross Verlag for Cigarettenfabrik Josetti, Berlin, no. 193. Photo: Lilenberger.


Else Elster. German cigarette card in the series Unsere Bunten Filmbilder by Ross Verlag for Cigarettenfabrik Josetti, Berlin, no. 153. Photo: Alex Binder.


Carole Lombard. German collectors card in the Bunte Filmbilder series by Greilingen-Zigaretten, Series no. 2, no. 259. Photo: Paramount / Ross-Verlag.


Hans Richter. German collectors card in the Bunte Filmbilder series by Drama Zigaretten, Series no. 2, no. 459. Photo: Cando-Film / Ross-Verlag.


Ruth Hellberg and kitten. German postcard by Das Programm von Heute / Ross Verlag. Photo: Meteor / Tobis.


La Jana. German postcard by Das Programm von Heute / Ross Verlag. Photo: Tobis.


Marta Eggerth. German postcard by Das Programm von Heute / Ross Verlag. Photo: Atelier Schenker, Berlin.


Big German card by Ross Verlag. Photo: Paramount. From left to right the American chorus girls Dorothy Dayton, Harriett Haddon and Virginia George. They all appeared - uncredited - in College Rhythm (Norman Taurog, 1934).


Lida Baarova. Big German postcard by Ross Verlag. Photo: Ufa / Hämmerer.


Hans Söhnker. German presentation card by Film-Foto-Verlag, no. 874, series 1943/2.

This is the End of our Ross Verlag tribute. But you can read on at the Ross Verlag Movie Stars Postcards website.