26 August 2016

EFSP's Dazzling Dozen: Film actors flying in from around the world

I like this German postcard, 'Filmschauspieler aus aller Welt'. The caption translates as 'Film actors from around the world'. Photos of film stars posing glamorously in front of airplanes was a well known phenomenon in the 1950s, that 'Golden Age Of Travel'. Famous is a series created by Air France. But how was it really to fly during the 1950s? Dangerous, I guess, smoky, boozy, boring and very, very expensive.

Filmschauspeieler aus aller Welt
German postcard by Kunst und Film Verlag H. Lukow, Hannover, no. L2/1042.

Married in 1954


Who are these film stars on this postcard, posing on the stairs of an airplane or standing nearby? And from which side of the world were they coming?

The pictured film actors are from top left to down right:
Linda Darnell (USA), Tyrone Power (USA),  Elizabeth Taylor (UK/USA),
Robert Taylor (USA) and his wife Ursula Thiess (Germany), Gina Lollobrigida (Italy) and her husband, the  physician Milko Škofič (Slovenia), Audrey Hepburn (UK) and husband Mel Ferrer (USA),
Mona Baptiste (Trinidad), Mara Lane (UK/Austria) and Gloria DeHaven (USA).

So this curious postcard must date from the mid 1950s. Ursula Thiess and Robert Taylor married in 1954, and Audrey Hepburn and Mel Ferrer also became a couple in 1954.

Below I selected 10 dazzling pictures of these 'Filmschauspieler aus aller Welt' for you. When there was no postcard of a film actor in our collection available (yes, we try to specialise in European stars), I selected an image from that wonderful picture source Flickr. As an extra, I added a postcard with an Air France picture.

Gina Lollobrigida
German postcard by ISV, no. B 28. Photo: MGM.

Italian actress and photojournalist Gina Lollobrigida (1927), was one of Europe’s most prominent film stars of the 1950s. ‘La Lollo’ was the first European sex symbol of the post war years and she paved the way into Hollywood for her younger colleagues Sophia Loren and Claudia Cardinale.

Linda Darnell
Collection: Playboy75UK @ Flickr.

American film actress Linda Darnell (1923-1965) progressed from modeling as a child to acting in theatre and film as an adolescent. At the encouragement of her mother, she made her first film in 1939, and appeared in supporting roles in big budget films for 20th Century Fox throughout the 1940s and early 1950s. She rose to fame with co-starring roles opposite Tyrone Power in adventure films, and established a main character career after her role in Forever Amber (1947). She won critical acclaim for her work in Unfaithfully Yours (1948) and A Letter to Three Wives (1949).

Tyrone Power
German postcard by Wilhelm Schulze-Witteborg Grafischer Betrieb, Wanne-Eickel. Photo: 20th Century Fox.

Beloved Hollywood star Tyrone Power (1914-1958) may have been all-American, but he sure loved European ladies - he was married to both French Annabella and half-Dutch Linda Christian. 'Ty' was one of the great romantic film stars.

Elizabeth Taylor
German postcard by Krüger, no. 902/20.

British-American actress Elizabeth Taylor (1932-2011) is considered one of the great actresses of Hollywood's Golden Age. She began her career as a child star, and as an adult she became known for her acting talent and beauty. 'Liz' had a much publicised private life, including eight marriages and several near death experiences.

1943 ROBERT TAYLOR
Collection: Maria @ Flickr. Photo: Robert Taylor in 1943.

American film actor Robert Taylor (1911-1969) was one of the most popular leading men of his time. Taylor began his career in films in 1934 when he signed with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. His popularity increased during the late 1930s and 1940s with appearances in A Yank at Oxford (1938), Waterloo Bridge (1940), and Bataan (1943). Taylor married actress Ursula Thiess in 1954, and they had two children. He died of lung cancer at the age of 57.

Ursula Thiess
Mexican collectors card, no. 160. Photo: publicity still for The Iron Glove (1954).

German film star Ursula Thiess (1924–2010) was dubbed by Life magazine as the ‘most beautiful woman in the world’. Howard Hughes offered her a long-term contract to RKO, but five years later she gave up her acting career after marrying Robert Taylor. The glamorous, luscious looking actress had only starred in a handful of Hollywood movies.

Audrey Hepburn
German postcard by Ufa, Berlin-Tempelhof, no. CK-5. Retail price: 30 Pfg. Photo: Paramount Film.

Elegant, talented and funny Audrey Hepburn (1929-1993) was a Belgian-born, British-Dutch actress and humanitarian. After a start in the European cinema she became one of the most successful Hollywood stars of the 1950s and 1960s.

mel ferrer & audrey hepburn
Collection: Fred Baby @ Flickr. Photo: Mel Ferrer and Audrey Hepburn.

Mel Ferrer (1917-2008) was an American actor, film director, and film producer. He made his screen acting debut in Lost Boundaries (1949), and is best remembered for his roles as the injured puppeteer in the musical Lili (1953), as the villainous Marquis de Maynes in Scaramouche (1952) and as Prince Andrei in War and Peace (1956), co-starring with his then-wife, Audrey Hepburn.

Mara Lane
German postcard by UFA, no. CK-200. Photo: Klaus Collignon / UFA.

British-Austrian actress Mara Lane (1930) was considered one of the most beautiful models in Great Britain during the early 1950s. She appeared in more than 30 English and German language films of the 1950s and early 1960s, but seems completely forgotten now.

Gloria DeHaven (1925-2016)
British postcard in the Celebrity Autographs Series, no. 192. Photo: Universal-International. Publicity still for So This Is Paris (Richard Quine, 1954).

Gloria DeHaven (1925-2016) was an American musical actress, with mostly supporting roles or leading lady in B movies. In Hollywood, she started as a child star then worked as a juvenile actress and finially became a leading-lady. During her long and varied career she would also perform as nightclub singer, as stage actress in Broadway and the West End and as a TV actress and hostess.

Jacques Brel
French postcard by Editions F. Nugeron, Star 134. Photo: Air France / Distribution VU. Caption: Jacques Brel, 20 Novembre 1964.

This is a post for Postcard Friendship Friday, hosted by Beth at the The Best Hearts are Crunchy. You can visit her by clicking on the button below.



Source: John Brownlee (Terminal Velocity), IMDb and Wikipedia.

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