Nan Grey

Blonde American actress Nan Grey (1918-1993) worked for Universal and other studios in the 1930s. She is best remembered for two Deanna Durbin films, Three Smart Girls (1936) and Three Smart Girls Grow Up (1939). She also worked with John Wayne in Sea Spoilers (1936), and with Gloria Jean in The Under-Pup (1939) and A Little Bit of Heaven (1940). After her last film in 1941, she worked for the radio. She abandoned her career when she married singer Frankie Laine in 1950.


Vintage postcard.


British postcard in the Picturegoer Series, London, no. 1140. Photo: Universal.

One of the three Smart Girls

Nan Grey was born Eschal Loleet Grey Miller in 1918 in Houston, Texas. In 1934, at age 16, she went to Hollywood with her mother for a holiday. She was persuaded to take a screen test and ended up in pictures.

Grey attended the school that Universal Studios operated for children who had film contracts. Grey's screen debut (as Nan Gray) was in Warner Bros.'s murder mystery The Firebird (William Dieterle, 1934), starring Verree Teasdale and Ricardo Cortez.

She starred opposite John Wayne in Sea Spoilers (Frank R. Strayer, 1936). Grey also appeared in the Universal Horror films Dracula's Daughter (Lambert Hillyer, 1936) and The Invisible Man Returns (Joe May, 1940), starring Cedric Hardwicke and Vincent Price.

A huge success was the musical comedy Three Smart Girls (Henry Koster, 1936) with Deanna Durbin and Helen Parrish, as well as the sequel Three Smart Girls Grow Up (Henry Koster, 1939).

She also acted in two early Gloria Jean films, The Under-Pup (Richard Wallace, 1939) and A Little Bit of Heaven (Andrew Marton, 1940). Furthermore, Grey was relegated to mostly B movies.


British postcard in the Colourgraph Series, London, no. C 322. Photo: Universal.


British postcard in the Picturegoer Series, London, no. 1275. Photo: Universal. Deanna Durbin, Nan Grey, Helen Parrish and Charles Winninger in Three Smart Girls Grow Up (Henry Koster, 1939).


British postcard in the Film Partners Series, London, no. PC 275. Photo: Universal. Robert Cummings and Nan Grey in Three Smart Girls Grow Up (Henry Koster, 1939).

A cosmetic mirror for nearsighted women

From 1938 to 1945, Nan Grey played Kathy Marshall in the NBC radio soap opera Those We Love'. She also appeared in an episode of The Lux Radio Theatre, 'She Loves Me Not (1937) with Bing Crosby, Joan Blondell, and Sterling Holloway.

In 1939, Grey married U. S. Racing Hall of Fame jockey Jack Westrope in Phoenix, Arizona. Grey began to phase out her film career after her marriage. Her final film was the crime film Under Age (Edward Dmytryk, 1941).

In the 1940s, she switched to radio and theatre. The couple had two daughters, Pam and Jan. The marriage was considered an ideal one in Hollywood, but it ended in a Las Vegas divorce in 1950. Shortly after her divorce, she met singer Frankie Laine at Hollywood’s Cocoanut Grove nightclub. They married in 1950, and Laine adopted her daughters from her marriage to Westrope.

She made one guest appearance on television with Laine in 1960 in an episode of Rawhide, the Western series for which he recorded the theme song. In the 1960s, Grey invented and marketed a cosmetic mirror especially suited to nearsighted women. An obituary noted that among its users was Princess Grace of Monaco.

Nan and her husband Frenkie moved to San Diego in 1968 to indulge in their passion for sportfishing. The union of the Laines lasted 43 years, until her death from heart failure on 25 July 1993, her 75th birthday.


British postcard, no. 1140b. Photo: Universal.


Dutch postcard by J.S.A. Photo: N.V. Holl.-Am. F.B.O. Robert Stack, Gloria Jean and Nan Grey in A Little Bit of Heaven (Andrew Marton, 1940).

Sources: Myrna Oliver (Los Angeles Times), Tom Barrister (IMDb), Wikipedia and IMDb.

Jean Toulout

Jean Toulout (1887-1962) was a French stage and screen actor, director and scriptwriter. He appeared in more than 100 films between 1911 and 1959. Toulout was married to the actress Yvette Andréyor between 1917 and 1926.


French postcard by A.N., Paris, no.566. Photo: G.F.F.A. (Gaumont-Franco-Film-Aubert), a company existing between 1930 and 1938.


French collector card by Les Fiches de Monsieur Cinéma. Still from Les Misérables (Henri Fescourt, 1925), with Gabriel Gabrio as Jean Valjean/ M. Madeleine, Jean Toulout as Javert and Sandra Milowanoff as Fantine.

An intense early film career

Jean Joseph Charles Toulout was born in Paris in 1887. He was the son of Dominique Georges Toulout and Charlotte Louise Isabelle Monginot. While no real online biography has been written about him, this bio is largely based on Toulout’s filmography. According to Wikipedia, Toulout started to act on stage at least from 1907, when he played in the Victor Hugo play 'Marion Delorme' at the Comédie Française. One year later, he was already acting at the Théàtre des Arts, so if he ever was a member of the Comédie Française, then not for long. In 1911, he travelled around with Firmin Gémier’s wandering stage company, while at least from 1913, he settled in Paris playing with André Antoine’s 1913 staging of Paul Lindau’s 'The Prosecutor Hallers'.

At the same time, Jean Toulout debuted in French film. His career in the cinema would quickly become much more intense than his stage career. All in all, he would act in some 100 films within four decades. Toulout started in short films for Abel Gance’s company Le film français. He appeared in Gance's debut film, La Digue / The Dyke (Abel Gance, 1912), which was never released. That year followed Il y a des pieds au plafond / There are feet on the ceiling., Le Nègre blan / The White Negro, and Le Masque d’horreur / The Mask of Horror starring Édouard de Max, all directed by Abel Gance in 1912. Soon, Toulout had various parts at Gaumont, Pathé and smaller companies.

His early films included Louis Feuillade's La Maison des lions / The Lion Menagerie (1912), L’Homme qui assassina / The man who murdered (Henri Andréani, 1913), Jacques l’honneur / Jacques the Honourable (Henri Andréani, 1913) and Les Enfants d'Édouard / The Crown of Richard III (Henri Andréani, 1914), inspired by William Shakespeare's 'Richard III'. In L’Homme qui assassina / The Man Who Murdered (Henri Andréani, 1913), he is the evil, adulterous Lord Falkland. He presses his equally adulterous but goodhearted wife (Mlle Michelle) to either say goodbye to her child or publicly confess her sin. Her lover (Firmin Gémier) kills the husband, but is acquitted by the local Turkish commissioner (Adolphe Candé), who is understanding in these matters. Toulout also appeared in films directed by Gaston Leprieur, René Leprince, Gérard Bourgeois and Alexandre Devarennes. He didn’t act on screen in 1915, possibly because he was involved in the military during the First World War.

From late 1916, he was back on track in several Gaumont films by Feuillade and others. In Feuillade’s L’Autre / The Other (Louis Feuillade, 1917), he met the actress Yvette Andréyor, famous for her parts in Feuillade’s serials Fantomas (1913) and Judex (1916). Toulout and Andréyor married on 12 June 1917 and would perform together in various films until their divorce in 1926. In 1918, Toulout was the evil antagonist of Emmy Lynn in Gance’s La Dixième Symphonie / The Tenth Symphony (Abel Gance, 1918), blackmailing her for having accidentally killed his sister. He thus risks wrecking her new marriage with a composer (Séverin-Mars) but also the life of the composer’s daughter (Elizabeth Nizan). Luckily for the other, he doesn’t kill them, only himself. As English Wikipedia writes, “Gance's mastery of lighting, composition and editing was accompanied by a range of literary and artistic references which some critics found pretentious and alienating.”

While Toulout would be reunited with Emmy Lynn in La faute d’Odette Marchal (Henri Roussel, 1920), he would also be reunited with Séverin-Mars as – again – a jealous, evil husband in Jacques Landauze (André Hugon, 1920). With director Hugon, Toulout would do several films in the 1920s and 1930s: Le Roi de Camargue / King of the Camargue (André Hugon, 1921), Notre Dame d'amour / Our Lady of Love (André Hugon, 1922), Le Diamant noir / The Black Diamond (André Hugon, 1922), La Rue du pavé d'amour / Love Pavement Street (André Hugon, 1923), and the first French sound film, Les Trois masques / The Three Masks (André Hugon, 1929), shot at the London Elstree studios in 15 days.


French film journal Mon Ciné, no. 44, 21 December 1922 (Cover). Jean Toulout in La Conquête des Gaules / The Conquest of Gaul (Marcel Yonnet, Yan Bernard Dyl, Léonce-Henri Burel, 1922). In the film, a film director, Jean Fortier, tries with scarce means to film Julius Caesar's 'The Conquest of Gaul'. The film was shot at the Gaumont studios.


French film journal La Petite Illustration, no. 345, 13 August 1927, p. 8. Jean Toulout as General Prince Tcherkoff and Claudia Victrix as Princess Masha in La princesse Masha / Princess Masha (René Leprince, 1927).

Again, a jealous husband who threatens to kill his wife

Jean Toulout also acted in films by Pierre Bressol (Le Mystère de la villa Mortain / The Mystery of Villa Mortain (1919) and La Mission du docteur Klivers / The Mission of Doctor Klivers (1919)), Germaine Dulac (La fète espagnole / The Spanish Celebration (1920) and La belle dame sans-merci / The Beautiful Woman Without Mercy (1921)), Jacques Robert, Henri Fescourt, Armand du Plessis, and others. In La belle dame sans-merci, he is a local count who understands that the playful femme fatale he brought home is wrecking his whole family, so he has them reunited. In Chantelouve (Georges Monca, 1921), he was once more the jealous husband who threatens to kill his wife (Yvette Andréyor). In La conquête des Gaules / The Conquest of Gaul (Yan B. Dyl, Marcel Yonnet, 1923), he is a film director who tries to film the conquest of the Gauls with modest means. In Le Crime de Monique (Robert Péguy, 1923), Yvette Andréyor is accused of killing her brutal, violent husband (Toulout, of course).

Jean Toulout also acted in Abel Gance’s hilarious comedy Au secours! / The Haunted House (1924), starring Max Linder as a man who takes a bet to stay a night in a haunted house. Toulout masterfully performed the persistent commissionary Javert in Les Misérables (Henri Fescourt, 1925), opposite Gabriel Gabrio as Jean Valjean. When a restored version was shown at the Giornate del Cinema Muto in Pordenone in October 2015, Peter Walsh wrote on his blog Burnt Retina: "Gabriel Gabrio as Jean Valjean was a towering presence on screen, and his redemptive arc and gradual ageing were shown convincingly. Jean Toulout as Javert was also superb, at times overpowered by some of the mightiest brows and mutton chops I’ve seen in a long time. The climax of his personal crisis, and collapse of his moral world, was incredibly striking, with extreme close-ups capturing a bristling performance."

After smaller parts as in Germaine Dulac’s Antoinette Sabrier (1927), in which Toulout would be paired with Gabrio again, Toulout left the set in 1928 and instead returned to the stage for 'Le Carnaval de l'amour' at the Théâtre de la Porte-Saint-Martin. In 1929, however, Toulout returned as Mr de Villefort in the late silent film Monte Christo / The Count of Monte-Cristo (Henri Fescourt, 1929) – the last big silent French production - as well as in the first French sound film Les Trois masques / The Three Masks (André Hugon, 1929) as a Corsican whose son (François Rozet) makes a girl (Renée Héribel) pregnant, after which her brothers take revenge during the carnival. Toulout had the lead in the Henry Bataille adaptation La Tendresse / Tenderness (André Hugon, 1930) as a famous, older academician who discovers his much younger wife (Marcelle Chantal) isn’t that much in love with him as he is with her. When he gravely falls ill, he discovers she still gave the best of her life to him.

Toulout tried his luck in film direction and with Joe Francis, he directed Le Tampon du Capiston / The Capiston Stamp (1930), a comical operetta film on an old spinster (Hélène Hallier), a captain’s sister, who wants to marry the captain’s aide (Rellys), who presumably has inherited a fortune. In the same year, Toulout also wrote the scripts for two other films, both by Hugon: La Femme et le Rossignol / Nightingale Girl (André Hugon, 1930) and Lévy & Cie / Levy and Company (André Hugon, 1930). The collaboration continued in 1931 when Toulout scripted and starred in Le Marchand de sable / The Sandman (André Hugon, 1930), while he had a supporting part in La Croix du Sud / Southern Cross (André Hugon, 1930). The collaboration with Hugon would last till well into the mid-1940s with Le Faiseur / Mercadet (André Hugon, 1936), Monsieur Bégonia (André Hugon, 1937), La Rue sans joie / Street Without Joy (André Hugon, 1938), Le Héros de la Marne / Heroes of the Marne (André Hugon, 1938), La Sévillane / The Woman from Seville (André Hugon, 1943), and Le Chant de l'exilé / The Exile's Song (André Hugon, 1943). In 1931, Toulout also scripted Moritz macht sein Glück / Moritz Makes his Fortune, a German film by Dutch director Jaap Speijer. All through the 1930s, Toulout had a steady, intense career as an actor, but in 1934, he also directed his second film, La Reine du Biarritz / The Queen of Biarritz, in which he himself had only a small part. Elenita de Sierra Mirador (Alice Field) is the toast of Biarritz. For her, a young groom leaves his wife. For her, a forty-year-old man suddenly deceives his young wife. But Elenita, watched by her mother, resigns herself to becoming honest and returns to her husband.

Jean Toulout had mostly supporting parts, as in Le petit roi / The Little King (Julien Duvivier, 1933), Fédora (Louis Gasnier, 1934) starring Marie Bell, Les Nuits moscovites / Moscow Nights (Alexis Granowsky, 1934), and L'Épervier / The Hawk (Marcel L’Herbier, 1934). He could act the jealous, shooting husband again in Le Vertige / Vertigo (Paul Schiller, 1935), again starring Alice Field. He was the judge who forced Henri Garat and Lilian Harvey to marry on the spot in Les Gais Lurons / Lucky Kids (Jacques Natanson, Paul Martin), the French version of Martin’s Glückskinder. He is the prosecutor in La Danseuse rouge / The Red Dancer (Jean-Paul Paulin, 1937), a court case drama starring Vera Korène and inspired by Mata Hari’s trial. Toulout continued to act in minor film parts in the late 1930s, during the war years and the late 1940s: fathers, judges, doctors, officers, aristocrats. But a major part among the first three actors of the film he didn’t have anymore. Memorable were his parts in Édouard et Caroline / Edward and Caroline (Jacques Becker, 1951), starring Daniel Gélin and Anne Vernon, and – again as a judge - in Obsession (Jean Delannoy, 1952) with Michèle Morgan and Raf Vallone. Toulout also worked as a voice actor in France, playing Donald Crisp’s part in How Green Was My Valley (John Ford, 1941, released in France in 1946), and Nigel Bruce’s part in Limelight (Charles Chaplin, 1952). In the late 1950s, he also acted on television. Jean Toulout died in l'hôpital de Ambroise Paré in Paris in 1962. He was 75. He is buried in the cemetery of Saint-Cloud, Hauts-de-Seine. His second wife was Simone Berthe Henriette Chéron.


French postcard in the series Nos artistes dans leur loge, no. 325. Photo: Comoedia.


French postcard by Editions-Cinémagazine.


French postcard in the Les Vedettes du Cinéma series by Editions Filma, no. 28. Photo: Agence Générale Cinématographique.

Sources: Peter Walsh, Les Gens du Cinéma (French), DVD-toile (French), Wikipedia (English, French and Italian) and IMDb.

Published by L.A.B.

L.A.B. is an abbreviation for Les Editions d'Art, Bruxelles (Brussels). This Belgian publisher produced postcards in the late 1940s and early 1950s when Brussels loved Hollywood and MGM still had more stars than there are in heaven. When the Belgian capital was liberated in 1944, people flocked to the cinemas and films that had previously been hidden and censored were screened. Many cinemas changed their names to celebrate the victors (Churchill, Roosevelt, Monty, etc.) or simply to modernise (Roxy, Star, Dixy, etc.). In 1953, the Actual cinema changed its name to the Avenue. A second theatre, the Studio, was built on the same site. Together, these two theatres formed the world's first duplex cinema. In 1956, a third theatre was built, giving rise to the Club. The postcards show what all these people loved to see then in their magnificent movie palaces in Brussels and elsewhere in Europe.


Belgian postcard by Les Editions d'Art (L.A.B.), Bruxelles, no. 1009. Photo: Metro Goldwyn Mayer. Maureen O'Sullivan in Tarzan's Secret Treasure (Richard Thorpe, 1941).


Belgian postcard by Les Editions d'Art L.A.B., Bruxelles, no. 1031. Photo: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Ingrid Bergman in Gaslight (George Cukor, 1944).


Belgian postcard by Editions L.A.B., Bruxelles, no. 1035. Photo: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Katharine Hepburn, as Chinese character Jade Tan, in Dragon Seed (Harold S. Bucquet, Jack Conway, 1944).


Belgian postcard by Les Editions d'Art L.A.B., Brussels, no. 1036. Photo: Metro Goldwyn Mayer. Teresa Wright in Mrs. Miniver (William Wyler, 1942).


Belgian postcard by Les Editions d'Art L.A.B., Bruxelles (Brussels), no. 1040. Photo: MGM (Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer). Vivien Leigh in Gone With The Wind (1939). This postcard was given to us by Gill4kleuren. Many thanks!


Belgian postcard by Les Editions d'Art, Bruxelles (L.A.B.), no. 1501. Photo: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Clark Gable.


Belgian postcard by Les Editions d'Art L.A.B., Bruxelles, no. 1508. Photo: Metro Goldwyn Mayer. Van Heflin in Seven Sweethearts (Frank Borzage, 1942).


Belgian postcard by Editions L.A.B. Bruxelles, no. 2001. Photo: Metro Goldwyn Mayer. Irene Dunne and Alan Marshall in The White Cliffs of Dover (Clarence Brown, 1944). Collection: Marlene Pilaete.


Belgian postcard by Les Editions d'Art L.A.B., Bruxelles, no. 2007. Photo: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Van Johnson and Phyllis Thaxter in Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo (Mervyn LeRoy, 1944).


Belgian postcard by Les Editions d'Art L.A.B., Bruxelles, no. 2009. Photo: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Margaret Sullavan and James Stewart in The Shop Around the Corner (Ernst Lubitsch, 1940). The French title was Rendez-vous.


Belgian postcard by Les Editions d'Art L.A.B., Bruxelles, no. 2011. Photo: Metro Goldwyn Mayer. Vivien Leigh and Robert Taylor in Waterloo Bridge (Mervyn LeRoy, 1940). The Belgian title was La valse dans l'Ombre.


Belgian postcard by Les Editions d'Art L.A.B., Bruxelles, no. 2013. Photo: Metro Goldwyn Mayer. Greer Garson and Walter Pidgeon in Madame Curie (Mervyn LeRoy, 1943).



Belgian postcard by Les Editions d'Art L.A.B., Bruxelles, no. 2016. Photo: MGM. Claudette Colbert and Spencer Tracy in Boom Town (Jack Conway, 1940).


Belgian postcard by Les Editions d'Art L.A.B., Brussels, no. 2020. Photo: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Kathryn Grayson and Gene Kelly in Thousands Cheer (George Sidney, 1943).


Belgian postcard by Les Editions d'Art L.A.B., Bruxelles, no. 2022. Photo: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Maureen O'Sullivan and Johnny Sheffield in Tarzan's Secret Treasure (Richard Thorpe, 1941).


Belgian postcard by L.A.B. (Les Editions d'Art, Bruxelles) no. 2023. Photo: Metro Goldwyn Mayer. Katharine Hepburn and Turhan Bey in Dragon Seed (Harold S. Bucquet, Jack Conway, 1944).


Belgian postcard by Les Editions d'Art L.A.B., Bruxelles, no. 2025. Photo: Metro Goldwyn Mayer. Teresa Wright and Greer Garson in Mrs. Miniver (William Wyler, 1942).


Belgian postcard by Les Editions d'Art L.A.B., Brussels, no. 2027. Photo: David O'Selznick Production / Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Vivien Leigh and Leslie Howard in Gone with the Wind (Victor Fleming, 1939).


Belgian postcard by Les Editions d'Art L.A.B., Bruxelles, no. 2905. Photo: Metro Goldwyn Mayer. Vivien Leigh and Robert Taylor in Waterloo Bridge (Mervyn LeRoy, 1940). The Belgian title was La valse dans l'Ombre.

Source: Cinemas art et essai Bruxellois (French). If you would like to see more L.A.B. film star postcards, please check out our Flickr album.

Peggy Dow

Pretty and wholesome blonde American film actress Peggy Dow (1928) could handle comedy and drama with equal finesse. After only nine films, she retired and is now known as a philanthropist, Peggy V. Helmerich.


Italian postcard by Bromofoto, Milano, no. 264.


Italian postcard by Bromofoto, Milano, no. 286. Photo: Universal International.


Big German collector card by Greiling Sammelbilder, Series C, Image F. Photo: Universal-International.

Harvey's lovely nurse Kelly

Peggy Dow was born in 1928 in Columbia, Mississippi. At the age of 4, she moved with her family to Covington, Louisiana. She attended high school and junior college at Gulf Park College in Gulfport, Mississippi (now the Gulf Park campus of the University of Southern Mississippi), then finished college at Northwestern University in Illinois, appearing in college plays and receiving her degree from Northwestern's School of Speech in 1948.

After brief modelling and radio experience, Peggy Dow was spotted by a talent agent. In February 1949, she was cast in a TV show, and soon Universal offered her a seven-year contract.

She made nine films, starting with the female lead opposite Scott Brady in the Film Noir Undertow (William Castle, 1949). Brady plays a former Chicago mobster who is accused of murdering his old boss. Peggy played a vacationing schoolteacher who accidentally gets involved in the murder.

She hit her peak the next year when she co-starred as the lovely nurse Kelly in the classic farce Harvey (Henry Koster, 1950), with James Stewart and Josephine Hull. Stewart plays a man whose best friend is a pooka named Harvey, in the form of a six-foot, three-and-a-half-inch tall invisible white rabbit, and the ensuing debacle when the man's sister tries to have him committed to a sanatorium.

She also co-starred with Best Actor Oscar nominee Arthur Kennedy in the touching war drama Bright Victory (Mark Robson, 1951). The film got raving reviews, but was a disaster financially..


Dutch postcard. Photo: Nova film. Sent by mail in 1951.


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


British postcard in the Picturegoer Series, London, no. W 823. Photo: Universal International.

Marrying an oil driller from Tulsa

After being featured in several crime dramas, Peggy Dow had starring roles in two 1951 family films, Reunion in Reno (Kurt Neumann, 1951) opposite Mark Stevens and You Never Can Tell (Lou Breslow, 1951) with Dick Powell.

Her final film was the drama I Want You (Mark Robson, 1951), taking place in America during the Korean War. After just three years in the film business, Dow retired in 1951 to marry Walter Helmerich III, an oil driller from Tulsa, Oklahoma. He became president of his family's business, Helmerich & Payne.

Gary Brumburgh at IMDb: "This promising 1950s Universal-International contract player had so much going for her - beauty, brains and talent - to go the distance, but she came up far short after deciding to retire for domestic life. (...) Despite such a promising Hollywood forecast, she never looked back and raised five sons in the process."

The couple was married for 60 years, until Walter Helmerich III died in 2012. The couple had five sons.

Peggy Helmrich, now 97, became an active supporter of libraries and other charitable activities. The Peggy V. Helmerich Distinguished Author Award, an award given annually since 1985 to an author by the Tulsa Library Trust, is named in her honour, as is the drama school at the University of Oklahoma and the auditorium at Northwestern University School of Communication's Annie May Swift Hall.


Spanish postcard. Peggy Dow and Farley Granger in I Want You (Mark Robson, 1951). Sent by mail in 1953.


Spanish postcard. Farley Granger and Peggy Dow in I Want You (1951). Sent by mail in 1954.


West German postcard by Kolibri-Verlag, no. 380. Photo: Universal International.


Dutch postcard by Takken / 't Sticht, no. 6433. Photo: Universal International. Sent by mail in 1952.

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

New record

Two months ago, on 2 October 2025, European Film Star Postcards passed the magical milestone of 10 million page views.

At the same time time, EFSP also set a new record of 267,964 page views in a single month, September 2025.

We are pleased to announce that there was another record last month: in November 2025, we counted 288,011 views.

Thank you for visiting us!


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 5749/1, 1930-1931. Photo: Paramount. Jack Oakie, Clara Bow and Maurice Chevalier in Paramount on Parade (Dorothy Arzner a.o., 1930).

Lise Bourdin (1925-2025)

On 28 November, French actress Lise Bourdin passed away, only two days before her 100th birthday. She was known for her roles in international films during the 1950s. Among her best-known films are La donna del fiume / The River Girl (1954) and the Billy Wilder classic Love in the Afternoon (1957).


French postcard by Editions du Globe, Paris, no. 279. Photo: Studio Harcourt.


French postcard for the exhibition 'Figures de Facteur' (2004-2005) in Paris by Cartapub / Ministère de la Culture et de la Communication. Photo: Raymond Voinquel. Gary Cooper and Lise Bourdin in Love in the Afternoon (Billy Wilder, 1956).

Miss Arch of Triumph

Lise Bourdin was born as Louise Marie Odette Bourdin-Perrier in 1925 in Néris-les-Bains, Allier, France. She was the sister of radio maker and orchestra leader Roland Bourtin.

Lise began her career as a model, and in 1948, she toured the United States on behalf of American Aid to France, Inc., and the American Overseas Aid-United Nations Appeal for Children, as well as to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the rededication of L’Arc de Triomphe.

As 'Miss Arch of Triumph', she promoted the American film Arch of Triumph (Lewis Milestone, 1948) with Ingrid Bergman and Charles Boyer.

She made her first film appearance uncredited in the crime film Scandale aux Champs-Élysées / Scandal at the Champs-Elusées (Roger Blanc, 1949) starring Pierre Renoir. A small part followed in Les mémoires de la vache Yolande / The Memoirs of the Cow Yolande (Ernst Neubach, 1951) starring Rellys.

Then followed her breakthrough with a co-starring part in a ‘shocking’ drama about unwed mothers, Les enfants de l'amour / Children of Love (Léonide Moguy, 1953) starring Etchika Choureau. The now completely forgotten film was an international success, promoted in the US with taglines like “Unwed Mothers! They Come From Everywhere, From Every Class” and “Startling! Shocking! Rips the Veil of Secrecy From Love's Most Shameful Sin!” The beautiful starlet soon appeared in films outside of France.


French postcard by Editions du Globe, Paris, no. 317. Photo: Sam Lévin.

Hot pants

In Italy, Lise Bourdin appeared in Scuola elementare / Elementary School (Alberto Lattuada, 1954) and with Sophia Loren, both in hot pants, in the rice picker drama La donna del fiume / The River Girl (Mario Soldati, 1954).

She also appeared in the American TV series Sherlock Holmes (1955), which was filmed in France. One of her best-known roles is Madame X, seduced by Gary Cooper in Love in the Afternoon (Billy Wilder, 1957).

That year, she also played a princess in the French adventure film La rivière des trois jonques / The River of Three Junks (André Pergament, 1957) and was one of the beautiful ladies around two-fisted Eddie Constantine in the crime film Ces dames préfèrent le mambo / Dishonourable Discharge (Bernard Borderie, 1957).

In Germany, she appeared in the Caterina Valente vehicle ...und abends in die Scala / And that evening in the Scala (Erik Ode, 1958) and back in France in Quai des illusions / Avenue of illusions (Émile Couzinet, 1959) starring Gaby Morlay. Her final appearance was in the American war film The Last Blitzkrieg (Arthur Dreifuss, 1960) starring Van Johnson.

In 1963, she married Roberto Seabra, a wealthy Brazilian, whom she divorced again in 1965. In 1974, she became the partner of Raymond Marcellin, the Interior Minister of France. Lise Bourdin passed away in 2025 in Labastide-d'Armagnac, France. She was 99.


French postcard by Editions du Globe, Paris, no. 282. Photo: Studio Harcourt.


West German postcard by Ufa/Film-Foto, Berlin-Tempelhof, no. FK 1875. Photo: Unifrance-Film.

Sources: Glamour Girls of the Silver Screen, AllMovie, Wikipedia (French), and IMDb.

La Collectionneuse: Glenda Farrell

It’s difficult to imagine Glenda Farrell under contract to any other studio than Warner Bros. She was perfectly suited to their films and flawlessly played wisecracking dames, tough cookies, smart girl reporters or gold diggers. It’s a credit to her acting talents that she came out as most believable in those parts, as in real life, she was far removed from her brassy screen image. She once said: "Actually, I never wisecrack. And as for golddigging, I’ve never been able to wangle a thing. Everything I’ve ever had, I’ve worked for and paid myself". She also refused to pose for cheesecake photos. In 1933, she declared: "I can't see the slightest excuse for posing in undies of any sort. The public will never see my insufficiently clad person thrust upon them without cause".


Spanish postcard by M.C. Barcelona, no. 355.

Early stage craving

Glenda Farrell was born on the 30th of June 1901 in Enid, U.S.A.

Her family soon moved from Oklahoma to Wichita, Kansas, where she made her stage debut at age 7 in an amateur production of 'Uncle Tom’s Cabin'.

The Farrells then relocated to San Diego, where a teenage Glenda joined the Virginia Brissac Players, a local stock company.

Brissac was a noted actress, and Glenda gained solid experience from her stay with the troupe. She remained with them for several years.

In January 1919, she entered the 'Fame and Fortune Contest' sponsored by the Motion Picture magazine. Among thousands of candidates, she was one of the seven young ladies named to the 'Honor Roll of Beautiful Aspirants', but her movie debut would come later.


British postcard by Milton, no. 80. Warner Bros.

A first unhappy marriage

In 1920, she married Thomas John Richards, and they put together a vaudeville dance act.

Contrary to what is mentioned on several websites, Glenda’s first husband was not Thomas Albert Richards (1899-1946), who later became a film editor at Warner Bros.

In 1921, a pregnant Glenda had to give up dancing. She gave birth to a son, Thomas, nicknamed Tommy, in October 1921. There would be a strong and lasting bond between Glenda and her child.

Unemployment and poverty caused Richards to drink and to act violently. In 1925, Glenda decided to go back to her stage career, first in Los Angeles and San Francisco.

At the end of the 1920s, she made it to Broadway. She appeared in plays such as 'Divided Hearts' in 1929 and 'Love, Honor and Betray' in 1930. Around that time, Glenda divorced Richards, who would die in 1939. In 1932, her son Tommy legally changed his last name to Farrell. He would later become a film and television actor.


British postcard by Picturegoer, no. 780. Photo: Warner.

Her film debut

Glenda Farrell made her film debut in an uncredited bit part in Lucky Boy (1929). It was followed by a short called The Lucky Break (1930).

Mervyn Le Roy asked that she be given the part of Olga Stassoff, Douglas Fairbanks Jr.’s girlfriend, in the classic gangster movie Little Caesar (1931), produced by Warner Bros.

Edward G. Robinson later wrote: "Those of us in Little Caesar who had come from the stage – Sidney Blackmer, Glenda Farrell, William Collier Jr., and George E. Stone – banded together. Our conversation was a constant put-down of Hollywood, and our plans for our return to Mother Earth: Broadway."

Glenda indeed soon went back on the Great White Way for the successful play 'On the Spot' (October 1930 - March 1931).

She then had a small uncredited role in Universal’s Scandal for Sale (1932), which dealt with yellow journalism.


Spanish promotional postcard. Image: Warner Bros. Glenda Farrell and Paul Muni in Hi, Nellie (Mervyn LeRoy, 1934).

A Warner Bros. stalwart

On Broadway, she played Florette, a pregnant chorus girl, in 'Life Begins', which opened on the 28th of March 1932 but closed after only eight performances. Warner Bros. bought the film rights, and Glenda was asked to repeat her role on screen. They were impressed by her performance in Life Begins (1932) and signed her.

They gave her a very brief part as a reform school inmate who warns Joan Blondell about men in Three on a Match (1932). She subsequently got a big break when Mervyn Le Roy, who appreciated Glenda’s talents, gave her the role of scheming Marie Woods in I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang (1932), which was a smash hit. One of her snappiest portrayals was that of a female reporter in the Horror movie Mystery of the Wax Museum (1933), and she received top billing for the first time in Girl Missing (1933), as a pre-code tough and determined heroine with a rapid-fire line delivery.

Glenda became one of the hardest-working female stars on the Warner lot, but is not known to ever have complained about it. She said once, "Warner Bros. had a great system. They built actors up faster than any other studio. They made you feel like a big family."

She was featured in, for example, Hi, Nellie! (1934), Heat Lightning (1934), Merry Wives of Reno (1934), The Personality Kid (1934), Gold Diggers of 1935 (1935), Here Comes Carter (1936), Dance, Charlie, Dance (1937), Hollywood Hotel (1938), …

Warner also sent her to England to co-star with popular British comedian Claude Hulbert in You Live and Learn (1937). On loan-out, she probably was best used in Frank Capra’s Lady for a Day (1933), as Missouri Martin, a night club owner with a heart of gold, and in Frank Borzage’s Man’s Castle (1933), as singer Fay La Rue, practising her seducing wiles on Spencer Tracy.


British postcard. Photo: First National. Glenda Farrell in Gold Diggers of 1935 (Busby Berkeley, 1935).

A team with Joan Blondell

Warner had the good idea to team Glenda Farrell with Joan Blondell in Havana Widows (1933), in which they played showgirls on the prowl for millionaires, and their perfect comic timing pleased audiences.

Although they could be viewed as competitors, as both were issued from the same wisecracking blonde mould, they got along very well, never tried to outshine each other and became close friends.

Their pairing in Havana Widows was such a success that they formed a dynamic duo again in Kansas City Princess (1934), in which Glenda utters the line "A girl’s got to have three things these days: money, jack and dough", Traveling Saleslady (1935), We’re in the Money (1935), Miss Pacific Fleet (1935) and Gold Diggers of 1937 (1936).

They were also in I’ve Got Your Number (1934), but had no scenes together.

In 1936, Joan Blondell stated: "Glenda is at all times very natural. She isn’t one bit camera-conscious. Her movements are always quick, and her speech spontaneous. When she goes into a scene, she never follows the script to the sacrifice of her naturalness. She acts just as she would if the same situation arose in her everyday life. In other words, she suits the part to her personality instead of trying to suit her personality to the script".


British postcard by Art Photo Postcard, no. 7209.

Torchy Blane, reporter

In 1936, Warner decided to make a screen adaptation of Frederick Nebel’s short story 'No Hard Feelings'. Screenwriters wisely transformed a character named Kennedy, a hard-drinking and smart-assed newspaperman, into Torchy Blane, a fast-talking female reporter and astute amateur sleuth.

Glenda was an ideal choice for the leading role. She played Torchy for the first time in Smart Blonde (1937), opposite Barton MacLane, as Lieutenant Detective Mc Bride. It was a hit, which convinced Warner to initiate a Torchy Blane series.

Glenda thus starred in Fly Away Baby (1937), The Adventurous Blonde (1937) and Blondes at Work (1938). For the fifth entry in the series, Torchy Blane in Panama (1938), Warner made the mistake of replacing Glenda Farrell and Barton MacLane with Lola Lane and Paul Kelly. It flopped.

So Glenda and MacLane were back for Torchy Gets Her Man (1938), Torchy Blane in Chinatown (1939) and Torchy Runs for Mayor (1939). There would be a ninth and last episode called Torchy Plays with Dynamite / Torchy Blane … Playing with Dynamite (1939), with Jane Wyman as Torchy.

Glenda Farrell’s Torchy Blane allegedly inspired Superman’s co-creator, Jerry Siegel, to originate the character of reporter Lois Lane, the superhero’s love interest.


Italian postcard by Ballerini & Fratini, Firenze, no. 3712. Photo: Warner Bros.

Her subsequent movie career

At the end of the 1930s, Glenda Farrell left Warner Bros. and was anxious to return to the stage. She first played 'Stage Door' in Maryland and 'Anna Christie' in Los Angeles. She then toured with 'Brief Moment' and 'Thanks for My Wife'. The latter was renamed 'Separate Rooms' and opened on Broadway in March 1940. It was a smash hit, and Glenda, as beautiful and obnoxious actress Pamela Barry, was perfectly cast. During the play’s run, she married Dr. Henry Ross in January 1941. Glenda’s son once described him as "so bright, so brilliant and such a sweet person".

Still impressed by Glenda’s skills, Mervyn Le Roy asked her to come back to Hollywood to play Robert Taylor’s former girlfriend in Johnny Eager (1941). It was followed by Twin Beds (1942) and The Talk of the Town (1942), an excellent comedy directed by George Stevens.

She got more supporting parts in the 1940s, such as in City Without Men (1943), I Love Trouble (1948) and Lulu Belle (1948). She was also given leading roles by Poverty Row studios, PRC, in A Night for Crime (1943) and Ace Pictures in Heading for Heaven (1947).

Her movie appearances were becoming sporadic as time went on, but she didn’t give up on filmmaking.

She was notably good as a feisty dame in the Western Apache War Smoke (1952), opposite another old-timer, Gilbert Roland, and as Dick Powell’s secretary in Susan Slept Here (1954). She was seen in several mother roles, for example, Joan Collins’ in The Girl in the Red Velvet Swing (1955), Kim Novak’s in Middle of the Night (1959) or Elvis Presley’s in Kissin’ Cousins (1964) and she was second-billed after Jerry Lewis in The Disorderly Orderly (1964). Her last movie was Tiger by the Tail, shot in 1968 and released in 1970.


Italian postcard by Ballerini & Fratini, Firenze, no. 2749.

Later Broadway plays

Glenda Farrell once declared, "There’s something more satisfying about working in a play. You get that immediate response from the audience, and you feel that your performance is your own. In pictures, you get frustrated because you feel you have no power over what you’re doing". So, when an opportunity to perform on stage came her way, she enthusiastically grabbed it.

In April 1942, she returned to Broadway in 'The Life of Reilly', which closed after only five performances.

She had better luck with 'The Overtons', which opened on the 6th of February 1945 and lasted several months. It was produced by Paul Czinner and directed by his wife, actress Elisabeth Bergner.

Her next Broadway vehicle in 1949 was 'Mrs. Gibbons’ Boys', which was a flop. She then played a long-suffering wife in 'Home is the Hero' from the 22nd of September to the 16th of October 1954.

Then came 'Masquerade', which had the dubious honour to open and close the same day, on the 16th of March 1959.


Italian postcard by Ballerini & Fratini, Firenze, no. 2399. Photo: Generalcine.

A prolific TV actress

On the 3rd of January 1949, Glenda made her television debut in The Mirror and the Manicure for NBC’s Chevrolet Tele-Theatre.

Her second TV appearance in June Moon for CBS’s Studio One in June 1949 had young Jack Lemmon and Eva Marie Saint in the cast.

The ever-professional Glenda enjoyed working for the new medium, as it enabled her to tackle a wide variety of roles and quickly adjusted to its demanding schedule.

Until 1969, Glenda appeared in programs such as Kraft Television Theatre, The Alcoa Hour, Wagon Train, Route 66, Rawhide, Dr. Kildare, The Fugitive, Bonanza and Bewitched.

In 1963, she was awarded an Emmy Award for Outstanding Performance in a Supporting Role in A Cardinal Act of Mercy, a two-part episode from the Ben Casey series, in which she gave a moving portrayal of an overprotective and possessive mother.


British postcard in the Picturegoer Series, London, no. 780a. Photo: Warner.

The only actress buried in West Point Cemetery

At the end of the 1960s, Glenda Farrell thought it was time for retirement, but she soon got bored. So, she gladly accepted to play Julie Harris’ mother in 'Forty Carats', which opened on Broadway on the 26th of December 1968. Noted New York Times critic Clive Barnes considered that her portrayal was expertly done.

Unfortunately, health problems caused her to leave the cast after two months.

She was eventually diagnosed with lung cancer, although she had never smoked in her life, and passed away on the 1st of May 1971.

Farrell was buried in the Cemetery of West Point Military Academy in New York. She is the only actress interred in that place, as her husband, Dr. Henry Ross, had been a 1926 West Point graduate and Chief of the public health section of General Eisenhower’s command in Europe in World War II.

Upon her death, famous playwright and screenwriter Garson Kanin wrote: "There are players who create characters, some of the great ones, a single character. Most rare are those who, like Glenda, created a type. She invented and developed the made-tough, uncompromising, knowing, wisecracking, undefeatable blonde. We shall remember her: a look, a scene, a line, a stance; that strong presence, or her marvelously wry, understanding, sudden American smile".


Belgian postcard by Photo Edition, Bruxelles, no. 462.

Text and postcards: Marlene Pilaete.