20 March 2025

Lois Moran

Lois Moran (1909-1990) was an American stage and film actress. She started her career as a dancer at the Paris Opera in France. Her film debut was in a French silent film after which she starred in French and American films till 1931. Her major claim to fame, however, was as F. Scott Fitzgerald's inspiration for the character of Rosemary in his classic novel 'Tender Is the Night'.

Lois Moran
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 3833/1, 1928-1929. Photo: Fox.

Lois Moran
Austrian postcard by Iris Verlag, no. 5325. Photo: Fox.

Lois Moran
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 3910/1, 1928-1929. Photo: Fox.

Dancing at the Paris Opera at 13


Lois Moran was born Lois Darlington Dowling in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in 1909. She was the only child of Roger and Gladys Evans Dowling. Her father died in a car accident when she was one year old. Her mother then married Dr Timothy Moran, from whom Lois derived her later stage name.

When Lois was nine years old, her stepfather, whom she regarded as the most important person in her life alongside her mother, died of influenza. Lois grew up in Pennsylvania and attended Seton Hill Academy in Greensburg.

Lois trained in dance and moved to Paris with her mother at the age of 10 to study seriously, with funding provided by Lois's great-aunt. They lived in France between 1921 and 1925. At the age of thirteen, Lois made her first small appearances as a singer and dancer at the Paris Opera.

She had a leading role in her film debut, the drama La galerie des monstres/The Gallery of Monsters (Jaque Catelain, 1924), set against the background of a circus in Spain. It was produced by Cinégraphic, the production company of Marcel L'Herbier and it was the second film to be directed by the actor Jaque Catelain, following the relative success of his previous film Le Marchand de plaisirs/The Merchant of Pleasures (1923).

In 1925, Moran was seen in a leading role in the French silent drama Feu Mathias Pascal/The Late Matthias Pascal (Marcel L'Herbier, 1925) starring Ivan Mozzukhin. It was the first film adaptation of Luigi Pirandello's novel 'Il fu Mattia Pascal'.

Lois Moran
Austrian postcard by Iris Verlag / Amag, no. 5900. Photo: Max Munn Autrey / Fox.

Lois Moran
French postcard by A.N., Paris, no. 293. Photo: Noël / Fox Film.

Lois Moran
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 4857/1, 1929-1930. Photo: Fox.

A monumental tearjerker


After her return to the United States, Lois Moran achieved greater fame in the same year with the role of Laurel Dallas, daughter of the title character, in the monumental tearjerker Stella Dallas (Henry King, 1925) starring Ronald Colman and Belle Bennett.

Film offers came flying her way and in 1926 she co-starred as the daughter of Lon Chaney in The Road to Mandalay (Tod Browning, 1926). In the following years, Lois Moran appeared as the leading actress in numerous silent films such as the drama The Music Master (Allan Dwan, 1927) opposite British actor Alec B. Francis.

In 1927, Moran had a short-lived relationship with the writer F. Scott Fitzgerald, who is said to have modelled the character of Rosemary Hoyt on her in his novel 'Tender is the Night'. She co-starred with Warner Baxter in the mystery film Behind That Curtain (Irving Cummings, 1929). It was the first Charlie Chan film to be made at Fox Studios. Moran played another major role in Mammy (Michael Curtiz, 1930) alongside Al Jolson.

However, like many other actors, she was unable to make a successful transition from silent to talkies. She moved to Broadway, where she appeared in the play 'This Is New York' (1930), the George Gershwin musical 'Of Thee I Sing' and its sequel 'Let 'Em Eat Cake' (1934). In 1935, she married Clarence M. Young, then assistant secretary of commerce, with whom she had a son, Timothy.

Moran stopped acting, but she made a comeback in the television series Waterfront (1954-1955) with Preston Foster. It ran for three seasons. In later years she settled in Sedona, Arizona with her husband, who died in 1972. She ran a weekly local column for a time. In 1974, Moran returned to the big screen for the last time. In Wim Wenders' road movie Alice in den Städten/Alice in the Cities (1974), she was seen in a small role as the Pan Am booking agent at the airport in New York. Lois Moran died of cancer in 1990 in a nursing home in Sedona, Arizona, at the age of 81. She was cremated and her ashes were scattered in Red Rock Country in Arizona.

Dorothy Burgess and Lois Moran in A Song of Kentucky (1929)
Dutch postcard. Dorothy Burgess and Lois Moran in A Song of Kentucky (Lewis Seiler, 1929).

Lois Moran and Joseph Wagstaff in A Song of Kentucky (1929)
Dutch postcard, no. 549. Joseph Wagstaff and Lois Moran in A Song of Kentucky (Lewis Seiler, 1929).

Sources: Gary Brumburgh (IMDb), Wikipedia (Dutch, German and English) and IMDb.

19 March 2025

Ross Verlag, Part 27: Luxus cards

Between 1930 and 1933 Ross Verlag published a series of film star postcards in the 'Luxus klasse' (luxury class). The Luxus cards were first advertised in the German magazine Die Filmwoche (Film Week) no. 48 (26 November 1930) as 'Die letzte Neuheit!' (the latest novelty). These new Luxus-Filmpostkarten were printed in what was called 'Weltformat' (World Size) 10,5 x 14,8 cm. Advertised were the first 24 Luxus cards, which counted from number 500, Greta Garbo. And although not mentioned in this ad, these new postcards were published in two versions, Schwarz Hochglanz (black-and-white glossy), and Schwarz Chamois (chamois matte). On the back of many cards, you can find the golden Luxus emblem. 1933 was the final year Luxus cards were published. The last Luxus card was no. 803: Lilian Harvey.

Greta Garbo in Anna Christie (1930)
French postcard by Edition Ross in the Luxus series, no. 500. Photo: Clarence Sinclair Bull. Greta Garbo in the German version of Anna Christie (Jacques Feyder, 1930). Mark how Garbo is often portrayed with her hands around her head.

Swedish Greta Garbo (1905-1990) is often regarded as one of the greatest and most glamorous movie stars ever produced by the Hollywood studio system. She was part of the Golden Age of the silent film of the 1920s and was one of the few actors who made a glorious transition to the talkies. She started her career in European cinema and would always stay more popular in Europe than in the USA.

Marlene Dietrich in Morocco (1930)
German postcard by Ross Verlag in the Luxus series, no. 501. Photo: Paramount. Marlene Dietrich in Morocco (Josef von Sternberg, 1930).

Marlene Dietrich (1901-1992) is regarded as the first German actress to become successful in Hollywood. Throughout her long career, she constantly re-invented herself, starting as a cabaret singer, chorus girl, and film actress in 1920s Berlin, she became a Hollywood movie star in the 1930s, a World War II frontline entertainer, and finally an international stage show performer from the 1950s to the 1970s, eventually becoming one of the entertainment icons of the 20th century.

Willy Fritsch
German postcard by Ross Verlag in the Luxus series, no. 502. Photo: Ufa.

Willy Fritsch (1901-1973) was the immensely popular ‘Sunny Boy’ of the Ufa operettas of the 1930s and 1940s.

Laura La Plante
French postcard by Ross in the Luxus series, no. 506. Photo: Universal.

Laura La Plante (1904–1996) was an American actress, best known for her work in the silent film era, such as Smouldering Fires (Clarence Brown, 1925) with Pauline Frederick, Skinner's Dress Suit (William Seiter, 1926) with Reginald Denny, and The Cat and the Canary (Paul Leni, 1927) with Creighton Hale. In the 1920s she acted in over 60 films, mostly for Universal, including the two-part-talkies The Love Trap (William Wyler, 1929) and Showboat (Harry A. Pollard, 1929).

Nancy Carroll
German postcard by Ross Verlag in the Luxus series, no. 510. Photo: Paramount.

Red-haired, cupid-bow-mouthed Nancy Carroll (1903-1965) became a very popular Hollywood star upon the advent of sound film because of her singing and dancing abilities. She was reported to have received more fan mail than any of her Hollywood peers of the same era. As she expanded her acting range from flaming flapper to ditzy comedienne to sensitive heroine, she was nominated for an Oscar for The Devil's Holiday (1930).

Anita Page
German postcard by Ross Verlag in the Luxus series, no. 512. Photo: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.

Hollywood star Anita Page (1910-2008) starred in the silent era opposite Ramon Novarro in The Flying Fleet (1928) and William Haines in Telling the World (1927). Her success in Our Dancing Daughters (1928) opposite Joan Crawford and Broadway Melody (1929) opposite Bessie Love paved the way for a smooth career in sound cinema. In the early 1930s, Anita Page had a busy career in American movies opposite actors like Buster Keaton, John Gilbert, Walter Huston, Robert Montgomery, and Clark Gable (with whom she was romantically involved). After Garbo, she was the actress who got the most fan mail and Mussolini supposedly kept proposing to her.

Willi Forst
Postcard by Ross Verlag in the Luxus series, no. 519. Photo: Atelier Balázs, Berlin.

The Austrian actor Willi Forst (1903-1980) was a darling of the German-speaking public. He was also one of the most significant directors, producers, writers, and stars of the Wiener Filme, the light Viennese musical comedy of the 1930s. On stage, he played in operettas and revues but also worked with Erwin Piscator and Max Reinhardt.

Willy Fritsch
German postcard by Ross Verlag in the Luxus series, no. 526. Photo: Ufa. Willy Fritsch.

Maurice Chevalier
German postcard by Ross Verlag in the Luxus series, no. 531. Photo: Paramount.

Maurice Chevalier's (1888-1972) trademark was a casual straw hat, which he always wore on stage with a cane and a tuxedo.

Clara Bow
German postcard by Ross Verlag in the Luxus series, no. 533. Photo: Paramount.

American actress Clara Bow (1905-1965) rose to stardom as an uninhibited flapper in silent films during the 1920s. Her appearance as a plucky shopgirl in the film It (1927) brought her global fame and the nickname 'The It Girl'. Bow came to personify the Roaring Twenties and is described as its leading sex symbol.

Charles Rogers in Heads Up (1930)
German postcard by Ross Verlag in the Luxus series, no. 540. Photo: Paramount. Charles Rogers in Heads Up (Victor Schertzinger, 1930).

Charles 'Buddy' Rogers (1904-1999) was an American film actor and musician. During the peak of his popularity in the late 1920s and early 1930s, he was publicised as "America's Boy Friend". Rogers starred in such films as Wings (1927) and My Best Girl (1927), opposite his later wife Mary Pickford. He also found success as a bandleader and a musician.

Brigitte Helm
German postcard by Ross Verlag in the Luxus series, no. 576. Photo: Ufa. Collection: Marlene Pilaete.

German actress Brigitte Helm (1908-1996) is still famous for her dual role as Maria and her double the evil Maria, the Maschinenmensch, in the silent SF classic Metropolis (Fritz Lang, 1927). After Metropolis she made a string of over 30 films in which she almost always had the starring role. She easily made the transition to sound films, before she abruptly retired in 1935.

Greta Garbo
German postcard by Ross Verlag in the Luxus series, no. 580. Photo: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Greta Garbo in Romance (Clarence Brown, 1930).

Gary Cooper
German postcard by Ross Verlag in the Luxus series, no. 592. Photo: Paramount.

American screen legend Gary Cooper (1901-1961) is well remembered for his stoic, understated acting style in more than one hundred Westerns, comedies and dramas. He received five Oscar nominations and won twice for his roles as Alvin York in Sergeant York (1941) and as Will Kane in High Noon (1952).

Lien Deyers
German postcard by Ross Verlag in the Luxus series, no. 608. Photo: Atelier Binder. Collection: Geoffrey Donaldson Instituut.

Dutch actress Lien Deyers (1910-1965) - also known as Lien Deijers and Lien Dyers - was discovered by famous director Fritz Lang who gave her a part in Spione (1928). She acted in a stream of late silent and early sound films. After 1935 her star faded rapidly and her life ended in tragedy.

Mady Christians
German postcard by Ross Verlag in the Luxus series, no. 609. Photo: Atelier Binder, Berlin.

Austrian-born stage actress Mady Christians (1892-1951) was a star of the German silent cinema and appeared in Austrian, French, British and Hollywood films too.

Jenny Jugo in Die nackte Wahrheit (1932)
German postcard by Ross Verlag in the Luxus series, no. 614. Photo: Paramount. Jenny Jugo in Die nackte Wahrheit/The Naked Truth (Karl Anton, 1932). It was shot at the Joinville Studios in Paris, where many of Paramount Pictures' multiple-language versions were made. It is the German version of Nothing but the Truth (Victor Schertzinger, 1929) and was also known by the alternative title of Heut' küsst Paris.

Pretty Austrian actress Jenny Jugo (1904-2001) had a prolific career in German cinema, from the late silent era well into the war years. She did particularly well as a comedienne and starred between 1931 and 1942 in eleven smart and charming comedies directed by Erich Engel.

Marlene Dietrich
German postcard by Ross Verlag in the Luxus series, no. 618. Photo: Paramount. Marlene Dietrich.

Lilian Harvey
German postcard by Ross Verlag in the Luxus series, no. 627. Photo: Atelier Binder, Berlin / Ufa.

British-born, German actress and singer Lilian Harvey (1906-1968) was Ufa's biggest star of the 1930s. With Willy Fritsch, she formed the 'Dream Team of the European Cinema'. Their best film was the immensely popular film Operetta Der Kongress tanzt/The Congress Dances (Erik Charell, 1931).

Greta Garbo in The Mysterious Lady (1928)
German postcard by Ross Verlag in the Luxus series, no. 657 (Schwarz Chamois version). Photo: Clarence Sinclair Bull / Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Greta Garbo in Mata Hari (George Fitzmaurice, 1931).

Greta Garbo in Mata Hari (1931)
German postcard by Ross Verlag in the Luxus series, no. 657 (Schwarz Hochglanz version). Photo: Clarence Sinclair Bull / Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Greta Garbo in Mata Hari (George Fitzmaurice, 1931).

Felix Bressart
German postcard by Ross Verlag in the Luxus series, no. 669. Photo: Walter Lichtenstein.

German stage and screen actor Felix Bressart (1892-1949) had to flee Germany after the Nazis seized power. He continued his film career in Austria and later in the US, where he became a popular character actor for MGM.

Camilla Horn
German postcard by Ross Verlag in the Luxusklasse series, no. 673. Photo: Ufa.

Ethereally blonde Camilla Horn (1903-1996) was a German dancer and film star. Her breakthrough role was Gretchen in the silent film classic Faust (Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau, 1926). She also starred in some Hollywood films of the late 1920s and in a few British and Italian productions.

Lien Deyers
German postcard by Ross Verlag in the Luxus series, no. 700. Photo: Atelier Binder. Collection: Geoffrey Donaldson Instituut. Lien Deyers.

Greta Garbo and Ramon Novarro, Mata Hari (1931)
German postcard by Ross Verlag in the Luxus series, no. 701. Photo: Metro Goldwyn Mayer. Greta Garbo and Ramon Novarro in Mata Hari (George Fitzmaurice, 1931).

Mexican-American actor Ramon Novarro (1899-1968) was a popular Latin Lover of the 1920s and early 1930s.

Renate Müller
German postcard by Ross Verlag in the Luxus series, no. 745. Photo: Godfried de Groot, Amsterdam.

Popular actress Renate Müller (1906-1937) was the toast of late 1920s Berlin. She had a comet-like career in the early German sound cinema, that was abruptly ended by her mysterious early death.

Hans Albers in F.P.1 antwortet nich (1932)
German postcard by Ross Verlag in the Luxus series, no. 762. Photo: Ufa. Hans Albers in F.P.1 antwortet nicht/F.P.1 Doesn't Answer (Karl Hartl, 1932).

Jovial, pleasantly plump Hans Albers (1891-1960) was a superstar of German cinema between 1930 and 1945. He was also one of the most popular German singers of the twentieth century. His song 'Auf der Reeperbahn nachts um halb eins' (On the Reeperbahn at half past midnight) is the unofficial anthem of Hamburg’s neighbourhood of St. Pauli, famous for its brothels, music, and nightclubs.

Dolly Haas
German postcard by Ross Verlag in the Luxus series, no. 766. Photo: Atelier Yva, Berlin.

German-born, British stage and screen actress Dolly Haas (1910-1994) was popular in the 1930s as a vivacious, red-haired 'gamine' often wearing trousers in German and British films. Although she got a 3-year contract with Columbia and worked with Alfred Hitchcock in Hollywood, Dolly's American career mainly took place on and Off-Broadway.

Source: Hans Schnepper (Ross Postcards). Thanks to Marlene Pilaete! Our Ross Verlag tribute will be continued next week!

18 March 2025

Sylva Koscina

Italian, Yugoslav-born actress Sylva Koscina (1933-1994) may be best remembered as Iole, the bride of Steve Reeves in the original version of Hercules (1958). She also starred in several Italian and Hollywood comedies of the 1950s and 1960s.

Sylva Koscina
Italian postcard by Rotalcolor, no. 20.

Sylva Koscina
Italian postcard by Rotalfoto, Milano, no. 64.

Sylva Koscina and Steve Reeves in Ercole e la regina di Lidia (1959)
Small Romanian collector card. Sylva Koscina and Steve Reeves in Ercole e la regina di Lidia/Hercules Unchained (Pietro Francisci, 1959).

Sylva Koscina
French postcard by Editions du Globe, Paris, no. 28. Photo: Sam Lévin.

Sylva Koscina
Spanish postcard by Postal Oscarcolor, Hospitalet (Barcelona), no. 109, 1964.

Miss Di Tappa


Sylva Koscina was born Sylva Koskinon in Zagreb, Kingdom of Yugoslavia (now Croatia), in 1933. As a teenager, she moved to Italy during the Second World War. She was a physics student at Naples University.

In 1954, she was chosen as Miss Di Tappa at the Giro d’Italia (Tour of Italy bicycle race). A picture of her exchanging a kiss with the winner was published in newspapers all over Europe and this led to a job as a model. As a fashion model, she was soon discovered for the cinema.

She made a fleeting appearance in the part of an aspiring actress in the Toto comedy Siamo uomini o caporali?/Are We Men or Corporals? (Camillo Mastrocinque, 1955) before she had her breakthrough as the daughter of the train engineer in Il ferroviere/The Railroad Man (Pietro Germi, 1956).

Pretty, even too elegant for the part, Sylva Koscina immediately confirmed her talent in Guendalina (Alberto Lattuada, 1957) as a young mother of Jacqueline Sassard. She played leading roles in popular comedies like Nonna Sabella/Grandmother Sabella (Dino Risi, 1957), Ladro lui, ladra lei/He a Thief She a Thief (Luigi Zampa, 1958), and Poveri millionari/Poor Millionaires (Dino Risi, 1958).

Koscina alternated cleverly between roles as a vamp and as an ingenue. She represented women in the search for social upward mobility, the image of an Italy that had left its worst problems behind.

Sylva Koscina
East-German postcard by VEB Progress Film-Vertrieb, Berlin, no. 1021, 1959. Retail price: 0,20 DM. Photo: G.B. Poletto, Rome. Sylva Koscina in La nonna Sabella/Grandmother Sabella (Dino Risi, 1957).

Sylva Koscina in La nonna Sabella (1957)
East German Starfoto by Progress Film-Vertrieb, Berlin, no. 1037, 1959. Photo: G.B. Poletto. Sylva Koscina in La nonna Sabella/Grandmother Sabella (Dino Risi, 1957).

Sylva Koscina and Steve Reeves in Ercole e la regina di Lidia (1959)
Small Romanian collector card. Sylva Koscina and Steve Reeves in Ercole e la regina di Lidia/Hercules Unchained (Pietro Francisci, 1959).

Sylva Koscina
French postcard by Editions P.I,, no. 934, presented by Les Carbones Korès 'Carboplane'. Photo: Sam Lévin.

Sylva Koscina in La cambiale (1959)
Spanish postcard by Archivo Bermejo, no. C-236, 1964. Photo: Universal Films. Sylva Koscina in La cambiale/The Bill of Excange (Camillo Mastrocinque, 1959).

Sylva Koscina and Dorian Gray in Le sorprese dell'amore (1959)
Romanian postcard by Casa Filmului Acin, no. 13. Sylva Koscina and Dorian Gray in Le sorprese dell'amore/Surprise of Love (Luigi Comencini, 1959).

Sylva Koscina in Il vigile (1960)
Italian postcard by Bromofoto, Milano, no. 1728. Photo: Cineriz. Sylva Koscina in Il vigile/The Traffic Policeman (Luigi Zampa, 1960). Koscina had a small part in the film as herself.

Hercules


Sylva Koscina was an actress noted for her carriage. She had an entirely feminine way of walking on the screen and she even lectured Giorgia Moll on how to walk like a lady in the sophisticated comedy Mogli pericolose/Dangerous Wives (Luigi Comencini, 1958).

In many of her roles, she gave the impression of modelling at a fashion show, head high, mouth very slightly open, eyes lost in the distance. She was the elegant actress of the sixties with an aristocratic manner bordering on snobbery.

However she also seemed at ease in a Peplum (sword and sandal epic): she was a marvellous fiancee for Hercules (Steve Reeves) in Le fatiche di Ercole/Hercules (Pietro Francisci, 1958), a prototype of this film genre. In Il vigile/The Policeman (Luigi Zampa, 1960), she played herself opposite Alberto Sordi as a traffic officer.

Charmed by her, he lets Sylva go without a ticket, but when the film star thanks him on TV he gets into a lot of trouble. Koscina married Raimondo Castelli, a small producer connected with Minerva Films. She managed to keep well afloat with roles that were anything but negligible such as a dramatic part in Il sicario/Blood Feud (Damiano Damiani, 1961) with Belinda Lee.

In La lepre e la tartaruga/The Hare and the Tortoise, an episode in Le quattro verità/The Three Fables of Love (Alessandro Blasetti, Hervé Bromberger, René Clair, Luis García Berlanga, 1963), director Alessandro Blasetti constructs a deliciously sophisticated duel between her and Monica Vitti. In 1965 Sylva took part in Giulietta degli spiriti/Juliet of the Spirits (Federico Fellini, 1965) as one of Giulietta Masina's sisters. But she also became a television personality who was often the special guest on variety shows.

Sylva Koscina
French postcard by EDUG, no. 145. Photo: Sam Lévin.

Sylva Koscina
French postcard. Photo: Sam Lévin.

Sylva Koscina
French card. Photo Sam Lévin.

Sylva Koscina in Hot Enough for June (1964)
Austrian card by Reclam, Wien. Sylva Koscina in Hot Enough for June (Ralph Thomas, 1964).

Sylva Koscina and David McCallum in Three Bites of the Apple (1967)
British press photo, no. 319/95. Sylva Koscina and David McCallum in Three Bites of the Apple (Alvin Ganzer, 1967).

Sylva Koscina, Richard Johnson
Romanian postcard by Casa Filmului Acin, no. 109. Retail price: 2 Lei. Photo: publicity still for Deadlier Than the Male (Ralph Thomas, 1967) with Richard Johnson.

Sylva Koscina and Jean Sorel in I Protagonisti (1968)
Romanian postcard by Casa Filmului Acin, no. 9. Sylva Koscina and Jean Sorel in I Protagonisti/The Protagonists (Marcello Fondato, 1968).

Hollywood


After passing thirty, Sylva Koscina tried playing the American card. She starred in the comedy caper Three Bites of the Apple (Alvin Ganzer, 1967) with David McCallum and Deadlier Than the Male (Ralph Thomas, 1966), in which she and Elke Sommer portrayed sophisticated professional killers duelling with Bulldog Drummond (Richard Johnson).

She partnered with Paul Newman in The Secret War of Harry Frigg (Jack Smight, 1968) and with Kirk Douglas in A Lovely Way to Die (David Lowell Rich, 1968). She appeared as a German doctor, Bianca, in Hornet's Nest (Phil Karlson, Franco Cirino, 1970) with Rock Hudson, but without luck.

Her fame became a bit tarnished, but it was given a boost with her appearance in the Italian edition of Playboy magazine in 1967. The photography by Angelo Frontoni was exquisite, and the fact of a film star photographed bare-breasted in a magazine provoked a scandal.

So, the image of Sylva, based on an elegant and slightly snobbish femininity was enriched with an erotic touch. In that same period, L'assolute naturale/He and She (Mauro Bolognini, 1969) was released complete with a full nude shot. This was a sign of the radical change Italian cinema and society were undergoing.

Some of her lovemaking scenes with Gabriele Tinti in the fantasy film Lisa and the Devil (Mario Bava, Alfredo Leone, 1974) had to be cut because they were considered pornographic.

Sylva Koscina
Italian postcard by Rotalfoto, Milano, no. 888.

Sylva Koscina
Spanish postcard by Archivo Bermejo, no. 10, 1964. Photo: Universal.

Sylva Koscina
Italian postcard by Rotalcolor, no. 297.

Sylva Koscina
Italian postcard by Rotalfoto, Milano, no. 210. Sent by mail in 1977.

Sylva Koscina
Italian postcard by Rotalfoto, Milano, no. 206.

Sylva Koscina
Italian postcard by Rotalfoto, Milano, no. 220.

Sylva Koscina
Belgian postcard by Editions Decker, Brussels, no. P.U. 55.

Erotic appearances


Since the early 1960s, Sylva Koscina had invested most of her star salaries in a luxurious villa, in the well-to-do district of Marino, Rome, complete with 16th-century furniture and artist's paintings. This lasted until her spending overcame her dwindling income, and in 1976, when she had to face a tax evasion inquest, she was forced to sell her house.

She lived with Raimondo Castelli since 1960, but they could not marry because his wife refused a divorce. In 1967 Raimondo and Sylva married in Mexico, but this marriage was not officially recognised in Italy, and they separated in 1971.

Sylva depended more and more on erotic appearances. In June 1975 she was on the cover and featured again in the Italian Playboy. She appeared in sex comedies like Some Like It Cool (Franz Antel, 1977) with Tony Curtis, and in a segment of Sunday Lovers (Dino Risi, 1980) with Ugo Tognazzi.

In the 1980s Sylva had a long-running live theatre performance in Rome. By then a mature but still beautiful Koscina, performed every night in the nude. She only incidentally appeared in films, including Cenerentola '80/Cinderella ´80 (Roberto Malenotti, 1984) with Adolfo Celi, and Rimini Rimini (Sergio Corbucci, 1987) with Laura Antonelli.

Koscina returned before the cameras in the year just before her death: her last appearance was in the tantalizingly titled C'è Kim Novak al telefono/Kim Novak is on the Phone (Riki Roseo, 1994). After a long battle with breast cancer, Sylva Koscina died in Rome in 1994, aged 61.

Sylva Koscina
West German postcard by Ufa/Film-Foto, Berlin-Tempelhof, no. FK 4194. Photo: Georg Michalke / Ufa.

Sylva Koscina
Vintage postcard by Studio Sombor.

Sylva Koscina
Romanian postcard by Casa Filmului Acin, no. 41. Retail price: 2 Lei.

Sylva Koscina
Romanian postcard by Casa Filmului Acin, no. 217. Retail price: 1,50 Lei.

Sylva Koscina
Romanian postcard by Casa Filmului Acin.

Sylva Koscina
East German Starfoto by Progress Film-Verleih, Berlin, no. 31/76.

Sources: Hal Erickson (AllMovie - Page now defunct), Simon Benattar-Bourgeay (CinéArtistes - French), Glamour Girls of the Silver Screen, Wikipedia and IMDb.