19 May 2025

Jack Pickford

Jack Pickford (1896-1933) was a Canadian-born American actor, film director, and producer. He was the younger brother of Mary Pickford. While Jack also appeared in numerous films as the 'all-American boy next door' and was a fairly popular performer, he was overshadowed by his sister's success. Also, by the late 1920s, his career had begun to decline due to alcohol, drugs, scandals, and chronic depression.

Jack Pickford
Spanish card by La Novela Semanal Cinematográfica, no. 90.

Jack Pickford
French postcard by A.N., Paris, no. 80. Photo: Paramount Film.

An excellent actor who never lived up to his potential


Jack Pickford was born John Charles Smith in 1896 in Toronto, Ontario, to John Charles Smith, an English immigrant odd-job man of Methodist background, and Charlotte Hennessy Smith, who was Irish Catholic. He was called Jack as a child. His alcoholic father left the family when Pickford was a young child. This incident left the family impoverished.

Out of desperation, Charlotte allowed Jack and his two sisters, Gladys and Lottie, to appear onstage, beginning with Gladys, the eldest. This proved a good source of income, and by 1900, the family had relocated to New York City, and the children were acting in plays across the United States.

Due to the work, the family was constantly separated until 1910 when Gladys signed with Biograph Studios. By this time, Gladys Smith had been transformed into Mary Pickford (Marie was her middle name, and Pickford was an old family name). Following suit, the Smiths changed their stage names to 'Pickford'. Soon after signing with Biograph, Mary secured jobs for all the family, including the then-14-year-old Jack.

When the Biograph Company headed West to Hollywood, only Mary was to go until Jack pleaded to join the company as well. Much to Mary's protest, Charlotte threw him on the train as it left the station. The company arrived in Hollywood, where Jack acted in bit parts during the stay. Mary soon became a well-known star, and by 1917 had signed a contract for $1 million with First National Pictures. As part of her contract, Mary saw to it that her family was brought along, giving the now-named Jack Pickford a lucrative contract with the company as well.

By the time he signed with First National, Pickford had played bit parts in 95 shorts and films. Though he was considered an excellent actor, Jack Pickford was seen as someone who never lived up to his potential. In 1917, he starred in one of his first major roles as Pip in the adaptation of Charles Dickens' Great Expectations (Robert G. Vignola, Paul West, 1917) as well as the title role in Mark Twain's Tom Sawyer (William Desmond Taylor, 1917) and the follow-up Huck and Tom (William Desmond Taylor, 1918).

Jack Pickford
British postcard. On the back: publicity for the British journal Picturegoer and its postcard series Pictures.

Jack Pickford
British postcard. Photo: Walturdaw / Hardie (Frederick William Hardie), Aberdeen.

The All-American little brother of America’s Sweetheart


Jack Pickford's image was that of the All-American boy, with his sister being 'America’s Sweetheart'. Most of his films, especially those in the late 1910s, were both commercial and critical successes, making him a highly regarded name for himself. In early 1918, after the United States entered World War I, Jack joined the United States Navy as an enlisted sailor and was stationed at the Third Naval District in Manhattan, New York.

Using the famous Pickford name, he soon became involved in a scheme that allowed rich young men to pay bribes to avoid military service, as well as reportedly procuring young women for officers. The scandal almost got him court-martialed, but with the help of his family, he was exonerated. The others involved in the scandal were court-martialed, sentenced to up to three years in the brig and dishonorably discharged. Pickford returned to making films.

Despite his 'boy next door' image, Pickford's private life remained one of drinking and drug abuse, domestic violence, and womanising, culminating in the severe alcoholism that resulted in his early death. In the early days of Hollywood, movie studios were able to cover up almost all of their stars' misbehaviour, but within the Hollywood crowd, Jack Pickford's behind-the-scenes activities made him a legend in his own time. Pickford met actress and Ziegfeld girl Olive Thomas at a beach cafe on the Santa Monica Pier. Thomas was just as wild as Pickford. Pickford and Thomas eloped in 1916 in New Jersey. None of their family was present, and their only witness was Thomas Meighan. The couple had no children of their own, though, in 1920, they adopted Olive's then-six-year-old nephew when his mother died.

Although by most accounts Olive was the love of Pickford's life, the marriage was stormy and filled with highly charged conflict, followed by lavish making up through the exchange of expensive gifts. For many years, the Pickfords had intended to vacation together, and with their marriage on the rocks, the couple decided to take a second honeymoon. In August 1920, the pair traveled to Paris, hoping to combine a vacation with some film preparations. The couple went out for a night of entertainment and partying at the famous bistros in the Montparnasse Quarter of Paris.

They returned to their room in the Hôtel Ritz around 3:00 a.m. It was rumored that Thomas may have taken cocaine that night, though it was never proven. She was intoxicated and tired and took a large dose of mercury bichloride, a common item for bathroom cleaning. She was taken to the American Hospital in the Paris suburb of Neuilly, where Pickford, together with his former brother-in-law Owen Moore, remained at her side until she succumbed to the poison a few days later. Rumors arose that she had either tried to commit suicide or had been murdered. A police investigation followed, as well as an autopsy, and Thomas's death was ruled accidental.

Jack Pickford
British postcard in the Picturegoer Series, London, no. 231.

An abusive husband due to drug abuse and alcoholism


Jack Pickford married two more times. In 1922, he married Marilyn Miller, a celebrated Broadway dancer and former Ziegfeld girl, at his sister and brother-in-law's famed home, Pickfair. By most accounts, it was an abusive marriage due to Pickford's drug abuse and alcoholism. They separated in 1926, and Miller was granted a French divorce in November 1927.

Some of his better films during this time included The Little Shepherd of Kingdom Come (Wallace Worsley, 1920), The Man Who Had Everything (Alfred E. Green, 1920), and Waking Up the Town (James Cruze, 1925). By 1923, his roles had gone from several a year to one. In 1928, he finished his last film, acting as Clyde Baxter in the part-talking gangster film Gang War (Bert Glennon, 1928).

Through the years, he dabbled in screenwriting and directing. He was given co-director credit for a couple of his sister Mary Pickford's films: Little Lord Fauntleroy (Alfred E. Green, Jack Pickford, 1921) and Through the Back Door (Alfred E. Green, Jack Pickford, 1921). However, he never pursued either form further. Pickford's final marriage was to Mary Mulhern, age 22, and a former Ziegfeld girl, whom he married in 1930. Within three months, Pickford grew increasingly volatile towards Mulhern. After two years, Mulhern left Pickford, claiming he had mistreated her throughout the marriage. She was granted an interlocutory divorce in February 1932, which had yet to be finalised at the time of Pickford's death.

In 1932, Pickford visited his sister Mary at Pickfair. According to Mary, he looked ill and emaciated; his clothes were hanging on him as if he were a clothes hanger. Jack Pickford, at age 36, died at the American Hospital of Paris in 1933. The cause for his death was listed as "progressive multiple neuritides which attacked all the nerve centers". This was believed to be due to his alcoholism.

Mary Pickford arranged for his body to be returned to Los Angeles, where he was interred in the private Pickford plot at Forest Lawn Memorial Park, Glendale. All in all, Pickford appeared in more than 130 films between 1908 and 1928. For his contribution to the film industry, Jack Pickford has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 1523 Vine Street.

Jack Pickford
American postcard by Kraus Mfg. Co., N.Y. At the backside, the film The Mystery of No. 47 was promoted. It was shown on 29 April 1913 at the New Magnet, Danville. On the programme were also the two-part comedy The Brass Monkey and an 'Atletic Picture'. (IMDb only mentions a 1917 version of The Mystery of No. 47).

Jack Pickford
British postcard by R.F. Hunger, London. Photo: Paramount.

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

18 May 2025

Il richiamo (1921)

Diva Maria Jacobini, Lido Manetti and Carlo Benetti starred in the Italian silent film Il richiamo / The Call from the Past (1921), directed by Gennaro Righelli. The script by Luciano Doria was based on a story by Fausto Maria Martini.

Maria Jacobini in Il richiamo (1921)
Italian postcard by Ed. S.I.C., Roma. Maria Jacobini in Il richiamo / The Call from the Past (Gennaro Righelli, 1921). Publicity for the Corso Cinema Teatro in Rome.

Maria Jacobini in Il richiamo
Italian postcard by G.B. Falci, Milano, no. 92. Photo: Fert. Maria Jacobini in Il richiamo / The Call from the Past (Gennaro Righelli, 1921).

Maria Jacobini and Carlo Benetti in Il richiamo (1921)
Italian postcard by Ed. G.B. Falci, Milano, no. 95. Photo: Fert. Maria Jacobini and Carlo Benetti in Il richiamo / The Call from the Past (Gennaro Righelli, 1921).

Maria Jacobini in Il richiamo (1921)
Italian postcard by Ed. G.B. Falci, Milano, no. 183. Photo: Fert. Maria Jacobini in Il richiamo / The Call from the Past (Gennaro Righelli, 1921).

A dramatic colour change in a central scene


The Italian silent melodrama Il richiamo / The Call from the Past (1921) directed by Gennaro Righelli and starring his future wife Maria Jacobini, was produced by the Fert Studios in Turin and based on a story by Fausto Maria Martini.

Maria Jacobini plays a young widow, Giovanna Landi, who loses her own child. She then adopts a boy, Santino, from an orphanage and takes care of him. Once Santino has grown a man (Lido Manetti also known as Arnold Kent), he falls in love with his adoptive mother. She is disappointed and disappears from his life, while he doesn't understand.

Il richiamo had its Roman first night on 17 October 1921. At the time, the Italian press remarked that Maria Jacobini remained a great actress, but Jacobini's beauty was too much hidden under makeup, to make her look older. The other actors were Lido ManettiCarlo Benetti, Cecyl Tryan and Luigi Duse. The exteriors, shot in Venice by cinematographer Tullio Chiarini, were praised too, but the film's story had too many sidepaths, making it unnecessarily complicated.

A print of this film was discovered in the Komiya Collection at the National Film Center in Tokyo. In 1988, Komiya Takahashi donated what was left of the great collection of his father Komiya Tomijiro (1897-1975) to this centre. Komiya senior, son of a restaurateur, had grown up in Tokyo’s entertainment district, Asakusa, and collected the films of his youth, European productions from 1907 to 1920.

As they catalogued the films and drew up condition reports, Hiroshi Komatsu and the Film Center archivists realised that many were decomposed. But what did survive was precious enough – many unique and matchless colour prints – which were duplicated in 1991. Il richiamo / The Call from the Past (1921) is one of the few Komiya Collection films to survive completely. Thanks to the nitrate decomposition, the character played by Maria Jacobini undergoes a dramatic colour change in a central scene of the film… In 2012, a restored version was shown at Il Cinema Ritrovato in Bologna.

Maria Jacobini and Lido Manetti in Il richiamo (1921)
Italian postcard by Ed. G.B. Falci, Milano, no. 101. Photo: Fert. Maria Jacobini and Lido Manetti in Il richiamo / The Call from the Past (Gennaro Righelli, 1921).

Maria Jacobini and Lido Manetti Il richiamo (1921)
Italian postcard by Ed. G.B. Falci, Milano, no. 102. Photo: Fert. Maria Jacobini and Lido Manetti (Arnold Kent) in Il richiamo / The Call from the Past (Gennaro Righelli, 1921).

Maria Jacobini and Cecyl Tryan in Il richiamo (1921)
Italian postcard by Ed. G.B. Falci, Milano, no. 105. Photo: Fert. Maria Jacobini and Cecyl Tryan in Il richiamo / The Call from the Past (Gennaro Righelli, 1921).

Maria Jacobini and Lido Manetti in Il richiamo (1921)
Italian postcard by G.B. Falci, Milano, no. 67. Photo: Fert. Maria Jacobini and Lido Manetti in Il richiamo / The Call from the Past (Gennaro Righelli, 1921).

Sources: Vittorio Martinelli (Il cinema muto italiano, 1921-1922 - Italian), Il Cinema Ritrovato, Wikipedia and IMDb.

17 May 2025

Nathalie Baye

French film, television, and stage actress Nathalie Baye (1948) began her career in 1970 and has appeared in more than 80 films. She has won more than ten acting awards, including the Volpi Cup at the Venice Film Festival for Une liaison pornographique (1999). Baye won four Césars, for Sauve qui peut (la vie) (1980), Une étrange affaire (1981), La Balance (1982) and Le petit lieutenant (2005).

Nathalie Baye
Romanian postcard by Casa Filmului Acin.

Nathalie Baye
French postcard at Editions P.I., Paris, no. 3647. Photo: Eva Sereny / Sygma.

Recognised as one of France's leading actresses


Nathalie Marie Andrée Baye was born in Mainneville, Normandy, in 1948. She grew up in unconventional circumstances as the daughter of a bohemian painter couple, Claude Baye and Denise Coustet. She was dyslexic, dropped out of school at the age of fourteen and took ballet lessons in Monaco. Three years later, at age 17, she toured with a dance company in the United States. She stayed in New York to complete her training with the Ballets Russes and to broaden her horizons.

On her return, she attended the Cours Simon and then the Conservatoire, which she completed in 1972. Baye made her film debut as Giselle in Faustine et le bel été / Faustine and the Beautiful Summer (Nina Companeez, 1972), starring Isabelle Adjani. The next year, she became famous with the supporting role of the script girl Joëlle in the film La Nuit américaine / Day for Night (1973) by François Truffaut.

After that, she worked with another great director, Maurice Pialat, on La gueule ouverte / The Mouth Agape (1974). Other supporting roles followed, including a brief appearance in Truffaut's L'Homme qui aimait les femmes / The Man Who Loved Women (François Truffaut, 1977). Throughout the 1970s, she played the good girlfriend or nice provincial girl in film and television. She played her first major leading role as Truffaut's partner in his film drama La Chambre verte / The Green Room (François Truffaut, 1978).

Since the early 1980s, she has been recognised as one of France's leading actresses, thanks to performances such as in Claude Goretta's La Provinciale / The Girl from Lorraine (1981). Baye has been honoured with four César awards: Best Supporting Actress in 1981 for Sauve qui peut (la vie) / Every Man for Himself (Jean-Luc Godard, 1980) and 1982 for Une étrange affair / Strange Affair (Pierre Granier-Deferre, 1981) as well as Best Actress in a Leading Role in 1983 for La Balance / The Nark (Bob Swaim, 1982).

After changing her image by playing a streetwalker in La Balance, she widened her scope with more obscure characters in J'ai épousé une ombre / I Married a Shadow (Robin Davis, 1983) and En toute innocence / No Harm Intended (Alain Jessua, 1988). In 1986, she returned to the theatre with an interpretation of 'Adriana Monti'. At the Venice Film Festival in 1999, she received the award for Best Actress for her role in Une liaison pornographique / A Pornographic Relationship (Frédéric Fonteyne, 1999) with Sergi Lopéz. Her other film successes include her role as a teacher in Une semaine de vacances / Holidays for a Week (Bertrand Tavernier, 1980) and she was one the beauticians in the highly acclaimed Vénus Beauté (Institut) / Venus Beauty Institute (Tonie Marshall, 1999), which won multiple César Awards, including for Best Film.

François Truffaut and Nathalie Baye in La Nuit Américaine (1973)
French postcard by Editions La Malibran, Paris, no. CF 32. Photo: Pierre Zucca. François Truffaut and Nathalie Baye in La Nuit Américaine (François Truffaut, 1973).

A celebrity couple with a French Rock and Roll legend


Nathalie Baye has appeared in more than 65 films. Most of these are French-language, though not exclusively. For instance, she starred in the American films Two People (Robert Wise, 1972) with Lindsay Wagner and Peter Fonda, The Man Inside (Bobby Roth, 1990), alongside Jürgen Prochnow and Monique van de Ven, and Catch Me If You Can (Steven Spielberg, 2002) starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Tom Hanks.

From 1982 to 1986, Baye formed a celebrity couple with French Rock and Roll legend Johnny Hallyday. Together, they made the film Détective (1984), directed by Jean-Luc Godard. With Hallyday, she had a daughter, Laura Smet, in 1983.

Laura Smet has also played several film roles since 2003. In 2017, Baye starred for the first time with her daughter in an episode of the TV series Dix pour Cent / Call My Agent! (2015) about the lives and jobs of people working at a talent agency in Paris. The two women were reunited for the first time in the cinema by Xavier Beauvois in Les Gardiennes / The Guardians, a historical drama set in 1915.

In 2006, Nathalie Baye won her fourth César for her role as a middle-aged woman detective in Le petit lieutenant / The Young Lieutenant (Xavier Beauvois, 2005). Young Canadian film prodigy Xavier Dolan offered her the role of the mother of a man wanting to have a sex change in Laurence Anyways (Xavier Dolan, 2012).

More recent films in which she appeared include the French drama-thriller La Volante / The Assistant (Christophe Ali, Nicolas Bonilauri, 2015), the drama Juste la fin du monde / It's Only the End of the World (Xavier Dolan, 2016) and the historical drama Downton Abbey: A New Era (Simon Curtis, 2022) from a screenplay by Julian Fellowes. It is the sequel to Downton Abbey (Michael Engler, 2019), based on the television series of the same name created by Fellowes.

Nathalie Baye
French autograph card by Editions P.I., Paris. Photo: Sygma.

Nathalie Baye
French autograph card by Editions P.I., Paris. Photo: Sygma. Check out the differences.

Sources: Allociné (French), Wikipedia (Dutch, French and English) and IMDb.

16 May 2025

Bruce Willis

Bruce Willis (1955) is an American actor, producer and singer known for his wisecracking and hard-edged characters, often in spectacular action films. Thanks to blockbusters as Die Hard (1988), Pulp Fiction (1994) and The Sixth Sense (1999), he became one of the best-paid actors in Hollywood.

Bruce Willis
Romanian postcard by Polsib S.A., Dibiu. Photo: S.C.P. Vizual S.R.L., Bucuresti.

Bruce Willis
German collector card by Kino, 1990.

Bruce Willis
Italian postcard by CIAK. Photo: Alberto Tolot / UnoPress.

Samuel Jackson, John Travolta, Bruce Willis and Uma Thurman in Pulp Fiction (1994)
British postcard by Memory Card, no. 78. Samuel Jackson, John Travolta, Bruce Willis, and Uma Thurman in Pulp Fiction (Quentin Tarantino, 1994). Caption: Lobby card.

Bruce Willis
French postcard, Ref. C 674. Photo: Timothy White for Esquire.

Acting as therapy for his stammer


Walter Bruce Willis was born in 1955 in a basement in Idar-Oberstein in Rhineland-Palatinate, West Germany. He was the son of US soldier David Willis and his German wife, Marlene Kassel. He spent the first two years with his parents in Germany before the family moved to the United States in 1957. Together with his three younger siblings, he grew up in New Jersey.

As therapy for his stammer, he took up acting during his school years. After finishing high school, he took acting classes at Montclair State College and worked part-time at a chemical plant to pay for his lessons. Willis moved to New York to become an actor. Initially, these were roles in plays.

He became famous for his role as private eye David Addison in the romantic detective series Moonlighting (1985-1989), in which he co-starred with Cybill Shepherd. The TV series was honoured with an Emmy and a Golden Globe. As a singer, Willis had a top 10 hit in the Netherlands in 1987 with the song 'Under the Boardwalk', a cover of The Drifters. Another single, 'Respect Yourself', was a big hit in the United States and reached no. 5 on the Billboard Hot 100. In 1989, he released his last LP, If It Don't Kill You, It Just Makes You Stronger.' The record features blues and rhythm-and-blues songs.

He also began a film career. He worked twice with director Blake Edwards, the comedies Blind Date (1987) with Kim Basinger and Sunset (1988) with James Garner.

In 1988, he broke through as a film actor in the role of the police officer John McClane in the action film Die Hard (John McTiernan, 1988). He played John McClane, who only obeys his own rules and always has a casual quip on his lips. McClane single-handedly battled a gang of ruthless international thieves in a Los Angeles skyscraper. He reprised the role of McClane in the sequel, Die Hard 2 (Renny Harlin, 1990), set at a snowbound Washington's Dulles International Airport as a group of renegade Special Forces soldiers seek to repatriate a corrupt South American general. Excellent box office returns demanded a further sequel, Die Hard with a Vengeance (John McTiernan, 1995), this time co-starring Samuel L. Jackson as a cynical Harlem shop owner unwittingly thrust into assisting McClane during a terrorist bombing campaign in New York.

Bruce Willis
French postcard by Editions Musicartes, no. EM478.

Bruce Willis in Pulp Fiction (1994)
American postcard by Buena Vista Pictures Distribution. Photo: Touchstone Home Video. Bruce Willis in Pulp Fiction (Quentin Tarantino, 1994). Caption: "He was dead before he ever stepped into the ring." The Boxer.

Samuel Jackson, Uma Thurman, John Travolta and Bruce Willis in Pulp Fiction (1994)
British postcard, no. MM 387. Samuel Jackson, Uma Thurman, John Travolta and Bruce Willis in Pulp Fiction (Quentin Tarantino, 1994).

Bruce Willis in 12 Monkeys (1995)
Vintage postcard by Memory Card, no. 175. Photo: Bruce Willis in 12 Monkeys (Terry Gilliam, 1995).

Bruce Willis
Vintgage postcard by Iauiuasinu, no. 0041. Photo: Norman Jean Roy.

Large-scale financial disasters that were savaged by the critics


Apart from his action films, such as the Die Hard series and The Last Boy Scout (Tony Scott, 1991), Bruce Willis had little commercial success until the mid-1990s. He tried to relativise his action image with roles in comedies such as the voice of Mikey, the baby in the popular family comedies Look Who's Talking (Amy Heckerling, 1989) and its sequel Look Who's Talking Too (Amy Heckerling, 1990), also starring John Travolta and Kirstie Alley.

The Bonfire of the Vanities (Brian De Palma, 1990) and Hudson Hawk (Michael Lehmann, 1991) were both large-scale financial disasters that were savaged by the critics. In 1994, he was cast by Quentin Tarantino in Pulp Fiction in the role of boxer Butch. His performance was praised by critics.

This was followed by further box office hits such as the apocalyptic thriller 12 Monkeys (Terry Gilliam, 1995), the Science-Fiction opus The Fifth Element (Luc Besson, 1997) and Armageddon (Michael Bay, 1998) with Ben Affleck. With films such as The Sixth Sense (M. Night Shyamalan, 1999) and Unbreakable (M. Night Shyamalan, 2000) with Samuel L. Jackson, he then devoted himself increasingly to dramas but also remained loyal to comedies and action films.

After some flops, Willis bounced back into the spotlight in the critically applauded Frank Miller graphic novel turned movie Sin City (Frank Miller, Quentin Tarantino, Robert Rodriguez, 2005), the voice of RJ the scheming raccoon in the animated hit Over the Hedge (Tim Johnson, Karey Kirkpatrick, 2006) and the high tech Die Hard 4.0 (Len Wiseman, 2007). In 2006, Bruce Willis received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. According to the American Forbes Magazine, he was one of the best-paid actors in Hollywood at the time. Between June 2007 and June 2008, he received fees totalling USD 41 million.

Bruce Willis
quit acting in 2022 when he was diagnosed with aphasia. In 2023, his family reported that Willis had frontotemporal dementia. Willis was married to actress Demi Moore from 1987 to 2000. They have three daughters, Rumer (1988), Scout LaRue (1991) and Tallulah Belle (1994). In 2009, Willis remarried 23 years younger actress cum model Emma Heming (1978). Together, they have two daughters.

Bruce Willis in The Fifth Element (1997)
French postcard, Ref. 1141. Bruce Willis in Le cinquième élément / The Fifth Element (Luc Besson, 1997).

Le cinquième élément (1997)
English postcard by Cinema. French poster by Gaumont for Le cinquième élément / The Fifth Element (Luc Besson, 1997).

Bruce Willis in The Kid (2000)
Dutch freecard by John v.d. Burg Indoor Media BV. Photo: Disney. Bruce Willis in The Kid (Jon Turteltaub, 2000).

Bruce Willis in Sin City (2005)
German postcard by Edgar Medien AG, no. 7.687. Image: Buena Vista / Miramax. Bruce Willis in Sin City (Frank Miller, Quentin Tarantino (special guest director), Robert Rodriguez, 2005). Caption: Your stupid talk really gets on my nerves!

Sin City (2005)
French postcard. Image: Miramax. Photos: Rico Torres. French poster for Sin City (Frank Miller, Quentin Tarantino (special guest director), Robert Rodriguez, 2005).

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

15 May 2025

15 postcards from GDI: Hollywood stars of the 1930s

In our monthly post on the postcard collection of Geoffrey Donaldson Institute (GDI), we chose again 15 postcards from a big album from the estate of film historians Tjitte de Vries and Ati Mul. It's an album which they probably started somewhere in the 1970s. It contains interesting postcards from several periods and several countries. For this post, we selected 14 European postcards from the 1930s and one from the 1940s with Hollywood stars.

Ramon Novarro in Son of India (1931)
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 5935/3, 1930-1931. Photo: Metro Goldwyn Mayer. Ramon Novarro in Son of India (Jacques Feyder, 1931).

Mexican-American actor Ramon Novarro (1899-1968) was a popular Latin Lover of the 1920s and early 1930s. He was the star of silent Hollywood's biggest epic, Ben-Hur (Fred Niblo, 1925).

Victor MacLaglen in Dishonored (1931)
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 5983/1, 1930-1931. Photo: Paramount. Victor MacLaglen in Dishonored (Josef von Sternberg, 1931).

Victor McLaglen (1886-1959) was a Scottish boxer and World War I veteran who became a successful film actor. He started in British silent films and later became a popular character actor in Hollywood, with a particular knack for playing drunks.

William Haines and Dorothy Jordan
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 6228/1, 1931-1932. Photo: Metro Goldwyn Mayer.

William 'Billy' Haines (1900–1973) was an American film actor and interior designer. By the end of the silent era, he was regularly named as the no. 1 male box-office draw of Hollywood. Dorothy Jordan (1906-1988) was an American film actress who emerged as an actress at the start of the talkies. She made more than 20 films in four years, opposite Ramon Novarro, Clark Gable, Lionel Barrymore, Walter Huston and Jimmy Durante. In 1933, she married Merian C. Cooper and retired.

Lillian Bond
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 6238/1, 1931-1932. Photo: Metro Goldwyn Mayer.

Lovely British actress Lilian Bond (1908-1991) made over 50 films in Hollywood from the late 1920s through the 1940s. One of her first roles was in James Whale’s classic horror-comedy The Old Dark House (1932), but in later years she mostly appeared in B-movies, both in leading parts and in bit roles. Possibly her best-known film role was in the Western The Westerner (1940) starring Gary Cooper and Walter Brennan, in which she played Lillie Langtry.

Lillian Roth in Madam Satan (1930)
Austrian postcard by Iris Verlag, no. 6283. Photo: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Lillian Roth in Madam Satan (Cecil B. DeMille, 1930).

American singer and actress Lillian Roth was a Broadway star and Hollywood actress. Among the films she made with Paramount were The Love Parade (1929) with Maurice Chevalier, The Vagabond King (1930), Cecil B. DeMille's Madam Satan (1930), and the Marx Brothers' second film, Animal Crackers (1930). She rebelled against the pressure of her domineering stage mother and reacted to the death of her fiancé by becoming an alcoholic. Her life story was told in the popular biopic I'll Cry Tomorrow (Daniel Mann, 1955) starring Susan Hayward.

Sally Eilers
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 6454/1, 1931-1932. Photo: Fox.

American actress Sally Eilers (1908-1978) was a popular Hollywood star in the early 1930s. She was tagged 'the most beautiful girl in movies'.

Ramon Novarro in Mata Hari (1931)
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 6657/1, 1931-1932. Photo: Metro Goldwyn Mayer. 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. He was the star of silent Hollywood's biggest epic, Ben-Hur (Fred Niblo, 1925).

Madge Evans
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 6935/1, 1931-1932. Photo: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.

Lovely Madge Evans (1909-1981) was an American stage and film actress who often played the 'nice' girl in Hollywood films of the 1930s. She began her career as a child performer and model, starting with Fairy Soap commercials at the age of two.

Marian Nixon
British postcard in the Colourgraph Series, London, no. C 42 a. Photo: Fox.

Marian Nixon (1904-1983), aka Marion Nixon, was an American actress who acted in over 70 films.

Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy
Dutch postcard, no. 46. Photo: Metro Goldwyn Mayer.

Thin Englishman Stan Laurel (1890–1965) and heavyset American Oliver Hardy (1892–1957) were a comedy double act during the early Classical Hollywood era. They became well known during the late 1920s through the mid-1940s for their slapstick comedy, with Laurel playing the clumsy and childlike friend of the pompous Hardy.

Boots Mallory

American actress Boots Mallory (1913-1958) started her career as a model and a Ziegfeld Girl. Her film career began in the era of early talkies, and she became a WAMPAS Baby Star in 1932.

Gwen Lee
Dutch postcard, no. 10. Photo: Metro Goldwyn.

Blonde, blue-eyed and impeccably coiffured Gwen Lee (1904-1961) was one of the archetypical Flappers of the Jazz Age. The actress played supporting roles as dizzy blondes and gold-digging vamps in films of the late 1920s and early 1930s. Lee appeared in over 60 films and retired in 1938.

Joan Crawford
Dutch postcard, no. 433. Photo: Metro Goldwyn.

American film star Joan Crawford (1904-1977) had a career that spanned many decades, studios, and controversies. In her silent films, she made an impact as a vivacious Jazz Age flapper, and later, she matured into a star of psychological melodramas.

Miriam Hopkins
Dutch postcard, no. 643. Photo: Paramount.

After ten years on the stage as a successful actress, Miriam Hopkins (1902-1972) joined Paramount in 1930 and became one of Hollywood's top-ranking stars. She returned to the stage as her film career slowed in the 1940s. During the 1950s, she added television to her repertoire.

Gary Cooper in Along Came Jones (1945)
Dutch postcard, no. S. & v. H. A. Photo: M.P.E.A. Gary Cooper in Along Came Jones (Stuart Heisler, 1945).

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).

All postcards: Collection Geoffrey Donaldson Institute. To be continued on the 15th of next month.