12 May 2025

Ida Rubinstein

Ida Rubinstein (1885-1960) was a Russian-Ukrainian ballerina of the Ballets Russes, choreographer, actress and Maecenas from the Belle Epoque. After Rubinstein left the Ballets Russes, she founded her own dance company, the Ballet Ida Rubinstein, and had immediate success with 'Le Martyre de Saint Sébastien'(1911), with music by Claude Debussy, text by Gabriele D'Annunzio, and choreography by Michel Fokine and sets and costumes by Léon Bakst. She also appeared in two films, including the Italian slent drama La nave / The Ship (1921).

Ida Rubinstein in La nave (1921)
Italian postcard by G.B. Falci Edit., Milano Ida Rubinstein in the Italian silent film La nave / The Ship (Gabriellino D'Annunzio, Mario Roncoroni, 1921), based on the homonymous play by Gabriele D'Annunzio.

Ida Rubinstein in Le Martyr de St. Sebastien
French postcard by RA, no. 109. Photo: A. Bert. Ida Rubinstein in 'Le Martyr de St. Sebastien' (1911).

The ship


Ida Rubinstein was a close friend of the poet and playwright Gabriele D'Annunzio. In 1921 she played the lead of Basiliola in the film La nave / The Ship (1921), directed by D'Annunzio's son Gabriellino D'Annunzio and by Mario Roncoroni. The film was based on a play by D'Annunzio, which already had been turned into an opera and had been filmed in 1912 by the company Ambrosio, but without much success.

Guido Marussig, who had designed both the play and the opera, designed sets and costumes for the 1921 film. The directors shot the film in a style typical of the later silent epics in Italy, denying innovation in film language and instead focusing on acting, set and costume design, harking back to earlier epics such as Cabiria, but adding cruelty and sadomasochism. La nave is set in early medieval times.

In the Venetian plains, at the town of Aquileia, Basiliola (Ida Rubinstein), daughter of the dethroned tribune Orso Faledro returns per ship and notices her father and brothers have been blinded by the Graticò brothers, of whom Marco (Alfredo Boccolini) is the new tribune and Sergio (Ciro Galvani) has become a bishop. Basiliola decides to ruin all involved.

In an extended dance scene, she seduces Sergio, the lecherous bishop. This film contains the only moving images of Rubinstein dancing and owes a great deal to Oscar Wilde's and Richard Strauss's 'Salomé'. Basiliola manages to have the soldiers arrested who were responsible for blinding her relatives. Through her femme fatale behaviour the men, locked in a pit, desire to be killed by her bow and arrows.

Basiliola also manages to set up the brothers against each other, with the younger brother Marco killing his older brother Sergio. Marco, though, realizes the danger of the temptress Basiliola and condemns her to be blinded too. After her death, the whole community leaves by ship to escape the nearing barbarians and to found a new, Christian community on a nearby island, Venice.

La nave
Italian postcard by Unione Cinematografica Italiana. Ida Rubinstein in La nave / The Ship (Gabriellino D'Annunzio, Mario Roncoroni, 1921).

La nave
Italian postcard by Unione Cinematografica Italiana. Ida Rubinstein in La nave / The Ship (Gabriellino D'Annunzio, Mario Roncoroni, 1921).

The sad Venus


Ida Lvovna Rubinstein (Russian: Ида Львовна Рубинштейн) was born in Kharkov in the Russian Empire (now Kharkiv, Ukraine), in 1885, into a wealthy Jewish family. She was orphaned at a young age and left with a huge fortune. She went to a dance school in St. Petersburg, where she was trained by a.o. Michel Fokine.

She debuted in 1908 in Oscar Wilde's 'Salomé', where she performed the erotic dance of the seven veils. Shortly thereafter Sergei Diaghilev engaged her for his newly founded Ballets Russes in Paris.

There she danced the title role in 'Cléopâtre' (1909) and the role of Zobeide in 'Sheherazade' (1910), both in a choreography by her old teacher Fokine and with set and costume designs by Léon Bakst. In 'Shéhérazade', the legendary Vaslav Nijinsky was her partner. Rubinstein was praised for her sensual and opulent oriental dance style. She left the Ballets Russes in 1911.

Rubinstein was also known as a model in the art world. Her role in 'Cléopâtre' inspired Kees van Dongen for his painting 'Souvenir of the Russian Opera Season 1909'. Talk of the town was her nude portrait in 1910 by Valentin Serov. The Art Deco sculptor Demetre Chiparus made a bronze statue of her ('La danseuse'), to which a painting was made by Antonio de La Gandara.

The bisexual Rubinstein, a.k.a. La Venus triste, was entrusted to the canvas by the American female painter Romaine Brooks, with whom she had a relationship between 1911 and 1914. At that time, Rubinstein was a frequent patron of the art world and beau monde in Paris. She was friends with celebrities such as Sarah Bernhardt, Marc Chagall, Jean Cocteau and André Gide.

Ida Rubinstein
Soviet postcard by Aurora Art Publishers. Image: Nude portrait of Ida Rubinstein (1910) by Valentin Serov (1865-1911).

Ida Rubinstein
German cigarette card by Eckstein-Halpaus, Dresden, in the series 'Die Tanzbühnen der Welt', Group 2: Die Tanzbühnen des Auslandes (The dance stages of foreign countries), no. 86. Photo: Roosen. Caption: Ida Rubinstein, a famous Russian dance choreographer, who in recent years has presented her own ballet company in Paris with the participation of the most important contemporary artists.

A major theatre personality with charisma and acting talent


After Ida Rubinstein left the Ballets Russes, she founded her own dance company, the Ballet Ida Rubinstein. The company had immediate success with 'Le Martyre de Saint Sébastien' (1911), with music by Claude Debussy, text by Gabriele D'Annunzio, choreography by Michel Fokine and sets and costumes by Leon Bakst.

The press hailed the piece as a classic example of the 'stylised' modernism of those days. The archbishop of Paris criticised the fact that a Jewish woman performed the role of a Roman male saint.

Rubinstein is usually not counted among the greatest ballerinas, but she was a major theatre personality with charisma and acting talent. Moreover, due to her inherited wealth, she was able to engage the greatest composers and choreographers. She gave assignments to Maurice Ravel ('Boléro', 1928; 'La Valse', 1929) and Igor Stravinsky ('Le Baiser de la fée', 1928, 'Persephone', 1933).

In the twenties, she had her greatest successes with choreographies by Léonide Massine and Bronislava Nijinska. She also occasionally worked with the Ballets Russes. Rubinstein closed her company in 1935 and danced herself for the last time in 'Jeanne d'Arc au Bucher', Paris, in 1939.

In 1935 Ida Rubinstein took the French nationality. In 1940, after the start of World War II, she fled to London. She stayed in a suite at the Ritz Hotel and campaigned for wounded French soldiers. After the war, she returned to France and settled in Les Olivades in Vence, where she died on 20 September 1960.

Ida Rubinstein in La nave (1921)
Italian postcard by Unione Cinematografica Italiana. Ida Rubinstein in La nave / The Ship (Gabriellino D'Annunzio, Mario Roncoroni, 1921).

La nave
Italian postcard by Unione Cinematografica Italiana. Ida Rubinstein in La nave / The Ship (Gabriellino D'Annunzio, Mario Roncoroni, 1921).

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

11 May 2025

La croisiére noire (1926)

La croisière noire / The Black Journey (1926) is a French expedition film by Léon Poirier. The expedition was one of the publicity missions sponsored by André Citroën, with support from the Société de géographie and the Muséum national d'histoire naturelle, to promote his vehicles. The mission aimed to open a regular motor route in Africa and had political and cultural overtones. Starting at Béchaar, Algeria, on 28 October 1924, the expedition crossed the Sahara Desert and proceeded through Mali, Nigeria, Chad and Ubangi-Shari in French Equatorial Africa (AEF) and the Belgian Congo. The film and photos represent the European colonial gaze of a century ago, as this postcard series shows.

La croisière noire. Nobosodrou, Mangbetu woman
French postcard. Still from La croisière noire / The Black Journey (Léon Poirier, 1926). Caption: Nobosodrou, Femme Mangbetou. The Mangbetu are a Central Sudanic ethnic group in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the former Belgian Congo. The Mangbetu, and in particular the elongated heads of the women, obtained by deforming the skulls of children from an early age, fascinated European explorers and writers from an early age.

La croisière noire. Beni-Abbès
French postcard by Ed. Expédition Citroën. Still from La croisière noire / The Black Journey (Léon Poirier, 1926). Caption: Beni-Abbès. Beni-Abbès is a town in western Algeria.

La croisière noire. Djerma warriors in parade costume (Niger)
French postcard by Ed. Expédition Citroën. Still from La croisière noire / The Black Journey (Léon Poirier, 1926). Caption: Djerma warriors in parade costume (Niger). The Zarma people (also written as Djerma) are an ethnic group predominantly found in westernmost Niger.

La croisière noire. Arrival of the first cars at Lake Chad
French postcard by Ed. Expédition Citroën. Still from La croisière noire / The Black Journey (Léon Poirier, 1926). Caption: Arrival of the first cars at Lake Chad (14 December 1924).

La croisière noire (1926)
French postcard by Ed. Expédition Citroën. Still from La croisière noire / The Black Journey (Léon Poirier, 1926). Caption: A woman with lip plates (Sara-Djingé) (Sarh - formerly French colonial Fort Archambault). All the women of the Sara tribe in Sarh in Chad have this stretched labret piercing of the lips as a sign of beauty. The effect is produced by piercing the lips and gradually enlarging the holes by inserting wooden discs, the size of which is increased as the lips get distended.

La croisière noire. Hippopotamus hunt (Ubangi-Shari)
French postcard by Ed. Expédition Citroën. Still from La croisière noire / The Black Journey (Léon Poirier, 1926). Caption: Hippopotamus hunt (Ubangi-Shari). Ubangi-Shari was a French colony in Africa, part of French Equatorial Africa. It is now the Central African Republic.

An expedition with political and cultural overtones


La croisiére noire / The Black Journey (Léon Poirier, 1926) covers the second expedition organised by Georges-Marie Haardt and Louis Audouin-Dubreuil for Citroën. Léon Poirier directed the film, and Georges Specht was the cinematographer.

André Citroën sponsored these publicity missions, with support from the Société de géographie and the Muséum national d'histoire naturelle, to promote his vehicles. Citroën aimed to open a regular motor route in Africa, and the expedition also had political and cultural overtones.

The expedition started at Béchaar in Algeria on 28 October 1924. Then it crossed the Sahara Desert and proceeded through Mali, Nigeria, Chad and Ubangi-Shari in French Equatorial Africa (AEF) and the Belgian Congo.

The 17 members of the expedition included Haardt and Audouin-Dubreuil; cinematographer Léon Poirier with camera operator Georges Specht; Eugène Bergognier from the West African medical school; geologist Charles Brull; and the painter Alexandre Iacovleff. The group travelled in eight Citroën B2-based half-track cars, which had regular wheels in the front and continuous tracks in the rear.

The expedition took place in October 1924, while Poirier's film premiered in 1926. Loads of photos were exhibited too, e.g. at the Louvre in 1926. The collection of 207 photographs taken during the expedition was likely made by one or more of the expedition's participants.

La croisière noire. Indigenous Ubangi dressed for the ritual dance of the Gan'za
French postcard by Ed. Expédition Citroën. Still from La croisière noire / The Black Journey (Léon Poirier, 1926). Caption: Indigenous Ubangi dressed for the ritual dance of the Gan'za. Ubangi-Shari was a French colony in Africa, part of French Equatorial Africa. It is now the Central African Republic.

La croisière noire. Lion hunt in Ubangi-Shari
French postcard by Ed. Expédition Citroën. Still from La croisière noire / The Black Journey (Léon Poirier, 1926). Caption: Lion hunt in Ubangi-Shari.

La croisière noire. African elephant (Api Elephant Domestication Centre, Belgian Congo)
French postcard by Ed. Expédition Citroën. Still from La croisière noire / The Black Journey (Léon Poirier, 1926). Caption: African elephant (Api Elephant Domestication Centre, Belgian Congo). Belgian Congo is now the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

La croisière noire. Woman of the Logo (Belgian Congo)
French postcard by Ed. Expédition Citroën. Still from La croisière noire / The Black Journey (Léon Poirier, 1926). Caption: Woman of the Logo (Belgian Congo - now the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The Logo people or Logoa (plural) are an ethnic group of Nilotic origin who live predominantly in the north-east of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, as well as parts of western Uganda and southern South Sudan.

La croisière noire. Crossing a river in Mozambique
French postcard by Ed. Expédition Citroën. Still from La croisière noire / The Black Journey (Léon Poirier, 1926). Caption: Crossing a river in Mozambique.

La croisière noire. Crossing a river in Madagascar
French postcard by Ed. Expédition Citroën. Still from La croisière noire / The Black Journey (Léon Poirier, 1926). Caption: Crossing a river in Madagascar.

Source: ArchiveGrid and Wikipedia.

10 May 2025

Ellen ten Damme

Ellen ten Damme (1967) is a Dutch actress, singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist. She appeared in numerous Dutch and German television series and films. As a singer, Ten Damme performs as a solo artist and with bands.

Ellen ten Damme
Dutch postcard by Art Unlimited, Amsterdam, no. U 1162. Photo: Gerry Hurkmans, 2009.

Ellen ten Damme
Dutch postcard by Boomerang School Cards for CJP, no WK06-03. Caption: See You Soon (CUSoon).

Ellen ten Damme
Dutch postcard by Boomerang, Amsterdam, no. P25-02. Photo: Sony Music. Promotion card for the single 'See you in Vegas'.

Rebellious behaviour and acrobatic theatre shows


Ellen ten Damme was born in Warnsveld, The Netherlands in 1967. She grew up in Roden, a municipality in the province of Drenthe. Ellen attended Nienoord College in Leek, in the province of Groningen, and studied Dutch literature at the University of Groningen for several years. Finally, she graduated from the Academie voor Kleinkunst in Amsterdam, where she concentrated on piano playing. Later, she also took up the violin and guitar. As a result of her extreme shyness as a child, she wanted to express herself by dressing in brightly coloured clothes, which her mother condemned.

Later, she expressed this through her rebellious behaviour and performances in bands. She then found her way by expressing herself in a variety of art forms. As a teenager, she was a top gymnast and trained about three hours a day. She quit gymnastics at 16, but in doing so, she had laid the foundation for her sometimes acrobatic theatre shows.

Ten Damme made her acting debut as Maria Machita in Paul Ruven's short musical film De tranen van Maria Machita / The Tears of Maria Machita (1991), for which she was nominated for a Golden Calf Award in the Best Actress category. She played the role of Dédé in De kleine blonde dood / The Little Blonde Death (Jean van de Velde, 1993) with Antonie Kamerling and Olivier Tuinier. It won the Golden Calf for Best Feature Film. She gained greater fame as the sidekick Joosje in the acclaimed lawyer drama series Pleidooi / Plea (Mike van Diem, a.o., 1993-1995). She also had a recurring guest role in the cult TV show Jiskefet (1995-1997).

Ellen ten Damme started to work in Germany and starred in the romantic Heimatfilm Westerwald / Wild Western Forest (Bernd Löhr, 1995). Dutch films such as All Stars (Jean van de Velde, 1997) with Daniël Boissevain and Antonie Kamerling, and No Trains No Planes (Jos Stelling, 1999) with Kees Prins and Katja Schuurman followed. A blockbuster in the Netherlands was the coming-of-age film Volle Maan / Full Moon Party (Johan Nijenhuis, 2002) with Daan Schuurmans, Cas Jansen and Michiel Huisman.

In 2000, Ten Damme played an English language leading role in the Irish film drama Conamara (Eoin Moore, 2000). She also had supporting roles in the Dutch film Interview (Theo van Gogh, 2003) starring Katja Schuurman and Pierre Bokma and in the family film trilogy Mijn vader is een detective / My Father is a Detective (Will Wissink, 2009-2012) with Cees Geel. She appeared again alongside Pierre Bokma in an episode of the British TV series Dalziel and Pascoe (2006). In Germany, she acted in the TV film Das Leuchten der Sterne / The Shining of the Stars (Adolf Winkelmann, 2007) as the mother of a terminally ill disabled boy and played in two episodes of the popular Krimi series Tatort / Crime Scene (2002-2019).

Ellen ten Damme and Daan Schuurmans in Volle maan (2002)
Dutch freecard by Boomerang, Amsterdam, no. P21-02. Photo: Ray Christian / De Kroon Studio / Nijenhuis & Levita / BNN / Universal / Independent Films. Ellen ten Damme and Daan Schuurmans in Volle maan / Full Moon Party (Johan Nijenhuis, 2002).

Daan Schuurmans, Ellen Ten Damme, Georgina Verbaan, Cas Jansen and Chantal Janzen in Volle maan (2002)
Dutch freecard by Boomerang, Amsterdam, no. WK08-03. Photo: Ray Christian / De Kroon Studio / Nijenhuis & Levita / BNN / Universal / Independent Films. Daan Schuurmans, Ellen ten Damme, Georgina Verbaan, Cas Jansen and Chantal Janzen in Volle maan (2002), in Volle maan / Full Moon Party (Johan Nijenhuis, 2002).

Plattgefickt


Ellen ten Damme sang on several film soundtracks, including the clueless comedy Honneponnetje / Honeybun (Ruud van Hemert, 1988). She was almost chosen for the leading role in the film, and the producers felt sorry for her because she didn't get the part, so she was chosen to sing for the soundtrack the song 'Trust in a Feeling'. She recorded it as a single under the name Ellen D. As a singer, she performed in 1996–1997 with the new wave band Soviet Sex, which featured painter/photographer Peter Klashorst.

Solo, she released the albums 'Kill Your Darlings' (1995), 'I Am Here' (2001), 'Impossible Girl' (2007), 'Durf jij?' (Dare You?, 2009), 'Het regende zon' (It Rained Sun, 2012), the German-language album 'Berlin' (2014), the French-language album 'Paris' (2017) and 'Casablanca' (2019). The last three she made with the Magpie Orchestra. Often, the albums were followed by tours. In 2002, she had a chart success in the Netherlands with the song 'Vegas'. In the clip, she kisses actress Katja Schuurman, who is dressed in a wedding dress.

Ten Damme is well known in Germany thanks to her roles in several (television) films and her performances. She speaks and sings German with virtually no accent. In 2003–2004, she accompanied German rock musician Udo Lindenberg on the tour for his album 'Atlantic Affairs'. In 2005, Ten Damme took part in the German preselection of the Eurovision Song Contest with the song 'Plattgeliebt', composed by Udo Lindenberg. She did not win. The song's title was originally 'Plattgefickt' (fucked flat), but was tactically changed to 'Plattgeliebt' by Udo Lindenberg. The song is an anti-war song directed against George W. Bush and his policies on Iraq.

In August 2009, Ten Damme performed in the international circus show 'Cirque Stiletto' directed by Stanley Burleson. This was followed by the theatre tour 'Durf jij? in which she sang Dutch songs by poet Ilja Leonard Pfeijffer. For both performances, she received the Gouden Notekraker (Golden Nutcracker Award). In 2013, she featured alongside Waldemar Torenstra in the World War II theatre comedy 'To Be or Not to Be', based on the Ernst Lubitsch film of the same name. In 2016, she performed as Maria in the music event 'The Passion'.

From 1998 to 2004, Ellen ten Damme was married to German actor Markus Knüfken, with whom she acted in the dark crime comedy Bang Boom Bang - Ein todsicheres Ding / A Sure Thing (Peter Thorwarth, 1999). She then had a long-term relationship with guitarist Robin Berlin and then with photographer Danny Ellinger. Since 2020, she has been with pianist Ringo Maurer. Ten Damme contracted breast cancer three times and healed from it all three times, in 2005, 2017 and 2022. In 2022, Ten Damme stated to the public prosecutor that rapper Ali B had raped her during the filming of the TV show Ali B and the Music Caravan in 2014. Her statements were included in the trial against Ali B. He was found guilty by the judge in 2024 of the attempted rape of Ten Damme and rape in another case. Ellen ten Damme's most recent film is Paradijs / Paradise (Bobbie Koek, 2024).

Ellen ten Damme
Dutch postcard by Thuis op Terschelling. Caption: Ellen ten Damme's inspiration. I always go to the beach first. In search of the right words. Looking for the right chords. I walk along the beach. Then, they come naturally. All I have to do is grab them and write them down. To play on my guitar. With the seagulls as an audience. Ellen ten Damme, singer/musician.

Ellen ten Damme
Dutch postcard by Thuis op Terschelling.

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

09 May 2025

Postcards from Rommy's godmother

Recently, Ivo Blom said goodbye as a lecturer at the Free University. One of the presents was a cigar box full of old postcards from his good friend, Rommy Albers, head of the Dutch film department at Eye Filmmuseum. The cards came from the estate of Rommy's late godmother, Nel Klaasman (1913-2015). The cards date from the late 1920s and early 1930s and Nel received most cards from friends for her birthday. Rommy, many thanks for this special gift.

Mary Ann Jackson
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 5613/1, 1930-1931. Photo: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.

Mary Ann Jackson (1923-2003) was an American child actress who appeared in the Our Gang (aka The Little Rascals) short subjects series from 1928 to 1931. She was born and died in Los Angeles, California.

Harold Lloyd and Babe Ruth
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 4678/2, 1929-1930. Photo: Paramount. Harold Lloyd and Babe Ruth in Speedy (Ted Wilde, 1928).

Lillian Gish
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 5055/1, 1930-1931. Photo: United Artists. Lillian Gish.

Josephine Dunn
Austrian postcard by Iris Verlag, no. 5691. Photo: Fox-Film.

Josephine Dunn (1906-1983) was an American film actress of the 1920s and 1930s, who peaked at Paramount, Warner and MGM in the late 1920s. In 1930, Josephine Dunn made a successful transition, unlike many silent stars, to sound films. She starred in sixteen films through 1932, and at the peak of her career in 1933, she played vamps and mercenary wives. That same year, she married Eugene J. Lewis, whom she divorced in 1935 to marry Carroll Case, son of the owner of the Algonquin Hotel in New York City. Dunn retired from acting in 1938 and remained with Case for the remainder of his life.

Billie Dove
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 5586/2, 1929-1930. Photo: First National / Defina.

Stunningly beautiful and highly photogenic Billie Dove (1903-1997) was one of the most popular Hollywood actresses of the 1920s. She was dubbed 'The American Beauty', after the title of one of her films.

Norma Shearer
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 5081/1, 1929-1930. Photo: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Norma Shearer.

Anna Sten
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 6779/1, 1931-1932. Photo: Vogel-Sandau, Berlin. Anna Sten.

Nancy Carroll
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 5741/2, 1930-1931. Photo: Paramount. Nancy Carroll.

Joan Crawford
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 8903/1, 1933-1934. Photo: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Joan Crawford.

Hans Thimig
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 8758/1, 1933-1934. Photo: Aafa Film.

Austrian actor and director Hans Thimig (1900-1991) was the youngest child of Burgtheater actor Hugo Thimig and his wife, Franziska. Helene Thimig and Hermann Thimig, his brother and sister, eleven and ten years older, were also actors. During the 1920s, Thimig acted in various Austrian films, including his debut Kleider machen Leute (1921), Der Taugenichts (1922), Michael Curtiz's epics Sodom und Gomorrha (1922) and Die Sklavenkönigin (1924). In the 1930s, he acted in German-Austrian coproductions such as Geld auf der Straße. All in all, Thimig acted in 70 films and TV movies. He also directed 11 films.

Käthe von Nagy
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 585. Photo: Ufa. Käthe von Nagy in Le capitaine Craddock (Hanns Schwarz, Max de Vaucorbeil, 1931), the alternate French version of Bomben auf Monte Carlo (Hanns Schwarz, 1931).

Greta Garbo in Romance
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 560. Photo: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Greta Garbo in Romance (Clarence Brown, 1930), adapted from the stage play of Edward Sheldon.

James Hall
German postcard by Ross Verlag, No. 590. Photo: Paramount. James Hall.

Rosetta Duncan
French postcard by Europe, no. 696. Photo: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.

The Duncan Sisters were an American vaudeville duo active mainly from 1910 to 1930. It was formed by two sisters: Rosetta Duncan (1894-1959) and Vivian Duncan (1897-1986). In 1929, MGM produced its first sound musical, The Broadway Melody, starring Bessie Love and Anita Page in the fictional roles of the Mahoney sisters. It was a great success, and MGM decided to produce a similar film with the Duncan Sisters in the lead roles. It's a Great Life (Sam Wood, 1929) features three sequences filmed in Technicolour. The Duncan Sisters perform two of their most popular songs, 'I'm Following You' and 'Hoosier Hop'. Unfortunately, the film failed at the box office and contributed to shortening the film career of the Duncans

Greta Garbo in Anna Christie (1930)
French postcard by Europe, no. 848. Photo: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Greta Garbo in the German version of Anna Christie (Jacques Feyder, 1930).

Maria Paudler
French postcard by Europe, no. 595. Photo: Super-Film. Maria Paudler.

Sue Carol
British postcard in the Colourgraph Series, no. C16. Sue Carol.

Claudette Colbert
British postcard in the Autograph Series, no. A23. Claudette Colbert.

Jackie Searl
Dutch postcard, no. 120. Photo: Paramount.

Jackie Searl (1921-1991) portrayed bratty kids in several Hollywood films, such as Robin Figg in Strictly Dynamite (1934). His film debut was in Daughters of Desire (1929), followed by Tom Sawyer (1930) with Jackie Coogan and Mitzi Green, and Huckleberry Finn (1931). Among his otable films are Skippy (1931), High Gear (1933), Peck's Bad Boy (1934), Great Expectations (1934), and Little Lord Fauntleroy (1936). In the 1940s, he had some supporting character roles before disappearing for nearly a decade. In the early 1960s, Searl returned as a supporting villain on television.

Dickie Moore in Oliver Twist (1933)
Dutch postcard, no. 531. Photo: Meteor Film. Dickie Moore in Oliver Twist (William J. Cowen, 1933).

Margaret Sullavan
Dutch postcard, no. 657. Photo: Universal. Margaret Sullavan.

Jean Harlow
Dutch postcard, no. 631. Photo: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Jean Harlow photographed by Clarence Sinclair Bull at Riviera Country Club in Pacific Palisades, 1932.

Hertha Thiele
Dutch postcard. Photo: Atlantis Film / DLS. Hertha Thiele.

Maurice Chevalier
Dutch postcard by JosPe, Arnhem, no. 54. Maurice Chevalier.

Deanna Durbin
Dutch postcard. Photo: NV Universal Film Booking Office. Deanna Durbin.