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18 April 2020

New Acquisitions: German collectors cards of the 1950s

Lately, we found these great 'Sammelkarten', collectors cards from West-Germany. There is little information about the publisher or the production dates on the cards, but we guess they were produced in 1955. The cards could be glued in an album that contained the biographies of the stars. There were four series: I, "Deutsche Film-Lieblinge" (German film favourites); II, "Filmgrössen aus aller Welt" (Film greats from all over the world); III, "Filmstars von Hollywood bis Tokio" (Film stars from Hollywood to Tokyo), and IV, "Deutsche Filmstars von heute und morgen" (German film stars of today and tomorrow).

German film favourites


Winnie Markus
German collectors card in the "Deutsche Film-Lieblinge" series I.

Blonde Winnie Markus (1921-2002) started as a Ufa star during the Nazi period and became in the 1950s one of Germany’s most famous actresses.

Sonja Ziemann
German collectors card in the "Deutsche Film-Lieblinge" series I.

Delicately lovely, dark-haired and innocent-looking Sonja Ziemann (1926-2020) was a German film and television actress, singer and dancer. Her roles in film operettas and Heimatfilms as Schwarzwaldmädel/The Black Forest Girl (1950) and Grün ist die Heide/The Heath is Green (1951) made her one of the first stars of Germany's post-war cinema. Her private life knew several tragedies.

O.E. Hasse in Canaris (1954)
German collectors card in the "Deutsche Film-Lieblinge" series I. Photo: O.E. Hasse in Canaris (Alfred Weidenmann, 1954).

German actor and director O.E. Hasse (1903-1978) became a star of the German cinema when he was already in his fifties. He also appeared in several international productions, including Hitchcock’s I Confess (1953) and Costa-Gravas’ État de Siège/State of Siege (1972).

Margit Saad in Der Zigeunerbaron (1954)
German collectors card in the "Deutsche Film-Lieblinge" series I. Photo: Margit Saad in Der Zigeunerbaron/The Gypsy Baron (Arthur Maria Rabenalt, 1954).

German actress Margit Saad (1929) was a mysterious, exotic beauty, who worked largely in German film and television. During the 1960s, she also made occasional English-language appearances.

Ivan Desny in Die goldene Pest (1954)
German collectors card in the "Deutsche Film-Lieblinge" series I. Photo: Ivan Desny in Die goldene Pest/The Golden Plague (John Brahm, 1954).

French-German actor Ivan Desny (1922-2002) was a cosmopolitan film star with a truly European film career that spanned four decades. In the years after the war, he appeared in British, French, Italian and German films before he became one of the protagonists of the Neue Deutsche Welle - the German New Wave of the 1970s.

Grethe Weiser
German collectors card in the "Deutsche Film-Lieblinge" series I.

Grethe Weiser (1903–1970) was a German singer, comedian, film and stage actress. She made more than 140 films.

Heinz Rühmann in Keine Angst vor großen Tieren (1953)
German collectors card in the "Deutsche Film-Lieblinge" series I. Heinz Rühmann in Keine Angst vor großen Tieren/Don't be afraid of big animals (Ulrich Erfurth, 1953).

Actor, director and producer Heinz Rühmann (1902-1994) played in more than 100 films over nearly 70 years and was one of Germany's most popular film stars. He was a favourite actor of Adolf Hitler and Josef Goebbels but also of Anne Frank. She pasted his photo on the wall of her room in her family's hiding place during the war, where it can still be seen today.

Maria Schell
German collectors card in the "Deutsche Film-Lieblinge", series I.

Pretty, wide-eyed Austrian leading lady Maria Schell (1926-2005) became one of the first film idols to the European postwar generation. With her ‘smile under tears’, she appeared in dozens of German and Austrian popular films, but she also starred in British, French, Italian, and Hollywood productions.

Carl Raddatz
German collectors card in the "Deutsche Film-Lieblinge", series I.

German actor Carl Raddatz (1912-2004) was much in demand by film producers in the 1940s and especially in the 1950s. He appeared in several Nazi propaganda films, but he also gave Joseph Stalin a German voice. Through the years he would become one of the leading character actors of the German theatre.

Film greats from all over the world


Spencer Tracy in A Guy Named Joe (1943)
German collectors card in the 'Filmgrössen aus aller Welt" series II. Spencer Tracy in A Guy Named Joe (Victor Fleming, 1943).

American actor Spencer Tracy (1900-1967) was one of the major stars of Hollywood's Golden Age. He was the first actor to win back-to-back Oscars for Captains Courageous (1937) with Freddie Bartholomew, and for playing Father Edward Flanagan in Boys Town (1938) with Mickey Rooney. Considered by his peers as one of the best Hollywood actors, Tracy was noted for his natural performing style and versatility.

Antonella Lualdi in Le rouge et le noir (1954)
German collectors card in the "Filmgrössen aus aller Welt", series II. Antonella Lualdi in Le rouge et le noir/The Red and the Black (Claude Autant-Lara, 1954).

Italo-Greek Antonella Lualdi (1931) was the fascinating leading lady of many Italian and French films of the 1950s and 1960s. Since 1949 her luminescent beauty has graced over 90 films.

June Allyson
German collectors card in the "Filmgrössen aus aller Welt", series II.

June Allyson (1917-2006) was an American stage, film, and television actress, dancer, and singer. Her sweet smile and sunny disposition made her the prototypical girl-next-door of American films of the 1940s.

Fernandel in Ali Baba et les 40 voleurs (1954)
German collectors card in the "Filmgrössen aus aller Welt" series II. Fernandel in Ali Baba et les 40 voleurs/Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves (Jacques Becker, 1954).

Actor and singer Fernandel (1903-1971) was for more than forty years France's top comedy star. He was perhaps best-loved for his portrayal of Don Camillo. His horse-like teeth and shy manner became his trademark.

Françoise Arnoul in Les compagnes de la nuit (1953)
German collectors card in the "Filmgrössen aus aller Welt" series II. Françoise Arnoul in Les compagnes de la nuit/Companions of the Night (Ralph Habib, 1953).

Pretty and petite actress Françoise Arnoul (1931) was in the early 1950s presented as the new French sex symbol but soon she would be overshadowed by the spectacular Brigitte Bardot. But, Arnoul had enough talent and range to forge a decent film career for herself.

Ulla Jacobsson in Herr Arnes penningar (1954)
German collectors card in the 'Filmgrössen aus aller Welt" series II. Ulla Jacobsson in Herr Arnes penningar/Sir Arne's Treasure (Gustaf Molander, 1954).

Swedish film and stage actress Ulla Jacobsson (1929-1982) achieved international fame with a nude scene in her second film, Hon dansade en sommar/One Summer of Happiness (1951). Another highlight was her serene performance in Ingmar Bergman's Sommarnattens leende/Smiles of a Summer Night (1955).

Film stars from Hollywood to Tokyo


Betty Grable in Wabash Avenue (1950)
German collectors card in the "Filmstars von Hollywood bis Tokio" series III. Betty Grable in When My Baby Smiles at Me (Walter Lang, 1948).

American film star Betty Grable (1916-1973) was known as 'The Girl With the Million Dollar Legs'. During World War II, the quicksilver blonde's famous pin-up pose - in a bathing suit, back to the camera, smiling over her right shoulder - adorned barracks all around the world. Her 42 films during the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s grossed more than $100 million. One of her biggest successes was the comedy How to Marry a Millionaire (1953), which was also one of her last films.

Rhonda Fleming in La cortigiana di Babilonia (1954)
German collectors card in the "Filmstars von Hollywood bis Tokio" series III. Rhonda Fleming in La cortigiana di Babilonia/The Queen of Babylon (Carlo Ludovico Bragaglia, 1954).

American film and television actress Rhonda Fleming (1923) acted in more than forty films, mostly in the 1940s and 1950s, and became renowned as one of the most beautiful and glamorous actresses of her day. She was nicknamed the 'Queen of Technicolor' because her fair complexion and flaming red hair photographed exceptionally well in Technicolor.

Vivien Leigh in The Deep Blue Sea (1955)
German collectors card in the "Filmstars von Hollywood bis Tokio" series III. Photo: Vivien Leigh in The Deep Blue Sea (Anatole Litvak, 1955).

Extraordinarily beautiful British actress Vivien Leigh (1913-1967) won two Academy Awards for playing ‘Southern belles’: Scarlett O'Hara in Gone with the Wind (1939) and Blanche DuBois in A Streetcar Named Desire (1951). On stage she starred – often with her husband, Laurence Olivier - in parts that ranged from the heroines of Noël Coward and George Bernard Shaw comedies to Shakespearean characters like Ophelia, Juliet, and Lady Macbeth.

Raymond Pellegrin
German collectors card in the "Filmstars von Hollywood bis Tokio" series III.

French actor Raymond Pellegrin (1925-2007) had the most beautiful voice of the French cinema. He appeared in more than 120 European films, both as good and as bad guys.

Anouk Aimée in Ich suche dich (1953)
German collectors card in the "Filmstars von Hollywood bis Tokio" series III. Photo: Gabriele. Anouk Aimée in Ich suche dich/I search for you (O.W. Fischer, 1956).

Glamorous French film actress Anouk Aimée (1932) has appeared in 70 films since 1947 and worked with many talented directors. She had major international successes in the 1960s with Lola (1961) and Un homme et une femme/A Man and a Woman (1966) in which she defined a new kind of modern heroine.

Trevor Howard
German collectors card in the "Filmstars von Hollywood bis Tokio" series III.

An English film, stage and television actor Trevor Howard (1913-1988) is best known as the doctor in the classic romantic drama Brief Encounter (David Lean, 1945), in which his co-star was Celia Johnson. In the 1940s and 1950s, he often played the slightly dry, slightly crusty but capable British military officer, and in the 1960s he became one of England's finest character actors.

Fujiko Yamamoto
German collectors card in the "Filmstars von Hollywood bis Tokio" series III.

Fujiko Yamamoto (1931) is a Japanese film and stage actress. She appeared in over 100 films between 1953 and 1963. She was one of the top actresses of the Daei studio.

German film stars of today and tomorrow


Walter Giller in Die Drei von der Tankstelle (1955), cc
German collectors card in the "Deutsche Filmstars von heute und morgen" series IV. Walter Giller in Die Drei von der Tankstelle/The Three from the Filling Station (Hans Wolff, 1955).

German actor Walter Giller (1927-2011) was the cute boy next door of the German cinema of the 1950s. With Nadja Tiller, he became a Dream Couple of the European cinema.

Georg Thomalla in Bezauberndes Fräulein (1953)
German collectors card in the "Deutsche Filmstars von heute und morgen" series IV. Georg Thomalla in Bezauberndes Fräulein/Adorable Miss (Georg Thomalla, 1953).

German actor Georg Thomalla (1915-1999) was one of the most popular and prolific character comedians of the post-war German cinema. Thomalla was also known in Germany for dubbing Peter Sellers as Inspector Clouseau and Jack Lemmon from 1955 to 1998.

Elma Karlowa and Vico Torriani in Gitarren der Liebe (1954)
German collectors card in the "Deutsche Filmstars von heute und morgen" series IV. Elma Karlowa and Vico Torriani in Gitarren der Liebe/Guitars of Love (Werner Jacobs, 1954).

Yugoslav actress Elma Karlowa (1932-1994) was a star of the German popular cinema of the 1950s and early 1960s. After a personal crisis, she returned to the screen in more serious films by directors like Rainer Werner Fassbinder.

Swiss Schlager singer and actor Vico Torriani (1920-1998) was also a popular TV show master and an author of cookbooks. In the 1950s and early 1960s, he starred in a dozen German film musicals and comedies. The favourite Son of Switzerland sold more than twenty million records.

Bibi Johns
German collectors card in the "Deutsche Filmstars von heute und morgen", series IV.

Blond Swedish pop singer and actress Bibi Johns (1929) was very popular in Europe and the USA during the 1950s. She appeared in several European musical films. In Germany, where she lived from 1954 on, she would become a cult star of the Schlager music. Today she is also known as a painter.

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