Estrellas del cine

'Estrellas del cine' was a Spanish series of 200 postcards with photos of Hollywood film stars, both silent and sound film actors. The series started in the 1920s with two typical early sound stars, Maurice Chevalier (no. 1) and Jeannette MacDonald (no. 2). Soon also late silent stars were included in the series, and European stars working in late silent Hollywood such as Emil Jannings and Maria Corda as well. Spanish actors working in Spanish language versions of Hollywood films were also included, as well as the occasional German and French star. While many of the star names in the series are now part of the 'canon' of Hollywood stardom, you can also discover forgotten names, such as the last two numbers of the series, Jack Egan (no. 199) and Raymond Hackett (no. 200). 'Estrellas del cine' was edited by Editorial Gráfica in Barcelona.


Spanish postcard in the Estrellas del cine series by Editorial Grafica, Barcelona, no. 50. Photo: Paramount Film.

Florence Vidor (1895-1977) was an American silent film actress, who started her career at Vitagraph and her first husband King Vidor's own company. Later, she worked for Paramount in especially sophisticated comedies by Ernst Lubitsch and others.


Spanish postcard in the Estrellas del cine series by Editorial Grafica, Barcelona, no. 55. Photo: First National.

Hungarian Maria Corda (1898-1975) was an immensely popular star of the silent cinema of Austria and Germany. The pretty, blonde actress was a queen of the popular epic spectacles of the 1920s, which were often directed by her husband, Alexander Korda. This photo dates from the time Corda acted for First National in The Private Life of Helen of Troy (Alexander Korda, 1927).


Spanish postcard in the Estrellas del cine series by Editorial Grafica, Barcelona, no. 81. Photo: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.

Dorothy Jordan (1906-1988) was an American film actress, who emerged as an actress at the start of the talkies. She made her film debut in 1929 as Mary Pickford's sister in The Taming of the Shrew. Jordan worked for various studios and until 1933 played the female lead in various films. Important parts she had in Min and Bill (1930) with Wallace Beery and Marie Dressler and in The Cabin in the Cotton (1932) with Bette Davis. In 1933 Jordan left the film industry to marry film producer and director Merian C. Cooper.


Spanish postcard in the Estrellas del cine series by Editorial Grafica, Barcelona, no. 91. Photo: Columbia Pictures.

American actress Lois Wilson (1894-1988) played the title role in two remarkable, still existing films by William DeMille, Midsummer Madness (1920), with Jack Holt and Conrad Nagel, and the silent comedy-drama Miss Lulu Bett (1921), about a once-timid young woman who gains newfound confidence after a failed marriage, much to the chagrin of her miserable family. After that, Wilson appeared opposite J. Warren Kerrigan in the epic Western The Covered Wagon (James Cruze, 1923) and as Daisy Buchanan in The Great Gatsby (Herbert Brenon, 1926).


Spanish postcard in the Estrellas del cine series by Editorial Grafica, Barcelona, no. 94. Photo: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.

Lew Cody (1884-1934) was an American actor of the silent screen. With his mustache and air of a seducer, he became very popular in roles that used his vivacious charm, either as protagonist or antagonist. He played the playboy Schuyler van Sutphen in Cecil B. DeMille's society comedy Don't Change Your Husband, starring Gloria Swanson. From the mid-1920s until 1930 Cody was a steady actor at MGM, where he often was paired with the French Renée Adorée.


Spanish postcard in the Estrellas del cine series by Editorial Grafica, Barcelona, no. 104. Photo: Paramount Film.

James Hall (1900-1940) was an American actor of the silent and early talkies era. In 1928 he could be seen in Four Sons (John Ford, 1928) as a German immigrant in the USA who is fighting against his homeland in the war. Hall made his sound film debut in The Canary Murder Case (1929), opposite William Powell and Louise Brooks. With the dawn of the talkies at the end of the 1920s, his career was in descent, but in 1930 he played his best-known role in Howard Hughes’ flying epic Hell's Angels.


Spanish postcard in the Estrellas del cine series by Editorial Grafica, Barcelona, no. 108. Photo: Fox Film.

American actor Joel McCrea (1905-1990) appeared in hundred films in almost five decades. His best-known films include Alfred Hitchcock's espionage thriller Foreign Correspondent (1940), Preston Sturges' comedy classics Sullivan's Travels (1941), and The Palm Beach Story (1942), the romance film Bird of Paradise (1932), and the adventure classic The Most Dangerous Game (1932). Latert, he starred in many Westerns, including Wichita (1955) as Wyatt Earp and Sam Peckinpah's Ride the High Country (1962), opposite Randolph Scott.


Spanish postcard in the Estrellas del cine series by Editorial Grafica, Barcelona, no. 112. Photo: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.

Constance Bennett (1904-1965) was a Hollywood star of the 1920s and 1930s. In the early 1930s, she was for a time Hollywood's most popular and best-paid star and is known for What Price Hollywood? (George Cukor, 1932). She was the older sister of actress Joan Bennett.


Spanish postcard in the Estrellas del cine series by Editorial Grafica, Barcelona, no. 113. Photo: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.

Lila Lee (1901–1973) was a prominent American screen actress, primarily a leading lady, of the silent film and early sound film eras.


Spanish postcard in the Estrellas del cine series by Editorial Grafica, Barcelona, no. 116. Photo: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.

Hedda Hopper (1890-1966) was an American actress but is better known as one of Hollywood's best-known and most-feared reporters.


Spanish postcard in the Estrellas del cine series by Editorial Grafica, Barcelona, no. 117. Photo: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.

Charming American model, vaudeville, and film actress Leila Hyams (1905-1977) was one of Hollywood's top leading ladies of the early talkie pre-code years. She had spark, personality, and charisma, and a touch of down-to-earthiness and naturalness that won over movie fans; they could relate to her. She is best known for her roles in the classic horror features Freaks (1932) and Island of Lost Souls (1932). Her career lasted little more than a decade.


Spanish postcard in the Estrellas del cine series by Editorial Grafica, Barcelona, no. 120. Photo: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.

Mexican-born American film star Gilbert Roland (1905–1994) was often cast as the 'Latin Lover' during the silent era. Roland later played romantic lead roles in Spanish language adaptations of American films. In the mid-1940s, he featured in the popular film series around The Cisco Kid. Beginning in the 1940s, critics began to take notice of his acting and he was praised for his supporting roles in John Huston's We Were Strangers (1949), The Bad and the Beautiful (1952), and Cheyenne Autumn (1964). His last film appearance was in the Western Barbarosa (1984).


Spanish postcard in the Estrellas del cine series by Editorial Grafica, Barcelona, no. 123. Photo: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.

Edwina Booth (1904-1991) was an American actress, who is best known for the adventure film Trader Horn (W.S. Van Dyke, 1929-1931). During the filming on location in Africa, she contracted an illness that effectively ended her film career.


Spanish postcard in the Estrellas del cine series by Editorial Grafica, Barcelona, no. 131. Photo: Paramount Films.

Kay Francis (1905-1968) was an American stage and film actress, known for films such as Ernst Lubitsch's Trouble in Paradise (1932). After a brief period on Broadway in the late 1920s, she moved to Hollywood and achieved her greatest success between 1930 and 1936. She began at Paramount as an early sound film star but then she moved to the Warner Brothers studio, where she became the highest-paid American film actress in those years. In 1939 she was declared box-office poison. She was first reduced to supporting parts and eventually had to work on Poverty Row.


Spanish postcard in the Estrellas del cine series by Editorial Grafica, Barcelona, no. 142. Photo: P.D.C. (Producers Distributing Corporation), a company that existed between 1924 and 1927.

William Boyd (1895-1972) was an American film actor, best known for his parts in Westerns.


Spanish postcard in the Estrellas del cine series by Editorial Grafica, Barcelona, no. 174. Photo: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.

American actor Lionel Barrymore(1878-1954) was first seen on the silver screen in 1908. Between 1911 and 1917, Lionel made 93 films. Later, at MGM, he worked non-stop in the most famous films during the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s. Lionel received an Oscar for A Free Soul (1930).


Spanish postcard in the Estrellas del cine series by Editorial Grafica, Barcelona, no. 175. Photo: Paramount Film.

Percy Marmont (1883-1977) was a British actor, who had a prolific career in 1920s Hollywood and 1930s British cinema.

For the full Estrellas del cine series, see Prospectos de cine.