VerzamelJaarbeurs 2022: Marlene’s treasures

On Saturday 9 and Sunday 10 April 2022, we could finally attend the VerzamelJaarbeurs again. The Jaarbeurs halls in the city of Utrecht were transformed into the largest collectors' fair in Europe. You can find pretty much everything you can collect, from vintage furniture, a huge collection of vinyl, toys from the past and present, games, stamps, and lots of other beautiful curiosities and articles. Marlene, Ivo, and I were there to look for interesting film postcards for EFSP. On Monday 11 April 2022, we presented the treasures I discovered in Utrecht and last Monday it was Ivo Blom's turn. Today it's time for the 15 treasures of Marlene Pilaete a.k.a. La Collectionneuse


Dutch postcard by M. Bonnist & Zonen, Amsterdam. Caption: Film Stars at Home. The stars are 1: Anita Page, 2: Greta Garbo, 3: Jeanette MacDonald, 4: Elissa Landi, 5: Ramon Novarro, 6: Miriam Hopkins, 7: Janet Gaynor, 8: Joan Crawford and Douglas Fairbanks Jr., 9: Robert Montgomery, 10: Maurice Chevalier, 11: Marlene Dietrich, 12: Marian Nixon, 13: Phillips Holmes.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 5668/1, 1930-1931. Photo: Atelier Gerstenberg, Berlin. Elisabeth Bergner.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 8115/1, 1933-1934. Photo: Atelier Manassé, Wien. Marta Eggerth.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 8497/1, 1933-1934. Photo: Paramount. John Lodge and Marlene Dietrich in The Scarlet Empress (Josef von Sternberg, 1934).


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 8806/1, 1933-1934. Photo: Ufa / Frhr. von Gudenberg. Käthe von Nagy.


French postcard by Europe, no. 517. Photo: Louis Nalpas. Lil Dagover.


French postcard by Europe, no. 3811. Photo: Zander & Labisch. Gretl Theimer.


Postcard from the Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia), no. L39/173. Photo: Paramount. Isa Miranda and Ray Milland in Hotel Imperial (Robert Florey, 1939).


French postcard by P.C. Paris, no. 4262. Jeanne Helbling.


German postcard by Kolobri-Verlag G.m.b. H., no. 742. Mylène Demongeot.


British postcard in the Colourgraph series, London, no. C219. Photo: Mannell. Ann Todd.


Dutch postcard by Takken, no. 3527. Photo: Metro Goldwyn Mayer. Margaret O'Brien and Cyd Charisse in The Unfinished Dance (Henry Koster, 1947).


American postcard by Coral-Lee, Rancho Cordova, CA, no. 86. Elizabeth Taylor.


German postcard by Universum-Film Aktiengesellschaft (Ufa), Berlin Tempelhof. Photo: Eberhardt Schmidt / Casino Film. Ann Savo.


Dutch postcard by NS, no. 62119. Heidi Brühl in Madurodam.

A Dutch miniature city

Madurodam is a Dutch miniature city in The Hague on a scale of 1 to 25. This tourist attraction park opened on 2 July 1952 at George Maduro Square and attracts about 600,000 paying visitors annually. The miniature city has mostly served as an inspiration for the construction of several theme parks worldwide such as Legoland Billund and the Disneyland Park in Anaheim.

It is named after George Maduro, a Curaçao student who distinguished himself as a cavalry officer in the battle of the residence during the May days of 1940, and died in the Dachau concentration camp in February 1945. His parents donated the initial capital for the project, which is considered by the Maduro family as a monument to their only son.

Madurodam provides a picture of a Dutch city and Dutch society through over 700 scale models of buildings from all parts of the Netherlands. A hospital and a cemetery are missing. Some models move after inserting a coin into a coin machine. There are also interactive parts that the visitor can contribute to, such as the closing of the Oosterscheldekering or the loading of containers in the Rotterdam harbour. Some parts contain aural explanations about the things shown.

Madurodam is called a city, but it includes many miniature images of rural elements of the Netherlands. There are buildings from historic city centres, modern housing estates, port areas, an airport, canals, roads, farmland, nature reserves and more. It is a miniature city 'with a smile': many, sometimes comical, situations from everyday street life are depicted. Furthermore, there are many moving means of transport such as cars, canal boats, aeroplanes, trains and trams.

Source: Wikipedia (Dutch). Postcards: Collection Marlene Pilaete.