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.


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).


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.


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.


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.


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.


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'.


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).


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.


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.


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.



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.


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.


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.


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.


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.