15 postcards from GDI: Dutch postcards of the late 1940s

In our monthly post on the postcard collection of the Geoffrey Donaldson Institute (GDI), we again chose 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 with interesting postcards from several periods and several countries. For this post, we selected 15 Dutch postcards from the late 1940s with Hollywood stars. After years of hardship and watching merely Nazi films, the Netherlands could watch a reservoir of American films from previous years. Filmgoers revelled in the beauty and glamour of Tinseltown.


Dutch postcard by J.S.A. Photo: Laszlo Willinger / M.G.M. / M.P.E.

Glamorous and seductive film star Hedy Lamarr (1913–2000) was born in Austria. The notorious Czechoslovak film Ekstase/Ecstasy (1933) made her an international sensation, and Louis Mayer invited her to Hollywood, where she became ‘the most beautiful woman in films’.


Dutch postcard by J.S.A. Photo: Warner / M.P.E.

American film star Bette Davis (1908-1989) was one of the greatest actors in world cinema history. She dared to play unsympathetic, sardonic characters and was reputed for her performances in a range of film genres, from contemporary crime melodramas to historical and period films and occasional comedies. Her greatest successes were her roles in romantic dramas.


Dutch postcard by J.S.A. Photo: F.B.O. / M.P.E. Abbott and Costello in Ride 'Em Cowboy (Arthur Lubin, 1942).

William 'Bud' Abbott (1895–1974) and Lou Costello (1906–1959) were an American comedy duo that first worked together in 1935. Their work in vaudeville and on stage, radio, film and television made them the most popular comedy team during the 1940s and early 1950s.


Dutch postcard by S. & v.H., A. Photo: M.P.E.A.

American actress Paulette Goddard (1905-1990) started her career as a fashion model and as a Ziegfeld Girl in several Broadway shows. In the 1940s, she became a major star at Paramount Pictures. She was Charlie Chaplin's leading lady in Modern Times (1936) and The Great Dictator. Goddard was nominated for an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress for So Proudly We Hail! (1943). Her husbands included Chaplin, Burgess Meredith, and Erich Maria Remarque.


Dutch postcard by S. & v. H., A. Photo: M.P.E.A.

American actress Joan Fontaine (1917-2013) was the younger sister of Hollywood star Olivia de Havilland, but Joan made a name for herself with two classics by Alfred Hitchcock, Rebecca (1941) and Suspicion (1942). For the first she was nominated for the Oscar and for the second she won the award.


Dutch postcard by S. & v. H., A. Photo: M.P.E.A. Sonja Henie and Michael O'Shea in It's a Pleasure (William A. Seiter, 1945).

Petite and glamorous Sonja Henie (1912-1969) was one of the greatest figure skaters in history, the ‘Pavlova of the ice’. She won more Olympic and World titles than any other ladies' figure skater. At the height of her acting career, the Norwegian figure skater and film star was one of the highest-paid stars in Hollywood. She had a shrewd business sense and was immensely successful next with a series of ice revues.


Dutch postcard by S. & v. H., A. Photo: M.P.E.A.

Donna Reed (1921-1986) was an American film and television actress and producer. Her career spanned more than 40 years, with performances in more than 40 films. She is well known for her role as Mary Hatch Bailey in It's a Wonderful Life (Frank Capra, 1946). She received the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress for her role as Lorene Burke in the war drama From Here to Eternity (Fred Zinnemann, 1953). Reed is also known as Donna Stone, a middle-class American mother and housewife in the sitcom The Donna Reed Show (1958–1966).


Dutch postcard by S. & v. H., A. Photo: M.P.E.A.

Frank Sinatra (1915-1998) was an American singer, actor, and producer who was one of the most popular and influential musical artists of the 20th century. He is one of the best-selling music artists of all time, having sold more than 150 million records worldwide.


Dutch postcard by Sparo. Photo: Fox.

British actress Madeleine Carroll (1906-1987) was a blonde beauty of ladylike demeanour. The first of Alfred Hitchcock's ‘ice-cool blondes’ was immensely popular in the 1930s and 1940s and was nicknamed 'The Queen of British Cinema'.


Dutch postcard by Sparo.

Andrea Leeds (1914–1984) was an American film actress who was a popular supporting player of the late 1930s. She was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance in Stage Door (1937). She did two films with Joel McCrea in which she had the female lead, Youth Takes a Fling (1938) and They Shall Have Music (1939). More leads followed in The Real Glory (1939) with Gary Cooper and Swanee River (1939) with Don Ameche. In 1939, she quit film acting.


Vintage postcard. Photo: MGM.

Judy Garland (1922-1969) was an American singer, actress, and vaudevillian. During a career that spanned 45 of her 47 years, Garland attained international stardom as an actress in musical and dramatic roles, as a recording artist, and on the concert stage. She was nominated for the Oscar for Best Actress for A Star is Born (1954) and received a nomination for Best Supporting Actress for Judgment at Nuremberg (1961).


Dutch postcard by HEMO.

Well-coiffed and well-dressed American actress Barbara Britton (1920-1980) co-starred opposite some of Hollywood's most durable leading men, including Randolph Scott, Joel McCrea, Gene Autry, Jeff Chandler and John Hodiak. Later, she became known as TV's Revlon Girl.


Dutch postcard by DRC, no. 2. Photo: Columbia / MPEA.

American singer and actress Janet Blair (1921-2007) was at Columbia, usually overlooked for the roles that might have tested her dramatic skills. Nevertheless, she pleased audiences as a pert and perky co-star to several bigger stars, ranging from George Raft and Cary Grant to Red Skelton and The Dorsey Brothers.


Dutch postcard by DRC, no. 24. Photo: R.K.O. / MPEA.

American actress Audrey Long (1922-2014) was a leading lady in Hollywood low-budget films of the 1940s and early 1950s. From 1944, she starred in B-movies at RKO, Monogram, Republic, and Columbia. She left the film industry in 1952.


Dutch postcard. Photo: United Artists / M.P.E.A.

And once more, glamorous and seductive film star Hedy Lamarr (1913–2000). In Hollywood, she was usually cast as glamorous and seductive. Her American debut was in Algiers (John Cromwell, 1938). Hedy Lamarr made 18 films between 1940 and 1949, including Boom Town (Jack Conway, 1940), White Cargo (Richard Thorpe, 1942), and Tortilla Flat (Victor Fleming, 1942), based on the novel by John Steinbeck. White Cargo, one of Lamarr's biggest hits at MGM, contains arguably her most famous film quote, "I am Tondelayo". She left MGM in 1945. For Paramount, she appeared as Delilah opposite Victor Mature's Samson in Cecil B. DeMille's epic Samson and Delilah (1949). This proved to be Paramount's most profitable movie to date, bringing in $12 million in rental from theaters. However, following her comedic turn opposite Bob Hope in My Favorite Spy (Norman Z. MacLeod, 1951), her career went into decline.

All postcards: Collection Geoffrey Donaldson Institute. Will be continued on the 15th of next month.