Vintage photo. This photo was used in the original publication of Nöggerath's memoirs, published in the Dutch trade journal De Kinematograaf between February 1918 and January 1919.
In 1901, young Dutch film pioneer Anton Nöggerath Jr. worked for the British Warwick Trading Co. Shortly before becoming the first cameraman in Iceland, he was hired to make a sensational shot of a car crash for the Drury Lane Theatre, for the play 'The Great Millionaire' by Cecil Raleigh, staged by Arthur Collins. The car would be filmed crashing into a fake rock, after which the next shot would show the car tumbling from the real rocks. As the car supposedly was the first motor car seen in Plymouth, it drew a crowd. Yet, during filming on a road at Plymouth, the chauffeur backed out at the last moment, stating 'his brakes were imperfect', and so only the first part of the shot was saved. After the first night of the play, the makers discarded the film insert and instead used mechanical means to suggest the car tumbling from the rocks. The car falling down the rocks, though, became the key image to the poster for the play, designed by Edward Patrick Kinsella.
Dutch postcard. Johan Kaart in drag imitating Marlene Dietrich in Kermisgasten / Carnival People (Jaap Speijer, 1936).
For decades, Johan Kaart Junior (1897-1976) was a huge star in the Dutch entertainment world. Between 1934 and 1937, he starred in seven films, and after the war, he played in several more films. He also often worked for radio and television, but his main stage was the theatre. In the lost film Kermisgasten / Carnival People (Jaap Speyer, 1936) with Henriëtte Davids, he did a hilarious Marlene Dietrich impersonation. Dutch critic Henk van Gelder wrote in his biography of Kaart at Huygens.ING: "Unlike many of his colleagues, Kaart realised very well that the camera did not allow stage acting. He radiated a natural kind of joviality that made him a crowd favourite. Whether he played a popular type, a slow student or a dedicated policeman, he easily knew how to create a credible character out of every kind of role."
British postcard in the Famous Cinema Star Series by Beagles Postcards, no. 236N. Photo: Allied Artists Picture. Rudolph Valentino and Vilma Bánky in The Son of the Sheik (George Fitzmaurice, 1926).
Rudolph Valentino (1895-1926) was Hollywood's ultimate 'Latin Lover'. The Italian-born American actor starred in several well-known silent films, including The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (1921), The Sheik (1922), Blood and Sand (1922), The Eagle (1925), and The Son of the Sheik (1926). His early death at age 31 caused mass hysteria among his female fans and propelled him into iconic status. Hungarian-born silent film star Vilma Bánky (1898-1991) filmed in Budapest, France, Austria, and Germany, before Sam Goldwyn took her to Hollywood. There she starred opposite great silent stars like Rudolph Valentino and Ronald Colman. She became Goldwyn's biggest moneymaker till sound finished her career.
Dutch postcard by Ed. De Muinck & Co., Amsterdam. This card is from the first Tom Poes (Tom Puss) series, 'Tom Poes ontdekt het geheim der blauwe aarde', Series 1, no. 2. Image: Marten Toonder. Caption: We are the giants from the blue earth, falderalderare!
'Tom Poes ontdekt het geheim der blauwe aarde' (Tom Poes discovers the secret of the blue earth, book edition: 'The Secret of the Blue Earth') is the first story by Phiny Dick and Marten Toonder from the Bommelsaga (or Tom Poes) series. The first issue of the story appeared on 16 March 1941, and it ran in comic strips in the Dutch newspaper De Telegraaf until 18 April 1941. Tom Puss lives in a large forest, where he gets into an argument with the evil dwarf Pikkin, who turns out to be able to grow giants out of blue earth, marching on boots. These rob the Marquis of Mouseis of all his gold. Tom Puss promises to return the gold. He devises a plan to defuse the giants on the evil boots and to grow benign giants on clogs. At the end of the story, Tom Puss tells the marquis where he can pick up the bound dwarf. That this comic could appear during occupation time is amazing, as the anti-German (at least anti-military) and nationalist (clogs) message is quite clear. Toonder did get investigated by the German occupying forces, but after a month, the strip was allowed to reappear. Phiny Dick, Marten Toonder's wife, was the writer of the first six Tom Poes stories, after which Toonder hesitantly took over.
Belgian postcard by P.E. (Photo Edition, Brussels), no. 48. Collection: Geoffrey Donaldson Institute.
Harry Dressel, also known as Harry Dresselhuys, was born Frans Hendrik Dresselhuijs in 1908 in Winschoten, Netherlands. During the 1930s, he acted and sang in many Dutch stage productions, like the operetta 'Bal in Savoy' (1937), 'Rose Marie' (1937) and 'Die Fledermaus' (1940). He was also known for a supporting part in the Dutch crime film Het mysterie van de Mondscheinsonate / The Mystery of the Mondscheinsonate (Kurt Gerron, 1935) starring Louis de Bree. Harry Dressel worked as an entertainer in Germany, Austria, Belgium, France and Argentina. Decades after his film debut, he appeared in the Dutch TV Mini-series De wonderbaarlijke avonturen van Professor Vreemdeling / The amazing adventures of Professor Stranger (Klaas Rusticus, 1977) starring Joop Doderer as the professor. Harry Dressel died in Winschoten in 2000. He was 92.
Harry Dressel had a second life as a character in two partly autobiographical novels by Patrick Modiano. The author introduced the ‘strange Harry Dressel’ in his novel 'Villa triste', before returning in his next work of fiction, 'Livret de famille. In Chapter XII, the main character, an adolescent named P. Modiano, meets a young girl, Denise Dressel. To seduce her, he sets about writing a biography of her father, Harry Dressel, a man who has fallen into oblivion and whose successive lives he largely reinvents. Who is this Dressel of 'Livret de famille'? A second-rate Dutch artist, dancer, singer and, vaguely, actor, he moved to Paris in 1937, then left for Cairo in 1951, where he disappeared the following year, possibly murdered. 'Livret de famille' was published on 25 April 1977 by Gallimard.
Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy
Dutch postcard. Stan Laurel, Oliver Hardy and Edna Marion in Flying Elephants (Frank Butler, 1928).
Dutch postcard. Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy in Two Tars (James Parrott, 1928).
Dutch postcard. Stan Laurel, Oliver Hardy, Anne Cornwall and Gloria Greer in Men O'War (Lewis R. Foster, 1929).
Dutch postcard. Stan Laurel, Oliver Hardy, Anne Cornwall and Gloria Greer in Men O'War (Lewis R. Foster, 1929).
Dutch postcard. Stan Laurel, Oliver Hardy and Jean Harlow in Double Whoopee (Lewis R. Foster, 1929).
Dutch postcard. Stan Laurel, Oliver Hardy and Vivian Oakland in Scram! (Ray McCarey, 1932).
Dutch postcard. Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy in Twice Two (James Parrott, 1933).
Dutch postcard. Stan Laurel, Oliver Hardy and Sheila Ryan in A-Haunting We Will Go (Alfred L. Werker, 1933).
Dutch postcard. Stan Laurel, Oliver Hardy, Betty Healy, Iris Adrian, Daphne Pollard and Lana Andre in Our Relations (Harry Lachman, 1936).
Dutch postcard. Stan Laurel, Grete Natzler (a.k.a. Della Lind) and Oliver Hardy in Swiss Miss (John G. Blystone, Hal Roach, 1938).
All Postcards: Collection Geoffrey Donaldson Institute.
For more information on Anton Nöggerath: Ivo Blom, ‘Chapters from the Life of a Camera Operator. The recollections of Anton Nöggerath – filming news and non-fiction, 1897-1908‘, Film History, vol. 11, 3, 1999, p. 262-281, (Ivo Blom (Wordpress). Other sources: Henk van Gelder (Huygens.ING), TheaterEncyclopedie (Dutch) and IMDb.
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