15 New cards from G.D.I.: Pictures Portrait Gallery with American stars

It's the 15th of the month, and EFSP has again a post about the Geoffrey Donaldson Institute postcard collection. I am steadily going through two large bags full of albums with donations and acquisitions. From a small brown album from the 1920s, I selected fifteen postcards for today. Thirteen British postcards with portraits of female American stars of the silent era, plus two German cards of dancer and actress Niddy Empekoven. The album has the GDI index code '5. TdV/AM 3/2021', so the album is from the estate of the late Dutch film historians Tjitte de Vries and Atie Mul.


British postcard in the Pictures Portrait Gallery, no. 144, by Pictures Ltd., London.

Mary Pickford (1892-1979) was a legendary silent film actress and was known as 'America’s sweetheart.' She was a founder of United Artists and helped establish the Academy.


British postcard in the Pictures Portrait Gallery, no. 90, by Pictures Ltd., London.

Gertrude Selby (1890-1975) was an American actress who was active in Hollywood in the silent era. She appeared in dozens of films between 1914 and 1920, mostly short comedies.


British postcard in the Pictures Portrait Gallery, no. 130, by Pictures Ltd., London.

Norma Talmadge (1894-1957) was an American actress and film producer of the silent era. A major box-office draw for more than a decade, her career reached a peak in the early 1920s, when she ranked among the most popular idols on the American screen.


British postcard in the Pictures Portrait Gallery, no. 132, by Pictures Ltd., London.

Marguerite Clark (1883–1940) was an American stage and silent film actress who, after a Broadway career from 1900 to 1913, had a prosperous film career in the 1910s and mainly at Famous Players. As a movie actress, at one time, Clark was second only to Mary Pickford in popularity.



British postcard in the Pictures Portrait Gallery, no. 150, by Pictures Ltd., London. Photo: Evans, Los Angeles.

Mary Pickford (1892-1979) was a legendary silent film actress and was known as 'America’s sweetheart.' She was a founder of United Artists and helped establish the Academy.


British postcard in the Pictures Portrait Gallery, no. 167, by Pictures Ltd., London.

Dorothy Dalton (1893-1972) was an American actress who was highly popular in the silent era. She worked for Kay-Bee, Thomas Ince Corp., and Famous Players (Paramount). She left the film sets in 1924 when she married theatre producer Arthur Hammerstein.


British postcard in the Pictures Portrait Gallery, no. 9/186, by Pictures Ltd., London.

Norma Talmadge (1894-1957) was an American actress and film producer of the silent era. A major box-office draw for more than a decade, her career reached a peak in the early 1920s, when she ranked among the most popular idols on the American screen.


British postcard in the Pictures Portrait Gallery, no. 9/188, by Pictures Ltd., London.

American actress Billie Burke (1884–1970) is now primarily known as Glinda the Good Witch of the North in The Wizard of Oz (Victor Fleming, 1939), but she had an impressive career both on stage and in the cinema, in Britain and the US.


British postcard in the Pictures Portrait Gallery, no. 10/199, by Pictures Ltd., London.

Marjorie Daw (1902-1979) was an American film actress of the silent film era. She appeared in more than 70 films between 1914 and 1929. Daw began acting as a teen to support her younger brother and herself after the death of their parents. She made her film debut in 1914 and worked steadily during the 1920s. She retired from acting after the advent of sound film.


British postcard in the Pictures Portrait Gallery, no. 10/201, by Pictures Ltd., London.

Natalie Talmadge (1896-1969) was a silent film actress best known for being the sister of Norma and Constance Talmadge until her marriage to actor Buster Keaton. She appeared in Intolerance (1916) by D. W. Griffith and Our Hospitality (1923) by Buster Keaton, her last role.


British postcard in the Pictures Portrait Gallery, no. 11/218, by Pictures Ltd., London.

Francelia Billington (1895-1934) was an early American silent-screen actress and an accomplished camera operator.


British postcard.

Priscilla Dean (1896-1987) acted in 68 American silent films, including many shorts. Dean is best known for her roles, between 1918 and 1923, in nine Universal films by Tod Browning. These included The Wicked Darling (1919) with Lon Chaney, The Virgin of Stamboul (1920) with Wallace Beery, Outside the Law (1920) with Lon Chaney, Under Two Flags (1922), with James Kirkwood and White Tiger (1923), with Matt Moore and Raymond Griffith.


British postcard by Beagles in the 'Famous Cinema Star' Series, Paris, no. 235.O. Photo: Universal.

Stunningly beautiful and highly photogenic, Billie Dove (1903-1997) was one of the most popular Hollywood actresses of the 1920s. She was dubbed The American Beauty, after the title of one of her films.


German postcard by W.J. Mörlins, Berlin / Vertrieb Ross, Berlin, no. 381/2. Photo: Karl Schenker. Caption: Niddy Impekoven, Schalk.

Niddy Impekoven (1904-2002) can be seen dancing in the film Wege zu Kraft und Schönheit - Ein Film über moderne Körperkultur (Nicholas Kaufman, Wilhelm Prager, 1925). Earlier, she played in two fiction films: Die Pritzelpuppe (Ulrich Kayser, 1923) with Blandine Ebinger, and the Hans Christian Andersen adaptation Armes kleines Mädchen (Ulrich Kayser, 1924), after 'The Little Match Girl'.


German postcard by W.J. Mörlins, Berlin / Vertrieb Ross, Berlin, no. 409/3. Photo: Anny Eberth. Caption: Niddy Impekoven, Erna Pinner-Puppe.

In 1918, Niddy Impekoven performed her first programme at the opera Unter den Linden in Berlin, which she had rehearsed with her teacher Heinrich Kröller. Here, as well as later, she danced mainly to classical music. She was inspired, among others, by Erna Pinner's artistic puppets for her high-spirited Erna Pinner puppet dance.

All postcards: Collection Geoffrey Donaldson Institute.