15 New cards from G.D.I.

It's the 15th, and we make another splash in the wonderful postcard collection of the Geoffrey Donaldson Institute. This time, I selected 15 postcards from a little brown album from the estate of the late film historians and journalists Tjitte de Vries and Atie Mul. It's a fan album containing postcards of Hollywood stars and European performers from the 1920s and 1930s. Amazing is the Dutch postcard of comedian Jo Buziau. This tiny comedian was the greatest star of the Dutch stage before WW II, and he also appeared in some lost silent films. His card is a rare find. Furthermore, the album contained delicious postcards of some of the most glamorous screen stars of the 1920s. Enjoy!


German postcard by Verlag Ross, Berlin, no. 351/1, 1919-1924. Photo: Becker & Maass / Deutsche Bioscope.

Uschi Elleot (1899–1975) was a German stage and film actress who starred in several silent films. She was the younger sister of actress Carola Toelle. After her cinema career ended, she emigrated to the United States and married an American.


German postcard by Verlag Ross, Berlin, no. 363/2, 1919-1924. Photo: Riess.

Grit Hegesa (1891-1972) was a German dancer and silent film actress. She appeared in seventeen films, including Ewald André Dupont's crime film Whitechapel (1920).


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 1868/1, 1927-1928. Photo: First National.

Hungarian Maria Corda (1898-1975) was an immensely popular star of the silent cinema of Austria and Germany. The pretty, blonde actress was a queen of the popular epic spectacles of the 1920s, which were often directed by her husband, Alexander Korda.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 3583/3, 1928-1929. Photo: Atelier Manassé, Wien.

German actress Maria Paudler (1903-1990) was a popular star of the late silent cinema. She also played the leading role in the first German TV film.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 3683/1, 1928-1929. Photo: Defina.

American actress Colleen Moore (1899-1988) was a star of the silent screen who appeared in about 100 films beginning in 1917. During the 1920s, she put her stamp on American social history, creating in dozens of films the image of the wide-eyed, insouciant flapper with her bobbed hair and short skirts.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 4398/1, 1929-1930. Photo: Fox.

American film actress Mary Astor (1906–1987) was famous for her part as Brigid O'Shaughnessy in The Maltese Falcon (1941) with Humphrey Bogart. She won an Oscar as best supporting actress for The Great Lie (1941). Astor had a long acting career that already started in the silent era in 1921 and included over 100 films.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 5103/1, 1930-1931. Photo: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.

Phyllis Haver (1899-1960) was an American actress of the silent film era. With her curvy figure and blonde hair, she started her career as one of the most popular of Mack Sennett's bathing beauties. Haver quickly worked her way up to leading roles, and she was signed by Cecil B. De Mille. Among her best roles were Roxy Hart in the first film version of Chicago (1927) and as Shanghai Mabel in What Price Glory? (1927).


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 5623/1, 1930-1931. Photo: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.

Aileen Pringle (1895-1989) was an American film actress of the silent screen. She was catapulted into stardom by her appearance in the Goldwyn production Three Weeks (Alan Crosland, 1924) with Conrad Nagel.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 5655/1, 1930-1931. Photo: Fox.

Marguerite Churchill (1910-2000) was an American film actress with a film career spanning from 1929 to 1952. She is best known today as John Wayne's first leading lady, in The Big Trail (1930).


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 5671/1, 1930-1931. Photo: Ufa.

German actress and singer Else Elster (1910-1998) appeared in over forty films during the Weimar and Nazi eras.


Swedish postcard by Förlag Nordisk Konst, Stockholm, no. 1005. Photo: Nordisk Films Kompagni, Copenhagen.

Lilly Jacobsson (1893-1979), aka Lilly Jacobson, was a Swedish actress who starred in Swedish and Danish silent films by Eric Malmberg, Mauritz Stiller and Holger-Madsen. She was the leading lady of the popular Danish film Maharadjahens Yndlingshustru / The Maharaja’s Favourite Wife (1917).


Dutch postcard by Weenenk & Snel, Den Haag. Photo: Willem Coret.

Johan Buziau, aka Buziau (1877-1958), was a Dutch clownish comedian and revue artist.


French postcard by Europe, no. 969. Photo: Star Film. Sent by mail in the Netherlands in 1932.

Anna May Wong (1905-1961) will become the first Asian American to be on U.S. currency. She was the first Chinese-American movie star and Asian American actress to gain international recognition. Frustrated by the stereotypical supporting roles she reluctantly played in Hollywood, Wong left for Europe, where she starred in such classics as Piccadilly (1929).


Dutch postcard, no. 180. Photo: Universal. Genevieve Tobin and Conrad Nagel in Free Love (Hobart Henley, 1930).

American actress Genevieve Tobin (1899-1995) appeared in a few silent films as a child and formed a double role with her sister, Vivian. Her peak years as an actress were in the 1930s. She mostly played smaller roles in screwball comedies.

American actor Conrad Nagel (1897-1970) was a tall, blue-eyed matinee idol of the 1920s. He successfully made the transition to sound film.


Dutch postcard for Passage Theater, Den Haag (The Hague). Photo: Gaumont British / F.H. Film. Cicely Courtneidge in Aunt Sally (Tim Whelan, 1934). The Dutch title was Tante Sally. Collection: Geoffrey Donaldson Institute.

British actress Cicely Courtneidge (1893–1980) was an elegantly knockabout comedienne. For 62 years, she formed a husband and wife team with comedian Jack Hulbert on stage, radio, TV and in the cinema. During the 1930’s they also starred together in eleven British films and one disastrous American production.

All postcards are part of the collection of the Geoffrey Donaldson Institute (GDI). Our next GDI post will be on 15 February 2026.