German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 3948/2, 1928-1929. Photo: United Artists.
Hungarian-born silent film star Vilma Bánky (1901-1991) filmed in Budapest, France, Austria, and Germany, before Sam Goldwyn took her to Hollywood. There she starred opposite silent stars like Rudolph Valentino and Ronald Colman. She became Goldwyn's biggest money maker till sound finished her career.
Austrian postcard by Iris Verlag, no. 986. Photo: Paramount.
Mary Brian (1906-2002) was an American actress and film star with dark brown curls and blue/grey eyes who made the transition from silent films to sound films. She was dubbed 'The Sweetest Girl in Pictures.'
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 6113/2, 1931-1932. Photo: Ufa.
Strikingly beautiful Anna Sten (1908-1993) was a Ukrainian-born actress who became the most famous, or rather, the most notorious of the many ‘new Greta Garbos’ of the 1930s.
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 7138/1, 1932-1933. Photo: Ufa. Lilian Harvey in Der Kongress tanzt / The Congress Dances (Erik Charell, 1931).
British-born, German actress and singer Lilian Harvey (1906-1968) was Ufa's biggest star of the 1930s. With Willy Fritsch, she formed the 'Dream Team of the European Cinema'. Their best film was the immensely popular film operetta Der Kongress tanzt / The Congress Dances (Erik Charell, 1931).
Vintage postcard. Photo: Paramount. Allan Jones and Mary Martin in The Great Victor Herbert (Andrew L. Stone, 1939).
American singer Allan Jones (1907-1992) was a coal miner's son who was classically trained in opera. He worked on Broadway and in operettas until 1935. Jones was signed by MGM and performed in two Marx Brothers movies, A Night at the Opera (1935) and A Day at the Races (1937), and co-starred in James Whale's Show Boat (1936). In Tarantella (1937), Jones sang 'Donkey Serenade', which became his signature song. After this, he was relegated to B musicals.
A daughter of Texas, Mary Martin (1913-1990) originally began work as a dance instructor until a local evangelical-adherent burned down her studio, citing her work as being too sinful for human nature. On Broadway, she introduced the song 'My Heart Belongs to Daddy'. She appearedin several Hollywood musicals during the 1940s and later in her career enjoyed huge success as Peter Pan, which she cited as her favourite role. She won four Tony Awards and is also known as the mother of actor Larry Hagman.
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. A 2598/2, 1939-1940. Photo: Haenchen / Tobis.
Kristina Söderbaum (1912-2001) was born in Stockholm as the daughter of Professor Henrik Gustaf Söderbaum, secretary of the Nobel Prize Committee. After her graduation, she went to Paris to learn French and, by chance, got a role in the short instructional film Hur behandlar du din hund? / How to Handle Your Dog (Arne Bornebusch, 1934). In 1935, she studied art history in Berlin and attended acting classes with actor Rudolf Klein-Rogge. Her first film in Germany was Onkel Bräsig / Uncle Bräsig (Erich Waschneck, 1935). Then she met director Veit Harlan, and the two fell in love.
German postcard by Das Programm von Heute, Berlin.
American film star Buck Jones (1891–1942) starred in many popular B-Westerns of the 1920s, 1930s, and 1940s. Executive William Fox decided to use him as a backup to Tom Mix. This led to his first starring role, The Last Straw (Denison Clift, Charles Swickard, 1920). With his famed horse Silver, Jones would make more than 160 film credits.
German postcard by Das Programm von Heute, Berlin. Photo: Haenchen / Tobis.
Sexy German dancer and film actress La Jana (1905-1940) was the most popular showgirl in Berlin in the 1930s. She appeared in 25 European films, often dancing in exotic costumes. In 1940, she suddenly died of pneumonia and pleurisy.
German postcard by Das Programm von Heute, Berlin. Photo: Sandau.
Beniamino Gigli (1890-1957) was one of the most famous Italian opera singers, internationally respected for the beauty of his voice and his vocal technique. Between 1935 and 1950, he also starred in various Italian fiction films.
French postcard by Travelling Editions, Paris, no. CP 66. Caption: Burt Lancaster, 1951.
Burt Lancaster (1913-1994) became a star with his first film role, as the doomed Swede in Universal's The Killers (1946), but the former circus acrobat knew better than to leave his career in other hands. After less than two years in Hollywood, Lancaster formed his own production company and took the lead in such popular successes as the Technicolour Swashbucklers The Flame and the Arrow (1950) and The Crimson Pirate (1952), and the Western Vera Cruz (1954). The athletic, savvy but passionate Lancaster remained a box office draw for 20 years, winning a 1961 Academy Award for playing the corrupt evangelist Elmer Gantry (1960). His best work through the next decades was often in European features like Luchino Visconti's Il gattopardo / The Leopard (1963) and Gruppo di famiglia in un interno / Conversation Piece (1974), Novecento/1900 (1976) and Atlantic City (1980), which netted him an Oscar nomination.
East German postcard by VEB Progress Film-Vertrieb, Berlin, 1955. Photo: Franco-London Film S.A. / Documento-Film. Danielle Darrieux in Le rouge et le noir / The Red and the Black (Claude Autant-Lara, 1954).
French actress and singer Danielle Darrieux (1917-2017) was a beautiful, international leading lady whose eight-decade career was among the longest in film history. From her film debut in 1931, she played in more than 110 films in which she progressed from playing pouty teens to mundane sophisticates. In the early 1950s, she starred in three classic films by Max Ophüls, and she played the mother of Catherine Deneuve in five films.
East German postcard by VEB Progress Film-Vertrieb, Berlin, no. 195, 1956. Michèle Morgan in Les grandes manoeuvres / Grand Maneuver (René Clair, 1955).
French actress Michèle Morgan (1920-2016) was a classic beauty and one of her country's most popular leading ladies for over five decades. The delicate, sophisticated, and detached star was especially noted for her large, expressive eyes.
West German postcard by Filmbilder-Vertrieb Ernst Freihoff, Essen, no. 144. Photo: Allianz Film / Brünjes.
Swiss actress Liselotte Pulver (1929) was one of the most beloved stars of the German popular cinema of the 1950s and early 1960s. Despite a wide variety of roles, she is best remembered as the merry tomboy in sparkling comedies like Das Wirtshaus im Spessart / The Spessart Inn (Kurt Hoffmann, 1958).
West German postcard by WS-Druck, Wanne-Eickel. Photo: Roxy / NF / Filipp / Filmpress Zürich. Sent by mail in 1959.
Austrian actress Nadja Tiller (1929-2023) was one of the erotic stars of European cinema of the 1950s and 1960s. Her international breakthrough role was that of the high-class prostitute Rosemarie Nitribitt in the German film Das Mädchen Rosemarie / Rosemary (1958).
Dutch postcard by Gebr. Spanjersberg N.V., Rotterdam, no. 360. Photo: Hans Bresser, Rotterdam.
Dutch singer Anneke Grönloh (1942-2018) had a successful career starting in 1959 that lasted throughout the 1960s. She scored a hit with 'Brandend Zand' (Burning Sand), one of the best-selling Dutch songs of all time.
All postcards are from the collection of the Geoffrey Donaldson Institute.
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