Italian postcard, reproduction after the original. Design: Enzo Van Dock. During the 1900s and 1910s, Italian artist Enzo Van Dock designed many caricatures which were turned into postcards.
Last Saturday, 4 April 2026, the editors of EFSP visited the VerzamelJaarbeurs in Utrecht, the Netherlands. This collectors' fair is Europe's largest market for vintage items, antiques, curiosities and pop culture. Under the title, 'The Finest of the Fair' (April, 2026), we will post some of our newest acquisitions from the VerzamelJaarbeurs. Ivo Blom selected 16 of his postcards for this post.
German postcard by NPG (Neue Photographische Gesellschaft), no 548/8. Granogravure, NPG Stieglitz, 1906. Sarah Bernhardt, wo bist du? (Where are you?). Sarah isn't hard to find...
French vedette Sarah Bernhardt (1844-1923) has been referred to as 'the most famous actress in the history of the world'. She developed a reputation as a serious dramatic actress, earning her the nickname 'The Divine Sarah'. Bernhardt made her fame on the stages of Europe in the 1870s and was soon in high demand in both Americas, too. And she was one of the first film stars. What a woman!
German postcard in the G.G. Series, no.475/2. Photo: Gerlach. Card mailed in 1908.
American soprano opera singer and film actress Geraldine Farrar (1882-1967) was noted for her glamorous beauty, acting ability, and the timbre of her voice. Barely 20, she was already the toast of Berlin. Later at the Met in New York, she had a large following among young women, who were nicknamed ‘Gerry-flappers’. Farrar also starred in more than a dozen silent films from 1915 to 1920. She was married to and co-starred with Dutch matinee idol Lou Tellegen.
British postcard by Rotary Photo, E.C., no. 11780 B. Photo: Foulsham and Banfield, London. Oscar Asche as Haji and Sarah Raleigh as Kut-al-Kulub in the play 'Kismet'.
'Kismet' was a three-act play written in 1911 by Edward Knoblauch/ Knoblock. It was produced by Oscar Asche and first staged at the Garrick Theatre, London, on 19 April 1911. Asche rewrote the play and starred himself as the beggar Haji, who poses as a prince. He drowns the evil Wazir of Police, catches the eye of the Wazir's voluptuous wife, serves as Emir of Baghdad, and sees his daughter wed to the handsome Caliph, who has posed as a gardener. Next to Asche, Lily Brayton starred as his daughter, Marsinah. The play was a gigantic success. After a successful tour with 'Kismet' in Australia in 1911–1912, Asche, upon his return to London, revived 'Kismet'. Asche and Brayton also appeared in a 1914 film adaptation. Afterwards, more film adaptations followed in 1920, 1930 and 1944. Asche repeated his role as Haji in the 1930 and 1944 film versions. In 1953, the story was adapted into the musical by Robert Wright and George Forrest, which in turn was adapted into a 1955 film.
Italian postcard by Garzini e Pezzini, Milan, 1903. Caption: Tipografia Fregoli. L'Onestà (1902). Gratis.
Leopoldo Fregoli (1867-1936) was one of the first vaudeville actors who used film in his acts. Fregoli was famous for his rapid transformation acts, in which he did impersonations of famous artistic and political characters. In 1898, he bought a Cinematographe from the Lumière brothers and started to show shorts, named Fregoligraph, as part of his stage act. They were recordings of his transformation acts. The Cineteca Nazionale in Rome has preserved many of the Fregoligraph acts.
British postcard. Fred Penley in 'The Timbertown Follies', interned in Holland.
During World War I, a remarkable group of performers toured Dutch theatres. They called themselves The Timbertown Follies. They were part of the 1500 English soldiers who fled Belgium when invaded by the Germans and were imprisoned in a wooden camp (hence the 'Timbertown') near Groningen, in the neutral Northern Netherlands. Out of boredom, they started a theatre show. It became so popular that in 1915, the soldiers were allowed to perform at the Groningen city theatre and elsewhere. Despite shortages, they managed to put on a dazzling show, raising thousands of guilders for all sorts of charities, such as the Belgian people and the victims of the 1916 Dutch floods. While many Dutch visitors didn't speak English, the show was understandable to all. Fred Penley (1884-?), the leader of this troupe, who moved audiences with his song, was a London actor, brought up on the profession. His father was the actor W.S. Penley, who became famous in his own country with the play ‘Charley's Aunt’. In 1917, rules became less strict, and Penley became an actor at the Dutch Hollandia Film studio, e.g. as Sir John Warwick, the love interest of the married Mrs. Cranby (Annie Bos) in Een kino-toneelstuk (Jan van Dommelen, Fred Penley, 1917), for which the interiors were performed on stage and the exteriors shot on film. Penley was also the banker and spy Sorga in the three-part Oorlog en Vrede / War and Peace 1914/1916/1918 (Maurits Binger, 19128) starring Adelqui Migliar and Annie Bos. After the war's end, Penley stayed in the Netherlands as an actor, in the films Het goudvischje/ The Goldfish (Binger, 1919) and Circus Jim (Bernard Edwin Doxat-Pratt, Adelqui Migliar, 1921). In 1921, Penley started a new stage tour with a new group, still under the name of Timbertown Follies. In the early 1920s, Penley started a film rental company with Alex Benno, entitled Actueel Film. The two also produced the popular comedy Kee en Janus naar Berlijn / K & J. to Berlin, starring Adriënne Solser and Kees Pruis. In the Netherlands, he also worked as a film lecturer, accompanying, e.g. the expedition film The Great White Silence on Captain Scott's failed discovery of the Antarctic, shown to the Royal Family in May 1923 and afterwards all around the nation. In 1923, he also played on stage in Haarlem the 'Brazilian Aunt' in 'Charley's Aunt'. Penley, who in 1923 married a Dutch woman, M.G. Neervoort van der Poll, left for Paris himself in 1925.
French postcard, no. IV. Photo: Jean Bart, M.A. Caption: On the threshold of the final darkness, she measures out her mournful steps.
Paola Monti began her career in the 1900s in Paris as a barefoot dancer. Between late 1912 and late 1914, she was the leading actress in some thirty mostly short Italian films.
French postcard by Editeurs d'art, Paris, no.S.2180. Photo: Reutlinger, Paris. Regina Badet (Opéra-Comique) in the operetta 'Aphrodite'. Régina Badet played the dancer Théano in the operetta 'Aphrodite' (1906), performed at the Opéra Comique in Paris. Music by Camille Erlanger and libretto by Louis de Gramont, after Pierre Louÿs. Lead singers were Léon Beyle, Mary Garden and André Allard.
French actress and dancer Régina Badet (1876-1949) was a star of the Opéra-Comique in Paris. She also had a short career in the French silent cinema.
French postcard by Eds. B.J.C., Paris in the Series Gladiateurs, no. 8. Caption: La demande de grâce (Asking for mercy). Music-Hall Gallici-Rancy.
An imitation of the painting 'Pollice verso' by Jean-Léon Gérôme. Mark the 'exedra' curved bench with lion's head and claws, inspired by an original in Pompeii (Tomb of Mamia) and popularised by the paintings of Lawrence Alma-Tadema. Henri Gallici (1868-after 1921) and his wife Emma Rancy (1867-1956) ran a travelling music-hall in the 1900s, visiting the fairgrounds with their impressive Art Nouveau facade. They combined magic, theatre, and cinema. In the early 1900s, they also published 'Les forains peints par eux-mêmes'.
Swedish postcard by Axel Eliassons Konstförlag, no. 466. Photo: SBF/Svenska Biografernas Förening. Axel Lagerberg as Governor Olof Wibelius and Oscar Textorius as the Russian supreme commander General von Buxhövden in the historical film Fänrik Ståls sägner / The Tales of Ensign Stål (John W. Brunius, 1926). Caption: General, here you see a shield. For those you have threatened.
The two-part historical film Fänrik Ståls sägner / The Tales of Ensign Stål is set during the Finnish War between Sweden and Russia in 1808-1809, during the Napoleonic era. The script by Ivar Johansson was based on the epic poem 'The Tales of Ensign Stål' (1848) by nineteenth-century writer Johan Ludvig Runeberg. The film was shot at the Råsunda Studios in Stockholm, and exteriors were shot at Tavastehus, Ritoniemi, Ruovesi and other places. Cinematography was by Hugo Edlund and Karl Andersson, and sets were designed by Vilhelm Bryde. Runeberg's work had already been filmed in 1910 and would be again in 1939.
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. A 1358/2, 1937-1938. Photo: Wog, Berlin.
German actress Kitty Jantzen (1916-1984) was the second wife of director Richard Eichberg and appeared in five films directed by him between 1936 and 1938. She made her film debut in 1936 in the lead female role as Christa Lessner in Eichberg's Es geht um mein Leben / My Life is at Stake, in which she starred alongside Karl Ludwig Diehl and Theo Lingen. Directed by her husband, she also starred in the two adventure films Der Tiger von Eschnapur / The Tiger of Eschnapur (1938) and Das Indische Grabmal / The Indian Tomb (1938). In both films, she played the role of Irene Traven, with La Jana as Sitha, Maharani of Eschnapur and Frits van Dongen as Chandra, Maharaja of Eschnapur. She also appeared in the French-language versions of these two films. She did not appear in any further films after that.
German postcard by GG Co., series 325/6. Photo: Gerlach.
Julian Eltinge, born William Julian Dalton (1881-1941), was an American showman, cabaret performer, and actor. He made his Broadway debut in 1904, dressed as a woman, in the musical comedy 'Mr. Wix of Wickham'. He also began working in vaudeville. The early film star Pauline Frederick and Eltinge were childhood friends. He dared her to apply to one of the music halls, which was the start of her career on stage and in films. Unlike many actors of the time who specialised in female impersonations, Eltinge did not portray women in a caricatured manner, but gave the illusion of being a woman in every respect. He toured simply as 'Eltinge', leaving his gender unknown to some. His performances included dancing, singing, and costume changes in a role-playing act that ended when the performer removed his wig, revealing to the often-unaware audience that he was a man. In 1906, he made his debut in London theatres, performing even before King Edward VII. In 1911, Eltinge performed in 'The Fascinating Widow' on the New York stage. His other stage comedies from that period included 'The Crinoline Girl' and 'Cousin Lucy', and he also directed film adaptations of both plays. His first cinematic success was The Countess Charming (Donald Crisp, 1917), in which he played both a man and a woman. In the same year, he also acted in Crisp's The Clever Mrs. Fairfax. After settling in Hollywood, Eltinge made more films while also performing in vaudeville. He starred in a Ruritania-like dramatic comedy, An Adventuress (Fred J. Balshofer, 1920), with Virginia Rappe as his co-star and a minor part for the upcoming star Rudolph Valentino. Initially, the film was made as an anti-German propaganda film called Over the Rhine, but after the war, the film was changed towards an action drama taking place in some Ruritania, in which Eltinge has to crossdress to flee the country in turmoil. In 1922, when Valentino had become a big star, his name and role became more prominent, and the drama, rereleased as The Isle of Love, became a light comedy. It didn't improve the quality of the film, and the press saw through the scam of cashing in on Valentino's stardom. Like other figures in the entertainment industry, Eltinge's career came to a sudden halt with the onset of the Great Depression in 1929. Furthermore, in the 1930s, female impersonations and vaudeville lost popularity. During those years, new laws were enacted to ban cross-dressing in public, and thus, his career came to a complete halt. Eltinge made ends meet by performing in nightclubs, with little success. He died in 1941, at the age of 59, from a cerebral haemorrhage.
French postcard by Europe, no. 728. Photo: Paramount.
American actress Clara Bow (1905-1965) rose to stardom in silent film during the 1920s. It was her appearance as a plucky shopgirl in the film It (Clarence G. Badger, 1927) that brought her global fame and the nickname 'The It Girl'. Bow came to personify the Roaring Twenties and is described as its leading sex symbol.
British postcard in the "Pictures" Portrait Gallery, London, no. 11/212.
American actor Franklyn Farnum (1878-1961) appeared in more than 1,100 films. Farnum started in film acting in 1916, initially working for Rex/Universal. In the early 1920s, Farnum’s career was primarily dominated by Westerns made by smaller companies, including the serial Vanishing Trails (Leon de la Mothe, 1920) and the feature films The Firebrand Alan James (1922), The Drug Store Cowboy (Park Frame, 1925), and The Gambling Fool (J.P. McGowan, 1925). Farnum left the film industry in 1925 but returned five years later with the advent of sound films. Farnum continued in minor roles well into the 1950s. One of his three wives was actress Alma Rubens, whom he married briefly in 1918.
German postcard by Ross Verlag, Berlin, no. 3336/1, 1928-1929. Photo: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Ramon Novarro in The Midshipman (Christy Cabanne, 1925).
Mexican-American actor Ramon Novarro (1899-1968) was a popular Latin Lover of the 1920s and early 1930s. He was the star of silent Hollywood's biggest epic, Ben-Hur (Fred Niblo, 1925).
French postcard by M.A. Caption: La Vengeance. Mailed in Paris on 6 November 1903.
This postcard is part of a series of expressions of emotions by women.
French postcard by Eds. S.I.P. Photo: Paul Boyer, Paris. Caption: Martha.
This card is a prologue to a future EFSP blog post on remarkable headgear.
Sources: Wikipedia (Dutch, Italian, German and English) and IMDb.
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