Henny Porten, Part 1

Sturdy and blond Henny Porten (1890-1960) was one of Germany's most important and popular film actresses of the silent cinema. She was also the producer of many of her own films. She became the quintessence of German womanhood, ladylike yet kindhearted. Today, EFSP presents Part 1 of a post on her long career. Part 2 follows tomorrow.


German postcard by Autor Film Co. G.m.b.H., Berlin, no. 52.


Spanish minicard by Reclam Films, no. 6 of 6. Photo: Messter. Henny Porten in Eva (Curt A. Stark, 1913). Card 6 of 6. The success of this film provided the opportunity for Porten to have her own Henny Porten series at Messter. Until his death at the Western Front in 1916, Stark directed most of Porten's films and was also her first husband. In the back of this card is Frieda Richard as Mrs. Hartwig.


German postcard by Rotophot in the Film-Sterne series, no. 500/1. Photo: Messter Film, Berlin. Henny Porten in Die Räuberbraut (Robert Wiene, 1916).


German postcard by Rotophot in the Film-Sterne series, no. 500/3. Photo: Messter Film, Berlin. Henny Porten and Emil Jannings in Die Ehe der Luise Rohrbach / The Marriage of Luise Rohrbach (Rudolf Biebrach 1917), based on a novel by Emmi Elert.


German postcard by Rotophot in the Film-Sterne series, no. 500/7. Photo: Messter-Film, Berlin. Henny Porten in Der Ruf der Liebe / The Call of Love (Rudolf Biebrach, 1916).


German postcard by Rotophot in the Film-Sterne series, no. 500/9. Photo: Messter Film, Berlin. Henny Porten in Die Prinzessin von Neutralien / The Princess of Neutralien (Rudolf Biebrach, 1917).


German postcard by Rotophot in the Film-Sterne series, no. 500/11. Photo: Messter-Film, Berlin. Henny Porten in Der Liebesbrief der Königin / The Queen's Love Letter (Robert Wiene, 1916).


German postcard by Rotophot in the Film-Sterne series, no. 506/2. Photo: Messter-Film, Berlin. Henny Porten in Gefangene Seele (Rudolf Biebrach, 1917).


German postcard by Rotophot in the Film Sterne series, no. 507/1. Photo: Messter-Film, Berlin. Henny Porten in Gräfin Küchenfee / Countess Kitchen Fairy (Robert Wiene, 1918).


German postcard by Rotophot in the Film-Sterne series, no. 508/4. Photo: Messter-Film. Henny Porten and Reinhold Schünzel in the comedy Höhenluft / Mountain Air (Rudolf Biebrach, 1917).

Queen of the Mutoskop peepboxes

Frieda Ulricke 'Henny' Porten was born in Magdeburg, Germany, in 1890. She was the second daughter of Franz Porten, an opera baritone and actor-director at the Stadtheater of Magdeburg, and his wife Wincenzia, whose maiden name was Wybiral. Her older sister was the actress and script-writer Rosa Porten.

In January 1906, Franz Porten was engaged by film pioneer Oskar Messter to direct six Biophon-Sound Pictures. These were short early sound films that were projected with synchronously playing gramophone records. So Henny made her film debut in Apachentanz / Apache Dance (Oskar Messter, 1906). This made her one of the earliest film actresses anywhere in the world.

She went on to perform in numerous sound pictures, mostly for the Deutsche Mutoskop und Biograph GmbH, which also included her work in their Mutoskop peep boxes. Her work involved singing in three different languages by moving her lips in a synchronised fashion to a gramophone record. Despite having no training in acting, this work allowed her to become a highly experienced actress.

Five years later, audiences were clamouring to know the name of the blonde (and blind) girl in Das Liebesglück der Blinden / The Joy of Love of the Blind (Heinrich Bolten Baeckers, Curt A. Stark, 1911), a melodrama written for her by her sister, Rosa Porten.

In 1912, she married Curt A. Stark, who would direct most of her films until he died in 1916. In 1912, Messter concluded a one-month contract with her, which had been repeatedly extended. After the success of Eva (Curt A. Stark, 1913), she started the Henny Porten Film Star Series, beginning with Der Feind im Land / The Enemy in the Country (Curt A. Stark, 1913).


German postcard by Rotophot in the Film Sterne series, no. 509/2. Photo: Messter Film. Henny Porten and Paul Hartmann in Die Claudi vom Geiserhof (Rudolf Biebrach, 1917).


German postcard by Rotophot in the Film Sterne Series, no. 510/3. Photo: Messter Film, Berlin. Henny Porten and Eduard von Winterstein in the two-part drama Die Faust des Riesen (Rudolf Biebrach, 1917).


German postcard by Rotophot in the Film-Sterne series, no. 519/7. Photo: Messter Film, Berlin. Henny Porten and Paul Bildt in Edelsteine (Rudolf Biebrach, 1918).


German postcard by Rotophot in the Film Sterne series, no. 520/1. Photo: Messter Film, Berlin. Henny Porten in Auf Probe gestellt / Put to the test (Rudolf Biebrach, 1918).


German postcard by Rotophot in the Film Sterne series, no. 525/6. Photo: Messter-Film, Berlin. Henny Porten and Kurt Vespermann in Das Geschlecht derer von Ringwall (Rudolf Biebrach, 1918).


German postcard by Rotophot in the Film-Sterne series, no. 531/8. Photo: Messter-Film, Berlin. Henny Porten and Hermann Thimig in Agnes Arnau und ihre drei Freier / Agnes Arnau and her three suitors (Rudolf Biebrach, 1918).


German postcard by Rotophot in the Film-Sterne series, no. 541/7. Photo: Messter-Film, Berlin. Henny Porten and Bruno Decarli in Das Maskenfest des Lebens (Rudolf Biebrach, 1918).


German postcard by Rotophot in the Film-Sterne series, no. 552/4. Photo: Messter-Film. Henny Porten and Rudolf Biebrach, and in the back, Paul Biensfeldt, Bruno Decarli and Arthur Bergen, in Die Sieger (Rudolf Biebrach 1918).


German postcard by Rotophot in the Film-Sterne series, no. 567/2. Photo: Messter-Film, Berlin. Henny Porten and Ferdinand von Alten in Die blaue Laterne (Rudolf Biebrach, 1918), based on the novel by Paul Lindau. The two people in the back could be Karl Elzer and Johanna Zimmermann.


German postcard by Rotophot / Verlag Ross, Berlin, no. 570/2. Photo: Messter-Film, Berlin. Henny Porten and Alfred Abel in the German silent comedy Die Dame, der Teufel und die Probiermamsell (Rudolf Biebrach, 1918). The film was released at the Berlin Mozartsaal on 17 January 1919. The film script was by Robert Wiene, cinematography by Karl Freund, and sets by Kurt Richter.

The ultimate Wilhelminian actress

Following the exodus in the film industry at the beginning of the First World War, Henny Porten initiated, as if personally, the renaissance of German cinema with Das Ende vom Liede / The end of the Song (Rudolf Biebrach, 1915) with Ludwig Trautmann.

Rudolf Biebrach, who in earlier films often played her father, now took on the job of the film director. The Porten films were at the peak of their success.

Henny Porten embodied the ultimate Wilhelminian actress, with her long, blond hair, her innocent-looking face and her round forms.

Though she often performed as the tragic, self-sacrificing woman, tormented by class conflicts and evil men, like in Alexandra (Curt A. Stark, 1915), she also proved to be an able comedienne, like in Gräfin Küchenfee (Robert Wiene, 1918) with Ernst Hofmann.

In 1916, Henny Porten's husband and director Curt Stark died on the Western Front.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 350/4. Photo: Becker & Maass / Messter Film, Berlin. Henny Porten in Rose Bernd (Alfred Halm, 1919), adapted from the eponymous play by Gerhard Hauptmann.


German postcard by Verlag Ross, Berlin, no. 356/4. Photo: Messter Film, Berlin. Henny Porten Die lebende Tote / The Living Dead (Rudolf Biebrach, 1919). Porten appeared in this film in a tableaux vivant-like series of 'Lebendes Porzellan' (living china).

German postcard by Ross Verlag, Berlin, no. 401/3, 1919-1924. Photo: Rembrandt Phot. / Messter Film, Berlin. Henny Porten in Anna Boleyn (Ernst Lubitsch, 1920).


German postcard Berlin by Ross Verlag, no. 594/4. Photo: Messter-Film. Henny Porten, Gustav Czimeg and Harry Liedtke in the German silent drama Irrungen (Rudolf Biebrach, 1919).


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 609/2. Photo: Messter-Film, Berlin. Henny Porten in the romantic comedy Ihr Sport / Her Sport (Rudolf Biebrach, 1919).


German postcard by Ross Verlag, Berlin, no. 630/3. Photo: Messter-Film, Berlin. Henny Porten in Rose Bernd (Alfred Halm, 1919), adapted from the eponymous play by Gerhard Hauptmann. The man with the white beard may be Werner Krauß as Rose's father. To the right, Emil Jannings as the brutal suitor Arthur Streckmann.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 633/2. Photo: Messter-Film. Henny Porten in the German silent period piece Monika Vogelsang (Rudolf Biebrach, 1920).


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no, 636/2. Photo: Messter Film. Henny Porten and Georg Alexander in Die Fahrt ins Blaue (Rudolf Biebrach, 1919). The film was scripted by Hanns Kräly and cinematographed by Willy Gaebel.


German postcard by Verlag Ross Film, Berlin, no. 639/1. Emil Jannings and Henny Porten in Kohlhiesels Töchter / Kohlhiesel's Daughters (Ernst Lubitsch, 1920).


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 640/2. Photo: Messter-Film. Henny Porten in Die goldene Krone (Alfred Halm, 1920).

Invitation for Hollywood

Henny Porten reached a new height of her screen career under the gentle guidance of Ernst Lubitsch, who cast her as the title character in Anna Boleyn (Ernst Lubitsch, 1920), a biopic on the ill-fated second wife of the English King Henry VIII (Emil Jannings), and the comedy Kohlhiesels Töchter / Kohlhiesel's Daughters (Ernst Lubitsch, 1920) in which Porten played both Liesel the ugly daughter as well as her beautiful sister Gretel.

The success of these films resulted in an invitation for Porten and her co-star Emil Jannings to come to Hollywood, but Henny remained in Germany. In March 1921, she established the company Henny Porten Films GmbH, and that year she also married doctor Wilheim von Kauffman.

After the box office hit Die Geierwally / Wally of the Vultures (Ewald André Dupont, 1921) with Wilhelm Dieterle, Porten produced the highly ambitious studio film Hintertreppe / Backstairs (Paul Leni, Leopold Jessner, 1921). While highly praised by critics, the film was financially unsuccessful.


In 1921, Henny Porten married Wilhelm von Kaufmann (1888–1959), a doctor of Jewish origin, then director of the Sanatorium 'Wiggers Kurheim', in Garmisch-Partenkirchen. From then on, he took charge of the production of Porten's films.

After three further years of rather unsuccessful films, Henny Porten's film company went bankrupt in 1923. Despite this, she continued to have a longstanding and prolific acting career throughout the 1920s with films like Gräfin Donelli / Countess Donelli (Georg Wilhelm Pabst, 1924), andMutter und Kind / Mother and Child (1924) with Friedrich Kayssler, the first of a series of films directed and produced by her former director of photography, Carl Froelich.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 645/8. Photo: Union Film. Henny Porten in Anna Boleyn (Ernst Lubitsch, 1920).


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 646/1. Photo: HPF (Henny Porten Film). Henny Porten in Die Geyer-Wally (E.A. Dupont, 1921), based on the novel by Wilhelmine von Hillern. The sets were by Paul Leni. Henny Porten as Wally.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 649/1. Photo: Henny Porten-Film. Henny Porten in the classic Kammerspiel film Hintertreppe (Leopold Jessner, 1921).


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 650/2. Photo: HPF (Henny Porten Filmproduktion). Henny Porten in Frauenopfer (Karl Grune, 1922).


German postcard by Ross Verlag, Berlin, no. 652/4. Photo: Henny Porten-Film. Henny Porten in Sie, und die Drei (E.A. Dupont, 1922).


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 656/2. Photo: Maxim-Film. Henny Porten and Harry Liedtke in Struensee / Der Liebe einer Königin (Ludwig Wolff, 1923).


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 659/1, 1923-1924. Photo: Rembrandt / Peter Paul Felner-Film Co. Henny Porten as Porzia (Portia) in Der Kaufmann von Venedig (Peter Paul Felner, 1923), based on the play 'The Merchant of Venice' by William Shakespeare.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 663/9. Photo: Hans Natge, Berlin. Henny Porten in Das alte Gesetz (E.A. Dupont, 1923).


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 666/1. Photo: Neumann. Henny Porten as Mary in the Biblical film I.N.R.I. (Robert Wiene, 1923).


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 671/3. Photo: Maxim-Film. Henny Porten in Das Geheimnis von Brinkenhof (Svend Gade, 1923).

To be continued tomorrow.

Sources: Thomas Staedeli (Cyranos), Hans J. Wollstein (AllMovie - Page now defunct), Denny Jackson (IMDb), Filmportal, Wikipedia and IMDb.

La Collectionneuse: Sally Phipps

Sally Phipps, a Wampas Baby star of 1927, was one of those young, cute and perky Hollywood actresses who graced the screen in the second half of the 1920s. However, her life and family history were probably more colourful than her movie career.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 1966/1, 1927-1928. Photo: Max Munn Autrey / Fox.


Austrian postcard by Iris Verlag, no. 913. Photo: Fox Film.

An interesting lineage

Sally Phipps was born as Nellie Bernice Bogdon on the 25th of May 1911 in Oakland, U.S.A.

Her parents were Albert Bogdon, a professional magician, and Edithe Lane.

Sally’s maternal grandmother, Nellie Cleary Phelps, was the daughter of one of the plural wives of William Wines Phelps, an early leader of the Latter Day Saint Movement and author of numerous Mormon hymns.

But Nellie distanced herself from Mormonism and became known for her civic activities in Oakland for many years, especially in connection with the well-being of working girls, the education and welfare of children, the chamber of commerce and the local elections. Her husband, Jacob Lane, edited several directories, including two of Hawaii, in 1888 and 1890, both dedicated to King Kalakaua, the penultimate Hawaiian monarch, whom he had met several times. The Lanes, incidentally, were famous writer Jack London’s friends.

In 1892, Nellie and Jacob adopted Sally’s mother, Edithe, who was not yet one year old.


Italian postcard by G.B. Falci Editore, Milano, no. 523. Photo: Max Munn Autrey / Fox Film Corp.

Winner of a beautiful baby contest

In 1913, Sally was placed in the house of neighbours Warren and Eva Sawyer, while her mother worked in an art photographic studio in San Francisco, as a colourist. That same year, she won a beautiful baby contest in Oakland.

The Sawyers worked at the Essanay film studios in Niles and suggested using Sally to play 'the baby' in a Broncho Billy short.

So, she made her film debut as Bernice Sawyer in Broncho Billy and the Baby (1915). Two other Western shorts opposite Broncho Billy followed: The Western Way (1915) and The Outlaw’s Awakening (1915).

Sally’s early film career ended following a serious stagecoach accident which happened during the filming of a picture, in which several people, including Eva Sawyer, were injured. Grandmother Nellie reckoned that the Essanay studios were not a safe place for a little girl and decided that Sally should live with her.

In 1916, Sally was chosen to take part with her grandmother in the 4th of July Celebration elaborate parade in Oakland, as an attendant to the Goddess of Liberty. The city was proud of its little movie star.


Italian postcard by G.B. Falci Editore, Milano, no. 529. Photo: Max Munn Autrey / Fox Film Corp.

A film contract at Fox

In January 1917, Albert Bogdon and Edithe Lane divorced, after several years of separation.

Albert enlisted in the U.S. Navy in April. He also gave up magic to build a new career as a lawyer. In 1924, he was elected State Senator of Colorado.

In 1922, Edithe remarried Albert Beutler, whom she later divorced in the 1930s. Sally and her brother Lane joined them, although they would never like their stepfather.

In 1924, the family lived in Los Angeles. A friend ot them was married to musician Danny Borzage. His brother was none other than famous director Frank Borzage, who arranged for Fox to give Sally a screen test.

It led to a movie contract, and the young girl was quickly renamed Sally Phipps.


Spanish postcard in the Kursaal series. Photo: Fox.


Italian postcard by G.B. Falci Editore, Milano, no. 352. Photo: Fox Film Corp.

Wampas Baby Star

Her film career at Fox started in 1925 with uncredited bit parts. She then appeared in two comedy shorts, Light Wines and Bearded Ladies (1926) and Big Business (1926).

Her career received a big boost when she was selected as one of the Wampas Baby Stars of 1927.

She got leading roles in Love Makes’Em Wild (1927), High School Hero (1927), Why Sailors Go Wrong (1928), The News Parade (1928) and None But the Brave (1928). She was also featured in the comedy shorts Girls (1927), The Kangaroo Detective (1927), A Midsummer Night’s Steam (1927), Cupid and the Clock (1927), Gentlemen Prefer Scotch (1927), Mum’s the Word (1927) and Hold Your Hat (1928). Her frequent co-star was then Nick Stuart.

In June 1927, Sally’s father, Senator Albert Bogdon, was shot dead by a jealous husband, who was finally convicted of involuntary manslaughter. Bogdon’s widow, Adele, was convinced it was a frame-up, arranged by his political enemies.

In 1929, Sally officially asked to have a legal guardian appointed, explaining that her stepfather badly handled her financial affairs. The Court ruled in her favour, and she moved out of her parents’ house.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 3841/1, 1928-1929. Photo: Fox.

Fox loses interest in Sally

At the end of the 1920s, Fox had somehow begun to lose interest in Sally, and she had to face strong competition from Sue Carol, another Fox contractee and a Wampas Baby star of 1928. Carol had a certain likeness to Sally and even sported the same kind of hairdo at one time. They were similar in type and were assigned the same kind of roles.

In 1928, Sally was slated to star in a sort of sequel to The News Parade but, when the film was finally released in 1929 as Chasing Through Europe, she was nowhere to be seen, and it was Sue Carol who headed the cast with Nick Stuart.

At the end of 1928, Sally started work on Scarehead, a film about the newspaper world, for which Fox had high hopes. But the movie, directed by Fred Newmeyer, was shelved. Benjamin Stoloff was assigned to rework it, and it finally came out as Protection (1929), with Dorothy Burgess replacing Sally as the female lead.

Sally performed a song for Fox Movietone Follies of 1929 (1929), directed so far by Marcel Sano. When Fox’s executives realised that there were too many unrelated musical numbers and no plot, they called David Butler to the rescue. He was asked to replace Marcel Sano and to bring some coherence to the project. Butler quickly devised a story and shot some new scenes. As a result, Sally’s specialty act was edited out from the final cut. However, various Fox cuties, such as Sue Carol, Sharon Lynn, Lola Lane and Dixie Lee, appeared in Fox Movietone Follies of 1929. It was rather obvious that other female players were given more chances than Sally.

All she could get from Fox at the time were supporting roles in Joy Street (1929) and The One Woman Idea (1929). After the short Detectives Wanted (1929), the option on her Fox contract was dropped.


Italian postcard by G.B. Falci Editore, Milano, no. 654.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 4492/1, 1929-1930. Photo: Fox.

Later acting career

Sally made a brilliant comeback on stage, as a movie-struck ingenue, in the Broadway hit 'Once in a Lifetime', which opened to rave reviews on the 24th of September 1930.

While playing in 'Once in a Lifetime', she appeared in her last film, a Vitaphone comedy short called Where Men Are Men (1931).

She left the play in May 1931 to marry Benedict Gimbel Jr., one of the wealthy brothers of a famous department store chain. In 1933, she decided to leave her philandering husband, and the divorce became final in June 1935.

After a Broadway flop, 'Knock on Wood', which lasted only 11 performances in 1935, Sally worked for a Shakespearean repertoire touring company in 1936.

At the end of the year, she was hired by the Federal Theatre Project in New York. She notably worked in clerical positions for their Research Department and performed in several of their radio broadcasts. She left in June 1939 and soon departed for India, where she stayed for a year. There she taught acting at a girls’ school, worked as a secretary and took part in radio shows.


Italian postcard by G.B. Falci Editore, Milano, no. 715. Photo: Fox Film.

Her unconventional later life

Back in New York, Sally met musician Alfred Harned and married him in 1941. They had a daughter, Maryanna, in 1942, and a son, Robert, in 1944.

In the mid-1940s, the family went to live in Hawaii, where Sally’s mother, who had become an expert in colouring black and white photographs, ran three photographic shops.

In 1946, Sally suffered a nervous breakdown and was hospitalised for several months. After she was discharged, she decided to live alone, leaving Maryanna and Robert to stay with their father. In 1950, she abruptly departed from Hawaii, deserting her husband and children.

She chose to live in Denver, where she worked for several years as a secretary for the McQuay-Norris Mfg. Co., a large motor parts company. After a brief stint as an amateur talent show director at the Redpath-Horner Company, she definitely settled in New York at the end of 1955. In 1956, the divorce between Sally and Alfred was finalised.

Sally got more secretarial jobs over the years and finally found a permanent position in 1963 at the Emerson Television and Radio Company. She worked as a private secretary to their National Service Manager in Jersey City, in the New York metropolitan area. She would stay there until she resigned in 1973.


Austrian postcard by Iris Verlag, no. 5534. Photo: Max Munn Autrey / Fox.

Reconnecting with her children

In 1959, Sally decided to meet her daughter in Cleveland, where the young girl, then a promising athlete, was slated to take part in a track competition.

Unfortunately, they were unable to re-establish a deep bond and only maintained a cordial correspondence thereafter, without rejoining again.

In 1967, there was a reunion with her son, Robert, whom she had not seen for seventeen years. They got along very well and stayed close for the rest of Sally’s life.

In 1976, she received an Award from the Rosemary Association, an organisation that paid homage to former silent stars.

Sally Phipps died from cancer on the 17th of March 1978.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 4855/1, 1929-1930. Photo: Fox.


Italian postcard by Foto Ebano.

Text and postcards: Marlene Pilaete.