Published by Ed. Le Deley (ELD)

Ernest Louis Désiré Le Deley was one of the leading French postcard publishers between 1900 and 1914. His Ed. Le Deley (ELD) in Paris published many theatre and film postcards. Here's the story of Ernest Le Deley and a selection of 21 ELD postcards.


Spanish edition by ELD of the postcard series Passion et mort de Notre Seigneur Jésus-Christ. Photo: Films Pathé Frères. This was the fourth part of the French silent film La Vie de Notre Seigneur Jésus-Christ (Maurice André Maître, Pathé Frères, 1913), with Jacques Norman playing Christ.


French postcard by M. Le Deley, Paris. Photo: Pathé. Publicity still from Les Trois Mousquetaires / The Three Musketeers (Henri Diamant Berger, 1921), based on the famous novel by Alexandre Dumas père, and produced by Pathé Consortium Cinéma.


French postcard by M. Le Deley, Paris. Photo: Pathé Consortium Cinéma. Gina Relly in L'empereur des pauvres / The Emperor of the Poor (René Leprince, 1922), an adaptation of the novel by Felicien Champsaur.

A man with a keen business sense

Ernest Louis Désiré Le Deley was born in 1859 in Mont Saint-Aignan in the Seine-Maritime department of Normandy. He was given the same first name as his father, a shoemaker. His mother was Sophie Victoire Flambart. In 1886, the 27-year-old Ernest Junior lived in Paris with Josephine Petit. The unmarried couple had two sons, Maurice Ernest and Joseph Louis. Ernest was a ‘phototypeur’ (a phototype printer). In the early 1890s, he worked for Edmond Laussedat’s factory and workshops in Châteaudun, some 130 km south of Paris, and later in Cloyes, some 12 km south of Châteaudun. In 1890, Ernest and Josephine were living in Cloyes and had a third son, Edmond Alfred, named after Edmond Laussedat.

In 1898, Ernest Le Deley took over Henri Racle’s phototype business at 73 Rue Claude Bernard in Paris. In 1886, André Quinsac had been the first to set up shop there as a ‘phototypeur’. Quinsac had a reputation as the ‘best’ phototype printer in France. He won gold medals at various international exhibitions. Following his death, Louis Rouillé and then Henri Racle took over the business and the collection. Both soon found themselves in debt and were eventually forced to sell everything.

Le Deley realised there has been a new medium in which phototype can be used: the picture postcard. In 1889, to mark the World’s Fair, 300,000 cards were printed featuring an engraving of the new Eiffel Tower. In the summer of 1891, Dominique Piazza from Marseille released the first postcard(s) featuring a photograph printed using phototype. Postcards thus became increasingly popular during the 1890s, though they were certainly not yet a craze. It was not until 1898 that the Almanach du Commerce de Paris included the ‘Cartes Postales’ section for the first time, listing only Adolph Philipp. A year later, there were already five. And that number would grow rapidly in the early 1900s. Le Deley recognised that the postcard might well become a best-selling item, and that phototype is the method of choice for printing cards with a sharp image. However, he was not primarily thinking of ‘postcards’ when he took over Racle’s business. He wanted to open a phototype printing works in Paris, like his friend Edmond Laussedat from Châteaudun, for whom he had worked for almost 10 years.

The 1899 edition of the Almanach du Commerce in Paris still lists Henri Racle at 73 Rue Claude-Bernard, but Ernest only took over the business at the end of 1898, which was already too late for the Almanach’s deadline. 1900 is therefore the first year in which he could have had an advertisement for his business placed in the Almanach. Under ‘Cartes Postales’, some 20 names can already be found, and Ernest is among them, but only with his name and address and a reference to the phototype section. There, his advertisement is considerably larger and, by a strange twist of fate and, above all, of the alphabet, he is placed directly beneath his former employer, Edmond Laussedat, who also has a studio in Paris. Ernest stated that he was the successor to Quinsac, the leading name in phototypie. Racle and Rouillé were omitted. He registered for the upcoming World Exhibition in Paris, running from 15 April to 12 November.

It soon became clear that Ernest Le Deley had a keen business sense and was determined to make a success of his enterprise. A year after taking part in the World’s Fair, he published a large-format album featuring 50 large-scale images from the exhibition. He also released the first volume in the series ‘France Pittoresque et Monumentale’. In 1902, Ernest was granted a 15-year patent for his ‘Stéromobile le merveilleux’, a device for viewing stereoscopic cards. Ernest then releases sets of 12 cards, packaged in an envelope, including a couple of lovely sets of Paris. Business is going well, and Ernest is running out of space on Rue Claude Bernard. In the course of 1902, he opened a new factory at 11–13 Rue des Arquebusiers. He now needed a shop for his postcards. The postcard craze really took off with the 1900 World’s Fair in Paris. The cards could be bought in bookshops, newsagents or kiosks, and in shops selling tourist souvenirs, but soon proper ‘postcard shops’ began to open as well. Some of these shopkeepers produced their own cards, but most sold picture postcards, fantasy cards, etc., which they purchased from various publishers, including Le Deley. In 1905, Ernest took over the entire stock and the postcard shop of Charles L'Hôpital on Boulevard Sébastopol, a prime location. He named it the 'Grand Comptoir de Carte Postale Illustrée. He also had his two 'factories' in Rue Claude Bernard and Rue des Arquebusiers.


French postcard by Ed. Le Deley, Paris. Gabrielle Réjane in the stage play 'Madame Sans-Gêne' by Victorien Sardou and Émile Moreau, performed at the Théâtre Moncey in Paris. Réjane starred as the outspoken laundress Catherine Hübscher, who later becomes the Duchess of Danzig. The play was written by Sardou and Moreau for Réjane and was first performed on 27th October 1893 at the Théâtre du Vaudeville in Paris, owned by her husband, Paul Porel. This card is for a later version, again with Réjane - even if Gallica does not indicate any staging of the play at this theatre with Réjane in the lead. After the first performances in 1893, Réjane would repeat the play several times at her own Théâtre Réjane, opened in 1906.


French postcard by Ed. Le Deley, Paris. Georges Dorival in 'L'Affaire des poisons', performed in 1907, by Victorien Sardou. French stage and screen actor Dorival or Georges Dorival (1871-1939) made triumphant tours as Le Coq (the coquerel) in Edmond Rostand's 'Chantecler'. He appeared in 26 films at Pathé Frères between 1909 and 1914 and was also a painter and an important art collector.


French postcard by ELD (Ernest Le Deley). Retirement home of the Association des Artistes Dramatiques in Pont-aux-Dames-Couilly (S.- and M.) M. Coquelin Ainé, Président. Benoît-Constant Coquelin (1841-1909), known as Coquelin aîné (Coquelin the Elder), was a French actor who was known as one of the greatest theatrical figures of the age.


French postcard by ELD (Ed. Le Deley). Scene from 'Chantecler' (1910) by Edmond Rostand. Act II. Les Nocturnes. Caption: Ode to the Night.


French postcard by Ed. Le Deley (ELD), no. 87. Félix Galipaux in the French stage play 'Chantecler' (1910), written by Edmond Rostand.

The peak of the postcard craze

Around 1905, ‘postcards’ were all the rage, particularly among the bourgeoisie, many of whose women and children began collecting them. Ernest Le Deley doesn’t just sell his cards in his shop. He has sales representatives who sell his cards all over France. He sends a card to the businesses he plans to visit. The heliotype printing business he took over from Henri Racle in Rue Claude-Bernard in late 1898 had grown into a large enterprise. In Rue des Arquebusiers alone, some 60 men were employed. On Sunday, 28 June 1908, a fire broke out in the workshop on Rue des Arquebusiers. There was particularly significant damage to the precision machinery and photographic equipment. Ernest stated that the 60 employees would not be left unemployed, but could work temporarily at the other factory on Rue Claude-Bernard.

A few years after opening his shop in Paris, Ernest also wanted to open branches, which he had run by a manager. An invoice from 1915 lists nine branches. The postcard craze reached its peak around 1907–1910. Between 1905 and 1910, the Bergeret company in Nancy produced between 90 and 100 million cards a year. Between 1900 and 1930, they are estimated to have printed a billion cards. No figures are available for Ernest Le Deley’s production, but he must undoubtedly have printed millions of cards as well. This was also necessary to be able to pay all his staff.

Ernest not only sells his maps to shopkeepers in France, but he also offers them the opportunity to publish postcards under their own name, which he prints. He can take all the hassle off their hands, enabling even shopkeepers in small villages to publish a series of picture postcards. Ernest does not limit himself to France in this regard; he also sends his sales representatives to Belgium. He usually publishes the postcards of the major cities himself.

On Friday 20 December 1913, another fire broke out at Ernest’s factory on Rue des Arquebusiers. This time, the damage amounted to 350,000 francs. The war did not dampen postcard sales. Publishers were able to print thousands of cards featuring photographs of soldiers, the front line, ruins, events, as well as propaganda and satirical cards. Many soldiers sent a card home from time to time. Ernest, too, produced a great many ‘war cards’. Ernest Le Deley would not live to see the end of the war. He died on 6 August 1917 at the age of 58 in his flat at 41 Rue Censier, some 700 metres from 73 Rue Claude-Bernard, where he had opened his printing business in late 1898.

With her sons serving in the army, Josephine Petit had to leave the day-to-day running of the shop and printing workshops in the hands of her staff until her sons returned. The eldest, Maurice Ernest, took over the management from April 1919. The golden age of the postcard was drawing to a close. Maurice, who had already been involved in the photographic side of the business before the war, now focused more on photography. In 1920, he had a stand at the 1st International Exhibition in Lille. He took photographs of all the stands and the surroundings, and inside his stand, he had a photo studio where visitors could have their photograph taken. A series of postcards was quickly printed in Paris from these photographs and sold at the exhibition.


French postcard by Ed. Le Deley (ELD) / GPL. Photo: Bert. Mme Simone as La Faisane (The Pheasant) in 'Chantecler' (1910), written by Edmond Rostand. French actress and writer Pauline Benda (1877- 1985) was known as Madame Simone or simply Simone. She made her debut in the theatre in 1902 and acted in plays by Luigi Pirandello and Henry Bataille. In 1898, she married stage actor Charles Le Bargy. She was 21 at the time, he 40. After divorcing Le Bargy, she took the name Madame Simone. In 1909, she married Claude Casimir-Perier, son of former president Jean Casimir-Perier. Alain-Fournier was her secretary and also her lover during this marriage, but he died as a conscript as early as 1914. In 1915, she married for the third time, this time to writer François Porché. In her younger life, she had often acted in Porché's plays. From 1930, she devoted herself to writing. Her last book was published in 1970.


French postcard by Ed. Le Deley (ELD) / GPL. Photo Bert. Lucien Guitry as Le coq (The Rooster), i.e. Chantecler in the stage play 'Chantecler' by Edmond Rostand. Lucien Guitry (1860-1925) was considered the preeminent French actor of his day. For many years, he played opposite Sarah Bernhardt. He also appeared in silent films like Tosca (1908) and Ceux de chez nous (1915). He was married to Jeanne Desclois and Renée de Pont-Jest, and his son was the well-known actor-writer-director Sacha Guitry.


Spanish edition by ELD of the postcard series Passion et mort de Notre Seigneur Jésus-Christ. This was the fourth part of the French silent film La Vie de Notre Seigneur Jésus-Christ (Maurice André Maître, Pathé Frères, 1913), with Jacques Norman playing Christ. Caption: The Death of Jesus.


Spanish edition by ELD of the postcard series Passion et mort de Notre Seigneur Jésus-Christ. Photo: Pathé Frères. This was the fourth part of the French silent film La Vie de Notre Seigneur Jésus-Christ (Maurice André Maître, 1913), with Jacques Norman playing Christ. ELD also issued three postcard series on the other three parts of the films: 1. Naissance de Jésus; 2. L'Enfance de Jésus; 3. Vie publique et miracles de Notre-Seigneur Jésus-Christ. A print of this film has been preserved by the Cinémathèque française. Caption: The Grave.


French postcard by Ed. Le Deley (ELD). Photo: Films Pathé-Frères. Henry Krauss as Jean Valjean, relentlessly pursued by the Justice, in Les Misérables (Albert Capellani, 1913). Sent by mail in 1916.


French postcard by Ed. Le Deley, Paris. Photo: Pathé Frères. Gaudin as Gavroche in Les Misérables (Albert Capellani, 1913), adapted from the famous novel by Victor Hugo. Caption: The Death of Gavroche. During the June Revolution of 1832, young Gavroche (Gaudin), son of the Thenardier couple, is killed while collecting bullets from deceased soldiers. On this card, he is shown as a revolutionary hero. This card is part of a booklet made by Le Deley with multiple portraits of the main actors and various scenes of the film.


French postcard by M. Le Deley, Paris. Photo: Pathé. Publicity still from Les Trois Mousquetaires / The Three Musketeers (Henri Diamant Berger, 1921), based on the famous novel by Alexandre Dumas père, and produced by Pathé Consortium Cinéma. On this card, the Three Musketeers and D'Artagnan, played by Henri Rollan as Athos, Charles Martinelli as Porthos, Pierre de Guingand as Aramis, and Aimé Simon-Girard as D'Artagnan. In the back, Armand Bernard as Planchet and Louis Pré fils as Grimaud.


French postcard by M. Le Deley, Paris. Photo: Pathé Consortium Cinéma. Still from Les Trois Mousquetaires / The Three Musketeers (Henri Diamant Berger, 1921). On the right side, Richelieu (Édouard de Max) is playing chess against, possibly, King Louis XIII. Left, Queen Anne of Austria (Jeanne Desclos). The silent super-serial Les Trois Mousquetaires / The Three Musketeers (1921) was the first film adaptation of the famous adventure novel by Alexandre Dumas père, published in 1844. It was a French twelve-hour film divided into one-hour chapters, designed to be released in consecutive weeks over a three-month period.


French postcard by Ed. Le Deley, Paris. Photo: U.C.I. / Gaumont / Tiber Film. Hesperia in Il figlio di Madame Sans-Gêne (Baldassarre Negroni, 1921), adapted from the novel by Émile Moreau. Here, Hesperia as Madame Sans-Gêne is portrayed similarly to François Gérard's portrait of Juliette Récamier.


French postcard by M. Le Deley, Paris. Photo: U.C.I. / Gaumont / Tiber Film. Hesperia and perhaps Luigi Rinaldi or Camillo de Rossi in Il figlio di Madame Sans-Gêne / The Son of Madame Sans-Gêne (Baldassarre Negroni, 1921), based on the novel by Émile Moreau.


French postcard by M. Le Deley, Paris. Photo: Pathé Consortium Cinema. Scene from the French silent film L'Empereur des pauvres (René Leprince, 1922), an adaptation of the novel by Felicien Champsaur, starring Léon Mathot, Gina Relly and Henry Krauss. The man down right on this card could be Mathot.


French postcard by M. Le Deley, Paris. Photo: Pathé Consortium Cinema. Gina Relly in L'Empereur des pauvres (René Leprince, 1922). The rich, young and spoiled Marc Anavan (Léon Mathot) decides to change his life, becomes a vagabond and starts doing good around him. He becomes the peaceful spokesperson for the disinherited, helped by the love of pure, young Sylvette (Gina Relly). Marc has to face revolution, anarchism and the Great War before retaking his humanitarian mission. In the end, he overcomes all the hardships on his way.


French postcard by Ets. Le Deley, Paris, for Gaumont-Metro-Goldwyn. Photo: Metro Goldwyn. Caption: a new screen star, Norma Shearer.

Source: Franki Olieu (Kortrijk in oude postkaarten - Dutch).

Le roi du bagne (1913) and Les larmes du pardon (1914)

Last Sunday, we had a post about two early silent films by the German Messter Film company. Ivo Blom had collected two series of small collector cards by the Spanish editor Reclam Films for the film. In this post, we present two Reclam Films series for two early French films, Le roi du bagne / The King of Prison (1913) and Les larmes du pardon / Tears of Forgiveness (1914), both produced by Pathé Frères. Gabrielle Robinne and Gabriel Signoret are the stars in both films.

Le roi du bagne (1913)

Spanish collector card by Reclam Films, Mallorca, card 1 of 6. Photo: Pathé Frères. Stacia Napierkowska in Le roi du bagne / The King of Prison (René Leprince, 1913).


Spanish collector card by Reclam Films, Mallorca, card 2 of 6. Photo: Pathé Frères. René Alexandre in the foreground in Le roi du bagne / The King of Prison (René Leprince, 1913).


Spanish collector card by Reclam Films, Mallorca, card 3 of 6. Photo: Pathé Frères. Jean Dax, Gabrielle Robinne and René Alexandre in Le roi du bagne / The King of Prison (René Leprince, 1913).

Crooked manoeuvres

The Pathé production Le roi du bagne / The King of Prison (René Leprince, 1913) had a remarkable cast with several leading early French film stars, including Gabrielle Robinne (1886-1980) and the exotic and fascinating actress and dancer Stacia Napierkowska (1886-1945).

Gabriel Signoret plays Monsieur Fernand Pradier, an enriched trader. He gives the hand of his daughter Germaine (Gabrielle Robinne) to St.-Bris, a wealthy banker (René Alexandre). What he does not know is how St.-Bris made his fortune.

In fact, St.-Bris, then known as Marquis de Pont d'Anson, was once a crook and avoided prison only by miracle. To make matters worse, a former accomplice (Jean Dax) resurfaces and manages to lead him astray again. But Elise Duvernoir, a young typist (Stacia Napierkowska), discovers their crooked manoeuvres...

Le roi du bagne / The King of Prison was first distributed in France in 1913. The Spanish distribution title was El Rey del Presidio.

The ten-minute silent drama was produced by Charles Pathé and co-written by director René Leprince and Maurice Mahut.


Spanish collector card by Reclam Films, Mallorca, card 4 of 6. Photo: Pathé Frères. Jean Dax, Gabriel Signoret, Gabrielle Robinne and René Alexandre in Le roi du bagne / The King of Prison (René Leprince, 1913).


Spanish collector card by Reclam Films, Mallorca, card 5 of 6. Photo: Pathé Frères. Gabriel Signoret and Gabrielle Robinne in Le roi du bagne / The King of Prison (René Leprince, 1913).


Spanish collector card by Reclam Films, Mallorca, card 6 of 6. Photo: Pathé Frères. Gabrielle Robinne, Stacia Napierkowska, Jean Dax and René Alexandre in Le roi du bagne / The King of Prison (René Leprince, 1913).

Les larmes du pardon (1914)

Spanish collector card by Reclam Films, Mallorca, card 1 of 6. Photo: Pathé Frères. Gabriel Signoret and Gabrielle Robinne in Les larmes du pardon / Tears of Forgiveness (René Leprince, Ferdinand Zecca, 1914).


Spanish collector card by Reclam Films, Mallorca, card 2 of 6. Photo: Pathé Frères. René Alexandre and Gabrielle Robinne (far left) in Les larmes du pardon / Tears of Forgiveness (René Leprince, Ferdinand Zecca, 1914).


Spanish collector card by Reclam Films, Mallorca, card 3 of 6. Photo: Pathé Frères. René Alexandre and Gabrielle Robinne in Les larmes du pardon / Tears of Forgiveness (René Leprince, Ferdinand Zecca, 1914).

A passionate letter

IMDb dates Les larmes du pardon / Tears of Forgiveness as 1919, but the film came out in France in 1914, five years earlier. In Spain, the film was released as Las Lagrimas del perdon.

Gabrielle Robinne, at the time at the peak of her film career, was again the leading lady. Her two co-stars of Le roi du bagne (1913), Gabriel Signoret and René Alexandre, both also returned. The film was again directed by René Leprince, now in co-direction with Ferdinand Zecca.

Dr. Meyret (Gabriel Signoret) is consumed by his profession, which he treats as a calling. He shuns the social obligations his wife, Élise Meyret (Gabrielle Robinne), so enjoys. She receives an invitation for that evening, but the doctor cannot attend.

She chooses a dress on the advice of her daughter, Yolande (Juliette Malherbe). The child is sad because her mother is not with them at the table. The father leaves for a consultation. At the party, Mrs. Meyret meets the Viscount d’Harsel (René Alexandre), who courts her. He invites her to a garden party hosted by his mother, and there, he manages to kiss Élise. She flees, afraid of what might follow. He writes her a passionate letter.

The doctor, who discovers the letter, banishes his wife. Shortly afterwards, Mme Meyret, after telling d’Harsel she no longer wishes to see him, rents a property next to her husband’s so she can see her daughter. The child, separated from her mother, wastes away. Mme Meyret manages to see the sick little girl by means of a ruse; she takes the place of the nun who is caring for the child. The doctor, recognising her, wants to drive her away again, but Yolande persuades her father to forgive her, and everything returns to normal.


Spanish collector card by Reclam Films, Mallorca, card 4 of 6. Photo: Pathé Frères. Gabrielle Robinne in Les larmes du pardon / Tears of Forgiveness (René Leprince, Ferdinand Zecca, 1914).


Spanish collector card by Reclam Films, Mallorca, card 5 of 6. Photo: Pathé Frères. Gabriel Signoret in Les larmes du pardon / Tears of Forgiveness (René Leprince, Ferdinand Zecca, 1914).


Spanish collector card by Reclam Films, Mallorca, card 6 of 6. Photo: Pathé Frères. Gabrielle Robinne (left) in Les larmes du pardon / Tears of Forgiveness (René Leprince, Ferdinand Zecca, 1914).

Sources: Sens critique (French) and IMDb.

Merna Kennedy

American actress Merna Kennedy (1908-1944) was best known for her debut as the lovely circus rider in Chaplin’s classic The Circus (1928). She acted in dozens of early sound films till she married Busby Berkeley.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 2090/1, 1928-1929. Photo: United Artists. Merna Kennedy in The Circus (Charles Chaplin, 1928).


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 4719/1, 1929-1930. Photo: Universal. Merna Kennedy in Broadway (Paul Fejos, 1929).

An innocent and abused circus acrobat

Merna Kennedy was born Merna Kahler in 1908 in Kankakee, Illinois, USA. Her parents were Maud (née Reed) and John Kahler, a German-American butcher-turned-chiropractor. After her parents separated, her mother moved the family to California, where she married a grocer two years later. She changed their name to Kennedy. At the outbreak of World War I, their mother prepped seven-year-old Merna and brother Melvin Merle ‘Bud’ to tour as a dancing and singing sibling act on the Orpheum and Pantages theatre circuits of Vaudeville.

At dance school in 1916, Merna became acquainted with Lita Grey, who, in 1924, became the second Mrs Chaplin. They remained friends throughout the time of Merna’s tours and Lita’s first few appearances as an extra for Charlie Chaplin. When Merle broke his leg, it ended the duo. Grey suggested silent films to Merna and sent her husband to see her in the musical comedy ‘All For You’ in Los Angeles.

Chaplin selected Merna as his leading lady for The Circus (Charles Chaplin, 1928). She had red hair and muscular legs due to being a dancer, and this helped her gain the role of the circus bareback rider. The friendship with Lita Grey ended in 1927 when Grey found out about the affair between Merna and her husband.

Cliff Aliperti at Immortal Ephemera: “Production on The Circus was cursed by interruptions and distractions, including a fire that blazed through the studio and Chaplin’s divorce from Lita Grey, who listed Merna among a handful of well-known Hollywood actresses whom she accused her husband of having an affair. The gossip columns showed no mercy despite Merna’s insistence that she was already involved with actor James Hall by this time.”

In The Circus, the Tramp finds work and the girl of his dreams at a circus. Kennedy played the owner's lovely stepdaughter, circus rider Merna, who is abused by her father. Bethany Cox at IMDb: “The Circus, while it is very funny, is also very sweet and beautiful. It looks lovely and has a beautiful score. I also loved the recurring despondent theme of love, which provided The Circus's more touching moments, but there are also some truly brilliant slapstick set-pieces, especially when Chaplin walks a tightrope with falling trousers and a clinging monkey, while the chase through the hall of mirrors and the scene in the lion's cage are also inspired.”


German postcard by Ross Verlag, Berlin, no. 90/3, 1925-1935. Photo: United Artists. Charlie Chaplin in The Circus (1928). Collection: Didier Hanson.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 1502/1, 1927-1928. Photo: United Artists. Merna Kennedy in her costume of The Circus (Charles Chaplin, 1928).

The wasteland of indie leads and bit roles for the majors

The Circus was a troubled production, but it did well at the box office. For a couple of years, Merna Kennedy starred in some notable films. The first was the all-talkie Broadway (Pál Fejös, 1929) in which she co-starred opposite Glenn Tryon and Evelyn Brent. Cliff Aliperti: “While Broadway wasn’t the smash it was on, ahem, Broadway, where it ran over 600 performances, it was a success, mostly because of innovative new equipment and director Fejös’s skilful technique. That said, Broadway didn’t do much for Merna Kennedy, who’s stuck in the thankless part of the sugary ingenue that the lead hoofer tries to win back from the nefarious gangster. For all of its pretty camera work, Broadway’s divide is a bit sharp for my tastes: the spectacularly filmed musical numbers more or less interrupt a static and overlong backstage mob story.”

Universal began teaming her with her Broadway leading man, Glenn Tryon, and the two can also be seen together for a brief few moments in Merna’s third most impressive credit, King of Jazz (John Murray Anderson, Walter Lantz, 1930), with Paul Whiteman. She appeared in three additional films opposite Tryon at Universal before moving on to the wasteland of indie leads and bit roles for the majors.

By 1932, she was playing leads in such mediocre films as the Western Ghost Valley (Ted Allen, 1932) and the Gangster film The Big Chance (Albert Herman, 1933). She appeared with Pat O’Brien and Gloria Stuart in the crime drama Laughter in Hell (Edward L. Cahn, 1933) and with James Cagney and Bette Davis in the screwball comedy Jimmy the Gent (Michael Curtiz, 1934) as Jitters, a wisecracking secretary. Other interesting pictures included Son of a Sailor (Lloyd Bacon, 1933) with Joe E. Brown, and Wonder Bar (Lloyd Bacon, Busby Berkeley, 1934) with Al Jolson. The latter was one of Warner's biggest hits of the year.

Merna Kennedy retired from acting in 1934 to marry choreographer/director Busby Berkeley, after a total of 28 films. Studio executive Jack Warner was one of the witnesses. It was rumoured that Busby was a maternal uncle and that his mother did not see the marriage as fit for her son. The marriage broke down because of ‘mental abuse’. The couple divorced in 1936. Her alimony settlement from Berkeley amounted to $7,500 to be paid at a rate of $100 a week.

In 1944, she married in Las Vegas Master Sergeant Forrest Brayton, for whom she is said to have waited three years while he served in the Pacific. Only four days later, she died of a heart attack in Los Angeles. She was just 36. She is buried with her four-year-old older brother, Bud Kennedy, who died in 1950, in Inglewood Park Cemetery in Los Angeles. Merna Kennedy will be remembered as the innocent and abused circus acrobat whom Chaplin falls for in The Circus.


French poster postcard by Editions ZREIK, Paris, no. 3. Belgian poster by Delko, Anvers, for Universal Pictures. Merna Kennedy in Broadway (Pál Fejös, 1929). The poster was taken from 'Souvenirs d'Hollywood' by Ed. Alternatives, 1986.


French postcard by Cinémagazine-Edition (CE), Paris, no. 513. Photo: United Artists.


British postcard in the Colourgraph Series, London, no. C 24.

Sources: Cliff Aliperti (Immortal Ephemera), Bethany Cox (IMDb), Trav S.D. (Travalanche), Wikipedia (Dutch, German and English), and IMDb.

Greta Nissen

Norwegian-American Greta Nissen (1906–1988) was a blonde bombshell who appeared in more than 30 films in Denmark, the United States and England. Unfortunately, she is now most famous for a role which was re-shot with another actress.


Austrian postcard by Iris Verlag, no. 878. Photo: Paramount-Film.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 3071/1, 1928-1929. Photo: Paramount / FaNaMet.


French postcard by Cinémagazine-Edition, Paris, no. 283. Photo: Paramount. Greta Nissen in The Wanderer (Raoul Walsh, 1925).


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 3081/1, 1928-1929. Photo: Max Munn Autrey / Fox.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 3173/1, 1928-1929. Photo: Max Munn Autrey / Fox.


Dutch Postcard, no. 458. Photo: Hal Payfe / Fox Film.


British postcard. Photo: British International Pictures (BIP).

Pat & Patachon

Grethe Rüzt-Nissen was born in Oslo, Norway, in 1906 (some sources say 1905). She was the daughter of Carl Andreas Frantz Nissen and Agnes Magdalene Larsen. After her parents divorced, her mother took her to Copenhagen, Denmark,

In 1911, her mother managed to get Grethe as a student at the Det Kongelige Teater's (Royal Theatre) student school, after having 'made' her a year older. Grethe made her stage début as a member of the corps de ballet at the Royal Theatre. Some years later, when the famous choreographer and dancer Mikhail Fokin (or Michel Fokine) came to Denmark after the Russian Revolution, he invited her to come to Paris, and she studied with him from 1918 to 1919. In 1922, she performed a series of acclaimed Fokine evenings in Norway.

Grethe made her screen début in the Danish comedies Daarskab, Dyd og Driverter / Folly, Virtue and Idler (Lau Lauritzen, 1924), followed by Lille Lise let-paa-taa / The Little Dancer (Lau Lauritzen, 1924), two vehicles for the comedy team of Fy og Bi, aka Pat & Patachon. These two comedies would be her only films in Scandinavia.

In 1924, she went to New York with a Danish ballet troupe, and there the blonde looker received an offer to appear on Broadway in George S. Kaufman and Marc Connelly's lavish revue 'Beggar on Horseback'. She changed her name to Greta Nissen. Later, she worked for the famed Flo Ziegfield in the 1926 production of 'No Foolin'.

Only 19 years old, she was discovered by Jesse L. Lasky of Paramount Pictures, who signed her to a contract. Making her American screen debut as Greta Nissen in In the Name of Love (Howard Higgin, 1925) with Ricardo Cortez and Wallace Beery, Nissen was singled out by critic Mordaunt Hall of the New York Times, who found her 'an appealing and clever actress with a striking personality'.


Swedish postcard by Eneret Mittet & Co, no. 13. Collection: Didier Hanson.


French postcard by Cinémagazine-Edition, Paris, no. 283. Photo: Paramount. Greta Nissen in The Wanderer (Raoul Walsh, 1925).


French postcard by Editions Cinémagazine, no. 328. Greta Nissen in Blind Alleys (Frank Tuttle, 1927).


French postcard by Editions Cinémagazine, no. 382. Greta Nissen in In the Name of Love (Howard Higgin, 1925).


Italian postcard, no. 452. Photo: Films Paramount. Publicity still for Lost: A Wife (William C. de Mille, 1925).


Italian postcard, no. 736. Photo: SAI Films Paramount, Roma, Greta Nissen perhaps as the seductive high priest Tisha in The Wanderer (Raoul Walsh, 1925).


Italian postcard by Casa Editrice Ballerini & Fratini, Firenze (Florence), no. 458. Photo: SAI Filmo Paramount, Roma. Publicity still for The Wanderer (Raoul Walsh, 1925) with William Collier. Collection: Didier Hanson.


Italian postcard by Casa Editrice Ballerini & Fratini, Firenze (Florence), no. 740. Photo: SAI Filmo Paramount, Roma. Publicity still for The Wanderer (Raoul Walsh, 1925).


Italian postcard by Casa Ed. Ballerini & Fratini, Firenze, no. 2525. Photo: Paramount. Greta Nissen in The Lucky Lady (Raoul Walsh, 1926).


Italian postcard by Cinema-Illustrazione, Milano, Series 1, no. 22. Photo: Fox Film. Cinema Illustrazione was an Italian popular film journal that existed between 1926 and 1939.

Hell's Angels

Greta Nissen played in several sophisticated comedies with Adolphe Menjou, like The Wanderer( Raoul Walsh, 1925), also with William Collier and Blonde or Brunette (Richard Rosson, 1927).

She became an exotic seductress in such costume extravaganzas as The Lady of the Harem (Raoul Walsh, 1926) and Fazil (Howard Hawks, 1928) opposite Charles Farrell.

MGM, meanwhile, borrowed her for The Love Thief (John McDermott, 1926), to replace Greta Garbo. Among her other successful potboilers were Lost: A Wife (William C. de Mille, 1925), The Lucky Lady (Raoul Walsh, 1926) and The Popular Sin (Malcolm St. Clair, 1926).

In 1927, Nissen was the original choice as the leading lady of Hell's Angels (1930), Howard Hughes' stunt-flying extravaganza set during World War I. This epic film could have made her a major contender.

Filming was well underway when it was decided that the film would be remade with sound. Unfortunately, Greta was replaced because of her heavy Norwegian accent. Nissen had made $2500 a week when filming Hell's Angels, and her replacement, Jean Harlow, worked for only $250. The film shot Harlow to stardom, and Nissen lost much work due to the advent of sound films.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, Berlin, no. 1760/1, 1927-1928. Photo: Parufamet.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 1829/2, 1927-1928. Photo: Parufamet.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 2029/1, 1927-1928. Photo: Parufamet. Greta Nissen in The Popular Sin (Malcolm St. Clair, 1926).


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 3575/1, 1928-1929. Photo: Fox.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 3575/2, 1928-1929. Photo: Autrey / Fox.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 3837/1, 1928-1929. Photo: Fox.


British postcard by Ross Verlag Foreign, no. 3917/1, 1928-1929. Photo: Fox. Publicity still for Fazil (Howard Hawks, 1928) with Charles Farrell.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 5824/2, 1930-1931. Photo: Fox.

B-films and quota quickies

Rebounding somewhat with a contract from Fox, Greta Nissen eventually proved that her accent could easily have been turned into an asset, but the fallout from the Hell's Angels debacle followed her for the remainder of her film career.

She starred or co-starred in a series of B-films which included the lame Women of All Nations (Raoul Walsh, 1931), the Will Rogers comedy Ambassador Bill (Sam Taylor, 1931), the mystery drama The Circus Queen Murder (Roy William Neill, 1933) again opposite Adolphe Menjou, and the George O'Brien Western Life in the Raw (Louis King, 1933).

In 1933, she moved to England, where she appeared in a few ‘quota quickies’, including On Secret Service (Arthur B. Woods, 1933) and Honours Easy (Herbert Brenon, 1935) with Margaret Lockwood.

In 1934, she also appeared at the Palace Theatre in London in the original version of Agnes de Mille's ballet Three Virgins and a Devil, performed in the revue 'Why Not Tonight?' After the Spy film Cafe Colette (Paul L. Stein, 1937), she retired and returned to the US.

Divorced from former Fox contract star Weldon Heyburn, Nissen married in 1941 industrialist Stuart Eckert, and she lived quietly in California. Greta Nissen died at home in Montecito, California, of Parkinson's disease in 1988. She was 82. Her husband said she still received fan letters. Greta had one son, Tor Bruce Nissen Eckert, who in 2005 gave his large collection of Greta Nissen Memorabilia to the Norwegian Emigrant Museum in Ottestad, Norway.


Austrian postcard by Iris Verlag, no. 358/1. Photo: Paramount-Film.


Austrian postcard by Iris Verlag, no. 358/3. Photo: Paramount Film. Greta Nissen in The Wanderer (Raoul Walsh, 1925).


Spanish postcard in the Estrellas del cine series by Editorial Grafica, Barcelona, no. 137. Photo: Fox.


Austrian postcard by Iris Verlag, no. 5035. Photo: Autrey / Fox.


Austrian postcard by Iris-Verlag, no. 5037. Photo: Autrey / Fox.


British postcard in the Colourgraph Series, London, no. C 184. Photo: Fox.


British postcard in the Picturegoer Series, London, no. 264.


British postcard in the Picturegoer Series, London, no. 264b.


British postcard by Film Weekly. Photo: Radio / RKO. Phil Harris, Chick Chandler and probably Greta Nissen in Melody Cruise (Mark Sandrich, 1933). Melody Cruise is a pre-Code romantic musical comedy about a bachelor millionaire, Alan Chandler (Phil Harris), hunted by women aboard a cruise liner. Charles Ruggles plays his best friend and womaniser, Pete. Greta Nissen plays Elsa von Rader (Alan's mundane friend). Chick Chandler plays the steward Hickey, whom Pete has bribed to prevent Alan from marrying. Helen Mack is Laurie Marlowe (Alan's new friend). Melody Cruise was Sandrich's breakthrough as a feature filmmaker.


British card in the Keepin Series by Radio Hair Grips. Photo: BIP (British International Pictures Limited). Greta Nissen and Ivan Samson in Honours Easy (Herbert Brenon, 1935). Caption: Radio Hair Grips for long or short waves.


Italian postcard in the series 'Sport e Spettacolo - I divi più amati' by Instituto Geografico de Agostini S.p.A., Novara, 1996. Reprint of an Italian postcard by Casa Ed. Ballerini & Fratini, Firenze, no. 2526. Photo: Films Paramount. Greta Nissen in The Lucky Lady (Raoul Walsh, 1926), released in Italy as La principessa bionda (The Blonde Princess).

Sources: Hans Otto Christian Arent (Store Norske Lexikon - Norwegian), Hans J. Wollstein (AllMovie - Page now defunct), Denny Jackson (IMDb), Allure, Pat M. Ryan (Dance Chronicle), Thomas Staedeli (Cyranos), Wikipedia and IMDb.