Teri Hatcher

American actress, writer, presenter and singer Teri Hatcher (1964) is most known as Lois Lane on the television series Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman (1993–1997), as Paris Carver in the James Bond film Tomorrow Never Dies (1997), and as Susan Mayer on the TV series Desperate Housewives (2004–2012). For the latter, she won a Golden Globe Award, three Screen Actors Guild Awards and a nomination for an Emmy Award.


Vintage postcard by Film Posters & Merchandising, no. 948. Photo: DC Comics, 1993. Teri Hatcher and Dean Cain in Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman (1993-1997).


British postcard by London Postcard Company, no. EO 00709 (series 1 set of 12). Photo: Eon Productions / Danjaq, LLC / United International Productions / United Artists. Teri Hatcher and Pierce Brosnan in Tomorrow Never Dies (Roger Spottiswoode, 1997). Caption: Bond and Paris.


French postcard by Carte postale Arthelius in the Collection Desperate Housewives, no. 01. Teri Hatcher in Desperate Housewives (2004-2012).

Well ask Dick!

Teri Lynn Hatcher was born in 1964 in Palo Alto, California. She was the only child of Esther (née Beshur), a computer programmer who worked for Lockheed Martin, and Owen Walker Hatcher, Jr., a nuclear physicist and electrical engineer. Hatcher took ballet lessons at the San Juan School of Dance in Los Altos and grew up in Sunnyvale, California. At De Anza College, she studied mathematics and engineering.

In March 2006, Hatcher alleged that she was sexually abused from the age of five by Richard Hayes Stone, an uncle by marriage whom Hatcher's aunt later divorced. She said her parents were unaware of the abuse at the time. In 2002, she assisted Santa Clara County prosecutors with their indictment of Stone for a more recent molestation that had led his female victim, Sarah Van Cleempunt, to die by suicide at the age of 14. Sarah left behind a note that said "You're probably thinking a normal teenager doesn't do this; well, ask Dick!" Dick was Richard Hayes Stone, Hatcher's uncle, who had been a trusted family friend of the Van Cleemputs and both families had vacationed together.

Hatcher contacted prosecutors and, with a tape recording running, Hatcher explained in detail how her uncle, then-husband of her mother's sister, allegedly molested her in the late 1960s and early 1970s when she was no more than 7. After prosecutors gave the defence a transcript of Hatcher's interview, Stone, then 64 years old, pleaded guilty, leaving no need for a trial or a court appearance for Hatcher. He pleaded guilty to four counts of child molestation and was sentenced to 14 years in prison. Chuck Gillingham, the Santa Clara County deputy district attorney in California, said, "Without Teri, this case would have been dismissed." In an interview with Vanity Fair for their April 2006 edition, Hatcher revealed that at the time she talked to the authorities, she was afraid that if her story came out in the tabloids, she would be seen as a has-been actress seeking publicity. "At the end of the day, there was no way I was not going to put this girl first, before whatever damage might be done to me," Hatcher told the magazine. "But my fear is far outweighed by what I know is my obligation to help other victims of sexual abuse not feel alone." Stone died of colon cancer in 2008, having served six years of his sentence.

Teri Hatcher studied acting at the American Conservatory Theatre. One of her early jobs (in 1984) was as an NFL cheerleader with the San Francisco 49ers. From September 1985 to May 1986, she joined the cast of the TV series The Love Boat, playing the role of Amy, one of the Mermaid showgirls. This role mainly involved dancing and singing as part of the Mermaids' weekly show routine, but had short comedic lines in some episodes, and in one episode, she was part of one of the three main storylines. From 1986 to 1989, she appeared in six episodes of the TV series MacGyver as talkative but naive Penny Parker opposite Richard Dean Anderson's eponymous hero. In 1987, she played the sensible, intelligent 18-year-old daughter of Patty Duke's lead character in the short-lived comedy Karen's Song and had a guest-star role in an episode of Night Court. In 1988, she made a short guest appearance in Star Trek: The Next Generation as Lt. Robinson. In 1989, she guest-starred in episodes of Quantum Leap and L.A. Law.

She made her film debut with a minor role in the comedy The Big Picture (Christopher Guest, 1989) starring Kevin Bacon, and then played Sylvester Stallone's dancer younger sister in the big-budget, police action-comedy Tango and Cash (Andrei Konchalovsky, 1989), co-starring Kurt Russell. It was a critical and box office disappointment. She returned to television for parts in an episode of Murphy Brown (1990), the Norman Lear comedy series Sunday Dinner (1990) opposite Robert Loggia, and the TV crime movie Dead in the Water (Bill Condon, 1991) with Bryan Brown. In the cinema, she was among the all-star cast of the comedy Soapdish (Michael Hoffman, 1991) and appeared in the romantic comedy Straight Talk (Barnet Kellman, 1992) starring Dolly Parton. She also starred in the low-budget erotic thriller The Cool Surface (Erik Anjou, 1992-1994), which was not released until 1994.


Spanish collector card by Accion.


Belgian postcard in de 'De 50 mooiste vrouwen van de eeuw' (The 50 most beautiful women of the century) series by P magazine, no. 38. Photo: Michael Grecco /I.D. Press. The October 1996 issue of American film magazine Movieline originally had a cover with this picture of her wearing nothing but a rope wrapped around her. This proved too controversial, and a second cover picture (of Hatcher in a dress) was substituted.

The most downloaded image on the Internet

Teri Hatcher made a much-discussed guest appearance on a 1993 episode of Seinfeld, in which her character, Sidra, breaks up with Jerry because she believes Jerry sent his friend Elaine into a sauna to ascertain if Sidra's breasts were natural or enhanced by surgery. She returned to play Sidra in brief scenes in two subsequent episodes. Then Hatcher landed a starring role opposite Dean Cain in the TV series Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman (1993-1997) as the Daily Planet reporter Lois Lane. At the height of the show's popularity in 1995, a picture of Hatcher wrapped in a Superman cape was reportedly the most downloaded image on the Internet for several months.

Hatcher played a villain in two crime dramas: the ensemble 2 Days in the Valley (John Herzfeld, 1996), a moderate box office success, and Heaven's Prisoners (Phil Joanou, 1996), co-starring Alec Baldwin, which failed at the box office. Then Hatcher won the role of Paris Carver in the James Bond film Tomorrow Never Dies (Roger Spottiswoode, 1997). It was the second Bond film to star Pierce Brosnan as the fictional MI6 agent. The film follows Bond as he attempts to stop Elliot Carver (Jonathan Pryce), a power-mad media mogul, from engineering world events to initiate World War III. Hatcher was three months pregnant at the filming's start, by her then husband, Jon Tenney.

She was voted the world's sexiest woman by readers of the popular men's magazine FHM in spring 1997 after having been number four in 1996. Hatcher also appeared in the psychological thriller Fever (Alex Winter, 1999) starring Henry Thomas, and Spy Kids (Robert Rodriguez, 2001) starring Antonio Banderas and Carla Gugino. From 2014 to 2012, Teri Hatcher played one of the lead roles on the TV series Desperate Housewives, in which she starred as divorced mother Susan Mayer. For her role, she won the Best Actress in a Musical or Comedy Golden Globe Award in 2005. Later that year, Hatcher won the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) award in the same category. In July 2005, she was nominated for an Emmy award as Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series, along with co-stars Marcia Cross and Felicity Huffman. In 2006, Hatcher was one of the highest-paid television actresses in the United States, reportedly earning $285,000 per episode of Desperate Housewives.

In 2006, she released her first book, 'Burnt Toast: And Other Philosophies of Life'. She voiced the Other Mother, a mysterious, button-eyed figure, as well as Coraline's mother, Mel Jones, who constantly shows Coraline "tough love," both in the hit film Coraline (Henry Selick, 2009), which received critical acclaim. In 2010, Hatcher made a return to the Superman franchise, with a special guest role in the final season of Smallville as Ella Lane, the mother of Erica Durance's Lois Lane. The episode continued a tradition of former Lois Lane actresses portraying the character's mother many years later. Hatcher voiced Dottie in the Disney film Planes (Klay Hall, 2013) and Planes: Fire & Rescue (Bob Gannaway, 2014).

In 2016, Hatcher had a recurring role as Charlotte, a successful single mother who becomes Oscar's (Matthew Perry) love interest in the second season of the comedy series The Odd Couple. In 2017, Hatcher appeared as Queen Rhea of Daxam in a recurring role on the TV series Supergirl. Teri Hatcher married Marcus Leithold in 1988; they divorced the following year. In 1994, she married actor Jon Tenney; they had a daughter, Emerson Rose, in 1997, and divorced in 2003. Her more recent films include the crime comedy Madness in the Method (Jason Mewes, 2019), and the TV movies How to Fall in Love by Christmas (Michael Kennedy, 2023), and The Killer Inside: The Ruth Finley Story (Greg Beeman, 2024).


British postcard by London Postcard Company, no. EO 00706 (series 1 set of 12). Photo: Eon Productions / Danjaq, LLC / United International Productions / United Artists. Teri Hatcher and Pierce Brosnan in Tomorrow Never Dies (Roger Spottiswoode, 1997). Caption: James Bond and Paris.


Vintage postcard. Photo: Danjaq, LLC / United International Productions / United Artists. Teri Hatcher and Pierce Brosnan in Tomorrow Never Dies (Roger Spottiswoode, 1997).


Dutch postcard by Film Freak Productions, Zoetermeer, no. FA 463. Photo: Eon Productions Limited & Danjaq, LLC, 1997. Pierce Brosnan, Teri Hatcher and Michelle Yeoh in Tomorrow Never Dies (Roger Spottiswoode, 1997).

Sources: Wikipedia and IMDb.

Sybil Smolowa

Sybil Smolowa (1886-1972) was an Austrian-Czech dancer and film actress. She started as a dancer in Riga and Warsaw and then moved to Berlin. In the 1910s and 1920s, she appeared in several Danish and German silent films. One of her last films was the lesbian-themed Anna und Elisabeth/Anna and Elisabeth (1933).


German postcard by Photochemie, Berlin, no. K. 145. Photo: Alex Binder, Berlin.


German postcard by Photochemie, Berlin, no. K. 146. Photo: Alex Binder, Berlin.


German postcard by NPG. no. 432. Photo: Alex Binder. Collection: Didier Hanson.

In shame

Sybil Smolowa (or Sybill Smolowa, Sibyl Smolova and Sybil Smolova) was born Anna Marie Josefa Smolová in 1886 in Chlumetz an der Cidlina, Austria-Hungary (according to IMDb, she was born in Prague). She was the daughter of the innkeeper Benjamin Smola and his wife Anna, née Jarkovská, and grew up in the small village of Val in the foothills of the Orlické Mountains. Her brother was the stage actor and stage director Benjamin Smola. She studied fine arts in Dresden and Vienna and took acting lessons with Karel Želenský.

In 1910 she appeared - at that time still as Anneta Smolová - at literary evenings in the context of the Moderní revue in Prague, attracting the attention of Franz Kafka and Max Brod, who considered her “a particularly great talent”. The Czech writer Miloš Marten dedicated two works to her and suggested the stage name, Sibyl.

Through the mediation of the playwright František Zavřel, Smolowa soon received an engagement with Max Reinhardt in Berlin, where she again attracted the interest of leading figures in the artistic scene. Alfred Kerr described his meeting with her, which was arranged by Edgar Varèse, in the magazine Pan. Klabund dedicated two poems to her as well as his story 'The Illness', whose main character, the fictional actress Sybil Lindquist, is probably a homage to her.

Sybil Smolowa was engaged at the Lessing Theater in Berlin. After playing Solveig in a performance of 'Peer Gynt', she was engaged for the leading female role in the sensational Science Fiction film Der Schienenweg unterm Ozean / The Railway under the Ocean (Siegfried Dessauer, Kurt Matull, 1914), based on the novel 'Der Tunnel' (1913) by Bernhard Kellermann. The production costs totalled around 180,000 Marks.

Actor-director Friedrich Zelnik spotted her and she appeared opposite him in the film Seelen, die sich nachts begegnen / Souls who Meet at Night (Eugen Illés, 1915), produced by the Danish studio Atlantic. Smolowa played a rich girl who gets 'in shame' (pregnant). Happily, she meets a student (Zelnik) who takes care of her and teaches her to love. From then on, the white-blonde artist found her main activity in silent films, where she preferred to play “strong dramatic, very fantastic roles for women and girls” (Die Frau im Film, p. 22).


German postcard by Verlag Hermann Leiser, Berlin-Wilm, no. 9821. Photo: Elli Lisser, Berlin W.


German postcard by Verlag Hermann Wolff, Berlin, no. F. 70. Photo: A. Binder, Berlin.

Lesbian-themed sound film

Sybil Smolowa co-starred with Eduard von Winterstein, Erika Glässner and Reinhold Schünzel in the silent German drama Werner Krafft (Carl Froelich, 1916), produced by Oskar Messter. In Sweden, Smolowa made Vägen utför / The Road Downhill (Georg af Klercker, 1916) and I mörkrets bojor / In the Fetters of Darkness (Georg af Klercker, 1917).

Then followed films like Im Schatten des Glücks / In the Shadow of Happiness (Robert Leffler, 1919) with Hans Adalbert Schlettow, and the two-partner Kinder der Finsternis / Children of Darkness (Ewald André Dupont, 1922) with Grit Hegesa and Hans Mierendorff.

From the mid-1920s, things became quieter for the Czech actress, who shifted the focus of her artistic activities back to the stage. She performed at the Deutsches Theater Berlin, Renaissance Theater, and Theater in der Klosterstraße.

After the Nazis seized power, she remained in the German capital and appeared in two of Frank Wysbar's films the lesbian-themed sound film Anna und Elisabeth / Anna and Elisabeth (Frank Wysbar, 1933) with Dorothea Wieck and Hertha Thiele, and the Horror film Fährmann Maria / Ferryman Maria (Frank Wysbar, 1934) starring Sibylle Schmitz.

In 1934, she was also heard in a live radio reading of detective plays. After her Berlin apartment was bombed out in an air raid in 1943, she returned to her homeland and initially went to Prague. After the end of the war, she moved back to Val, where she joined the local amateur theatre group. Sybil Smolowa spent the last years of her life with her niece in Prague. She died in 1972 in the Bohnice Psychiatric Clinic in Prague, Czechoslovakia, and was buried in the Krem.


German postcard by NPG, no. 935. Photo: Elli Lisser, Berlin.


German postcard by Photochemie, Berlin, no. 2296. Photo: Zander & Labisch, Berlin. Collection: Didier Hanson.

Sources: Thomas Staedeli (Cyranos), Wikipedia (German and English) and IMDb.

Jean Yonnel

Jean Yonnel (1891-1968) was a French stage and screen actor of Romanian origin. He acted with Mounet-Sully and Sarah Bernhardt and was one of the last tragedy players of the grand tradition of the actors from the turn-of-the-century. In the cinema, he became known as Musketeer D'Artagnan in the silent serial Vingt ans après / The Return of the Musketeers (1922).


French postcard by Editions Cinémagazine, no. 45. Photo: Pathé Consortium. Jean Yonnel as D'Artagnan in Vingt ans après / The Return of the Musketeers (Henri Diamant-Berger, 1922).


French postcard in the Nos artistes dans leur loge series, no. 287. Photo: Comoedia.


French postcard. Photo: G.L. Manuel Frères. Caption: Yonnel, Sociétaire de la Comédie Française.

Tragic and romantic Jeune Premier

Jean Yonnel was born Estève Schachmann in 1891 in Bucharest, Romania.

After his stage debut at the Théâtre de l'Odéon, he worked at the Gymnase and the Théâtre Sarah-Bernhardt, where he created 'La Gloire' by Maurice Rostand. In 1926, he was engaged at the Comédie-Française, where he was a sociétaire for over 25 years, from 1 January 1929 to 31 December 1955.

For years, he played the tragic and romantic Jeune Premier. Yonnel was the favourite performer of Henry de Montherlant, who created for him the part of King Ferrante in 'La Reine morte', a role he played 330 times. Some of the classic roles in the repertory of the Comédie, he also played dozens of times, such as Oreste in Jean Racine’s 'Andromache', Mithridate in Racine’s 'Mithridate', Don Saluste de Bazan in 'Ruy Blas' by Victor Hugo, and in particular Don Diego in 'El Cid' by Pierre Corneille, which he played 212 times between 1949 and 1963.

After being nominated teacher at the Conservatoire National Supérieur d'Art Dramatique, he taught the classic tradition there from 1947 to 1962. According to Noëlle Guibert and Jacqueline Razgonnikoff in the 'Dictionnaire des comédiens français', he was "a demanding, rigorous and terribly honest actor".

Between 1913 and 1966, Jean Yonnel acted in French cinema. Probably his first part was in the Gaumont production Le crime enseveli / The Buried Crime (Henri Fescourt, 1913), where he had the lead. In 1915 he acted in Abel Gance’s Film d’Art production Strass et compagnie / Strass and Company, with Harry Baur en Emile Keppens. In 1917 Yonnel had again leads in Les lois du monde / The Laws of the World (Fanny Liona, 1917), and La flamme cachée / The Hidden Flame (Roger Lion, Musidora, 1918).


French postcard. Photo: Pathé. Béatrice Bretty as La belle hôtelière, Jean Yonnel as D'Artagnan, and Armand Bernard as Planchet in Vingt ans après / The Return of the Musketeers (Henri Diamant-Berger, 1922).


French postcard. Photo: Pathé. Jean Yonnel as D'Artagnan, Charles Martinelli as Porthos, and Jean Périer as Cardinal Mazarin in Vingt ans après / The Return of the Musketeers (Henri Diamant-Berger, 1922).


French postcard by Cine Max Linder, Paris. Photo: Jean Yonnel in Les Nuits blanches de St-Petersbourg / Kreutzer Sonata (Jean Dréville, 1938).

The new D’Artagnan

Jean Yonnel became well-known when he played D’Artagnan in the sword and dagger serial Vingt ans après / The Return of the Musketeers (Henri Diamant-Berger, 1922), a sequel to Diamant-Berger’s Les trois mousquetaires (1921). Both were based on Alexandre Dumas’ homonymous novels on the adventures of D’Artagnan, the fourth musketeer.

While most actors of the cast from Les trois mousquetaires were kept in the sequel – Henri Rollan as Athos, Charles Martinelli as Porthos and Pierre de Guingand as Aramis, Armand Bernard as their aid Planchet - Yonnel substituted the original D’Artagnan, played by Aimé Simon-Girard.

Despite the large budget, the fine sets by Mallet-Stevens and costumes by Paul Poiret, the film didn’t mean an intense career in silent cinema for Yonnel. His only silent film afterwards was a major part in the Alphonse Daudet adaptation Jack (Robert Saidreau, 1925), in which young Jean Forest played the title role.

Jean Yonnel became much more active in French sound cinema. He played in 9 films in the 1930s. He acted opposite Pola Negri in the period piece Fanatisme (Tony Lekain, Gaston Ravel, 1934), opposite Marcelle Chantal in the abortion melodrama Amok (Fyodor Otsep, 1934), based on Stefan Zweig’s story 'Letter from an unknown woman', and opposite Pierre Fresnay and Elisa Landi in Königsmark / Crimson Dynasty (Maurice Tourneur, 1935). He had the lead in the colonial drama L’appel du silence / The Call of Silence (Léon Poirier, 1936), co-starring Pierre de Guingand and Suzanne Bianchetti.

Then followed Les nuits blanches de Saint-Petersbourg / Kreutzer Sonata (Jean Dréville, 1938), with Gaby Morlay, and Les 3 tambours (Maurice de Canonge, 1939), co-starring Jacques Brécourt. During the war, Yonnel did not act in the film, but in the years after he played in several films until the mid-1950s. These were always minor parts, as in the Franco-German co-production Marianne de ma jeunesse / Marianne of My Youth (Julien Duvivier, 1955), shot in Bavaria and starring Marianne Hold. One of his last roles was as the father of Bourvil in the comedy Un drôle de paroissien / Heaven Sent (Jean-Pierre Mocky, 1963). Jean Yonnel died in Paris in 1968. He was 77.


Vintage photo by Harcourt, Paris. French staging of the play 'Iphigénie en Tauride', based on Goethe, directed by Jean Yonnel and performed by the actors of the Comédie française in 1942. Georges Marchal as Pylades and Renée Faure.


Vintage photo by Harcourt, Paris. French staging of the play 'Iphigénie en Tauride', based on Johan Wolfgang Goethe and translated by Pierre Colombier, directed by Jean Yonnel and performed by the actors of the Comédie française as of 10 April 1942. Mary Marquet as Iphigenia and Louis Seigner as Arkas. Sets and costumes by Jean-Gabriel Daragnès.


French postcard by EC, no. 98. Photo: Pathé Natan.


French postcard by A.N., Paris, no. 969. Photo: Pathé Natan.

Sources: Wikipedia (French and English) and IMDb.

Robin Hood on stage and on screen

The legend of the heroic British outlaw Robin Hood and his Merry Men has inspired many authors and filmmakers over the years. The Medieval Robin was a highly skilled archer and swordsman in Sherman Forrest in Nottinghamshire. In some versions of the legend, he was of noble birth, and in modern retellings, he had fought in the Crusades before returning to England to find his lands taken by the Sheriff. But in the oldest known versions, he was a member of the yeoman class, ranking between the peasantry and the landed gentry. Traditionally Robin is dressed in green and he is robbing the rich to give the loot to the poor. Film producers especially love the fact that his character is in the public domain so there is no restriction on his use. In this post, we give a glimpse of Robin Hood on stage and screen with our postcards.


British postcard by Rotary Photo, E.C., no. 4222 C. Photo: Foulsham & Banfield. Lewis Waller in the stage production 'Robin Hood' (1906).


Dutch card. Photo: Warner Bros. Errol Flynn in The Adventures of Robin Hood (Michael Curtiz, William Keighley, 1938).


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 4632/2, 1929-1930. Photo: United Artists. Douglas Fairbanks in Robin Hood (Allan Dwan, 1922).


Belgian postcard by Editions Corna, Bruxelles (Brussels), no. 3303. Image: Walt Disney Productions. Publicity still for Robin Hood (Wolfgang Reitherman, 1973).


French postcard, no. A085. Kevin Costner in Robin Hood - Prince of Thieves (Kevin Reynolds, 1991).

Robin Hood on stage

Whether Robin Hood really existed is unclear. The name is not found in official documents. Most critics still assume it is a fictional story largely based on Ballads. However, similar names and stories do circulate of three figures that may have inspired the legend. One fact is that Sherwood Forest was known as a haven for outlaws. They set traps to make others think the forest was bewitched.

The earliest preserved script of a Robin Hood play is the fragmentary 'Robyn Hod and the Shryff off Notyngham', which dates to the 1470s. Many versions followed. William Shakespeare makes reference to Robin Hood in his late-16th-century play 'The Two Gentlemen of Verona'. Robin Hood appeared on the 18th-century stage in various farces and comic operas. Alfred, Lord Tennyson would write a four-act Robin Hood play at the end of the 19th century, 'The Forrestors'. And Walter Scott featured Robin in his novel 'Ivanhoe' in 1819.

In the 19th century, the Robin Hood legend was first specifically adapted for children. Influential was Pierce Egan the Younger's 'Robin Hood and Little John', which was adapted into French by Alexandre Dumas in 'Le Prince des Voleurs' (1872) and 'Robin Hood Le Proscrit' (1873). Egan made Robin Hood of noble birth, but he was raised by the forester Gilbert Hood. Another very popular version for children was Howard Pyle's 'The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood', which influenced accounts of Robin Hood through the 20th century. Pyle presented Robin as a staunch philanthropist, a man who takes from the rich to give to the poor. Robin takes no stand against Prince John and plays no part in raising the ransom to free Richard. These developments are part of the 20th-century Robin Hood myth. Pyle's Robin Hood is a yeoman and not an aristocrat.

In the early 20th Century, British stage actor Lewis Waller had a smash hit on the West End with 'Robin Hood' (1906), a play written by Henry Hamilton and actor-author William Devereux. 'Robin Hood' was Devereux's first play, and he also played the role of King John. He later wrote romantic plays such as 'Henry of Navarre' (1908), 'Sir Walter Raleigh' (1909) and the 'Wooing of Katherine Parr' (1927) and the film script for The Lifeguardsman (1916). 'Robin Hood' ran for 163 performances (as well as matinees) at the Lyric Theatre in London in 1906 and the next year, it was performed in Melbourne and in New York.

One year later, director Percy Stow made the English short film Robin Hood and his Merry Men (Percy Stow, 1908) for the Clarendon Film Company. It was the first in a wave of early Robin Hood films. In 1912 followed the American short Robin Hood (Herbert Blanche, Etienne Arnaud, 1912). In this 30-minute film, Robert Frazer starred as Robin Hood and Barbara Tennant as Maid Marian. That same year, British and Colonial films produced Robin Hood Outlawed (1912) with Brian A. Plant in the lead role and Ivy Martinek as Maid Marian. Then followed the American production Robin Hood (1913) with William Russell as Robin Hood, Gerda Holmes as Maid Marian, and John Dillon as the sheriff of Nottingham, and the English film In the Days of Robin Hood (1913), shot in and around Nottingham, and in Kinemacolor, with Harry Agar Lyons as Robin Hood. However, the best silent film version still had to come.


British postcard by Rotary Photo E.C., no. 4222F. Photo: Foulsham & Banfield. Lewis Waller in the play 'Robin Hood' (1906) by Henry Hamilton and William Devereux. Lewis Waller (1860-1915) was best known as a matinee-idol in the popular romantic plays of his day. He also worked as a playwright and stage manager and appeared in several films.


British postcard by Rotary Photo E.C., no. 4222H. Photo: Foulsham & Banfield. Lewis Waller in 'Robin Hood' (1906). The play by Henry Hamilton and William Devereux was performed at the Lyric Theatre in London. Evelyn Millard played Maid Marian.


British postcard by Rotary Photo, no. 4359 G. Photo: Foulsham & Banfield. Evelyn Millard as Maid Marian in the British play Robin Hood, first performed in November 1906.


British postcard by Rotary Photo, no. 4261 F. Sent by mail in 1907. Photo: Foulsham & Banfield. Ethelbert Edwards in 'Robin Hood'. In the Autumn of 1997, Ethelbert Edwards as Robin Hood and Fyfe Alexander as Lady Marian toured in the play. Their tour started in Blackpool. Ethelbert's performance was a huge success and led to his West End debut, a stint on Broadway and success as a film star under the name Henry Edwards.

Robin Hood on screen

The first screen production to include all the elements that later appeared in several Robin Hood films was the silent black and white production Robin Hood (1922) by director Allan Dwan. The full title under which the film was released was Douglas Fairbanks in Robin Hood. Douglas Fairbanks was not only the star of the film but was also responsible for the screenplay and the production. The film had a budget of $1 million, making it one of the most expensive films of the 1920s. A huge castle set, largely built of wood, wire, and plaster, and an entire 12th-century village of Nottingham were recreated at the Pickford-Fairbanks Studio in Hollywood for the film. Some sets were designed by architect Frank Lloyd Wright. Fairbanks produced the film with his company Douglas Fairbanks Film Corporation for United Artists, which he had founded with Mary Pickford, David Wark Griffith and Charlie Chaplin.

Robin Hood had its premiere at Grauman's Egyptian Theatre in Los Angeles on 18 October 1922. The film was a smash hit and generally received favourable reviews. The public loved Douglas Fairbanks in his role as Robin Hood, Enid Bennett as Lady Marian, Sam De Grasse as Prince Jan and Wallace Beery as King Richard. Alan Hale, Sr., even impressed audiences so much in his role of Little John that he got to play the role again 16 years later in the sound version of The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938). Then Alan Hale, Sr., played the character again opposite John Derek as Robin Hood in Rogues of Sherwood Forest (Gordon Douglas, 1950), 28 years after his initial performance in the original Fairbanks film.

The Adventures of Robin Hood (Michael Curtiz, William Keighley, 1938), starring Errol Flynn and Olivia de Havilland, had a budget of $2 million and was the first Warner Bros. film to be shot in three-strip Technicolour. The film marked a major turnaround for Warner Bros., which had hitherto been best known for low-budget crime films. The film received four Oscar nominations, winning three — Best Art Direction (Carl Jules Weyl), Best Film Editing (Ralph Dawson) and Best Original Score (Erich Wolfgang Korngold). In total, the film brought in $4 million and was the sixth-best-selling film of the year. Errol Flynn thrilled the public as the legendary hero. The Adventures of Robin Hood portrayed Robin as a hero on a national scale, leading the oppressed Saxons in revolt against their Norman overlords while Richard the Lionheart fought in the Crusades. The film established itself so definitively that many studios resorted to films about his son, who was invented for that purpose, rather than compete with the image of this classic.

In the animated Disney classic Robin Hood (Wolfgang Reitherman, 1973), the title character is portrayed as a fox. Years before Robin Hood had even entered production, Walt Disney had considered doing a project on 'Reynard the Fox', but due to concerns that Reynard was unsuitable as a hero, animator Ken Anderson adapted some elements from Reynard into Robin Hood and created the first Disney film with an entirely non-human cast. Taking place in a world populated by anthropomorphic animals, the story follows the adventures of Robin Hood, Little John, and the inhabitants of Nottingham as they fight against the excessive taxation of Prince John, and Robin Hood wins the hand of Maid Marian. The film received mixed reviews from critics, but it was nonetheless a box-office success, grossing $33 million worldwide against a production budget of $5 million. The film's reputation has grown positively over time and has since become a cult classic.

Since the 1980s, it has become commonplace that the Merry Men include a Saracen. The trend started with the character Nasir in the 1984 Robin of Sherwood television series. Later versions of the story have followed suit. In Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves (1991), starring Kevin Costner as Robin, a version of Nasir appears in the person of Azeem, played by Morgan Freeman. Critic Roger Ebert praised the performances of Morgan Freeman and Alan Rickman as the villainous Sheriff of Nottingham, but ultimately decried the film as a whole: "Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves is a murky, unfocused, violent, and depressing version of the classic story... The most depressing thing about the movie is that children will attend it expecting to have a good time." Despite receiving mixed reviews from critics, the film was a box office success, grossing $390.5 million worldwide, making it the second-highest-grossing film of 1991. Spoofs followed the trend of the Saracen. Mel Brooks' comedy Robin Hood: Men in Tights (1993) featured Isaac Hayes as Asneeze and Dave Chappelle as his son Ahchoo. Robin Hood (Otto Bathurst, 2018), a badly received modern retelling of the Robin Hood legend, portrays the character of Little John as a Muslim named Yahya, played by Jamie Foxx. Robin Hood was nominated for three Razzies for Worst Remake, Worst Supporting Actor for Foxx, and Worst Picture.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 4429/2, 1929-1930. Photo: United Artists. Douglas Fairbanks in Robin Hood (Allan Dwan, 1922). American actor Douglas Fairbanks (1883-1939) was best known for his swashbuckling roles in silent films such as The Mark of Zorro (1920), Robin Hood (1922), and The Thief of Bagdad (1924).


French postcard in the Les Vedettes de Cinéma series by A.N., Paris, no. 84. Photo: United Artists. Douglas Fairbanks on the set of Robin Hood (1922), with Charlie Chaplin and Max Linder.


French postcard, no. 764. Photo: Warner Bros. Errol Flynn as Robin Hood in The Adventures of Robin Hood (Michael Curtiz, William Keighley, 1938).


Spanish postcard by Sobe, no. 437. Olivia de Havilland as Maid Marian in The Adventures of Robin Hood (Michael Curtiz, 1938).


Italian postcard by Grafiche Biondetti S.R.L., Verona, no. 121. Image: Walt Disney Productions. Publicity still for Robin Hood (Wolfgang Reitherman, 1973). The twenty-first Disney animated feature film is an imaginative version of the Robin Hood legend. Fun and romance abound as the swashbuckling hero of Sherwood Forest and his valiant sidekick Little John plot one daring adventure after another to outwit the greedy Prince John.


Belgian postcard by Editions Corna, Brussels, no. 5/3303. Image: Walt Disney Productions. Sent by mail in 1978. Publicity still for Robin Hood (Wolfgang Reitherman, 1973). Maid Marian and Robin had once been sweethearts as children but were forced to part ways when she moved to London. But she is mistaken: Robin can't stop thinking about her. But since Robin is an outlaw, he and Marian have to wait for marriage.


Vintage postcard, no. 2036. Kevin Costner as Robin in Robin Hood - Prince of Thieves (Kevin Reynolds, 1991). This Warner Bros film was the once-in-a-generation Robin Hood film of its time, a classic even if it did not quite reach the level of the 1922 and the 1938 versions.


Vintage card. Morgan Freeman as Azeem in Robin Hood - Prince of Thieves (Kevin Reynolds, 1991).

Sources: International Robin Hood Bibliography, Robin Hood - the Facts and the Fiction, Wikipedia (English and Dutch) and IMDb.

Coleen Gray

American actress Coleen Gray (1922-2015) played 'good girls' in such classics as the Western Red River (1946), the Film Noir Kiss of Death (1947) and Stanley Kubrick's The Killing (1956). Still, she never became as big a star as many thought she should have.


French postcard by Editions P.I., La Garenne-Colombes, no. 216. Photo: Paramount, 1949.


British postcard in the Picturegoer Series, London, no. W. 824. Photo: 20th Century Fox.

'Too much for a woman? Put your arms around me, Tom. Hold me.'

Coleen Gray was born Doris Bernice Jensen in Staplehurst, Nebraska, in 1922. Her parents, Arthur and Anna Jensen, were strict Lutheran Danish farmers. After graduating from Hutchinson High School, as Doris Jensen studied art, literature, and music at Hamline University, and graduated summa cum laude with a Bachelor of Arts. She travelled to California and enrolled at UCLA.

She had leading roles in the Los Angeles stage productions 'Letters to Lucerne' and 'Brief Music', which won her a 20th Century Fox contract, a seven-year deal at $150 a week in 1944. She then changed her name to Coleen Gray, sometimes billed as Colleen. After playing a bit part in the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical State Fair (Walter Lang, 1945), she became pregnant and briefly stopped working.

Gray played her first significant role alongside John Wayne and Montgomery Clift in the Western Red River (Howard Hawks, 1946-1948). Ronald Bergan writes in his obituary of Gray in The Independent: "In the lyrical Howard Hawks Western, Gray imbues her one scene, in which John Wayne bids her farewell before heading west, with great force and tenderness. 'I want to go with you,' she says. 'I’m strong. I can stand anything you can.'

'It’s too much for a woman,' he replies. 'Too much for a woman? Put your arms around me, Tom. Hold me. Feel me in your arms. Do I feel weak, Tom? I don’t, do I?' Gray is memorably last seen isolated in long shot as the wagon train pulls out."

In 1947, she not only had a significant role opposite Victor Mature and Richard Widmark in the Film Noir Kiss of Death (Henry Hathaway, 1947) but also performed the important role of Molly alongside Tyrone Power and Joan Blondell in the cult classic Nightmare Alley (Edmund Goulding, 1947). This was followed in 1950 by a leading role opposite Bing Crosby in the comedy Riding High (Frank Capra, 1950). Riding High was not a success, and Fox ended her contract in 1950.


Vintage collector card. Photo: 20th Century Fox. Coleen Gray and Victor Mature in Fury at Furnace Creek (H. Bruce Humberstone, 1948).

A more nuanced proto-feminist film than the cheesy title suggests

In the following years, Coleen Gray worked steadily, but mostly in smaller films, including several Film Noirs. Ronald Bergan: "Gray, with her pretty features, slightly pointed nose and wide eyes, was often the only ethical or innocent element in the dark, doom-laden crime dramas." She played a crooked nurse in the Film Noir The Sleeping City (George Sherman, 1950) with Richard Conte. In Kansas City Confidential (Phil Karlson, 1952), she was a corrupt cop’s law student daughter, who brings romance into the life of a man (John Payne) unjustly accused of a robbery. She was in a relationship with John Payne from 1952 to 1953.

In Stanley Kubrick's The Killing (1956), she was the faithful girlfriend of a criminal (Sterling Hayden), who waited five years for him to be released from prison, and who gets drawn reluctantly into a heist. An exception to her 'good girl' roles was the Western Tennessee’s Partner (Allan Dwan, 1955) in which she played a gold digger who tries to trap a cowboy (Ronald Reagan) into marriage for his money.

In the early 1960s, leading roles followed in the B-Horror film The Leech Woman (Edward Dein, 1960) and the Science-Fiction film The Phantom Planet (William Marshall, 1961), both released in double feature shows. Bergan calls The Leech Woman "a more nuanced proto-feminist film than the cheesy title suggests. Gray, as a neglected ageing wife of a scientist, goes to darkest Africa where she discovers an elixir of youth, which entails killing men for their hormones. In the process, she gets her revenge on her despicable husband, who loved her only as long as she was young and beautiful."

Parallel to her film career, Gray was a regular on television, particularly as a guest star on Western series such as Maverick, Have Gun – Will Travel, Rawhide, The Virginian and Bonanza. Her work on television became more and more dominant through the 1960s and 1970s after the films tailed off. Her last film role was that of Marian in Cry From The Mountain (James F. Collier, 1985).

Gray married three times. Her first marriage, to producer and director Rod Amateau, ended in divorce (1945-1949). In 1953, she married aviation executive William Clymer Bidlack, who died in 1978. Her third marriage was in 1979 with biblical scholar Joseph 'Fritz' Zeiser, who died in 2012. She had a daughter, Susan Amateau, from her first marriage, and a son, Bruce Robin Bidlack, from her second marriage. Coleen Gray died in 2015 at the age of 92 and was buried in Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery in Los Angeles, beside Fritz Zeiser.


Dutch postcard by Van Leer's Fotodrukindustrie N.V., Amsterdam. Photo: Paramount Pictures.


Dutch postcard by Sparo (Gebr. Spanjersberg N.V., Rotterdam). Photos: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. The picture stars are Judy Garland, Betty Hutton, Vivian Blaine (twice), Monica Lewis, Pier Angeli, Ann Blyth and Mario Lanza, Coleen Gray, and Jane Powell. The postcard must date from ca. 1951, when Blyth and Lanza starred together in The Great Caruso (Richard Thorpe, 1951).

Sources: Ronald Bergan (The Independent), Bill Hafker (IMDb), Wikipedia (Dutch and English) and IMDb.

Howard Keel

American actor and singer Howard Keel (1919-2004), was one of MGM's great musical stars, known for his rich bass-baritone singing voice. He was the hero in such musicals as Annie Get Your Gun (1950), Show Boat (1951), Kiss Me Kate (1953), Seven Brides for Seven Brothers (1954), and Kismet (1955). After a period of B-Westerns and alcoholism, he gained fame again for his role as oil baron Clayton Farlow in the TV series Dallas (1981-1991).


British postcard in the Greetings series. Photo: M.G.M.


Belgian postcard, no. 352. Howard Keel in Show Boat (George Sidney, 1951).


Italian postcard by B.F.F. Editore, no. 2682. Photo: M.G.M. (Metro Goldwyn Mayer).

MGM's answer to Gordon MacRae

Harold Clifford Keel was born in Gillespie, Illinois, in 1919. He was the younger of two sons born to Navyman-turned-coalminer Homer Keel and his wife, Grace Margaret (née Osterkamp). Howard's elder brother was Frederick William Keel. His childhood was unhappy. His father was a hard-drinking coal miner, and his mother a stern, repressed Methodist homemaker. When Keel was 11, his father died, and Keel and his mother moved to San Diego in California.

He graduated from Fallbrook High School at age 17. He then held a variety of jobs until he finally got permanent employment with the Douglas Aircraft Company. It was his landlady who pointed out to 20-year-old Keel that he had a good singing voice. On her advice, he took singing lessons to improve himself. In 1941, he played the role of Samuel the Prophet in 'Saul', an oratorio by Handel. He got more roles and started specialising in musicals. In 1945, he sang in 'Carousel' and 'Oklahoma!'

He performed for some time with 'Oklahoma!' with great success in England, where he also used his stage name ‘Howard Keel’ for the first time. Keel also made his film debut in England with the Film Noir The Small Voice (Fergus McDonell, 1948), starring Valerie Hobson. He played an escaped convict holding a playwright and his wife hostage in their English country cottage. The film received a BAFTA nomination for Best British Film in 1949.

After his successes in London, Keel returned to the US. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer was looking for an answer to Warner Bros.' Gordon MacRae and contracted Howard Keel. The studio cast him as Frank Butler in the film version of Irving Berlin's Annie Get Your Gun (George Sidney, 1950), co-starring Betty Hutton. The film was a big hit, and

Howard Keel became one of MGM's major musical stars. The studio put him with Esther Williams in Pagan Love Song (Robert Alton, 1950), which was successful, but not as profitable as most Esther Williams films because it went over budget.


Vintage card. Photo: M.G.M. Howard Keel in Pagan Love Song (Robert Alton, 1950).


Spanish postcard by Archivo Bermejo, no. 4820. Photo: M.G.M. Howard Keel and Betty Hutton in Annie Get Your Gun (George Sidney, 1950). The Spanish title was La reina del oeste.


British postcard in the Picturegoer Series, London, no. D 421. Photo: Warner Bros. Doris Day and Howard Keel in Calamity Jane (David Butler, 1953).

Miss Ellie's second husband

Howard Keel had a third hit in a row with the comedy Three Guys Named Mike (Charles Walters, 1951), supporting Van Johnson and Jane Wyman. Even more popular was Show Boat (George Sidney, 1951), where Keel played the male lead with Kathryn Grayson and Ava Gardner. He played lead roles in Kiss Me Kate (George Sidney, 1953) with Kathryn Grayson, Seven Brides for Seven Brothers (Stanley Donen, 1954) starring Jane Powell, and Kismet (Vincente Minnelli, Stanley Donen, 1955) with Ann Blyth.

Other studios were also interested, and Keel was hired by Warner Bros. to play Wild Bill Hickok opposite Doris Day in Calamity Jane (David Butler, 1953). After his contract with MGM expired, Keel returned to his first love, the stage. In 1957, he was in a short-lived revival of 'Carousel'. With changing tastes of American audiences, there was less and less work for him. In Great Britain, he made the thriller Floods of Fear (Charles Crichton, 1959) with Anne Heywood. He returned to Hollywood to play Simon-Peter in the Biblical epic The Big Fisherman (Frank Borzage, 1960).

Howard Keel went to Europe to make the low-budget war drama Armored Command (Byron Haskin, 1961) with Tina Louise. In England, he starred in the Sci-Fi Horror film The Day of the Triffids (Steve Sekely, Freddie Francis, 1962). Back in the United States, Keel performed in nightclubs and acted in B-movies, mostly Westerns. The best known is The War Wagon (Burt Kennedy, 1967) with John Wayne and Kirk Douglas. It featured Keel as a wisecracking Indian. Howard Keel started drinking, which eventually cost him his second marriage.

In the early 1970s, he married Judy Magamoll, twenty-five years younger, who helped him fight his alcoholism. He even played another role in the musical 'Ambassador', but the production flopped. His health had been affected by the drink, though, and in 1986 he underwent double bypass surgery. Meanwhile, he had also become involved in the medium of television. After an appearance in an episode of the TV series The Love Boat, he was asked for the television series Dallas after the death of Jim Davis. In 1981, he got the role of oil baron Clayton Farlow, Miss Ellie's second husband, in the fourth season. Keel quickly became popular with the role and would stay on until Dallas disappeared from the screen in 1991. In later years, he continued to appear in concerts. As a result of this renewed fame on TV, Keel landed his first solo recording contract with 'And I Love You So' in 1983.

He returned to the screen as one of the hosts of the compilation film That's Entertainment! III (Bud Friedgen, Michael J. Sheridan, 1994), which was released by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer to celebrate the studio's 70th anniversary. It was the third and final series of retrospectives that began with the first That's Entertainment! (1974) and That's Entertainment, Part II (1976). Howard Keel married three times. In 1943, he met and married actress Rosemary Cooper. They divorced in 1948. During the London run of 'Oklahoma!, Keel met Helen Anderson, a member of the show's chorus, and they married in January 1949. Keel and Helen divorced in 1970. Keel married airline flight attendant Judy Magamoll in 1970. In 1994, Keel and Magamoll moved to Palm Desert, California. There, Howard Keel died of colon cancer in 2004. Keel had four children: three with Helen Anderson (two daughters, Kaija Liane and Kirstine Elizabeth; and a son, Gunnar Louis) and one by his third wife, Judy Magamoll (a daughter, Leslie Grace), and 10 grandchildren.


British postcard in the Picturegoer Series, London, no. D. 416. Photo: Warner Bros. Philip Carey, Doris Day and Howard Keel in Calamity Jane (David Butler, 1953).


British postcard in the Picturegoer Series, London, no. D 417. Photo: Warner Bros. Doris Day and Howard Keel in Calamity Jane (David Butler, 1953).


British postcard in the Picturegoer Series, London, no. D 420. Photo: Warner Bros. Doris Day and Howard Keel in Calamity Jane (David Butler, 1953).

Sources: Gary Brumburgh (IMDb), Wikipedia (Dutch and English) and IMDb.