La Collectionneuse: Judy Holliday

Judy Holliday was considered one of the greatest comic actresses of the Golden Age of Hollywood. George Cukor, who directed her five times, held her acting in high esteem and considered her 'a master of comedy' and a 'true artist'. He declared, "Like all the great clowns, Judy Holliday could also move you. She made you laugh, she was a supreme technician, and then suddenly you get touched. She could interpret a text with the subtlest detail, her pauses would give you every comma - she’d even give the author a semicolon if he’d written one. And vocally, she was fascinating, she had a way to hitting the notes like a bull’s-eye, and the slightest distorsion in the recording meant that you lost something". Jack Lemmon, who played opposite her in It Should Happen to You (1954) and Phffft (1954), allegedly said of her: "She was intelligent and not at all like the dumb blonde she so often depicted. She didn’t give a damn where the camera was placed, how she was made to look, or about being a star. She just played the scene, acted with, not at. She was also one of the nicest people I’ve ever met".


Italian postcard by Ballerini & Fratini, Firenze, no. 2992. Photo: Columbia CEIAD.


British postcard in the Picturegoer series, London, no. D12. Photo: Metro Goldwyn Mayer.

Beginnings in show business

Judy Holliday was born as Judith Tuvim on the 21st of June 1921 in New York, into a Jewish family active in leftist circles.

She graduated from the Julia Richman High School in 1938 and briefly worked as a telephonist for Orson Welles’ Mercury Theatre Group.

She allegedly made her screen debut as an extra in the short Too Much Johnson (1938). It was directed by Orson Welles and was intended to be part of a stage production. Finally, it was never publicly screened and was believed to be lost until a print was found in 2008.

In 1938, she joined a group of performers called The Revuers. They played engagements in nightclubs, had their own radio show on NBC for several weeks in 1940 and recorded a 78-rpm album.

Two other Revuers members would later also make good: Betty Comden and Adolph Green, who became famous musical-comedy composers, lyricists and writers.


Spanish postcard, no. 2547. Judy Holliday and William Holden in Born Yesterday (George Cukor, 1950).

Most Promising Female Performer

After The Revuers had played at the Trocadero in Los Angeles, 20th Century Fox showed interest in Judith, signed her and changed her name to Judy Holliday.

She appeared as an unbilled extra in Greenwich Village (1944) and had another uncredited bit role in Something for the Boys (1944).

She finally got a more substantial part in George Cukor’s Winged Victory (1945), as a U.S. Air Force pilot’s wife.

After she allegedly had refused Darryl Zanuck’s sexual advances, she was released from her contract.

She was soon noticed on Broadway in 'Kiss Them for Me', which ran from March to June 1945 and earned her the Clarence Derward Award for Most Promising Female Performer. Her part would be later played by Jayne Mansfield in the 1957 movie version.


West German postcard by Kolibri-Verlag, no. 494. Photo: Columbia. Judy Holliday in Born Yesterday (George Cukor, 1950).


American Kodak postcard.

Born Yesterday

In 1945, Garson Kanin wrote the play 'Born Yesterday' for Jean Arthur, who opened with it in New Haven on the 20th of December 1945.

The ever-insecure Arthur quit in Boston on the 1st of January 1946, pleading health reasons, and was replaced by Judy Holliday, who quickly learnt her lines to be ready for the Philadelphia opening on the 12th of January.

The leading character of the play, Billie Dawn, is a former chorus girl who has become the mistress of a corrupt junkyard tycoon. Embarrassed by her dumbness and ignorance, he hires a journalist to educate her so that she can become more socially acceptable. In the end, Billie turns out smarter than everybody gives her credit for.

'Born Yesterday'was a huge hit on Broadway, where it opened on the 4th of February 1946, and made Judy famous. She gave her final performance in the play on the 24th of May 1949. After she left, ticket sales fell off and 'Born Yesterday' finally closed on the 31st of December, after a lengthy run of 1642 performances.

Judy Holliday received rave reviews for her clever portrayal of a dumb broad who awakens intellectually, morally and politically.


American postcard by A B-H Publications, Los Angeles. This postcard was issued on the occasion of the Academy Awards Ceremony, which took place on the 29th of March 1951. The winners in the acting category were Judy Holliday (Best Actress for Born Yesterday), Josephine Hull (Best Supporting Actress for Harvey), José Ferrer (Best Actor for Cyrano) and George Sanders (Best Supporting Actor for All About Eve).

Best Actress Oscar

Columbia bought the film rights of 'Born Yesterday' at a high price in September 1947, planning it as a vehicle for their nr 1 female star, Rita Hayworth. But it was bad timing: she met Aly Khan in 1948, married him in 1949 and temporarily left the screen.

Columbia’s boss, Harry Cohn, was not keen to allow Judy Holliday to appear in the film version and began searching for other actresses to cast as Billie Dawn. However, Garson Kanin was sure she would be the right choice.

So, when he and his wife, Ruth Gordon, wrote the screenplay of M.G.M.’s Adam’s Rib (1949), a Katharine Hepburn-Spencer Tracy vehicle directed by George Cukor, Judy Holliday was encouraged to tackle the key role of jilted wife Doris Attinger. Katharine Hepburn notably championed her generously and saw to it that the film would be a showcase for Judy’s talents. Cukor, who was a big fan of Judy, also lent his expertise to give her the most exposure.

In view of her performance in Adam’s Rib, Harry Cohn relented and signed her. He didn’t live to regret it, as Born Yesterday (1950), again directed by George Cukor, was commercially and critically successful.

In 1951, Judy Holliday was, against all odds, awarded the Best Actress Oscar, notably facing strong competition from Bette Davis in All About Eve and Gloria Swanson in Sunset Boulevard. She also got a Golden Globe for Best Actress in a Comedy.


British postcard issued by the “Evening Argus”. The “Evening Argus” was a local newspaper based in Brighton and Hove.


German postcard by Kunst und Bild, Berlin, no. A1352. Photo: Columbia Pictures.

A Columbia star

Judy Holliday made a brief return to Broadway in May 1951 in a revival of 'Dream Girl', for a limited engagement of two weeks.

George Cukor then directed her again in The Marrying Kind (1952) and It Should Happen to You (1954).

In addition to Cukor, she was on familiar ground, as the first film was written by Gordon Kanin and Ruth Gordon and the latter by Kanin on his own. Such a partnership was a great asset to her career.

Next came Mark Robson’s Phffft (1954), written by George Axelrod, who called Judy 'one of the finest comedy technicians in the world'. The movie earned Kim Novak, who was groomed at the time as Columbia’s newest sex symbol, a Golden Globe for Most Promising Newcomer.

She ended her stay at Columbia with two films directed by Richard Quine, The Solid Gold Cadillac (1956) and Full of Life (1956).


Italian postcard by Vetta Traldi, Milano, no. 3.

A wave of anti-communism

At the beginning of the 1950s, a strong movement against leftist ideas and an anti-Red craze threatened to break Judy Holliday’s career. In 1950, her name was mentioned in the publication 'Red Channels', which listed so-called communist sympathisers in the entertainment industry. Her family history and her support of left causes made her an ideal target.

She appeared before Senator Pat McCarran’s Internal Security Subcommittee on the 26th of March 1952. She was advised to act as a dumb blonde, in the Billie Dawn mould, and she played it to the hilt.

She confused the interrogators by displaying double-talk, invoking memory gaps, pretending not to understand some of the questions, pleading ignorance in political matters and playing up the idea that she was a gullible woman. She admitted to shallow thinking and to having been irresponsible regarding her civic activism. But it should be noted that, during her hearing, she carefully and adroitly avoided naming names, a feat which she was understandably proud of.

She was such a good actress that her ploy of passing for a slow-witted, naive, scatterbrained and easily swayed person worked. In the end, the Committee could not find any evidence of close ties to the Communist Party and dismissed her.

In truth, Judy was far from being dumb and was no stranger to political and social issues. For example, she had sent a telegram of protest to Washington when concert-goers were attacked by racist and anti-communist rioters in Peekskill in 1949, in relation to African American singer Paul Robeson’s recitals.


Italian postcard by Edizioni S.I.P.Ci, Milano. Photo: Columbia CEIAD. Judy Holliday in The Marrying Kind (George Cukor, 1952).


Italian postcard by Turismofoto, no. 46.

Another Broadway hit

Judy Holliday made a triumphant comeback on Broadway with 'Bells Are Ringing', which she played from November 1956 to March 1959. It won her a Tony Award for Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Musical.

She also starred in the film version, M.G.M.’s Bells Are Ringing (1960), opposite Dean Martin.

In 1960, she started out-of-town tryouts on 'Laurette'. The play never made it to Broadway, as she had to leave the production following serious health problems.

She appeared on the Great White Way for the last time in 'Hot Spot', which was a flop and closed after 43 performances in 1963. The review in 'Billboard' read: "Predictions of failure did precede the show and these were confirmed when the New York Critics' Circle passed a unanimous negative judgment".

Judy Holliday died from cancer on the 7th of June 1965. She had married musician David Oppenheim in 1948, but the marriage ended in divorce. They had a son, Jonathan, in 1952. From 1959 on, she had a long-term relationship with jazzman Gerry Mulligan.


West German postcard by Ufa /Film-Foto (Universum-Film Aktiengesellschaft), Berlin-Tempelhof, no. FK 3589. Photo: Columbia Film.

Text and postcards: Marlene Pilaete.

Emil Birron

Emil Birron (1878-1952) was a German stage and film actor who peaked in the cinema during the late 1910s and early 1920s. He worked with such directors as Lupu Pick, Ewald André Dupont and Friedrich Zelnik.


German postcard by Photochemie, Berlin, no. K. 1733. Photo: Wilhelm Willinger, Berlin.


German postcard by Rotophot in the Film Sterne series, no. 549/3. Photo: Decla. Emil Birron and Ressel Orla in Die Sünde / The Sin (Alwin Neuss, 1918).


German postcard by Verlag Hermann Leiser, Berlin, no. 1415. Photo: Zander & Labisch.

The Sin

Emil Birron, also Emil Biron and Emil Byron, was born in 1878 as Rudolf Wilhelm Emil Bleeke in Elberfeld (or Barmen), now part of Wuppertal, in the German Empire.

He made his stage debut in 1900 at the Potsdam City Theatre (today Hans Otto Theater). He then trained there as an actor from 1900 to 1902. In 1902, he continued his stage career in Magdeburg, in 1903/1904, he played at the Kleines Theater in Berlin, and from 1904 to 1907 at the Deutsches Volkstheater in Vienna.

Later, he acted from 1907 to 1912 as a Royal Court Actor in Munich, and from 1912 to 1914 he was active in Breslau (now Wroclaw, Poland), where he directed the Lobe Theatre. From 1915 to 1917, he appeared at the Thalia Theatre in Hamburg, after which he played in Berlin. He appeared mostly in comedies and farces, but he was also successful in classic dramas such as the title role in William Shakespeare's 'Hamlet' and as the prince in 'Die Judin von Toledo' (The Jewess of Toledo) by Franz Grillparzer.

In 1917, Emil Birron began his career as a silent film actor, debuting as one of the suitors of Hella Moja in the comedy Die gute Partie / The Good Party (Otto Rippert, 1918). He would act in some 30 films, mainly in the years 1917-1921, plus five films between 1927 and 1938.

These included films with Ressel Orla such as Die Sünde / The Sin (Alwin Neuß, 1918), Das Glück der Frau Beate / The Happiness of Mrs Berate (Alwin Neuß, Otto Rippert, 1918), and Kitsch (Lupu Pick, 1919), but also the films Der Weg der Grete Lessen / The Journey of Grete Lessen (Rudolf Biebrach, 1919) with Lotte Neumann and Katinka (Emil Birron, Paul Otto, 1918) with Rita Clermont.


German postcard in the Film Sterne series by Rotophot, no. 548/2. Photo: Decla. Ressel Orla in Das Glück der Frau Beate / The Happiness of Mrs. Beate (Alwin Neuß, Otto Rippert, 1918). The man on the right with the white tie is Emil Birron.


German postcard by Rotophot in the Film Sterne series, no. 548/4, 1919-1924. Photo: Decla. Ressel Orla in Das Glück der Frau Beate / The Happiness of Mrs. Beate (Alwin Neuß, Otto Rippert, 1918). The man left is Emil Birron, while the man in the back is Max Ruhbeck.


German postcard by Rotophot in the Film Sterne series, no. 549/5. Photo: Decla. Ressel Orla and Emil Birron in Die Sünde / The Sin (Alwin Neuss, 1918).


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 637/2. Photo: Maxim-Film. Lotte Neumann and Emil Birron in Der Weg der Grete Lessen / The Journey of Grete Lessen (Rudolf Biebrach, 1919).

When life says no

After World War I, Emil Birron appeared in such films as Wenn das Leben nein sagt / When life says no (Karl Mueller-Hagens, 1919), Alkohol / Alcohol (Ewald André Dupont, Alfred Lind, 1920), and Hundemamachen / The Little Dog Mom (Rudolf Biebrach, 1920) with Ossi Oswalda. Alkohol / Alcohol was begun by Lind but finished by Dupont. It was Dupont's first major melodrama and was one in a series of 'Aufklärungsfilme'(Enlightenment films) examining social issues, which were produced around the time.

In these films, he had the male lead, while he also played supporting parts in films like Blutrache / Vendetta (Georg Jacoby, 1919) with Pola Negri and Harry Liedtke, and King Frederick William IV in Die Weber / The Weavers (Friedrich Zelnik, 1927), starring Paul Wegener and William Dieterle.

Birron's theatre activities were limited to guest performances from 1922 to 1936. In the 1928/1929 season, he was stage manager at the Deutsches Stadttheater (today Mahen-Theater) in Brno.

During the 1930s, he only played a few small supporting parts in films. His last film appearance was as a ship's steward in the musical Mach mich glücklich / Make Me Happy (Artur Robison, 1935) alongside Else Elster and Albert Lieven. In 1936, Birron ended his career as an actor. He was later active as a stage agent and promoted young talent.

Emil Birron died in 1952 in Potsdam in East Germany. He was 74. Nothing is currently known about his private life.


German postcard by Kunstverlag Jos. Paul Böhm, München, no. 200.


German postcard by Photochemie, Berlin, no. K. 1734, Photo: Wilhelm Willinger, Berlin.


German postcard by Verlag Ross, Berlin, no. 397/2, 1919-1924. Photo: Becker & Maass, Berlin.


German postcard by Photochemie, Berlin, no. K. 3235. Photo: Kurt Lande.

Sources: Stephanie D'heil (Steffi-Line - German), Thomas Staedeli (Cyranos), Wikipedia (German and English), Filmportal, and IMDb.

Kissing Statues

Today starts the conference 'Le ombre di Eros' (26-27 February 2026) about eroticism and passion in Italian silent cinema at the University of Turin. Of course, my EFSP partner in crime, Ivo Blom, is present in Italy for a lecture. Italian silent cinema was a space of ambiguity and experimentation. Filmmakers created an erotic imaginary marked, at times, by excess, repression, symbolism, allusions, and disguises. Ivo's lecture, ‘Baciando le statue’ (Kissing the Statues), is part of the British research project Museum of Dream Worlds, which links silent films on Greco-Roman antiquity in the British Film Institute's collection with films and objects in other parts of Europe, including the National Cinema Museum in Turin. Ivo analyses the myth of Pygmalion, when an artist creates his ideal of female beauty as a statue that comes to life. The other famous example converses this situation. In Quo vadis?, the slave girl Eunice embraces the statue of her master, Petronius. A statue as a substitute for the unattainable. In both cases, there are more chaste and more lascivious and passionate versions. Ivo reveals in his lecture that literary sources already used sensual words, while parodies both on stage and on screen confirmed the fame of myths and a rather male-dominated gender perspective. EFSP offers a glimpse of his lecture.


German postcard by Ross-Verlag, Berlin, no. 699/6, 1919-1924. Photo: Filmhaus Bruckmann. Rina de Liguoro as Eunice in Quo Vadis? (Gabriellino D'Annunzio, Georg Jacoby, 1924).

Eunice

In his 1896 novel 'Quo Vadis', Henryk Sienkiewicz describes the scene with Eunice as follows: "...pointing to a Mercury with a caduceus that resembled Petronius. [...] Only Eunica remained in the untiorium. For a moment, with her head bowed, she listened to the voices and laughter fading away in the laconicum; then she took the amber and ivory stool on which Petronius had been sitting and brought it before her master's statue. Standing on the stool, she wrapped her arm around the statue's neck; her hair fell over her shoulder like a golden wave; her flesh moulded itself to the marble; her mouth was pressed tightly against Petronius' cold lips."

It is clear from Sienkiewicz's words that it is not just about the statue, but above all about Eunice's behaviour. She is a slave for whom her master is unattainable, even though she is passionately in love with him. In addition to the gender barrier, there is a strong class barrier. However, slowly but surely, Petronius realises that she is truly in love with him, softens and begins to love her too. This is particularly true after Eunice's mental torment is accompanied by the physical torment of flogging, and she continues to love him all the same.

As early as 1900, a theatrical version of the novel was produced in Rome by Silvano D'Arborio and in Paris by Émile Moreau. Moreau's version, in which actress Suzanne Miéris enjoyed theatrical success as Eunice, was widely published, as here in the magazine L'Illustration, where it is suggested that Petronius is already witnessing Eunice's kiss. Looking closely, one can see that Eunice's clothes are semi-transparent and, in fact, in subsequent pictorial representations, Eunice is depicted half-naked or completely naked, shifting the viewer's attention to her instead of the statue.

This can be seen in a work by Alfons Mucha, in which Petronius again witnesses the scene. The same is true of Jan Styka's illustrations for the book 'Quo Vadis', and in illustrated postcards by Styka, Bruno, Mastroianni and Gambaldi. Some refer to Sienkiewicz's references to a statue of Petronius as Mercury; others do not, but the focus on the female body is always central.

The most chaste version in cinema is shown in Enrico Guazzoni's 1913 version of Quo Vadis. In this early film. Actress Amelia Cattaneo plays Eunice. The 1924 version includes a rather more lascivious version with Rina de Liguoro, who not only shows more of her body, but also embraces the statue of Petronius with greater passion. The scene closely follows Sienkiewicz's words.


Theatre


Cover page of a special issue of L'Illustration of 23 March 1901, dedicated to the stage play 'Quo vadis?', based on the novel by Henryk Sienkiewicz. Here, Eunice is kissing the statue of Petronius.

Suzanne Miéris (?-?) was a French stage actress who peaked in the early 1900s at the Théâtre Antoine and the Théâtre de la Gaité. She had her breakthrough as Eunice, Petronius' slave, and later also lover, in Emile Moreau's stage version of 'Quo vadis?', performed at the Théâtre de la Porte Saint-Martin in Paris in March-April 1901. Miéris played, e.g. opposite Cora Laparcerie as Lygia, Dumény as Petronius, and Gilda Darthy as Poppaea. The play was such a success that after touring the French provincial cities in Summer 1901, the troupe returned to the Théâtre de la Porte Saint-Martin in September 1901, with success, now with Édouard de Max as Petronius. Afterwards, Miéris was actively promoted by postcards, always with her headband and costume from 'Quo vadis?', even when making publicity for other plays. In October 1901, she was replaced by Mme Spindler in 'Quo vadis?' because of her obligations at the Théâtre Antoine. By October 1901, 'Quo vadis?' had been performed over 150 times.

Art


French postcard by A.N. (Armand Noyer), Paris, no. 276/3. Sculptobromure: Domenico Mastroianni, 1913. Mastroianni first created his compositions in plasticine or clay. He then captured the images both in sepia and coloured-in. Domenico Mastroianni was the brother of Marcello Mastroianni's grandfather.


French postcard by A.N. (Noyer), Paris, card 3 in a series of 18 Luxochrome postcards. Design: Domenico Mastroianni. Eunice is kissing the statue of Petronius.


Italian coloured postcard. 'The Kiss of Eunice' by Domenico Mastroianni.


German postcard by Ed. A. Raczynski, Kraków (Munich) in the series 'Quo vadis?' by the Polish artist Piotr Stachiewicz (1858-1938), No. 3 of a series of 20 or 22 (sources differ) postcards. Caption: Eunice kissing the statue of Petronius.

In 1896, Peter Stachiewicz created a series of 22 paintings illustrating 'Quo Vadis' by Henryk Sienkiewicz. The collection was well received by the audience. It was presented in 1902 and was created before the novel was finished. The artist was recognised as the favourite painter of the writer. He illustrated, among others: 'Trilogy', 'Without Dogma', and 'The Połaniecki Family'. In 1902, 'Quo Vadis' was printed for the first time with his 20 illustrations. It was done again in 1910. Thanks to the efforts of Edward Aleksander Raczyński, a folio of 22 lithographs in Chinese cardboard was also published. According to Raffaele de Berti and Elisabetta Gagetti, between 1900 and 1930, several editions of the postcard series were released, sometimes as 20 and at other times as 22 postcards.


French postcard by Ed. Lapina, Paris, no. 448. Quo vadis: The kiss of Eunice. Artwork by Jan Styka.


French postcard, no. 4435 Dl. Photo: ND. 'The Kiss of Eunice' by Jan Styka. Salon de Paris 1910.


Italian postcard by Ed. G. Sborgi, Firenze. 'The Kiss of Eunice' by A. Alessandrelli.


Vintage postcard, no. 1. The Kiss of Eunice by G.G. Bruno, 1909. Remarkable here is the statue of Petronius represented as Mercurius / Hermes.

Film

Italian postcard for the classic epic Quo vadis? (Enrico Guazzoni, Cines 1913). Caption: The devotion of the slave Eunice (Amelia Cattaneo) to Petronius (Gustavo Serena).





Screen captions from Quo Vadis (Mervyn LeRoy, 1951). Eunice (Marina Berti) kissing the statue of Petronius. This happens in this film version much later than in the novel, after being whipped for refusing her master's order to become Vinicius' slave, instead of in the book's first chapter.

Pygmalion and Galatea

The key text in the case of Pygmalion is Ovid's 'Metamorphoses'. Ovid uses sensual and erotic words: "Pygmalion is enchanted, and a flame is kindled in his heart for that artificial body. He often runs his hand over the statue to feel whether it is flesh or ivory, and cannot bring himself to say that it is ivory. He kisses her, and it seems to him that she kisses him back, and he talks to her and embraces her, and he has the sensation that his fingers sink into the limbs he touches, and he fears that the pressure will leave a bruise on her limbs."

This reminds us of Bernini's 'Rape of Proserpina' in the Borghese Gallery, with his hand pressing on the flesh or marble. Incidentally, Ovid speaks of ivory, not marble, because it is more similar to the colour of human skin. Even when the woman (Ovid does not mention Galatea's name) comes to life, his words are very sensual: “He brings his mouth close again and with his hands he also fondles her breasts. The ivory he fondles softens, and losing its hardness, it sinks and yields under his fingers, [...]”. Ovid is also quite explicit about the results of the encounter between the two lovers, as after nine months, they have a son, named Paphos.

Especially during the 19th century, a wave of Pygmalionism pervaded culture: literature, visual arts and performing arts. As Jeffrey Richards writes in his monograph 'The Ancient World on the Victorian and Edwardian Stage' (2009): 'The obsession with statues of women became a classifiable form of erotomania dubbed by Havelock Ellis ‘Pygmalionism’, after the mythical Greek sculptor. This stemmed in part from the idea that sculptures should be as realistic as possible. As John Ruskin stated, “It is the task of the best sculptor, the true Daedalus, to make immobility seem like breath and marble like living flesh”.

This also applies to the performing arts, such as the plays of W.S. Gilbert and the operettas of Franz von Suppé. Gilbert's play was staged at the Haymarket Theatre in London in 1871, starring William Kendall and his wife Madge Robertson, and was a huge success (184 performances). Other theatrical productions of 'Pygmalion' followed, including the British version based on Franz von Suppé's operetta 'Die schöne Galathée' (1865). Gilbert's play was subsequently revived with great success in the United States and the United Kingdom (1880s) with Mary Anderson and Lily Langtry. In both Gilbert's and Von Suppé's versions, Galatea eventually returns to being a statue: in Gilbert's, she herself decides to turn back into stone, while in Von Suppé's, it is Pygmalion who begs Venus to turn her to stone after discovering her cheating on him with his assistant Ganymede. Furthermore, in Ovid's version, this second metamorphosis does not take place, but according to Richards, this ending was more suited to the (male) morality of the 19th century. A series of French postcards from the early 20th century follows Von Suppé's comic version.

With his parodic versions in early cinema, Georges Méliès criticises the impotent man, for whom female statues are unattainable and always faster and stronger than he is. In general, both in minor art and in early 20th-century cinema, there is a rather distrustful attitude towards the myth of Pygmalion and the female nude in sculpture. In the film La modella, the elite mock the statue of the female nude and the model (played by Stacia Napierkowska), a nude based on an ancient original preserved in the Vatican Museums. A unique copy of the first English film Pygmalion and Galatea (1912), starring actress and national beauty Ivy Close, was recently rediscovered at the BFI. The film shows a chaste version of the myth, almost Pre-Raphaelite and close to English neoclassical painting from Albert Moore to Alma-Tadema. Ivo Blom concludes that both cases express a rather masculine view of women as objects of desire, even though Eunice adores a male statue and Pygmalion a female statue. In both cases, unattainability is overcome. Eunice will later have the real Petronius instead of the substitute (even if they then die together), while Pygmalion's ideal woman is transformed into a real woman thanks to the divine intervention of Venus.

Art


German postcard by Moderner Kunst-Verlag Berlin, no. MKB 2175. Pygmalion et Galathée by Antonin Mercié (year and location unknown).


German postcarded by Friedrich C. Rother, Berlin. 'Galathée' by Laurent-Honoré Marqueste, c. 1885. Once Musée du Luxembourg, now Musée d'Orsay.

Fantasy


French postcard by A.S. (Saint-Just), Paris, no. 743, 3. Scene from 'Pygmalion', inspired by the operetta 'Die schöne Galathée' by Franz von Suppé (1865). Caption: O Venus, that my trebling may rise up to you! That this marble by you may become a woman!


French postcard by A.S. (Saint-Just), Paris, no. 743, 8. Scene from 'Pygmalion', inspired by the operetta 'Die schöne Galathée' by Franz von Suppé (1865). Caption: Ganymedes! It is you I love!...


French postcard by A.S. (Saint-Just), Paris, no. 743, 10 (end). Scene from 'Pygmalion', inspired by the operetta 'Die schöne Galathée' by Franz von Suppé (1865). Caption: Well, now I know what I can do with this, and without regrets, I will sell it.

Plot: The Cypriot sculptor Pygmalion refuses to sell his beautiful statue of a woman to old Midas, who has bribed Pygmalion's assistant Ganymedes to show it to him. The artist chases them and implores Venus to make the statue he so adores alive. His wish is granted, but he regrets his wish as Galatea prefers the love of Ganymedes. Vexed, Pygmalion implores the goddess to turn the unfaithful woman back into stone again, and wants to destroy it, but Midas convinces him to sell the statue to him.

In the 1900s, A.S. (Saint-Just) published several staged, coloured postcard series based on operas and operettas such as 'Tosca', 'Faust', 'Manon Lescaut', 'Carmen', 'Cavalleria rusticana', 'Die schöne Galathée', 'La fille du régiment', 'Pippo et Bettina', 'La fille de Madame Angot' and 'Le passant', books such as 'Paul et Virginie', and plays such as 'Cyrano de Bergerac' and 'Madame Sans-Gène'.

Risqué


French postcard by CCCC (Charles Collas et Cie, Cognac), card 6 of the series.

Humor


French postcard by Braun & Cie Editeurs, no. 7178. Salons de Paris: 'Pygmalion' by Albert Guillaume, s.a.

Film


Caption from Pygmalion and Galathea (Elwyn Neame, 1912) starring Ivy Close. Collection: British Film Institute.

Sources: Le Ombre di Eros (AIRSC - Italian), National Museum, Poznań, and Raffaele de Berti, Elisabetta Gagetti ('La fortuna di Quo vadis in Italia nel primo quarto del Novecento: edizioni illustrate e paratesti cinematografici' - Italian)

Fänrik Ståls sägner (1926)

The two-part historical film Fänrik Ståls sägner / The Tales of Ensign Stål (John W. Brunius, 1926) is set during the Finnish War between Sweden and Russia in 1808-1809, during the Napoleonic era. The script was written by Ivar Johansson and was based on the epic poem 'The Tales of Ensign Stål' (1848) by nineteenth-century writer Johan Ludvig Runeberg. The silent Swedish film was shot at the Råsunda Studios in Stockholm, and exteriors were shot at Tavastehus, Ritoniemi, Ruovesi and other places. Cinematography was by Hugo Edlund and Karl Andersson, and sets were designed by Vilhelm Bryde. Runeberg's work had already been filmed in 1910 and would be remade again in 1939.


Swedish postcard by Axel Eliassons Konstförlag, no. 461. Photo: SBF / Film AB Nordstjaernan. Edvin Adolphson as General G.K. von Döbeln in Fänrik Ståls sägner / The Tales of Ensign Stål (John W. Brunius, 1926).


Swedish postcard by Axel Eliassons Konstförlag, no. 462. Photo: SBF / Film AB Nordstjaernan. Thor Modéen as General J.A. Sandels in Fänrik Ståls sägner / The Tales of Ensign Stål (John W. Brunius, 1926).


Swedish postcard by Axel Eliassons Konstförlag, no. 463. Photo: SBF / Film AB Nordstjaernan. Nils Ohlin as Lt. Wilhelm von Schwerin in Fänrik Ståls sägner / The Tales of Ensign Stål (John W. Brunius, 1926).


Swedish postcard by Axel Eliassons Konstförlag, no. 464. Photo: SBF / Film AB Nordstjaernan. Alfred Lundberg as General K.N. af Klercker in Fänrik Ståls sägner / The Tales of Ensign Stål (John W. Brunius, 1926).


Swedish postcard by Axel Eliassons Konstförlag, no. 465. Photo: SBF / Film AB Nordstjaernan. Adolf Niska as the Russian Lt. Colonel Jakob Kulneff in Fänrik Ståls sägner / The Tales of Ensign Stål (John W. Brunius, 1926).

Patriotic material in a highly literary setting

The first part of Fänrik Ståls sägner / The Tales of Ensign Stål (1926) begins with the opening stanzas of 'Our Country', illustrated with Finnish landscape pictures. This is followed by the beginning of the frame story about the young Runeberg (played by his own great-grandson), who visits and eventually becomes good friends with Fänrik (Ensign) Stål, the narrator (John Ericsson). The film then links back to the situation of the frame story from time to time. Without clearly marked boundaries, the content of the following poems from 'The Tales of Ensign Stål' by Johan Ludvig Runeberg is retold in more or less detail with motifs from the Finnish War of 1808-1809: "The Governor", "Kulneff", "Field Marshal", "Trosskusken", "Old Lode", "von Törne", after which the capitulation of Sveaborg (Suomenlinna) is finally reconstructed.

In addition, there are also fragments from other legends. Two legends, 'Wilhelm von Schwerin' and 'Munter', begin here and end in the second part of Fänrik Ståls sägner / The Tales of Ensign Stål (1926). The story of von Schwerin, played by Nils Ohlin, has been embroidered with a love story, which has no counterpart in Runeberg. In addition to Runeberg, Ericsson and Ohlin, other major actors in the film were, e.g. Einar Fröberg as field-marshall Klingspor, Alfred Lundberg as general af Klercker, Nils Wahlbom as general major Adlercreutz, Edvin Adolphson as major von Döbeln, Thor Modéen as major Sandels, Thor Christiernsson as lieutenant-colonel Lode, Helge Karlsson as Munter, and Adolph Niska as the Russian lieutenant-major Kunteff.

After the success of the first Karl XII film (1925), the team of Herman Rasch, Ivar Johansson and John W. Brunius began planning a film about Gustaf III, based on Carl Jonas Love Almquist's 'The Queen's Jewel'. The plans went as far as to begin filming, but were interrupted, probably for two main reasons: another film about Gustaf III was being filmed at the SF studios in 1925, and Gösta Ekman was lured over to Germany to play Faust and thus betrayed the team from Karl XII. Under the new company name Nordstjärnan, the gentlemen instead turned to another patriotic material in a highly literary setting, Runeberg's poem cycle about the Finnish war of 1808-1809, 'Fänrik Ståls sägner'. The project aroused fierce opposition in some quarters, mainly in Finland, where there was fear of a commercial desecration of the Runeberg text, especially after it leaked out that the fifteen-year-old Wilhelm von Schwerin had been provided with a love story in the film script. Despite Brunius's assurances that this fictionalisation was a mistake that should be eliminated, distrust of the film adaptation remained.

Once the film was completed, the criticism was no longer due to a lack of patriotic spirit. However, it caused a great stir within certain cinema owners' circles when this patriotic epic was handed over to the foreign distribution company Liberty by the exclusive rights holder, Svenska Biografernas Förening (Swedish Cinema Association), for distribution. By investing 100,000 kronor in the filming, the SBF had secured this exclusive right. The association would soon emerge as its own producer of historical spectacle films and - in competition with Nordstjärnan - record the genre's final disaster film, Gustaf Wasa in 1928 and 1928. Unlike most other 1920s films with historically patriotic motifs, Fänrik Stål's Tales seems to have been fairly successful financially. This does not mean that it was the greatest success with the public, but rather that it was cheaper to produce than Karl XII.

Unfortunately, even if some critics praised the patriotic feeling that the film evoked, the overall attitude of the reviewers was very critical. Monotonous and undramatic, theatrical and unrealistic were recurring objections, and the comparison with Herman Rasch and John W. Brunius's earlier historical splendour, Karl XII, did not turn out at all in the new film's favour. Dramaturgically, the film suffers from having no unifying central figure. As in Karl XII, the many episodes are presented as tableaux lined up on top of each other, and as such, emphasis is placed on connecting the imagery to well-known models from art. In Ensign Stål's Tales, it is primarily Albert Edelfelt's illustrations that Hugo Edlund's photographic compositions allude to.


Swedish postcard by Axel Eliassons Konstförlag, no. 467. Photo: SBF / Film AB Nordstjaernan. Thor Christiernsson as Lt. Colonel K.L. Lode in Fänrik Ståls sägner / The Tales of Ensign Stål (John W. Brunius, 1926).


Swedish postcard by Axel Eliassons Konstförlag, no. 468. Photo: SBF / Film AB Nordstjaernan. John Ericsson as Ensign Stål and Carl Michael Runeberg as Johan Ludvig Runeberg, his great-grandfather, in Fänrik Ståls sägner / The Tales of Ensign Stål (John W. Brunius, 1926). Caption: Runeberg and Ensign Stål.


Swedish postcard by Axel Eliassons Konstförlag, no. 473. Photo: SBF / Film AB Nordstjaernan. Scene from Fänrik Ståls sägner / The Tales of Ensign Stål (John W. Brunius, 1926). Caption: The March of the Björnborgs.



Swedish postcard by Axel Eliassons Konstförlag, no. 478. Photo: SBF / Film AB Nordstjaernan. Josef Fischer as Colonel Jägerhorn, Otto Malmberg as Admiral K.O. Cronstedt (Commander of Sveaborg), and Alfred Lundberg as General K.N. af Klercker in Fänrik Ståls sägner / The Tales of Ensign Stål (John W. Brunius, 1926). Caption: At Sveaborg.

Sources: Svensk Filmdatabas, Wikipedia (Swedish and English) and IMDb.