Barbara Valentin

Film and TV actress Barbara Valentin (1940-2002) was dubbed the 'German Jayne Mansfield' and a 'Scandal Magnet'. Her resume includes sex films but also art films directed by Rainer Werner Fassbinder. Her private life was fodder for the tabloids. Pop star Freddie Mercury was ‘the love of her life’.


German Postcard by Krüger, no. 900/317.


German postcard by Krüger, no. 902/192. Photo: Bernard of Hollywood.


German Postcard by Krüger, no. 900/272.

Das Busenwunder

Barbara Valentin was born Ursula ‘Uschi’ Ledersteger in Vienna, Austria in 1940. She was the daughter of the set designer Hans Ledersteger and actress Irmgard Alberti.

Her film debut was in the erotic Sci-Fi thriller Ein Toter hing im Netz/A Corpse Hangs in the Web (Fritz Böttgers, 1959).

In the 1960s, she became a well known personality who was called ‘das Busenwunder’ (the Buxom Wonder) because of her huge breasts and she was compared to Jayne Mansfield because of her sex pot roles.

The German tabloids had also plenty to write about her cocaine habit and other addictions, and about her numerous love affairs. Her three marriages, including one with film director Helmut Dietl, ended all in a divorce.

In the cinema she was seen in sexy films like Das Mädchen mit den Schmalen Hüften, literally The Girl with the Narrow Hips (Johannes Kai, 1961) with Claus Wilcke, and In Frankfurt sind die Nächte heiss/Hot Nights in Frankfurt (Rolf Olsen, 1966) starring Vera Tschechowa.

Later she was also seen in international films like Carmen, Baby (Radley Metzger, 1967) opposite Carl Möhner, and King, Queen, Knave (Jerzy Skolimowsky, 1972) starring David Niven.


German postcard by Kruger (UFA), no. 902/167. Photo: Herbert Fried (Fried Agency).


German postcard by Krüger, no. 902/168. Photo: Herbert Fried (Fried Agency) / UFA.


German Postcard by Krüger, no. 900/272.


German postcard by Krüger.

New Career

In the 1970s, Rainer Werner Fassbinder offered Barbara Valentin a chance on a new career.

Under his direction she played in the futuristic TV tale Welt am Draht/World on a Wire (1974) opposite Klaus Löwitsch, and after that she became a permanent member of his troupe.

She played character parts in films and TV films by Fassbinder like the Henrik Ibsen adaptation Nora Helmer (1974) featuring Margit Carstensen, the touching melodrama Angst essen Seele auf/Ali: Fear Eats the Soul (1974), the thriller Martha (1974), the Theodor Fontane adaptation Effi Briest (1974) starring Hanna Schygulla, and the controversial gay drama Faustrecht der Freiheit/Fox and his Friends (1975).

Later she also appeared in the box office hit Lili Marleen (1981), and Fassbinder's acclaimed 15-hour mini-series Berlin Alexanderplatz (1980) with Günther Lamprecht.


German postcard by Kolibri, Friedrich-W. Sander-Verlag, Minden/Westf., no. 1597.


German postcard by Filmbilder-Vertrieb Ernst Freihoff, Essen, no. 550. Photo: Bellé.


German Postcard by Graphima, Berlin.

Freddie

Barbara Valentin appeared in numerous other films and TV productions, including Bomber & Paganini (Nicos Perakis, 1976) starring Mario Adorf, Flammende Herzen/Flaming Hearts (Walter Bockmayer, Rolf Bührmann, 1978) with Peter Kern, and Dorian Gray im Spiegel der Boulevardpresse/The Image of Dorian Gray in the Yellow Press (Ulrike Ottinger, 1984) with Delphine Seyrig.

In 1984-1985, she lived together with Queen frontman, Freddie Mercury, whom she would come to call 'the love of her life'. She is featured in the music video for the Queen song, 'It's a Hard Life'.

After Mercury's death in 1991 she supported the fight of HIV organisations against AIDS, and became an icon of the Munich gay scene.

Her last film was Die Hunde sind schuld/The Dogs are Guilty (Andreas Prochaska, 2001) with Tilo Prückner.

Barbara Valentin died in 2002. She suffered a brain hemorrhage early in 2001, and was in a coma for quite some time, and was later confined to a wheelchair. She is buried in the Ostfriedhof cemetery in Munich.


German Postcard by Krüger, no. 900/272.


German Postcard by Poster XXL.


Swiss autograph card by Studio Onedin, Arbon.


Scene from Ein Toter hing im Netz (1959) with Alex D'Arcy. Source: R6dw6c (YouTube).


Sexy Catfight scene from Ein Toter hing im Netz (1959). Source: Polar Blair's Den (YouTube).

Sources: Absolute Facts.nl (Dutch), Britannica, Wikipedia, and IMDb

Bernard of Hollywood

Bruno Bernard (1912–1987) fled from Nazi Germany to the USA in the 1930s. As Bernard of Hollywood he became one of the most popular glamour photographers of Tinseltown. In 1961 he returned to Germany, where he photographed many European starlets and also worked as a set photographer.


Mylène Demongeot. German postcard by Krüger, no. 902/66. Photo: Bernard of Hollywood.


Marisa Mell. German postcard by Krüger, nr. 902/349. Photo: Bernard of Hollywood.


Margaret Rose Keil. German postcard by Krüger, nr. 900/288. Photo: Bernard of Hollywood.


Rita Cadillac. German postcard by Krüger, nr. 902/296. Photo: Bernard of Hollywood.


Heidi Brühl. German postcard by Krüger, nr. 902/319. Postcard: Bernard of Hollywood.

The Vargas of Photography
Bruno Bernard was born Bruno Bernard Sommerfeld (or Sommer) in Berlin, Germany in 1912. At age 11, he became interested in photography when his parents gave him his first camera. As a young man he worked as a photographer and reporter, and earned a Ph.D. in criminal psychology at the Kiel University in 1934. His activism in a Jewish youth organization landed him on the Gestapo’s blacklist, and caused him to emigrate to the United States in 1937. He settled in Los Angeles and set up his first photo studio in the basement of his apartment in 1938. Two years later he moved to a new studio on the Sunset Strip. Agent Paul Kohner, who helped many Europeans flee after the rise of Adolph Hitler and re-establish themselves in Hollywood, took notice of Bernard’s work when he opened his first studio. Kohner sent him clients, and thus brought him to the attention of the film industry. Soon he was called The King of Glamour Photography and The Vargas of Pinup Photography, after his mentor, pin-up painter Alberto Vargas. Over the next two years, Bernard opened studios at the Palm Springs Racquet Club, at Laguna Beach, and at Las Vegas’s Riviera Hotel.


Sophie Hardy. German postcard by Kruger, no. 902/290. Photo: Bernard of Hollywood.


Brigitte Jelinek. German postcard by Krüger, no. 902/299. Photo: Bernard of Hollywood.


Maria Perschy. German postcard by Krüger, nr. 902/373. Photo: Bernard of Hollywood.


Barbara Valentin. German postcard by Krüger, no. 902/192. Photo: Bernard of Hollywood.


Vivi Bach. German postcard by Krüger, nr. 902/274. Photo: Bernard of Hollywood.

Strippers, Showgirls, Starlets
Bernard of Hollywood photographed most of the big stars of Hollywood of the 1940's and 1950's: Marlene Dietrich, Clark Gable, Bette Davis, John Wayne, Elizabeth Taylor, Errol Flynn, Gregory Peck, Anita Ekberg, and of course Marilyn Monroe. One of his most famous photos was of Monroe holding her white pleated skirt down from a blast of steam from a New York sidewalk gratein in The Seven Year Itch (1955, Billy Wilder). He was credited with introducing Monroe to Johnny Hyde, who got her a contract with 20th Century-Fox. Bernard's artistic muse was the legendary striptease artist Lili St. Cyr, a stunner with a sense of humor. Bernard of Hollywood's pin-up works range from strippers, Vegas showgirls; unknown, poignantly unnamed models; to all the starlets of the 1950's and 1960's.


German postcard by Kruger. Photo: Bruno Bernard/CCC Produktion. Publicity Still for Old Shatterhand (1964, Hugo Fregonese) with Pierre Brice as Winnetou.


German postcard by Kruger. Photo: Bernard of Hollywood (Bruno Bernard)/CCC-Produktion. Publicity Still for Old Shatterhand (1964, Hugo Fregonese) with Lex Barker as Old Shatterhand.


German postcard by Krüger, no. 902/302. Photo: Bernard of Hollywood / CCC-Zugsmith Co-produktion. Publicity still for Fanny Hill (1964, Russ Meyer) with Letícia Román.


German postcard by Krüger, no. 902/358. Photo: Bernard of Hollywood. Publicity still for Fanny Hill (1964) with Renate Hütte and Britt Lindberg.

Legends
In 1961 Bruno Bernard sold his studios and started a new career as a foreign correspondent and photojournalist in Europe. For the German postcard publisher Krüger he photographed European starlets in the late 1950's and early 1960's. Among them were German film stars as Heidi Brühl, Maria Perschy and voluptuous Barbara Valentin, aka the German Jayne Mansfield. Bernard of Hollywood also photographed the original, when Jayne Mansfield was working in Europe after her Hollywood career had dried up. Bruno Bernard also worked as a still photographer for films including the erotic film Fanny Hill (1964, Russ Meyer) and the Eurowestern Old Shatterhand (1964, Hugo Fregonese). In 1984 Bernard was the first still photographer to be honored by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. The Academy organized an exhibition of more than 120 of his photographs. In addition to his photography, Bernard published six books before his death in 1987. He died of cancer in Los Angeles, 75 years old. He was survived by his daughter, Susan, and his grandson, Joshua Miller. In a review on a book Susan made about her father's work, Kevin Thomas wrote in The Los Angeles Times: "There is in Bernard's pinups an exuberant sexuality that is both innocent and mischievous, seductive yet sweet. Surely, it was the rapport that Bernard had with movie stars and models alike that yielded these wonderful combinations."


Jayne Mansfield. German postcard by Krüger, no. 900/78. Photo: Bernard of Hollywood.


Jayne Mansfield. German postcard by Krüger, no. 900/78. Photo: Bernard of Hollywood.


Jayne Mansfield. German postcard by Krüger, no. 900/78. Photo: Bernard of Hollywood.


Jayne Mansfield. German postcard by Krüger, no. 900/78. Photo: Bernard of Hollywood.


Jayne Mansfield. German postcard by Krüger, no. 900/78. Photo: Bernard of Hollywood.


Jayne Mansfield. German postcard by Krüger, no. 900/78. Photo: Bernard of Hollywood.

Sources: Kevin Thomas (Los Angeles Times), Adrienne Miller (Esquire), Bernard of Hollywood.com, and IMDb.