The Flickr Dümmatzen Image Generatr

Spanish postcard by Dümmatzen, no. 21. Photo: Paramount. Ernesto Vilches.

Spanish artist, theatre director and actor Ernesto Vilches (1879 - 1954) worked in Spain, Argentina, Mexico and other Latin American countries. He had his own company and was one of the first Spanish actors who became a star in Hollywood.

Ernesto de Vilches y Domínguez de Alcahúd was born in 1879 in Tarragona, in Catalonia, Spain. He was the son of Ernesto de Vilches y Marín, a heraldist who held the post of King of Arms of Spain. After studying law and engaging in commercial activities, he turned to the theatre and began his career as a young leading man in the María Guerrero Company, achieving his first great success on stage in the play 'La noche del sábado' (Saturday Night), which premiered at the Teatro Español in Madrid. Of his work on the stage, the following are noteworthy: 'La escuela de las princesas' (1909) and 'La Malquerida' (1913) by Jacinto Benavente, 'Las de Caín' (1908) and 'El centenario' (1909), both by the Álvarez Quintero Brothers, 'Mi papá' (1910), 'Genio y figura' (1910) and 'La primera conquista', all three by Carlos Arniches, 'Mamá' (1913), by Gregorio Martínez Sierra, 'El retablo de Agrellano' (1913), 'Cuando flororezcan los rosales' (1913), the last two by Eduardo Marquina, 'La fuerza del mal' (1914), by Manuel Linares Rivas and 'La tía de Carlos' (1916), by Brandon Thomas. In 1909, after several theatrical successes, he set up his own company. Later, he moved to the Teatro Infanta Beatriz, where he premiered plays such as 'El amigo Teddy', 'El eterno Don Juan', 'Juventud de príncipe' and 'Sangre de artista', almost always forming an artistic couple with Irene López de Heredia. He had four children (Paz, Sara, Ernesto and Marisa) with Josephine Valentine Matthew, who emigrated to Mexico in 1939 because of the Spanish Civil War. Benavente wrote for him the two-act comedy, 'El automóvil'.

A pioneer of cinema in Spain, Ernesto Vilches debuted with Francisco Oliver's Aventura de Pepín in 1909. His debut was followed by another outstanding film in the silent era: El Golfo (José de Togores, 1917). In 1930-1931 he acted in five Spanish language films in Hollywood. First, he appeared in the Paramount production Cascarrabias (Cyril Gardner, 1930). In the MGM film Su última noche (Carlos F. Borcosque, Chester M. Franklin, 1931) he acted opposite two Spanish actors who later became famous in Italian cinema: Conchita Montenegro (La nascita di Salomè) and Juan de Landa (Ossessione). In Borcosque's Cheri-Bibi (1931), based on Gaston Leroux and the alternate version of The Phantom of Paris (1931), he had the lead as a man who transforms himself into his - dead - rival. After 1931, Vilches' career in Hollywood slowed down. He returned to Spain for El desaparecido (Antonio Graciani, 1934), and co-directed El cientro trece (1935). After a long absence from the sets, Vilches started a new career in Argentine from 1941 onward, but now often in supporting parts - although he also had leads as in Su primer baile (Ernesto Arancibia, 1942), La casa está vacía (Carlos Schlieper, 1945), Siete mujeres (Benito Perojo, 1945). For the first mentioned film, the Academia de Artes y Ciencias Cinematográficas de la Argentina awarded him the Cóndor Académico prize for best-supporting actor in 1942. In the late 1940s Vilches also worked in Mexico, e.g. in El embajador (Tito Davison, 1949). While after the late 1940s the number of his films slowed down, he was still billed on the posters for four Spanish films of the 1950s and even had the lead in his last film, the Spanish production Sucedió en mi aldea (Antonio Santillán, 1956). Ernesto Vilches died in Barcelona in 1954, after a road accident.

Sources: Wikipedia (Spanish and English) and IMDb.

And please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.

Spanish postcard by Dümmatzen, no. 114. Photo: United Artists. Chester Morris in Corsair (Roland West, 1931).

American actor Chester Morris (1901-1970) was a Broadway star who billed himself as 'the youngest leading man in the country'. With his dark, good looks and chiselled jaw, he became a film star in the sound era. Morris was Oscar-nominated for Alibi (1929), but his greatest success was The Big House (1930). However, his star dimmed and by the end of the decade, he was appearing in B-pictures, From 1941, the Boston Blackie series at Columbia Pictures revived his career. In all, he appeared in 14 films as a detective.

Chester Morris was born John Chester Brooks Morris in New York City, in 1901. He was the son of actor William Morris and comedienne Etta Hawkins. As a teenager, Morris made his Broadway debut in 1918 in the play 'The Copperhead', in support of the great Lionel Barrymore. A year earlier, Chet Morris had made his film debut in Van Dyke Brooke's An Amateur Orphan (1917), but he didn't become a real film actor until the sound era. Instead, Morris appeared on Broadway in the plays 'Thunder' and 'The Mountain Man' in 1919. He returned to the Great White Way in 1922 in the comedy 'The Exciters'. He followed it up with the comedy-drama 'Extra' in 1923. Now established, Chester Morris began billing himself as 'the youngest leading man in the country'.

Chester Morris' dark, good looks and chiselled jaw made him a natural for movie stardom, but it wasn't until the transition from silent pictures to talkies that he became a film actor. He was one of the first actors to be nominated for an Academy Award when in 1930 (the second year of the as-yet non-nicknamed Oscars) he was recognised with a nod as Best Actor for Alibi (1929), his first talking picture. But it was his appearance in The Big House (1930), the film for which he is best known that he broke through to stardom. From 1930 through the middle of the decade, he was a star with good roles in first-rate pictures, usually assaying a tough guy. However, his star dimmed and by the end of the decade he was appearing in B-pictures, but beginning in 1941, the Boston Blackie series at Columbia Pictures revived his career. In all, he appeared in 14 pictures as the detective. He later segued to TV work in the 1950s and 1960s, appearing in the occasional film such as his last, The Great White Hope (1970), which meant he had been a working movie actor for seven decades. Although he was afflicted with cancer, it is unclear whether he took his own life as he was apparently in good spirits and left no note in 1970.

Sources: Jon C. Hopwood (IMDb) and IMDb.

And please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.<

Spanish postcard by Dümmatzen, no. 18. Photo: United Artists.

American actor Chester Morris (1901-1970) was a Broadway star who billed himself as "the youngest leading man in the country". With his dark, good looks and chiselled jaw, he became a film star in the sound era. Morris was Oscar-nominated for Alibi (1929), but his greatest success was The Big House (1930). However, his star dimmed and by the end of the decade, he was appearing in B-pictures, From 1941, the Boston Blackie series at Columbia Pictures revived his career. In all, he appeared in 14 films as the detective.

French-born actress Yola d'Avril (1907-1984) arrived in Hollywood at the end of the silent era. She became close friends with Gloria Swanson, who guided her career.First National dropped her due to her French accent. Still she co-starred with Joan Blondell in God's Gift to Women (1931) and worked with Spencer Tracy in Sky Devils (1932). Although she appeared in more than seventy films, she never became a major star.

And please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.

Spanish postcard by Dümmatzen, no. 90. Photo: Metro Goldwyn Mayer. Anita Page in Our Blushing Brides (Harry Beaumont, 1930).

Beautiful Anita Page (1910–2008) was one of the most popular leading ladies of Hollywood during the last years of the silent screen and the first years of the sound era. According to MGM, she received the most fan mail then and her nickname was "the girl with the most beautiful face in Hollywood".

Anita Page was born Anita Pomares in New York in 1910. After the birth of her brother Marino, the family moved to Astoria, a neighbourhood in the New York borough of Queens. Here she spent her childhood with her neighbours, Betty Bronson's family. Bronson debuted in Peter Pan (Herbert Brenon, 1924), after which her family moved to Hollywood. However, they returned briefly to the East Coast to film A Kiss for Cinderella (Herbert Brenon, 1925). They stayed at the Plaza Hotel and invited the young Page. Page herself had wanted to be an actress since childhood and this was noticed by Bronson. She gave her advice by sharing her own experiences of breaking through as an actress and offered her the role of an extra in A Kiss for Cinderella. Page accepted the offer. Her one-day stay at the studio led to more bit parts in Love 'Em and Leave 'Em (Frank Tuttle, 1926), which starred Evelyn Brent and Louise Brooks. An assistant advised her to take dance and acting lessons so that she "might one day grow into a star". After taking dance lessons from Martha Graham and acting lessons from John Murray Anderson, she met John Robert Powers, and Page was hired as one of his "The Power Girls". One day, he sent her to an audition at the Pathé Studio. She got a role in the short film Beach Nuts (1927). Bronson introduced her to agent Harvey Pugh. He arranged a screen test and soon Page was offered a film contract with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Page was cast opposite William Haines in Telling the World (Sam Wood, 1928). The film became a huge success, immediately getting Page noticed. Her next film, Our Dancing Daughters (Harry Beaumont, 1928) opposite Joan Crawford became a major success and caused a huge rise in popularity for both of them. After Lon Chaney saw Page in Our Dancing Daughters, he asked Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer to cast her in his new film, While the City Sleeps (Jack Conway, 1928). She then acted opposite Ramon Novarro in the romantic drama The Flying Fleet (George W. Hill, 1928). Her success in MGM's first highly publicised musical Broadway Melody (1929) opposite Bessie Love paved the way for a smooth career in sound cinema. After the film was released, it became a huge success. Broadway Melody (1929) became the first sound film to win an Academy Award for Best Picture. It was one of the first musicals to feature a Technicolor sequence, which sparked the trend of colour being used in a flurry of musicals that would hit the screens in 1929–1930. Page also sang several songs, including the popular hit 'You Were Meant for Me', purposely written by Nacio Herb Brown for her. It would remain her theme song.

In the early 1930s, Anita Page had a busy career in American films opposite actors like Buster Keaton, John Gilbert, Walter Huston, Robert Montgomery, and Clark Gable with whom she was romantically involved. When not working on films, she was busy with studio photographer George Hurrell creating publicity shots. She was one of his first subjects, and her photograph was his first to be published. After Garbo, she was the actress who got the most fan mail and Italian dictator Benito Mussolini supposedly kept proposing to her. At the age of 23, Page suddenly quit filming when her contract expired in 1933. She retired as she was denied a pay rise. Nacio Herb Brown, the composer of her song 'You Were Meant For Me', became her husband in 1934 until Page shortly after the wedding discovered he was a bigamist. She made one more film, the low-budget drama Hitch Hike to Heaven (Frank R. Strayer, 1936), and then retired fully from acting. In an interview in 2004, Page said the reason was she had refused sexual favours to MGM producers Irving Thalberg and Louis B. Mayer, after which Mayer made sure she was banned from any studio. She married Navy pilot Lieutenant Hershel A. House in 1937. They lived in Coronado, California, until he died in 1991. They had two daughters, Linda and Sandra. From 1996 on, after sixty years of absence from cinema, she played in various low-budget horror movies such as Witchcraft XI: Sisters in Blood (Ron Ford, 2000). She loved her old films, did many interviews, and always answered her fan mail. In 2009, Anita Page died in her sleep at the age of 98 in her Los Angeles home where she had lived with long-time companion Randal Malone. She is buried in the Holy Cross Cemetery in San Diego.

Sources: Wikipedia (English and Dutch), the Anita Page website

And, please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.

Spanish postcard by Dümmatzen, no. 22. Photo: Universal.

Blue-eyed, dark-haired Rose Hobart (1906-2000) was an American stage and film actress and a Screen Actors Guild official. She appeared in more than 40 films. Her career screeched to a halt after she was questioned by the House Un-American Activities Committee and black-listed in 1949.

Rose Hobart was born Rose Kefer in New York City in 1906. She was the daughter of the first cellist for the New York Symphony and the first violinist for the Metropolitan, Paul Kefer, and opera singer Marguerite Kefer, who both were frequently away on tour. Myrna Oliver in the Los Angeles Times: "She developed an early fascination with the stage at the age of 6 when summering with her family in Woodstock, N.Y. The poet Edna St. Vincent Millay was living next door--in town for the production of perhaps the only play she ever wrote. The child followed the writer “like a puppy dog,” and the two had frequent talks." Her parents divorced when she was seven. Hobart and her sister, Polly, went to France to live with their grandmother. When World War I began, they came back to the United States and went to boarding schools. By 1921, she was a student at Kingston High School in Kingston, New York. When Hobart was 15, she debuted professionally in 'Cappy Ricks', a Chautauqua production. She was accepted for the 18-week tour because she told officials that she was 18. At that same age, she was cast in Ferenc Molnár's 'Liliom', which opened in Atlantic City and starred Joseph Schildkraut and Eva Le Gallienne. Hobart's Broadway stage debut was at the Knickerbocker Theater, playing a young girl in 'Lullaby' (1923). In 1925, she played Charmian in 'Caesar and Cleopatra'. Hobart was an original member of Eva Le Gallienne's Civic Repertory Theatre. In 1928, she made her London debut, playing Nina Rolf in 'The Comic Artist'. During her career in theatre, she toured with Noël Coward in 'The Vortex' and was cast opposite Helen Hayes in 'What Every Woman Knows'. Her performance as Grazia in 'Death Takes a Holiday' won her a Hollywood contract.

Rose Hobart appeared in more than 40 films over 20 years. Her first film role was the part of Julie in the first talking picture version of Ferenc Molnár's drama Liliom (Frank Borzage, 1930), made by Fox Film Corporation and starring Charles Farrell in the title role. It was one of the first films to employ Rear projection, which is done during a train sequence. Under contract to Universal, Hobart starred in the romantic drama A Lady Surrenders (John M. Stahl, 1930) with Conrad Nagel and Genevieve Tobin, the adventure film East of Borneo (George Melford, 1931) with Charles Bickford and Lupita Tovar, and Scandal for Sale (Russell Mack, 1932) with Bickford and Pat O'Brien. On loan to other studios, she appeared in the dramas Chances (Allan Dwan, 1931) starring Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., and Compromised (John G. Adolfi, 1931) alongside Ben Lyon. In 1931, she co-starred with Fredric March and Miriam Hopkins in the original film version of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (Rouben Mamoulian, 1931). She played the role of Muriel, Jekyll's fiancée. Originally, she was also cast by James Whale for the lead role in his classic Waterloo Bridge (1931)]. Hobart quoted by IMDb: "I was under contract to Universal and James Whale wanted me. Then I was told they weren't going to pick up my option and I was so mad I refused to do it. I wanted to do it and wish I had." In 1936, Surrealist artist Joseph Cornell, bought a print of East of Borneo (1931) to screen at home. He became smitten with the actress and cut out nearly all the parts that did not include her. He named the resulting work 'Rose Hobart' which runs about 19 minutes. He showed the film at silent film speed and projected it through a blue-tinted lens. During the 1940s Hobart often played the 'other woman' or was the leading lady in B-films. In Conflict (Curtis Bernhardt, 1945), she was Humphrey Bogart’s wife he schemed to kill to romance her more alluring sister, played by Alexis Smith. She also appeared in the hit film The Farmer's Daughter (H.C. Potter, 1947) with Loretta Young. Her last major film role was in Bride of Vengeance (Mitchell Leisen, 1949) starring Paulette Goddard.

The House Un-American Activities Committee investigated Rose Hobart in 1949, effectively ending her career. She believed that she first came to the attention of anti-Communist activists because of her commitment to improving working conditions for actors in Hollywood. In 1986, she recalled that "On my first three pictures, they worked me 18 hours a day and then complained because I was losing so much weight that they had to put stuff in my evening dress. We were militant about the working conditions. We wanted an eight-hour day like everybody else." Hobart also served on the board of the Screen Actors Guild and was an active participant in the Actors' Laboratory Theatre, a group which anti-Communists like Senator Joseph McCarthy claimed was subversive. In 1948, Hobart was subpoenaed to appear before the Tenney Committee on Un-American Activities. Although Hobart was not a member of the Communist Party, she refused to cooperate, instead reading a prepared statement. “I remember when a casting director simply told me that I had been blacklisted,” she told The Los Angles Times in 1991. “I was livid. I also knew I had done it to myself. I had spoken out against what I considered unfair treatment of people in Hollywood.” IMDb: "Hobart believed she was blacklisted because she was a board member of the Actors Lab and was appearing at the same time in a controversial play about miscegenation, 'Deep Are the Roots'. However, Lee J. Cobb reportedly named her before the HUAC (House Un-American Affairs Committee) as a member of the Communist Party, which resulted in her blacklisting." In 1950, Hobart was also listed in the anti-Communist blacklisting publication, 'Red Channels'. Hobart never worked in film again, although she did work on stage. In the 1960s, as the blacklist eased, she worked for television and was Sister Margaret on The Danny Thomas Show/Make Room for Daddy (1960) and the maid, Mary on Peyton Place (1966-1969). She also had a few guest roles on series such as Gunsmoke (1968), The FBI (1969) and Cannon (1971). Her final screen role was in a segment of Night Gallery, The Dear Departed (1971). In 1988, Hobart acted in a student film, Rancho California by Steven Ramiriz. She published her autobiography, 'A Steady Digression to a Fixed Point' (1994). Rose Hobart was married three times. Her first marriage, to Benjamin L. Winter, ended in divorce in 1929. In 1932, she married William Mason Grosvenor, Jr., an executive in a chemical engineering firm. They were divorced in 1941. She had one child, a son Judson Bosworth (1949), from her third marriage to architect Barton H. Bosworth. From 1982 on, she lived at the Motion Picture and Television Country House and Hospital in Woodland Hills, not far from Hollywood, where she enjoyed editing the House newsletter, 'Haven News'. In 2000, Rose Hobart died there aged 94, from natural causes. She was survived by her son, Judson Bosworth.

Sources: Myrna Oliver (Los Angeles Times), Tom Weaver (IMDb), Wikipedia and IMDb.

And please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.

Spanish postcard by Dümmatzen, no. 112. Photo: United Artists. Ronald Colman and Helen Hayes in Arrowsmith (John Ford, 1931).

English gentleman-actor Ronald Colman (1891 - 1958) was a top box office draw in Hollywood films throughout the 1920s, 1930s and 1940s. ‘The Man with the velvet voice’ was nominated for four Academy Awards. In 1948 he finally won the Oscar for his splendid portrayal of a tormented actor in A Double Life (1947).

Ronald Charles Colman was born in 1891 in Richmond, England. He was the fifth of six children of silk importer Charles Colman and his wife Marjory Read Fraser. Ronald was educated at a boarding school in Littlehampton, where he discovered he enjoyed acting. When Ronald was 16 his father died of pneumonia, putting an end to the boy's plans to attend Cambridge and become an engineer. He went to work as a shipping clerk at the British Steamship Company. He also became a well-known amateur actor and was a member of the West Middlesex Dramatic Society (1908-1909). In 1909, he joined the London Scottish Regiment, a territorial army force, and he was sent to France at the outbreak of World War I. Colman took part in the First Battle of Ypres and was severely wounded at the battle at Messines in Belgium. The shrapnel wounds he took to his legs invalided him out of active service. In May 1915, decorated, discharged and depressed, he returned home with a limp that he would attempt to hide throughout the rest of his acting career. He tried to enter the consular service, but a chance encounter got him a small role in the London play The Maharanee of Arakan (1916). He dropped other plans and concentrated on the theatre. Producers soon noted the young actor with his striking good looks, rich voice and rare dignity, and Colman was rewarded with a succession of increasingly prominent parts. He worked with stage greats Gladys Cooper and Gerald du Maurier. He made extra money appearing in films like the two-reel silent comedy The Live Wire (Cecil Hepworth, 1917). The set was an old house with a negligible budget, and Colman doubled as the leading character and prop man. The film was never released though. Other silent British films were The Snow of the Desert (Walter West, 1919) with Violet Hopson and Stewart Rome, and The Black Spider (William Humphrey, 1920) with Mary Clare. The negatives of all of Colman's early British films have probably been destroyed during the 1941 London Blitz. After a brief courtship, he married actress Thelma Raye in 1919. The marriage was in trouble almost from the beginning. The two separated in 1923 but were not divorced until 1934.

In 1920 Ronald Colman set out for New York in hopes of finding greater fortune there than in war-depressed England. His American film debut was in the tawdry melodrama Handcuffs or Kisses? (George Archainbaud, 1920). He toured with Robert Warwick in 'The Dauntless Three', and subsequently toured with Fay Bainter in 'East is West'. After two years of impoverishment, he was cast in the Broadway hit play 'La Tendresse' (1922). Director Henry King spotted him and cast him as Lillian Gish's leading man in The White Sister (Henry King, 1923), filmed in Italy. The romantic tear-jerker was wildly popular and Colman was quickly proclaimed a new film star. This success led to a contract with prominent independent film producer Samuel Goldwyn, and in the following ten years, he became a very popular silent film star in both romantic and adventure films. Among his most successful films for Goldwyn were The Dark Angel (George Fitzmaurice, 1925) with Hungarian actress Vilma Bánky, Stella Dallas (Henry King, 1926), the Oscar Wilde adaptation Lady Windermere's Fan (Ernst Lubitsch, 1925) and The Winning of Barbara Worth (Henry King, 1926) with Gary Cooper. Colman's dark hair and eyes and his athletic and riding ability led reviewers to describe him as a ‘Valentino type’. He was often cast in similar, exotic roles. The film that cemented this position as a top star was Beau Geste (Herbert Brenon, 1926), Paramount's biggest hit of 1926. It was the rousing tale of three brothers (Colman, Neil Hamilton and Ralph Forbes), who join the Foreign Legion to escape the law. Beau Geste was full of mystery, desert action, intrigue and above all, brotherly loyalty. Colman's gentlemanly courage and quiet strength were showcased to perfection in the role of the oldest brother, Beau. The film is still referred to as possibly the greatest Foreign Legion film ever produced. Towards the end of the silent era, Colman was teamed again with Vilma Bánky under Samuel Goldwyn. The two would make a total of five films together and their popularity rivalled that of Greta Garbo and John Gilbert.

Although Ronald Colman was a huge success in silent films, with the coming of sound, his extraordinarily beautiful speaking voice made him even more important to the film industry. His first major talkie success was in 1930 when he was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor for two roles - Condemned (Wesley Ruggles, 1929) with Lily Damita, and Bulldog Drummond (F. Richard Jones, 1929) with Joan Bennett. Thereafter he played a number of sophisticated, noble characters with enormous aplomb such as Clive of India (Richard Boleslawski, 1935) with Colin Clive, but he also swashbuckled expertly when called to do so in films like The Prisoner of Zenda (John Cromwell, 1937) with Madeleine Carroll. A falling out with Goldwyn in 1934 prompted Colman to avoid long-term contracts for the rest of his career. He became one of just a handful of top stars to successfully freelance, picking and choosing his assignments and studios. His notable films included the Charles Dickens adaptation A Tale of Two Cities (Jack Conway, 1935), the poetic classic Lost Horizon (Frank Capra, 1937), and If I Were King (Frank Lloyd, 1938) with Basil Rathbone as vagabond poet Francois Villon. During the war, he made two of his very best films - Talk of the Town (George Stevens, 1942) with Cary Grant and Jean Arthur, and the romantic tearjerker Random Harvest (Mervyn LeRoy, 1942), as an amnesiac victim, co-starring with the luminous Greer Garson. For his role in A Double Life (George Cukor, 1947), an actor playing Othello who comes to identify with the character, he won both the Golden Globe for Best Actor in 1947 and the Best Actor Oscar in 1948. Colman made many guest appearances on The Jack Benny Program on the radio, alongside his second wife, British stage and screen actress Benita Hume. Their comedy work as Benny's next-door neighbours led to their own radio comedy The Halls of Ivy from 1950 to 1952, and then on television from 1954 to 1955. Incidentally, he appeared in films, such as the romantic comedy Champagne for Caesar (Richard Whorf, 1950), and his final film The Story of Mankind (Irwin Allen, 1957) with Hedy Lamarr. Hal Erickson at AllMovie: "a laughably wretched extravaganza from which Colman managed to emerge with his dignity and reputation intact." Ronald Colman died in 1958, aged 67, from a lung infection in Santa Barbara, California. He was survived by Benita Hume, and their daughter Juliet Benita Colman (1944). In 1975, Juliet published the biography 'Ronald Colman: A Very Private Person'.

Sources: Hal Erickson (AllMovie), Jim Beaver (IMDb), Julie Stowe (The Ronald Colman Pages), Encyclopaedia Britannica, Wikipedia and IMDb.

And, please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.

Spanish postcard by Dümmatzen, no. 11. Photo: Fox.

American actress and Ziegfeld Girl Peggy Shannon (1907- 1941) was promoted as 'the New Clara Bow'' but her Hollywood career was soon over and she moved to Broadway. A serious drinking problem finished her career and ended her life at only 34.

Peggy Shannon was born Winona Sammon in 1907, in Pine Bluff, Arkansas. Her parents were Edward Ham Sammon and Nannie M. Martin. She had a younger sister, Carol. She attended Catholic school where she became friends with child actress Madge Evans. While visiting her aunt in New York sixteen-year-old Peggy was discovered by producer Florenz Ziegfeld Jr. He hired her as a chorus girl in 'Ziegfeld Follies of 1923'. Peggy married actor Alan Davis in 1926. The following year she starred on Broadway in Earl Carrol's production of 'What Anne Brought Home'. In 1931 she was offered a contract at Paramount Studios. Only two days after she arrived in Hollywood, Paramount's Bud Schulberg gave Peggy a leading role in The Secret Call (Stuart Walker, 1931) opposite Richard Arlen. The role was originally intended for Clara Bow, but when "the It Girl" suffered a nervous breakdown Peggy with her beautiful face and red hair, was promoted as "the new Clara Bow". Although Peggy Shannon also starred in the films This Reckless Age (Frank Tuttle, 1932) alongside Charles 'Buddy' Rogers and Hotel Continental (Christy Cabanne, 1932), her career never really took off. Shannon sometimes worked 16-hour days (from 10 a.m. to 4 a.m. the next day) while shooting a film, and when shooting wrapped, rushed to begin another film. She occasionally worked on two separate films in one day. Through films and publicity, Shannon became known as a fashion plate, wearing styles three months before they became popular. In 1932, she signed a new contract at Fox and became known as difficult and temperamental on the set and was rumoured to have had a drinking problem. In 1934, Shannon's contract was not renewed and she returned to New York City.

Peggy Shannon appeared in the Broadway play 'Page Miss Glory' (1934) as the girlfriend of a then-unknown Jimmy Stewart. She was fired from the play 'The Light Behind The Shadow' (1935). A press release claimed a tooth infection, though rumours claimed it was her drinking. Peggy returned to Hollywood for the B-movie Youth on Parole (Phil Rosen, 1937). She found it harder to conceal her drinking. Fewer film roles were offered, and her drinking worsened. Her final films were Cafe Hostess (Sidney Salkow, 1940) starring Ann Dvorak and the Western Triple Justice (David Howard, 1940) with George O'Brien. She divorced Alan Davis in 1940 and married cameraman Albert G. Roberts. After a fishing trip in 1941, her second husband and a fellow studio worker found Shannon slumped over the kitchen table in their North Hollywood apartment. She was dead, with her head down on her arms, a cigarette in her mouth, and an empty glass in her hand. The actress had died from a heart attack at the young age of thirty-four. Her autopsy revealed that she had a serious liver ailment caused by her alcoholism. 19 days after Shannon's death, Roberts fatally shot himself right in the same chair in which she died. His suicide note read "I am very much in love with my wife, Peggy Shannon. In this spot she died, so in reverence to her, you will find me in the same spot." Peggy Shannon is buried at Hollywood Forever Cemetery in Hollywood, California. The epitaph on her tombstone says "That Red-Headed Girl, Peggy Shannon".

Sources: Elisabeth Ann (IMDb), Wikipedia and IMDb.

And, please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.

Spanish postcard by Dümmatzen, no. 72. Photo: Universal.

George Sidney (1877-1945) was a Hungarian-born film actor and comedian with long vaudeville experience. He starred in the popular The Cohens and Kellys comedy series opposite Charles Murray.

George Sidney was born Sammy Greenfield in 1877 in Nagynichal, Hungary. When he was a boy, his family emigrated to New York. In his youth, Sidney performed on amateur night programs at Miner's Bowery Theatre. His professional debut came in 1900 at the Harlem Museum. Sidney developed a character named 'Busy Izzy', whom he played on the vaudeville circuits, as well as the Broadway shows 'The Floor Walkers' (1900) and 'Busy Izzy’s Boodle' (1908)). In 1915, he appeared for Gaumont in the short silent comedy Bizzy Issie (N.N., 1915), but after this film, he returned to the stage. Other Broadway shows included 'The Show Shop' (1914-1915), 'Oh, Look!' (1918), 'Why Worry?' (1918), 'Welcome Stranger'(1920-1921), and 'Give and Take'(1923). George Sidney made his Hollywood debut in In Hollywood with Potash and Perlmutter (Alfred E. Green, 1924). Abe Potash (Sidney) and Morris (or Mawruss) Perlmutter (Alexander Carr) play two middle-class Jewish businessmen. The film was the sequel of Potash and Perlmutter (Clarence G. Badger, 1923) in which Barney Bernard played the role of Potash. Encouraged by the fact that movie moguls Adolph Zukor and William Fox were once garment manufacturers and that Carl Laemmle once ran a clothing store, the pair decided to build a motion picture studio. Potash and Perlmutter returned in the comedy Partners Again (Henry King, 1926). It was the third and final film featuring Potash and Perlmutter. All were based on plays written by Montague Glass with co-writers Jules Eckert Goodman or Charles Klein, and produced by Samuel Goldwyn. Paula Roc at IMDb: "The ongoing routine of Potash's and Perlmutter's constant arguing is very funny and not irritating as such bickering could be. The mild ethnic humor in the movie - mostly in the title cards - is amusing and never cringe-inducing. It is the Potash character that is the most memorable and George Sidney does a wonderful job in the role."

George Sidney became a star in his next film The Cohens and Kellys (Harry A. Pollard, 1926), playing Jacob Cohen (later changed to Nathan) alongside Charlie Murray as Patrick Kelly. Inspired by a play by Aaron Hoffman’s 1921 play 'Two Blocks Away', the comedy tells the story of two families, one Jewish and one Irish, living side by side in the poorer quarters of New York in a state of hostility. While the picture enjoyed critical and commercial success, it came under scrutiny for bearing less resemblance to the underlying material, 'Two Blocks Away', than to Anne Nichols’s 1922 play, 'Abie’s Irish Rose'. Nichols filed a lawsuit against Universal, Carl Laemmle, and Harry Pollard (Nichols v. Universal Pictures Corp.), which sought an injunction against the film and $3 million in damages. Judge Learned Hand ruled in favour of Universal, after finding the similarities between the two properties too vague, as they were based on stock characters and situations. The Cohens and Kellys was so successful that it spawned a series of sequels: The Cohens and the Kellys in Paris (William Beaudine, 1928) with Vera Gordon as his wife, the sound film The Cohens and Kellys in Atlantic City (William James Craft, 1929) with Mack Swain, The Cohens and the Kellys in Scotland (William James Craft, 1930) with Charles Murray again and Vera Gordon, The Cohens and the Kellys in Africa (Vin Moore, 1930), The Cohens and Kellys in Hollywood (John Francis Dillon, 1932) with Charles Murray, and The Cohens and Kellys in Trouble (George Stevens, 1933) with Charles Murray and Maureen O'Sullivan. George Sidney was the only original cast member who appeared in all of the sequels. Sidney and Charlie Murray became an informal comedy team, co-starring in close to two dozen comedies including Sweet Daddies (Alfred Santell, 1926) and Around the Corner (Bert Glennon, 1930). Sidney also played supporting parts in Manhattan Melodrama (W.S. Van Dykje, 1934) starring Clark Gable and Myrna Loy, and Diamond Jim (A. Edward Sutherland, 1935) starring Edward Arnold and Jean Arthur. His final film was The Good Old Soak (J. Walter Ruben, 1937) starring Wallace Beery. Sidney returned to Broadway for one last show 'Window Shopping' (1937-38) and retired thereafter. George Sidney was married to Carey Weber and was the brother of producer Louis K. Sidney and blackface comedian Jack Sidney (who billed himself as 'Jack of Spades'), and the uncle of MGM director George Sidney. George Sidney died in 1945 at his home in Los Angeles, California, aged 69. He was buried in Beth Olam Cemetery of Hollywood.

Sources: Trav S.D. (Travalanche), AFI Catalog, Wikipedia and IMDb.

And, please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.

Spanish postcard by Dümmatzen, no. 38. Photo: Columbia.

Spanish-American film actress and Flamenco dancer Maria Alba (1905-1999) was one of Hollywood's Latin stars. Maria Alba was born María del Pilar Margarita Casajuana Martínez in Barcelona in 1905. The Fox Film Corporation signed her after winning a Fox Film contest in Spain. Originally billed as Maria Casajuana, she appeared in 25 feature films, starting with Road House (Richard Rosson, 1928) with Lionel Barrymore and ending with the Mexican film La morena de mi copla (1946). Maria Alba's most notable appearances were probably as 'Saturday' in the Douglas Fairbanks film Mr Robinson Crusoe (A. Edward Sutherland, 1932) and the exotic 'Princess Nadji' in the Bela Lugosi serial The Return of Chandu (Ray Taylor, 1934). Other Latin actresses working in Hollywood, like Lupe Vélez or Dolores del Río, became fluent in English. Still, Maria Alba spoke English with a thick accent, which limited her casting opportunities and she made her last films in Mexico. Maria Alba was married to Richard Jamar Burk. In 1999, she passed away from Alzheimer's disease in San Diego, California. She was 89.

We found this series of Spanish postcards of international film stars published in the early 1930s. The publisher's name is written prominently on the cards: Dümmatzen. But what or better, who was Dümmatzen? On his Spanish postcard blog 'El Cartofilo Empedernido', Carlos Pascual del Cose writes that Pablo Dümmatzen can be considered the longest-lived publisher of Spanish cartophily. Dümmatzen died in Barcelona in 1971, at the age of 93. He had by then dedicated more than 70 years of his life to the production of postcards.

Paul Dümmatzen was born around 1878 in Hamburg, Germany. At the beginning of 1900, he settled in Malaga, Spain, where 'Pablo' Dúmmtazen began to manufacture and distribute canned fried anchovies. How this business went is unknown, but that same year, he had a series of lithographic postcards printed in a German graphic arts workshop with Spanish views. Remarkable was that when viewed against the light, the transparent views became night scenes, in which the moon, the windows and the illuminated street lamps stood out. This patented system was known as ‘meteor’ Carlos Pascual del Cose considers Dümmatzen 's initial series of eleven postcards, as "one of the most beautiful and mythologised of Spanish postcards". The views are from the cities of Madrid, Seville, Tangiers (with two views each), Malaga, Granada, Cordoba, Cadiz and Jerez de la Frontera. The postcards are of course in great demand.

In 1903 Pablo Dümmatzen made a major professional turn. Although he continued to produce postcards of cities, he devoted himself mainly to fantasy, beauty, greetings, humour, etc. from then on. He also moved his business to Barcelona, first in Calle Conde de Asalto number 7, and finally, around 1910, in Plaza de Tetuán number 4. In 1907 he married Emma Hauke from Hungary, with whom he probably had no children. In 1922, Pablo Dümmatzen placed an advertisement in the newspaper La Vanguardia that explained how he worked. In the advertisement, he called for postcard models: ‘Children in military costumes, nurses, barmaids and others of great luxury. Please contact Pablo Dümmatzen. Plaza Tetuán, 4, dressed in costume, from 10 to 12.' In Barcelona, Pablo Dümmatzen produced hundreds of thousands of postcards, including the film star series series. In 1971, Pablo passed away in Barcelona, at the age of 93.

Source: Carlos Pascual del Cose (El Cartofilo Empedernido - Spanish) , Wikipedia (Spanish and English) and IMDb.

And, please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.

Spanish postcard by Dümmatzen, no. 19. Photo: Universal. Harry Carey in Law and Order (Edward L. Cahn, 1932).

American actor and cowboy Harry Carey (1878-1947) was one of the silent film's earliest superstars. He was the father of Harry Carey Jr., who was also a prominent actor.

Harry Carey was born Henry DeWitt Carey II in the Bronx, New York, in 1878. He was the son of Henry DeWitt Carey, a prominent lawyer and judge of the New York Supreme Court, and his wife Ella J. (Ludlum). He grew up on City Island, Bronx. Carey's love of horses was instilled in him at a young age as he watched New York City's mounted policemen go through their paces in the 1880s. Carey attended Hamilton Military Academy and then studied law at New York University. At 21, he had a boating accident that led to pneumonia. While recuperating he wrote a play, Montana, about the Western frontier. He decided to star in his creation and the play was very successful. Audiences were thrilled when Carey brought his horse onto the stage. He toured the country performing in it for three years and earned a lot of money, but his fortune evaporated after his next play, Heart of Alaska (1909) closed after only 16 performances. His friend Henry B. Walthall introduced him to legendary director D.W. Griffith, with whom Carey would make many films. His first credited picture is Bill Sharkey's Last Game (D.W. Griffith, 1909). Memorable is The Musketeers of Pig Alley (D.W. Griffith, 1912), in which Carey played a hood in the 'hoods of New York. Carey followed Griffith to Hollywood and appeared in his The Battle at Elderbush Gulch (D.W. Griffith, 1913) with Lillian Gish, and Judith of Bethulia (D.W. Griffith, 1914). Carey's rugged frame and weather-beaten face were well-suited to Westerns. One of his most popular roles was as the good-hearted outlaw Cheyenne Harry. In most of the films, his co-stars included the teenage Olive Golden (from 1920: Olive Carey) as the love interest and Hoot Gibson as his young sidekick. The Cheyenne Harry franchise spanned two decades, from A Knight of the Range (Jacques Jaccard, 1916) to Aces Wild (Harry L. Fraser, 1936). Olive Golden introduced him to future director John Ford. Carey influenced Universal Studios head, Carl Laemmle, to use Ford as a director. Jon C. Hopwood at IMDb: "The first Carey-Ford collaboration was Straight Shooting (John Ford, 1917), an entertaining if crude (by today's standards) western, most notable for Carey's performance." In 1918, Carey starred in Ford's first feature film, Straight Shooting (John Ford, 1918). The partnership lasted until a rift in the friendship in 1921.

When sound films arrived, Harry Carey displayed an assured, gritty baritone voice that suited his rough-hewn screen personality. He was the logical choice for the title role in MGM's outdoor jungle epic Trader Horn (W.S. Van Dyke, 1931). By this time Carey, already in his fifties, was too mature for most leading roles, and the only starring roles that he was offered were in low-budget westerns and serials. He soon settled into a comfortable career as a solid, memorable character actor. He reunited with John Ford for The Prisoner of Shark Island (John Ford, 1936). It was the last of their 27 pictures together. Carey received an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor for his role as the President of the Senate in Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (Frank Capra, 1939). Among his other notable later roles were that of Sgt. Robert White, crew chief of the bomber Mary Ann in Air Force (Howard Hawks, 1943) and Mr. Melville, the cattle buyer, in Red River (Howard Hawks, 1848). Carey made his Broadway stage debut in 1940, in Heavenly Express with John Garfield. Harry Carey married at least twice and perhaps a third time (census records for 1910 indicate he had a wife named Clare E. Carey, and some references state that he was also married to actress Fern Foster). His last marriage was to actress Olive Fuller Golden in 1920. They were together until his death. They purchased a large ranch in Saugus, California, north of Los Angeles. Their son, Harry Carey, Jr., would become a character actor, most famous for his roles in westerns. Father and son both appear (albeit in different scenes) in Red River (Howard Hawks, 1948), and mother and son are both featured in The Searchers (John Ford, 1956). Harry Carey died in 1947 from a combination of lung cancer, emphysema, and coronary thrombosis, at the age of 69. Ford dedicated his remake of 3 Godfathers (John Ford, 1948) "To Harry Carey--Bright Star Of The Early Western Sky." Jon Hopwood at IMDb: "Carey did not dress as flashily as Ken Maynard or the great Tom Mix, and his films were often true portrayals of the West instead of Mix's flashy hoss operas. Good with a physical business, particularly involving his hands, Carey developed signature gestures such as the way he sat on a horse, a semi-slouch with his elbows resting on the saddle horn. Another signature was his holding his left forearm with his right, a physical gesture that in the elocutionary style of stage melodrama and the early silents signalled thoughtfulness, but which Carey made uniquely his own." John Wayne paid homage to Carey when he held his right elbow with his left hand in the closing shot of The Searchers (John Ford, 1956).

Sources: Jon C. Hopwood (IMDb), Jim Beaver (IMDb), Wikipedia and IMDb.

And, please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.

Spanish postcard by Dümmatzen, no. 24. Photo: Fox.

Marian Nixon (1904-1983), aka Marion Nixon, was an American actress, who acted in over 70 films.

And, please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.

Spanish postcard by Dümmatzen, no. 8. Photo: Universal.

Vivacious blonde June Clyde (1909-1987) was an American actress, singer and dancer. She was known for roles in such pre-Code films as A Strange Adventure (1932), Tess of the Storm Country (1932) and A Study in Scarlet (1933), with Reginald Owen as Sherlock Holmes. In 1934, Clyde moved to England with her husband Thornton Freeland and appeared in several British films and stage productions.

And please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.

Spanish postcard by Dümmatzen, no. 84. Photo: Columbia. Lupita Tovar and Ramón Pereda in Carne de cabaret (Eduardo Arozamena, Christy Cabanne (as William Cababa), 1931). They read the magazine L'ecran. Carne de Cabaret was the Spanish-language version of Ten Cents a Dance (Lionel Barrymore, Edward Buzzell, 1931).

Mexican-American actress Lupita Tovar (1910-2016) was best known for her starring role in the Spanish-language version of Drácula (1931). It was filmed in Los Angeles by Universal at night using the same sets as the Bela Lugosi version but with a different cast and director. She also starred in Santa (1932), one of the first Mexican sound films, and one of the first commercial Spanish-language sound films. At the time of her death, she was the oldest living actress and among the last surviving stars of the Golden Ages of both Mexican cinema and Hollywood.

Ramón Pereda (1897–1986) was a Spanish-Mexican actor, screenwriter, film producer and film director.[ He appeared in the Spanish-language version of the Revue film Paramount on Parade (1930).

And, please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.

Spanish postcard by Dümmatzen, no. 118. Photo: Metro Goldwyn Mayer.

Charming American model, vaudeville and film actress Leila Hyams (1905-1977) was one of Hollywood's top leading ladies of the early talkie pre-code years. She had spark, personality, charisma, and a touch of down-to-earthness and naturalness that won over movie fans; they could relate to her. She is best known for her roles in the classic horror features Freaks (1932) and Island of Lost Souls (1932). Her career lasted little more than a decade.

German-American competition swimmer and actor Johnny Weissmuller (1904-1984) is best known for playing Tarzan in films of the 1930s and 1940s and for having one of the best competitive swimming records of the 20th century. Weissmuller was one of the world's fastest swimmers in the 1920s, winning five Olympic gold medals for swimming and one bronze medal for water polo. He won fifty-two US National Championships, set sixty-seven world records and was purportedly undefeated in official competition for the entirety of his competitive career. After his swimming career, he became the sixth actor to portray Edgar Rice Burroughs's ape man, Tarzan, a role he played in twelve films. The first was Tarzan the Apeman (W. S. Van Dyke, 1932) with Maureen O'Sullivan. Dozens of other actors have also played Tarzan, but Weissmuller is by far the best-known. His character's distinctive Tarzan yell is still often used in films.

And, please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.

Spanish postcard by Dümmatzen, no. 394. Foto: Fox. Collection: Marlène Pilaete.

Alice Faye was once the most famous singing actress in the world. She is the subject of a new La Collectionneuse post at our blog European Film Star Postcards. Expected on 26 August 2024.

Spanish postcard by Dümmatzen, no. 68. Photo: United Artists.

Estelle Taylor (1894–1958) was an American actress, singer, model, and animal rights activist. With "dark-brown, almost black hair, and brown eyes", she was regarded as one of the most beautiful silent film stars of the 1920s.

Ida Estelle Taylor was born in 1894, in Wilmington, Delaware. Her father was Harry D. Taylor and her mother was Ida LaBertha "Bertha" Barrett. The Taylors had another daughter, Helen, who also became an actress. In 1911, Estelle married bank cashier Kenneth M. Peacock. The couple remained together for five years until Taylor decided to become an actress. In 1918, Taylor moved to New York City to study acting at the Sargent Dramatic School. She made her stage debut as a 'comedy vamp' in the play 'Come-On, Charlie', by George V. Hobart. Taylor began looking for work in films. With the help of J. Gordon Edwards, she got a small role in the film A Broadway Saint (Harry O. Hoyt, 1919) starring Montagu Love. She was hired by the Vitagraph Company for a role with Corinne Griffith in The Tower of Jewels (Tom Terriss, 1920), and also played William Farnum's leading lady in The Adventurer (J. Gordon Edwards, 1920) for the Fox Film Corporation. She achieved her first notable success with the crime drama While New York Sleeps (Charles Brabin, 1920) with Marc McDermott. She was a contract player of Fox and William Fox sent her to Fox Film's Hollywood studios. There she played Mercedes opposite John Gilbert as Edmond Dantès in Monte Cristo (Emmett J. Flynn, 1922), based on the novel by Alexandre Dumas.

Estelle Taylor played one of her most memorable roles as Miriam, the sister of Moses (Theodore Roberts), in the biblical prologue of The Ten Commandments (Cecil B. DeMille, 1923), one of the most successful films of the silent era. Her performance in the DeMille film was considered a great acting achievement. Taylor signed a contract with Paramount Pictures on the strength of her performance as Miriam. She was again praised for her portrayal of Mary, Queen of Scots in Dorothy Vernon of Haddon Hall (Marshall Neilan, 1924) starring Mary Pickford. She became even more famous in 1925 when she married heavyweight champion boxer Jack Dempsey. The following year, she played Lucrezia Borgia in Don Juan (Alan Crosland, 1926) starring John Barrymore. This was the first feature-length film to use the Vitaphone sound-on-disc sound system with a synchronised musical score and sound effects, though it has no spoken dialogue. Notable sound films in which she appeared include Street Scene (King Vidor, 1931), with Sylvia Sidney, the Academy Award for Best Picture-winning Cimarron (Wesley Ruggles, 1931), with Richard Dix and Irene Dunne, and Call Her Savage (John Francis Dillon, 1932), with Clara Bow. Although she had made a successful transition to sound films, Taylor retired from film acting in 1932 and decided to focus entirely on her singing career, receiving a salary of $1,000 a week. She performed in vaudeville, on the stage in musicals, and in nightclubs. At one point, she even gave a concert at New York's Carnegie Hall. Taylor returned to films with a small part in the Jean Renoir drama The Southerner (1945). It was her last film. Estelle Taylor was also active in animal welfare before her death from cancer in 1958. She was married three times. After her marriage to Jack Dempsey ended in divorce in 1931, she was married to theatrical producer Paul Small (1943-1945).

Sources: Wikipedia and IMDb.

And, please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.

Spanish postcard by Dümmatzen no. 103. Photo: Metro Goldwyn Mayer.

Jimmy Durante (1893-1980) was an American singer, pianist, comedian, writer, and actor. His famous nickname was 'The Great Schnozzola', referencing his big nose. He was also known for his deep raspy voice when he said "Ha-Cha-Cha-Chaaaaa!". He won an Emmy Award in 1952.

James Francis 'Jimmy' Durante was born in 1893 in Brooklyn, New York. His family were Italian Catholics. Durante dedicated himself to becoming a piano player, performing in the usual dives, beer halls and public events. He organized a ragtime band, playing for such spots as the Coney Island College Inn and Harlem's Alamo Club. He secured two long-lasting relationships in 1921 when he married Maud Jeanne Olson and formed a professional partnership with dancer Eddie Jackson; two years later Durante and Jackson combined with another dancer, Lou Jackson, to form one of the best-known roughhouse teams of the 1920s. Clayton, Jackson and Durante opened their speakeasy, the Club Durant (they couldn't afford the 'E' on the sign), quickly becoming the 'in' spot for show-business celebrities and the bane of Prohibition agents. Durante was the star of the proceedings, adopting his lifelong stage character of an aggressive, belligerent singer, yelling "Stop the music"; at the slightest provocation and behaving as though he had to finish his song before the authorities hauled him away for having the nerve to perform. Durante's trio went uptown in the Ziegfeld musical 'Show Girl' in 1929, the same year that Durante made his screen debut in Roadhouse Nights (Hobart Henley, 1929) starring Helen Morgan.

In the 1930s, the megawatt Jimmy Durante acted in a comedy series with stone-faced comedian Buster Keaton. Though popular in personal appearances, Durante's overbearing performing style did not translate well to film. Hal Erickson at AllMovie: "Though Durante and Keaton liked each other, their comedy styles were not compatible." He later appeared in The Wet Parade (Victor Fleming, 1932) starring Dorothy Jordan, and Broadway to Hollywood (Willard Mack, Jules White, 1933). Durante reached his peak in films by 1934 and was thereafter used only as a specialty act or in supporting roles. On stage, however, Durante was still a proven audience favourite. He stopped the show in the 1935 Billy Rose stage musical 'Jumbo', wherein, while leading a live elephant away from his creditors, he was stopped by a cop. "What are you doing with that elephant?" demanded the cop. Durante looked askance and bellowed, "What elephant?" In hit after hit on Broadway, Durante was a metropolitan success. Later films include The Man Who Came to Dinner (William Keighley, 1942), playing 'Banjo', a character based on Harpo Marx, Ziegfeld Follies (Vincente Minnelli, a.o., 1946), and Billy Rose's Jumbo (Charles Walters, 1962), based on the 1935 musical.

In 1943, Jimmy Durante expanded his popularity nationwide with a radio program co-starring young comedian Garry Moore. During the 1950s, Durante continued to thrive on TV. On 4 August 1955, The Jimmy Durante Show on NBC was the venue of the final role by the famous Brazilian singer Carmen Miranda. Miranda fell to her knees while dancing with Durante, who quickly told the band, "STOP--the music!". He helped Miranda up to her feet as she laughed, "I'm all out of breath!". He replied, "That's OK, honey, I'll take your lines." Miranda laughed again and quickly pulled herself together and finished the show. However, the next morning, Miranda died at home from another heart attack. Durante's last film was the classic comedy It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (Stanley Kramer, 1963) with Spencer Tracy. By the mid-1960s, Durante was capable of fracturing a TV audience simply by mangling the words written for him on cue cards; a perennial of ABC's weekly Hollywood Palace, he took on a weekly series in his 76th year in a variety program co-starring the Lennon Sisters. Suffering several strokes in the 1970s, Jimmy Durante decided to retire completely, though he occasionally showed up (in a wheelchair) for such celebrations as MGM's 50th anniversary. Hal Erickson: "Few stars were as beloved as Durante, and even fewer were spoken of so highly and without any trace of jealousy or rancour after he died in 1980; perhaps this adulation was due in part to Durante's ending each performance by finding a telephone, dialling G-O-D, and saying 'Thanks!'"

Sources: Hal Erickson (AllMovie), Wikipedia and IMDb.

And, please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.

Spanish postcard by Dümmatzen, no. 43. Photo: Universal .

Austrian actress Tala Birell (1907-1958) was a protégé of legendary stage director Max Reinhardt and became popular in his Viennese productions. Universal signed her to star in Hollywood films and the studio built her up as a new Garbo. To no avail. During the 1940s and early 1950s, she mainly worked in B-films and for TV.

Tall and blond Tala Birell was born Natalie Bierl in Bucharest, Romania in 1907. Her mother Stephanie Sahaydakowska, was a Polish baroness, and her father, Carl Bierl, was an Austrian businessman. They were temporarily in Bucharest while he was overseeing his company there. Nathalie and her three sisters and one brother enjoyed an idyllic life, summering at the Polish estate of her aristocratic uncle. During WWI the family was in Berlin, where Nathalie studied at a private school. After the war her father died and her privileged childhood came to an end. She dreamed of the theatre and made her stage debut in Berlin in 1926 in 'The Mikado' with Erik Charell. That year, she also made her film debut credited as Thala Birell in a bit role in Man spielt nicht mit der Liebe/One Does Not Play with Love (Georg Wilhelm Pabst, 1926), starring Werner Krauss and Lili Damita. This silent German drama was an adaptation of the play 'On ne badine pas avec l'amour' by Alfred de Musset and is now considered to be a lost film. The following year she played in Ich habe im Mai von der Liebe geträumt/In May, I dreamed of love (Frans Seitz, 1927) with Wilhelm Dieterle. She was spotted by the famous stage producer Max Reinhardt, who put her in his production of 'Es Liegt in Der Luft' (It’s in the Air, 1927) starring Marlene Dietrich. Birell was an understudy for Dietrich’s role until Dietrich left the show. Tala then became the star and took the show to Vienna. As a Reinhardt protégé, her appearances and her reputation grew. In Austria, she played the female lead in the film Die Tat des Andreas Harmer/The Act of Andrew Harmer (Alfred Deutsch, 1930). Next, she went to England to appear in the drama Menschen im Käfig/The Love Storm (Ewald André Dupont, 1930) starring Conrad Veidt. This was the German-language version of the British film Cape Forlorn (Ewald André Dupont, 1931). Then, a Universal executive signed her to come to Hollywood for a part in Liebe auf Befehl (Ernst L. Frank, Johannes Riemann, 1931), the German version of The Boudoir Diplomat (Malcolm St. Clair, 1930) with Betty Compson. She stayed in Hollywood and Universal gave her a leading role in Doomed Battalion (Cyril Gardner, 1932), the American version of a German mountain film starring Luis Trenker. It was a critical and artistic success and was voted one of the ten best films of 1932 by the New York Times. Then she appeared as a European countess in Nagana (Ernst L. Frank, 1933) opposite Melvyn Douglas. The studio promoted her as a second Garbo, due to her glamorous, a bit cold beauty. But just as with another European import Anna Sten, the publicity did not work. Garbo was unique. In the following years, Tirell only played small roles for Columbia Pictures in films like The Captain Hates the Sea (Lewis Milestone, 1934). She got the female lead in B-films like the aviation-themed Science-Fiction film Air Hawks (Albert Rogell, 1935). She also had supporting parts in A-films like the musical comedy Let's Live Tonight (Victor Schertzinger, 1935) starring Lilian Harvey, Crime and Punishment (Josef von Sternberg, 1935) starring Peter Lorre, and the classic screwball comedy Bringing Up Baby (Howard Hawks, 1938).

In 1940 Tala Birell appeared onstage in 'My Dear Children' at the Belasco Theatre in New York City. During the 1940s she continued to appear in B-films like the action film Seven Miles from Alcatraz (Edward Dmytryk, 1942) with Bonita Granville, and One Dangerous Night (Michael Gordon, 1943), the ninth Lone Wolf film featuring Warren William as former jewel thief and reformed detective Michael Lanyard alias The Lone Wolf. Her most often-seen performance is her brief role as the governess to the Empress's very young son in The Song of Bernadette (Henry King, 1943), who takes what is believed to be miraculous water from the grotto. Her roles got smaller and she started to work for ‘poverty row’ studios such as PRC and Monogram Pictures. For PRC she played in the Science Fiction/Horror movie The Monster Maker (Sam Newfield, 1944) starring J. Carrol Naish, and for Columbia, she played in a film of another popular series, the Mystery Film Noir The Power of the Whistler (Lew Landers, 1945) based on the radio drama The Whistler. Several of her characters were linked with the anti-Nazi war effort: a courageous Russian in China (John Farrow, 1943), Madame Bouchard of the French Resistance in Till We Meet Again (Frank Borzage, 1944), the Nazi Doctor Elise Bork in the serial Jungle Queen (Lewis D. Collins, Ray Taylor, 1945), and Yvette Aubert, the French adventurer and entertainer in Women in the Night (William Rowland, 1948), who plays along with an extreme Nazi unit in Shanghai until she saves the world from a weapon of mass destruction with the sacrifice of her life. After the war, she also had a small part in the biopic Song of Love (Clarence Brown, 1947) starring Katharine Hepburn as Clara Wieck. Tirell returned to Germany and took up residence with her mother who was by then living in Munich. In 1951 she was appointed by the Special Service Headquarters of the U.S. Army in Nuremberg to organize theatrical productions in Germany, France, and Austria for the G.I.s stationed there. Her title was Field Entertainment Supervisor and sometimes, she took part in shows at military clubs in Munich, Nuremberg, and Orléans (France). She later moved to Berlin with the title Command Entertainment Director and put on shows for U.S. troops and refugees from Eastern Europe. She retired in 1957 for health reasons. Her final on-camera appearance was as the Queen of Cygni in an episode of the television series Flash Gordon (1955), based on the characters of the Alex Raymond-created comic strip. Tala Birell died in 1958 in Landstuhl, Germany, aged 50. She is buried in the Bavarian village Marquartstein in a family tomb.

Sources: L. Paul Meienberg (Films of the Golden Age), Hal Erickson (All Movie). Wikipedia and IMDb.

And, please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.

Spanish postcard by Dümmatzen, no. 63. Photo: Metro Goldwyn Mayer.

Karen Morley (1909-2003) was an American film actress whose career was broken in 1947 by the House Committee on Un-American Activities.

Karen Morley was born Mildred Linton in Ottumwa, Iowa in 1909. As a child, she was adopted by a well-to-do family who moved to California during the 1920s. She attended Hollywood High School and studied for a career in medicine at UCLA, but a class in theatre changed her career ambitions. Karen dropped out of college to join the Los Angeles Civic Repertory Theatre and the Pasadena Playhouse. At the Pasadena Playhouse, she was discovered by director Clarence Brown when he was looking for rehearsal replacements for Greta Garbo. He cast her alongside Garbo and Robert Montgomery in the drama Inspiration (Clarence Brown, 1931). Howard Hughes chose her for the role of blond moll Poppy in Scarface (Howard Hawks, Richard Rosson, 1932) starring Paul Muni. She received a contract with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and was selected as one of the WAMPAS Baby Stars in 1931. That year, she married director Charles Vidor and had a son with him, Michael Karoly. Her other films included The Mask of Fu Manchu (Charles Brabin, 1932) with Boris Karloff, the mystery Arsene Lupin (Jack Conway, 1933) starring John Barrymore, the political fantasy Gabriel Over the White House (Gregory La Cava, 1933), and the all-star comedy drama Dinner at Eight (George Cukor, 1933). In 1934, Morley left MGM after arguments about her roles and private life, including her intention to start a family. King Vidor entrusted her with the leading role in his New Deal propaganda film Our Daily Bread (1934). She continued to work as a freelance performer and appeared in Michael Curtiz's Black Fury (1935) with Paul Muni and The Littlest Rebel (David Butler, 1935) with Shirley Temple. She only appeared in a few films from this time onwards, as it was difficult to make a film career at that time without the backing of a major film studio.

Karen Morley played Charlotte Lucas, Mr. Collins' wife, in Pride and Prejudice (Robert Z. Leonard, 1940). The film was critically well-received, but it did not advance her career. Morley turned her attention to the stage and acted in three plays on Broadway in 1941 and 1942. In 1943, she divorced Charles Vidor to marry actor Lloyd Gough. The couple remained married to him until he died in 1984. In 1947, she was called to the HUAC (House Committee on Un-American Activities) because she was suspected to be a member of the Communist Party of the United States. She refused to answer questions and, as a result, ended up blacklisted by Hollywood. Her final films were the Film Noir M (1951) directed by Joseph Losey, who was also blacklisted, and the Western Born to the Saddle (William Beaudine, 1953) Later, she made brief appearances in the TV series Kung Fu (1973), Kojak (1973) and Police Woman (1975). Morley did not manage to get any more film roles, but she remained active in politics. In 1954, she ran for lieutenant governor of New York for the American Labor Party but was unsuccessful. In 1993, she appeared in The Great Depression, a documentary TV series. In the series, she talked about how helpless she felt as a privileged Hollywood actress in the face of all the poverty and suffering that surrounded her. She also spoke of her experience making Our Daily Bread and working for King Vidor, whom she described as a conservative who thought that people should willingly help each other without government interference. In December 1999, at the age of 90, she appeared in Vanity Fair in an article about blacklist survivors, and she was honoured at the San Francisco Film Festival. In 2003, Morley seemed to make a comeback when she was offered a role in the black comedy Duplex (Danny DeVito, 2003) starring Drew Barrymore. However, Karen Morley died of pneumonia at the Motion Picture Country House in Woodland Hills, Los Angeles, at 93.

Sources: Wikipedia (Dutch, German, French and English) and IMDb.

And, please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.

Spanish postcard by Dümmatzen, no. 73. Photo: Paramount, Jeanette MacDonald and Maurice Chevalier in One Hour with You (George Cukor, Ernst Lubitsch, 1932). Collection: Marlene Pilaete.

Red-headed and blue-green-eyed operatic singer Jeanette MacDonald is the subject of the new La Collectionneuse post at our blog European Film Star Postcards. Check it out on 30 March 2024!