Canadian postcard in the Fan Club Postcard Series, no. 2.
Today, glamorous English actress Joan Collins (1933) had her 80th birthday. One of the great survivors of the cinema, she began in the early 1950s as a starlet of the British film. 20th Century Fox brought her to Hollywood as their answer to MGM's Elizabeth Taylor. In the 1970s she was the ‘Queen of the B-pictures’, but in the 1980s Joan became the highest-paid TV star, thanks to Dynasty. Happy birthday, ms. Collins.
French postcard by Editions du Globe, no. 561. Photo: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer / International Press.
British postcard by L.D. LTD., London in the Film Star Autograph Portrait Series, nr. 60. Photo: J. Arthur Rank Organisation.
Italian postcard by Ed. Ris. Rotalfoto S.p.A., Milano (Milan) in the series Artisti di Sempre, no. 295.
Attractive Austrian actress and singer Elfie Maierhofer (1917-1992) was nicknamed 'the Viennese Nightingale' by the press and the public. During her long career, she starred in nineteen European entertainment films, most of them with Viennese settings.
German postcard by Film-Foto-Verlag, no. G 99, 1941-1944. Photo: Star-Foto-Atelier / Tobis.
German postcard by Film-Foto-Verlag, no. A 3748/1, 1941-1944. Photo: Star-Foto-Atelier / Tobis.
Clear Coloratura Soprano
Elfie Maierhofer (sometimes written as Meyerhofer) was born as Elfie Lauterbach in Marburg an der Drau, Austria-Hungary (now Maribor, Slovenia) in 1917 (according to some sources in 1923). She was the daughter of an Austrian teacher. Even as a child she was interested in acting and singing, and participated in performances of fairy tales and church concerts. Her parents gave her singing and piano lessons and later she studied music in Zürich under Prof. Fred Husler and in Vienna. In 1935 she was a student at the Berlin High School of Music under Prof. Lula Mysz-Gmeiner along with Elisabeth Schwarzkopf. Elfie made her acting debut at the Jugendtheater (Youth Theater) in München (Munich). She performed at the Staatsoper (State Opera) in Vienna, the Metropoltheater in Berlin and various other theaters in Austria and Berlin in the early 1930’s. Elfie Mayerhofer excelled as Pamina in Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's Die Zauberflöte (The Magic Flute), as Mimi in Giacomo Puccini's La bohème, as Violetta in Giuseppe Verdi's La traviata, as well as Rosalinda in Joan Strauss II' Die Fledermaus (The Bat). Her clear coloratura soprano voice was so unusual it earned her the nickname ‘The Viennese Nightingale’. The film industry became interested in her. In 1938, she received her first major role in the German made western Frauen für Golden Hill/Women of Golden Hill (Erich Waschneck, 1938) starring Kirsten Heiberg. The following year she had a role in the Austrian film Hotel Sacher (Erich Engel, 1939) with Sybille Schmitz, where she sang a Yugoslavian gypsy folk song. Hereafter followed again and again roles in such well-known musicals and operettas as Wir bitten zum Tanz/Invitation to the Dance (Hubert Marischka, 1941) with Hans Holt, and Meine Frau Teresa/My Wife, Teresa (Arthur Maria Rabenalt, 1942) opposite Hans Söhnker. Her leading role in Das Lied der Nachtigall/The Song of the Nightingale (Theo Lingen, 1944) winked at her nickname, the Viennese Nightingale.
German postcard by Film-Foto-Verlag, no. A 3450/1, 1941-1944. Photo: Star-Foto-Atelier/Tobis.
German postcard by Film-Foto-Verlag, no. A 3905/1, 1941-1944. Photo: Star-Foto-Atelier/Tobis.
The Queen of the Waltzes
After the war, Elfie Maierhofer performed for Allied troops in Austria and Germany and sang at concerts and in operas. Herbert von Karajan wanted her in 1949 for the Salzburger Musikfestspiele (Salzburg Music Festival) in Austria, where she sang and played the role of Cherubino alongside Maria Cebotari in Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s Die Hochzeit des Figaro (The Marriage of Figaro). In 1949 she appeared in Paris, in the operetta La Reine des Valses (The Queen of the Waltzes), playing opposite the Belgium tenor Henri Legay. She released records in France, Great Britain, Germany and the USA, but never in her home country. After 1945, she could also continue her successes in the cinema with popular entertainment films like Wiener Melodien/Viennese Melodies (Theo Lingen, Hubert Marischka, 1947) opposite Johannes Heesters, and Der Himmlische Walzer/The Heavenly Waltz (Géza von Cziffra, 1948) with Paul Hubschmid. In Anni (Max Neufeld, 1948), she sang with Siegfried Breuer and Josef Meinrad several well-known operetta melodies. Her last Austrian film was Verlorene Melodien/Vanished Melodies (Eduard von Borsody, 1952) with Evelyn Künneke, and her last German film was Madame Pompadour (Gerhard Freund, 1960) with Heinz Bennent. Between 1957 and 1960 she also participated in early television programs. Her last TV-film was the musical Die Landstreicher/The Tramps (Peter Dörre, 1968). In 1974, Elfie Mayerhofer (then sixty plus) went on an extensive international tour, and sang and played successfully in operas and operettas in the United States, Mexico and Canada. Elfie Mayerhofer received in the course of her career numerous awards, including the Goldene Ehrenzeichen des Landes Wien (Golden Medal of the Province of Vienna) and the Johann-Strauß-Statuette (Johann Strauss statue). She was married with the architect Thomas Lauterbach until their divorce in 1959. Elfie Maierhofer continued to give live performances in Austria almost up until her death. She died in 1992 in Maria Enzersdorf in Lower Austria.
German postcard by Film-Foto-Verlag, no. G 217, 1941-1944. Photo: Star-Foto-Atelier / Tobis.
Elfie Mayerhofer sings a Slovenian folk song in Hotel Sacher (1939). Source: Rudi Polt (YouTube).
Elegant German actress Claire Rommer (1904 - 1996) appeared in about 50 German film productions during the 1920’s and the early 1930’s. Her successful career was suddenly ended by the Nazis.
Austrian postcard by Iris Verlag, no. 566. Photo: Verleih E. Weil & Co.
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 1845/1, 1927-1928. Photo: A. Binder.
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 1933/2, 1927-1928. Photo: Alex Binder.
Soubrette
Claire Rommer was born as Klara Romberger in Berlin, Germany, in 1904. Although her parents had sent her to a boarding-school she defied the opposition of her family and attended the famous Max-Reinhardt-Schule in Berlin. Almost 17-years old, she debuted as a temporary assistant at the Neuen Volkstheater(New People's Theater) and theVolksbühne(People's Stage). As a soubrette, she later appeared repeatedly in operettas and comedies on the Berlin stage, especially at the Lustspielhaus (Comedy House). In the season of 1925-1926 she was committed to the Vereinigten Bühnen(United Stages). However she became best known as a film actress. She appeared as a lover or a salon lady in dozens of silent films of the 1920’s. Rommer made her film debut in Wem nie durch Liebe Leid geschah/Those Who Never Suffered From Love (1922, Heinz Schall) starring Johannes Riemann. With a light touch she then played leading and supporting roles in such films as Menschen und Masken/People and Masks (1923, Harry Piel), Die eiserne Braut/The Iron Bride (1925, Carl Boese) opposite Otto Gebühr, Qualen der Nacht/Torments of the Night (1926, Kurt Bernhardt aka Curtis Bernhardt) with Ernö (Ernst) Verebes, Herkules Maier (1927, Alexander Esway) and Kinderseelen klagen euch an/Children’s Souls Accuse You (1927, Kurt Bernhardt) with Carla Bartheel.
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 947/2, 1925-1926. Photo: Alex Binder.
Austrian postcard by Iris Verlag, no. 738. Photo: Treuhand-Film / Mondial A.G. / National. Publicity still for Die eiserne Braut/The Iron Bride (1925, Carl Boese) with Otto Gebühr.
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 1286/1, 1927-1928.
Millionaire from the Meat Industry
When the sound film was introduced, Claire Rommer also did vocal numbers. She played successfully in the productions Aschermittwoch/Ash Wednesday (1930, Johannes Meyer), Der Walzerkönig/The Waltz King (1930, Manfred Noa) opposite Hans Stüwe, Es geht um alles/It’s About Everything (1932, Max Nosseck) with Luciano Albertini, and Tausend für eine Nacht/A Thousand for One Night (1933, Max Mack). In 1934 she appeared on stage in the Revue Scala – etwas verrückt (Scala - A Little Crazy) in Berlin at the Scala Theater, when her film and stage career suddenly ended because of the seizure of power by the Nazis. In 1927 she had married the Jewish entrepreneur Adolf Strenger. In July 1938 she was excluded from any activity in the German film industry on the grounds that she probably was not Aryan too. In 1940 she emigrated with her husband from France via Lisbon to the USA. There she divorced Strenger and married a multi-millionaire from the meat industry. She never appeared in a film again. Claire Rommer died of pneumonia in 1996, at the Chelsea and Westminster Hospital in London.
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 4016/2, 1929-1930. Photo Alex Binder, Berlin.
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 4383/1, 1929-1930. Photo: Atelier Bieber.
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 6687/1, 1931-1932. Photo Atelier Schneider.
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 6788/1, 1931-1932. Photo: Atelier Schneider, Berlin.
Exotic dancer and film actress Laya Raki (1927) was a popular sex symbol in Germany during the 1950’s. She appeared in revealing outfits in films and on photos, and captured men's attention like no other German showgirl. Later she also became an international star with her roles in British films and TV productions.
Austrian postcard by HDH-Verlag (Verlag Hubmann), Wien (Vienna). Photo: Joe Niczky, München (Munich) / Ufa.
German postcard by Kolibri-Verlag G.m.b.H., Minden/Westf., no 1637.
Vintage postcard.
Erotic Radiance
Laya Raki was born Brunhilde Marie Alma Herta Jörns in Calvörde near Helmstedt, Germany, in 1927. Her parents were acrobat Maria Althoff and her partner, acrobat and clown Wilhelm Jörns. As she was an admirer of the famous dancer La Jana and liked to drink raki, she assumed the stage name Laya Raki. She attracted attention for the first time in 1947-1950 as a glamour dancer (in German: Schönheitstänzerin) in Frankfurt and other German cities. When she performed in Berlin, her star began to rise: her 38-23-36 figure and erotic radiance became the talk of the town. Film company DEFA engaged her for a small role as a rumba dancer in Der Rat der Götter/The Council of the Gods (1950, Kurt Maetzig), which won two awards. The Berliner Morgenpost reported that she was a great dancer with an expressive face, rich in nuances. That same year the press department of Realfilm presented her as their new discovery in Die Dritte von rechts/The Third from the Right (1950, Géza von Cziffra). It was a rather boring revue film, but the highlight was the scene in which the scantily clad Raki (with only two white stars on her nipples) exposed herself to the lustful gazes of the cinema audiences. In 1953, she danced in Ehe für eine Nacht/Marriage for One Night (1953, Viktor Tourjansky), and in Die Rose von Stambul/The Rose of Stamboul (1953, Karl Anton) Austrian actor Paul Hörbiger wanted to marry her upon seeing her dancing.
German postcard by Kolibri-Verlag G.m.b.H., Minden/Westf., no 2556. Photo: Sascha-Lux-Gloria-Film / Niczky. Publicity still for Roter Mohn/Red Poppy (1956, Franz Antel).
German postcard by Kolibri-Verlag G.m.b.H., Minden/Westf., no 1775.
German postcard by WS-Druck, Wanne-Eickel, no. 142. Photo: Sascha-Lux-Gloria-Film / Niczky.
Lured by a Swindler
In 1954 Laya Raki was lured to London by 'Major' Howard Rowson, a swindler with empty promises of film roles in the United Kingdom and Hollywood. Her unemployed situation made headlines that opened opportunities quickly. The J. Arthur Rank Film Company, which needed a slightly exotic type for a film in New Zealand, received her with open arms. They gave her the role of the seductive wife of a Maori chieftain's in The Seekers (1954, Ken Annakin) with Jack Hawkins and Glynis Johns. She created a worldwide stir by baring her breasts. Next she played in the comedy Up to His Neck (1954, John Paddy Carstairs) and in the adventure film Quentin Durward (1955, Richard Thorpe) starring Robert Taylor. She also appeared in German productions like Am Anfang war es Sünde/The Beginning Was Sin (1954, Frantisek Cáp) with Viktor Staal, and Die Frau des Botschafters/The Ambassador's Wife (1955, Hans Deppe) with Ingrid Andree. In the Heimatfilm Roter Mohn/Red Poppy (1956, Franz Antel) she played the gypsy girl Ilonka and conducted refreshing dialogues with famous Viennese comic Hans Moser. After some acting lessons in Hollywood, she appeared in several British TV productions, including 39 episodes of the series Crane (1962-1965). She played Moroccan dancer and bartender Halima, the partner of smuggler Richard Crane (Patrick Allen). In the meantime she modeled for postcards, pin-up photos and magazines all over the world. In 1962, she recorded the songs Faire l`amour and the twist song Oh Johnny hier nicht parken (Oh, Johnny don´t park here). The latter was banned by a Nuremberg court who thought her ecstatic moaning was imitating coitus. She continued to play in German films, including the Krimis Die Nylonschlinge/Nylon Noose (1963, Rudolf Zehetgruber) with Dietmar Schönherr, and Das Haus auf dem Hügel/The House on the Hill (1964, Werner Klingler) starring Australian actor Ron Randell. She also appeared with him in her last film, Savage Pampas (1966, Hugo Fregonese) starring Robert Taylor. In 1957, Laya Raki had married Randell in London. “He is the best and most beautiful man of the world”, she told the press, and she remained at his side until his death in 2005.
German postcard by ISV, no. C 10. Photo: Sascha-Lux / Gloria / Grein.
A British Pathé news item about the Earl´s Court Motor Show of 1964 with Lay Raki in a mink bikini seated on an Aston Martin. Source: British Pathé.
Italian stage and screen actor and playwright Annibale Ninchi (1889-1967) became famous as the title character in Scipione l’Africano (1937) but also as the father in Fellini’s La dolce vita (1960) and 8½ (1963).
Italian postcard by G. Vettori, Bologna. S.I.F., no. 11.
Love Interest
Annibale Ninchi was born in Bologna in 1889 as the son of Arnaldo Ninchi and Lidia Bedetti. Father Arnaldo was from Ancona and worked as colonel of the artillery. In 1903 Annibale registered at the Regia Scuola di recitazione Tommaso Salvini in Florence, directed by Luigi Rasi. He stemmed from a family of actors. His elder brother Carlo Ninchi (1887 - 1967) and his cousin Ave Ninchi (1915 - 1997) were actors as well. In 1910 Annibale became Mason at the Loggia XI Settembre 1860 of the Oriente in Pesaro. In the same year he started his stage career as ‘primo attore giovane’ [first young actor] in the company of Giacinta Pezzana en Flavio Andò. In 1911-1913 he was ‘first actor’ at the Roman Teatro Argentina, and in 1914-1916 he was artistic leader of the Compagnia drammatica in Rome. In the meantime Ninchi had also become actor in silent cinema. His first part he played in Carmen (1909, Gerolamo Savio) for the company Film d’Arte Italiana. Ninchi played the toreador Escamillo, while the leads were for Vittoria Lepanto as Carmen and Dante Testa as Don José. Some scenes were shot in Vergato near Bologna, Ninchi’s hometown. In 1914 Ninchi started to act at Cines on a more regular basis, first in Ninna nanna/Il sorriso dell’innocenza/The Lullaby/The Smile of Innocence (1914, Guglielmo Zorzi). He played Giovanni, the editor of a socialist magazine, who marries Maria (Pina Menichelli). They have a child called Speranza (hope), but when the family loses its capital, the journal goes broke and conservatory newspapers refuse to help him, the couple decides to kill themselves. The smile of the child wakened up by the mother’s lullaby (ninna nanna in Italian) saves the family. In the same year Ninchi acted again opposite Menichelli in Il grido dell’innocenza/The Cry of Innocence (1914, Augusto Genina), in which Menichelli is a scheming adventuress who separates a noble family father and his young male secretary (Ninchi), who loves the family’s daughter (Lea Giunchi). The evil woman wants to marry the father for his money and when the daughter opposes, the golddigger shoots the father and accuses the daughter, who gets imprisoned. But in the end justice calls. Menichelli’s part seems to have been a prologue to her later diva and femme fatale roles with the company Itala. In Turin, Ninchi acted at Ambrosio in the films La Gorgona/The Gorgon (1915, Mario Caserini) and I pagliacci (1915, Francesco Bertolini). La Gorgona was based on the homonymous play by the then popular Italian playwright Sem Benelli, and starred the French actress Madeleine Céliat as a kind of Vestal Virgin in the Middle Ages, who needs to keep a fire burning for the return of her co-citizens fighting the Saracenes. She neglects her duty when she falls in love with a Florentine man (Ninchi). The film was an opulent production with a much praised choreography of the masses and with a lauded performance by Céliat. In I pagliacci, based on Leoncavallo’s opera, Ninchi played Silvio, the man with whom Nedda (Bianca Virginia Camagno) falls in love with, though she is married to travelling clown Canio (Achille Vitti). When Canio, warned by the jealous Tonio, catches the lovers, he first kills Nedda, then Silvio. During the last years of the First World War, Ninchi acted in L’ombra del sogno (1917, Rastignac aka Vincenzo Morello) starring the dilettant actress Marchioness Clelia Antici-Mattei. In La piccola fonte/The Little Well (1917, Roberto Roberti) the acclaimed film diva Francesca Bertini had the female lead. Ninchi played an aspiring writer who dumps his fragile wife for a princess, after which his frail, good wife loses her mind. In the same year 1917, Ninchi also acted in the romantic comedy Le mariage de Chiffon/The Marriage of Chiffon (1917, Alberto Carlo Lollo), released in 1918 and based on the novel by Gyp. The press praised in particular Ninchi’s performance as the love interest of the protagonist, played by Mary Bayma-Riva. Bayma-Riva and Ninchi were reunited in Il pastor fido/The Loyal Shepherd (1918, Telemaco Ruggeri), an arcaic idyll based on a late 16th century poem. Tito Alacci in the journal Film raved about the beauty of the actresses and actors, including Ninchi, who had the male lead.
Italian postcard by Edizioni Ballerini & Fratini, Firenze, no. 540.
Gigantic Sets and Mass Scenes
Annibale Ninchi focused on his stage career. In 1919 he was ‘capocomico’ of the Ernesto Ferrero-Maria Letizia Celli company, triumphing as Glauco in the homonymous work by Morselli. In subsequent years he created the Compagnia drammatica italiana Annibale Ninchi of which he was ‘primo attore’. In 1925 he interpreted with his company Le cocù magnifique/The Magnificent Cuckold, but the fascist government forbid the spectacle. In 1926-1929 Ninchi toured in Alexandria in Egypt. In 1936 he performed Oedipus at Colonus at the Greek theatre of Siracuse for the Istituto del dramma antico. In 1937 he played Aligi in La figlia di Jorio/The Daughter of Jorio by D’Annunzio, and again in Siracuse, Euripides' Cyclops. In the mid-1930's Ninchi also returned to the film set. First he played the protagonist in Fiordalisi d'oro'Golden Cornflowers (1936, Gioacchino Forzano), and then in the film he is well remembered for: Scipione l’Africano/Scipio Africanus (1937, Carmine Gallone). It was the first epic shot in the then new film studios of Cinecittà. It contained gigantic sets and mass scenes, culminating in the recreation of the Battle of Zama. Scipio, the proud, heroic and honest hero, was clearly designed as a mirror figure to the Duce, thus giving the Italians an alibi to invade Africa. The film was not a huge box office success and this clashed of course with Mussolini’s aspirations of mirroring his own ‘Third Rome’ with the First (i.e. Ancient) Rome. Only from the late 1940's on, Roman Antiquity would become popular again as setting for historical films, starting with Fabiola (1949, Alessandro Blasetti) and Quo vadis? (1951, Mervyn LeRoy). Ninchi might have been affected by the flop of Scipione l’Africano. After a part in the Italo-French coproduction Adrienne Lecouvreur (1938, Marcel L’Herbier) he focused on stage again. He became ‘capocomico’ of the Compagnia Ninchi-Abba-Pilotto, and in 1939 he was the protagonist of Il ventaglio/The range by Goldoni, Aminta by Tasso, Ajax by Sophocles and Hecuba by Euripides. In 1944-1945, after the liberation of Rome, Ninchi staged La guerre de Troie n’aura pas lieu/The Trojan War will not take place by Jean Giraudoux at the Teatro Eliseo. He also acted in the Shakespeare tragedies Othello, Hamlet, Macbeth and King Lear. In 1948-1950 he was artistic manager of the Istituto del dramma antico in Siracuse, and in 1952 he toured Malta and Tripoli with the company Ninchi-Picasso. Later he played in Veglia d’armi/Vigil of Arms by Diego Fabbri and toured all over Italy with the play. Also popular were his performances in Edmond Rostand’s Cyrano de Bergerac and Neri Chiaramantesi in Sem Benelli’s La cena delle beffe/The Jesters' Supper. In 1958, Ninchi acted in the play Veglia la mia casa, Angelo/Look homeward, angel written by Ketty Frings and directed by famous director Luchino Visconti. After Ariosto’s Lena, staged in 1960 at the Teatro della Pergola in Florence, Ninchi focused in film acting again for a while.
Marcello Mastroianni. German postcard by Kolibri-Verlag, Minden / Westf., no. 2361. Photo: Bavaria / Schorcht / Vogelmann. Publicity still for Mädchen und Männer/La ragazza della salina/Sand, Love and Salt (1957).
Federico Fellini
During the 1950's, Annibale Ninchi had played in a handful of films: Il diavolo in convento/The Devil in a convent (1950, Nunzio Malasomma), Non c'è amore più grande/There is no greater love (1955, Giorgio Bianchi), Adriana Lecouvreur (1955, Guido Salvini), Papà Eccellenza/Excellent Dad (1957, Tat'jana Pavlovna Pavlova), Medea (1957, Claudio Fino), and Vento del Sud/South Wind (1959, Enzo Provenzale), but it was Federico Fellini who brought international fame to Ninchi. Fellini invited him to play the father of the protagonist Marcello (Marcello Mastroianni) in La dolce vita (1960). Ninchi plays an aged traveling salesman who visits modern Rome and, taken along by his son, he enjoys a cabaret where the French dancer Fanny (Magali Noël) performs and Polidor has an act with a trumpet and countless balloons. The father dances and jokes with the French girl and drinks too much champagne, so he has a mild heart attack at the dancer’s house. Marcello rushes to him and tries to persuade him to stay, but the father, aloof, sits still, watching the city, then takes a cab and leaves. Marcello’s attempt to reunite with his father is broken off. A reprisal of his role as the protagonist’s father occurred in Fellini’s Otto e mezzo/8½ (1963), this time together with Marcello’s mother (Giuditta Rissone), who has a bigger part in the film. The protagonist, the film director Guido (again Mastroianni) meets his parents in a cemetery. In the end they join the crowd that descends a staircase to join in for a polonaise around the circus arena, as being part of Guido’s world. In the early 1960's Ninchi acted in films like Che gioia vivere/Quel joie de vivre/The Joy of Living (1961, René Clément), Un soir sur la plage/One Night at the Beach (1961, Michel Boisrond), and Edipo a Colono/Oedipus at Colonus (1966, Maner Lualdi). Ninchi last stage role was in 1965 in Sophocles’ Antigone, after which he retired. Ninchi also worked for the Italian and the Swiss radio, acting in various stage plays such as Beckett’s Waiting for Godot. He also played on television, recorded monologues of his plays on records and wrote numerous stage plays. In his autobiography Annibale Ninchi racconta... (Pagine spregiudicate di un chierico-vagante)/Annibale Ninchi Tells... (Unscripulous pages of a wandering cleric), he described the life of actors in the early 20th century as well as his own experiences in those years. Finally, Ninchi taught several years at the Accademia Nazionale di Arte Drammatica Silvio D'Amico in Rome. He was decorated Commendatore, then Grande Ufficiale of the Republic, by Italian president Einaudi. At 79, Annibale Ninchi died in Pesaro in 1967. He is the father of actor Arnaldo Ninchi, and grandfather of actor Alessandro Ninchi.
Scene from Scipione l’Africano (1937). Source: Caesar Fidelis (YouTube).
Scene from La dolce vita (1960). Source: RERH (YouTube).
Today, voluptuous British Sabrina (1936) has her 77th birthday. The blonde pinup and cabaret star was the British answer to Marilyn Monroe and Jayne Mansfield, and a rival to Diana Dors. With a 42½ inch bust and a 17 inch waist, her nickname became Britain's finest hourglass. Although she made just a few films, she was one of the most photographed celebrities of her day. Was she just a dumb, talent-free blonde or a promotional genius?
British postcard by D. Constance Ltd., London, no. 64. Licence holder for U.K. & Colonies for Ufa. Photo: Hoffmann / Ufa.
Remarkable Chest Expansion
Sabrina was born Norma Ann Sykes in Stockport, England in 1936. Her parents were Annie Sykes-Haslam, a seamstress, and Walter Sykes, who worked in Mechanical Engineering. From 1940 till 1949, she attended St George's School in Cheshire, where she won several medals for swimming. Her family moved to Blackpool in 1949, where she acquired a strong Lancashire accent. As a teenager, Norma Ann contracted polio for four years, and was hospitalized for two years. A doctor prescribed a rugged series of exercises to develop her muscles. Each day, she spent hours swimming in a heated pool and performing bodybuilding feats. Her remarkable chest expansion is by some sources seen as the result of these workouts. At 16, she went modelling in London to show off her new physique. Two TV producer Bill Ward was looking for a girl for the Beauty Spot feature in Arthur Askey's TV series Before Your Very Eyes. Sabrina's photograph was sent in by her agent, Bill Watts, along with 23 others. Ward decided his search was over. In the TV show she was a gimmick: a dumb blonde with an impossibly-proportioned figure. In his biography Before Your Very Eyes, Askey later recounted: “We held auditions for a suitable dumb-cluck and found one in Norma Sykes. She had a lovely face and figure, but could not act, sing, dance, or even walk properly, although she had come to London to try her luck as a model. I asked her what she was doing and she told me she was making artificial jewellery, as her broken nails bore witness. Anyway, she was exactly what we wanted.” Till then, Before Your Very Eyes had been only moderately well received by critics and public alike. The introduction of the completely dumb voluptuous blonde with her tight fitting dresses was a big success in the show and Sabrina even outshone Askey himself. Fleet Street reporters and interviewers flocked to the studio. ‘British TV's first sex-symbol’, now named Sabrina, took acting, singing, dancing and elocution lessons with the money she earned. So when the TV contract stopped, she presented a polished cabaret act. She caused a scandal when an old nude picture turned up on the five of spades in a deck of playing cards. Photographer Russell Gay had made a series of nude pictures of her when she was 16, alone and hungry. American actor Steve Cochran later claimed that Sabrina had welcomed the exposure: "She saw her chance for a terrific piece of Marilyn Monroe kind of publicity and grabbed it." In fact, the photos had started her in show business. Glamour photographer Alex Sterling had seen the pictures and he summoned her to his studio. The resultant work was viewed in such men's magazines as Blighty and Spick & Span.
British postcard in the Greetings series. Photo: Douglas Burn.
British postcard in the Greetings series. Photo: Philip Gotlop Photographs Ltd.
Publicity Stunts
Sabrina made her film debut as Trixie in the adventure film Stock Car (Wolf Rilla, 1955). Despite the elocution lessons, Sabrina’s voice was dubbed with a harsh cockney accent. Ronevickers at IMDb: “Another in the long line of films distributed by Butchers Film Services, who specialised in British B-Movies. Stock Car is not without a certain period charm and, along with other similar efforts such as Wall of Death and Mystery Junction, it does pass away a pleasant enough hour or so.” By then, Sabrina had become a phenomenon. Millions of Brits, who watched The Goon Show on television, wet themselves whenever Spike Milligan slipped another reference to Sabrina past the BBC censors. The new star made personal appearances at £100 a time, lent her name to advertisers' products, and was on the front cover of English, French, German, Italian and American magazines. She had a cafe, boats, frocks and cocktails named after her. Sabrina debuted in variety: in French Capers at venues including Palace Theatre (Leicester), Chiswick Empire (London) and Palace Theatre (Chelsea). She also appeared with Arthur Askey in the comic Western Ramsbottom Rides Again (John Baxter, 1956). At The Encyclopaedis Sabrina, Mark the ‘SabrinaMaster’ writes: “She was a model, TV hostess, actor, singer, stage performer - and had no talent. Even she admitted that. Why then, was the Western world and the bearded president of Cuba so keen to see her that - at one time - 10,000 people in Perth caused an airport terminal to collapse?” She loved publicity stunts. The media reported how Sabrina's dress was torn off by a mob in Birkenhead in 1956. They reported about her dates with Steve Cochran, Prince Christian of Hanover and Harold Rothschild of the London banking tribe. In 1957, her 42,5 inch (39 or 41 inch according to other sources) bust was insured for £100,000 (£125,000 according to some sources). That year she made her best known film, Blue Murder at St. Trinian's (Frank Launder, 1957) with Terry-Thomas and Alastair Sim. Sabrina played one of the sexy school girls in the second film of the film series about the anarchic boarding school girls, based on the cartoons by Ronald Searle. For more than a year, she was one of the stars of the West End revue Pleasures of Paris. She also appeared in the sitcom series Living It Up (1957-1958), a TV version of the popular radio series Band Waggon with Arthur Askey. She signed a lucrative contract for TV appearances in the United States and engagements in Las Vegas, Hollywood, and New York night clubs. After that, she toured through Europe and Australia, where she starred again in Pleasures of Paris. She did a cameo in the British comedy Make Mine a Million (Lance Comfort, 1959), but Hollywood ignored her. So she toured on around the world.
Jayne Mansfield. German postcard by Friedrich W. Sander-Verlag, Minden-Westf./Kolibri-Verlag, no. 2161. Photo: Neubach / Constantin. Publicity still for Einer frisst den Andern/Dog Eat Dog (1964, Gustav Gavrin).
Jayne Mansfield. German postcard by Friedrich W. Sander-Verlag, Minden-Westf./Kolibri-Verlag, no. 2054. Photo: Neubach / Constantin. Publicity still for Einer frisst den Andern/Dog Eat Dog (1964, Gustav Gavrin).
The Death of Jayne Mansfield.
During the 1960s, Sabrina worked often in the US, but also performed in Australia, South America, South Africa and Great Britain. In 1960 she made a controversial visit to Cuba where she 'consorted' with its new revolutionary leader, Fidel Castro. She toured with her cabaret show , in the revue Playgirls (1961) and with the theatrical plays Pyjama Game (1965-1966), Loving Couch (1966) with Virginia Mayo, and Rattle of a Simple Man (1966). Sabrina also made a few B-movies. The first was Satan in High Heels (Jerald Intrator, 1962), which was not a success. She played a belly-dancer in the horror film House of the Black Death (Harold Daniels, Jerry Warren, 1965) with Lon Chaney jr. and John Carradine. On TV she appeared in a double episode of Tarzan (1967) featuring Ron Ely. Tragic circumstances lead to her role in the horror slasher The Ice House (Stuart E. McGowan, 1969). Jayne Mansfield had already signed to star in the film as the go-go dancing victim 'Venus De Marco'. Filming was slated to begin in July in Mexico, but Mansfield was killed in a car crash near New Orleans on 29 June 1967. Sabrina took over, but the result was disastrous. In 1967, the 31 year old Sabrina married Dr Harold Ludwig Melsheimer, a wealthy Hollywood surgeon. They settled down in Encino. Sabrina was seen in one more film, the Western The Phantom Gunslinger (Albert Zugsmith, 1970) starring Troy Donahue. Then she quitted show business and eased back into an opulent married life. She only appeared in 1974 on British TV in This is Your Life to celebrate Arthur Askey. It was her last public appearance. In 1977 she divorced Harold Melsheimer. At his incredible tribute site The Encyclopaedis Sabrina, Mark writes that Sabrina lives fairly well (with leg and back problems) in North Hollywood, US. Happy birthday, Sabrina!
Scene from Before Your Very Eyes (1956) with Arthur Askey. Source: Nylonnet (YouTube).
Scene from Stock Car (1955). Source: Nylonnet (YouTube).
Short naughty Goodnight with Sabrina. Source: Nylonnet (YouTube).
Trailer Satan in High Heels (1962). Source: CinemaTerrorDotCom (YouTube).
EFSP salutes the Eurovision Song Contest! For Americans it must be a curious phenomenon, but for already, 57 years ESC is one of Europe's favourite TV events. The Eurovision Song Contest 2013 takes place in Malmö, Sweden, and the finals are tonight. The winner of the very first Eurovision Song Contest in 1956 was Swiss singer and actress Lys Assia (1924). We saw her last thursday during an intermezzo of the second semi-finals. The still sparkling and beautiful grande dame of the German schlager appeared as a singer in several films of the 1950s.
German postcard by Kolibri-Verlag, Minden/Westf.no. 2428. Photo: Teldec.
German card by LYSassia.de. Publicity card for the album Sehnsucht nach dir. Photo: Gerd Nolte.
Legendary Venues
Lys Assia was born as Rosa Mina Schärer in Rupperswil in the canton Aargau, Switzerland, in 1924 (some sources indicate she was born in Berne in 1926). She studied at a conservatory and at the art academy of Zurich. At 16, she started her career as a dancer at Zurich's Corso-Palast. In 1940, she appeared with the Riva-Ballett for the French army, and in Nice she stood in for a female singer. People who heard her singing liked it so much that she decided for a career in front of the microphone. In 1942 she had her first record contract with His Master’s Voice. She had her breakthrough in Germany in 1950 with the hit song O mein Papa (O My Father) from the operetta Feuerwerk (Fire Works) by Paul Burkhard. Other well known songs of her were Moulin Rouge (1953), Schwedenmädel (Swedish Girl) (1954), Jolie Jacqueline (1955), Arrivederci Roma (1956), Was kann schöner sein (What Can Be More Beautiful?) (1956), Deine Liebe (Your Love) (1957) and Mi casa su casa (1957). She sang in such legendary venues as the Tivoli in Copenhagen, the Olympia in Paris, the Plaza in New York and the Tropicana in Cuba. On screen she appeared as a schlager singer in German films like Palace Hotel (Emil Berna, Leonard Steckel, 1952) with Paul Hubschmid, Illusion in Moll/Illusion in a Minor Key (Rudolf Jugert, 1952) starring Hildegard Knef, Schlagerparade/Hit Parade (Erik Ode, 1953), Ein Mann Vergißt die Liebe/A Man Forgets Love (Volker von Collande), 1955 and Die Beine von Dolores/Dolores' Legs (Géza von Cziffra, 1957) with Germaine Damar. In the Italian classic Le Notti Bianchi/White Nights (1957, Luchino Visconti - yes, we think every Visconti film is a classic) with Marcello Mastroiannishe sang the song Scusami (Excuse Me).
German card by Telefunken Schallplatten. Photo: Teldec / Haenchen.
German card by Telefunken Schallplatten. Photo: Teldec / Haenchen.
Posing Nude
Lys Assia was the winner of the very first Grand Prix d'Eurovision de la chanson/Eurovision Song Contest in 1956. She sang the songs Das alte Karussell (The Old Carousel) and Refrain for Switzerland. She had also been in the German national final of that year. For Switzerland she returned to the contest in 1957, finishing eighth with L'enfant que j'étais (The Child I Was), and in 1958, finishing second with Giorgio. She was married twice, from 1953 till 1957 to the Swiss businessman Henry Kunz, and from 1963 till 1995 to the Danish general-consul and hotel mogul Oskar Pedersen. In 1964 she retired from show business and moved with her husband to Denmark. They opened hotels in Germany, Denmark, Switzerland, Japan and South America. After her husband’s death, she returned to Germany and renewed her singing career. In 2007, at age 83, she appeared at the annual German-language television song contest Grand Prix der Volksmusik, performing Sag Mir Wo Wohnen die Engel (Tell Me Where the Angels Live) with her 18-year-old duet partner, Beatrice Egli. That same year, she also posed nude for the Swiss magazine Annabelle, for a feature titled Beauty with Age. Her most recent album is Refrain des Lebens (2008) on which she sings new songs and new versions of old hits like Oh mein Papa and Refrain. At the Eurovision Song Contest 2009 in Moscow she handed Alexander Rybak the winner’s trophy. In September 2011, Assia entered her song C'était ma vie written by Ralph Siegel and Jean Paul Cara into the Swiss national selection for the Eurovision Song Contest 2012 in Baku, Azerbaijan. The song, however, only came eighth in a closely fought national selection. She attended the event in Baku as a guest of honour. In 2012, Assia entered the Swiss National Final Die grosse Entscheidungs Show to represent Switzerland in Malmö at the Eurovision Song Contest 2013 with the song All In Your Head featuring the hip-hop band New Jack. Lys Assia lives on her estates in Cannes, France and Switzerland. But today, she is in Malmö, however not as a participant but as a lifelong fan of the European Song Contest.
Lys Assia sings Refrain at the Eurovision Song Contest in 1956. Source: EurovisionTurkey09 (YouTube).
Music video of a recent version of O Mein Papa by Lys Assia. Source: Bersoli (YouTube).
I was quite overwhelmed last week when the mail brought me a big envelope from the States. Inside were 39 film star postcards by Film-Foto-Verlag, the German publisher that was very active just during World War II. They were sent to me as a gift by Tatiana, who earlier has sent me scans of postcards of her relative Tamara Desni. Thank you so much, Tatiana!
Heinz Rühmann. German postcard by Film-Foto-Verlag, no. A 3852/1, 1941-1944. Photo: Baumann / Terra.
Gisela Uhlen. German postcard by Film-Foto-Verlag, no. A 3922/1, 1941-1944. Photo: Baumann / Ufa.
Margot Hielscher. German postcard by Film-Foto-Verlag, no. 3854/1, 1941-1944. Photo: Baumann / Terra.
Glamorous And Perfectly Lit
In this post I show you twelve of Tatiana's Film-Foto-Verlag postcards. During the war years, these were distributed all over occupied Europe and thousands of people collected them. We have many of them in our collection. Of course at the time, you could not find any postcards of British or American actors here. And postcards of Jewish stars were also not longer available. So, it's a kind of a guilty pleasure to watch these Film-Foto-Verlag postcards, but still a real pleasure. The photos by studios like Star-Foto-Atelier, Baumann and Quick are glamorous and perfectly lit. Look how Mady Rahl lits her cigarette or how Iván Petrovich watches at us from the shadow under his hat...
Mady Rahl. German postcard by Film-Foto-Verlag, no. G 212, 1941-1944. Photo: Baumann / Ufa.
Irene von Meyendorff. German postcard by Film-Foto-Verlag, no. G 201, 1941-1944. Photo: Foto Baumann.
Iván Petrovich. German postcard by Film-Foto-Verlag, no. G 192, 1941-1944. Photo: Quick.
Ross And Film-Foto-Verlag
Film-Foto-Verlag was a continuation of the famous Ross Verlag. This publishing house had been a Jewish run business. Heinrich Ross, the founder of Ross Verlag, had been forced out of business by the Nazi's, and his company had been taken over by non-Jews. Around 1937, Ross Verlag was a subsidiary of film company Tobis. During the war, all film companies in Germany were owned by the government. The Nazis changed the name of the firm to Film Foto Verlag after the US entered the war in 1941. The cards stopped being published around 1944.
Marika Rökk. German postcard by Film-Foto-Verlag, no. G 221. Photo: Ufa.
Hans Söhnker. German postcard by Film-Foto-Verlag, no. K 1434. Photo: Foto Binz, Berlin.
Elfie Mayerhofer. German postcard by Film-Foto-Verlag, no. G 217, 1941-1944. Photo: Star-Foto-Atelier / Tobis.
A or G or K
Film-Foto-Verlag produced different series, as you can see in this post. Regular were the A cards, mostly with a white border around the photos (sometimes with a small border like at the Olga Tschechova postcard below). This series ran from A 1000/1 to A 4096/1. Another group of cards were known as the G Series. These seemed to be strictly German performers. They measured 4 1/8 by 5 7/8. Another series were knows as the K cards (like the Hans Söhnker one above). They were advertised as 'Kunstblätter'(art sheets). These are not postcards, but larger size photo portraits, similar to studio publicity photos. They came in sizes 20 x 25 cm, 20 X 30 cm, 18 x 24 cm and 15 x 20 cm. They also came in black and white, or the sepia brown as well as gloss finish. The K photos are not as common as the other cards, probably because they were more expensive to purchase.
Olga Tschechova. German postcard by Film-Foro-Verlag, no. A 3837/1, 1941-1944. Photo: Baumann / Ufa.
Gustav Diessl. German postcard by Film-Foto-Verlag, no. A 3909/1, 1941-1944. Photo: Star-Foto Atelier / Tobis.
Magda Schneider. German postcard by Film-Foto-Verlag, no. A 3826/1, 1941-1944. Photo: Hämmerer / Wien Film.
European Film Star Postcards is a blog, dedicated to the stars of the European cinema. And to their photographers, the publishers of their postcards, and to the fans who collected them.
EFSP is also an elementary database. Here you can find bios, rare - and not so rare - postcards and film clips.
Do you like to share scans of your vintage postcards or maybe your choice of 10 Favourite European Film Star Postcards? Mail us, and join our exploration.
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