Paul van Yperen's Blog, page 168
March 2, 2021
Tom Moore
Tom Moore (1883-1955) was an Irish-American actor and director. From 1908 to 1954, he appeared in at least 186 films. Frequently cast as the romantic lead, he starred in silent films as well as in some of the first sound films.
British postcard by Lilywhite, no. C.M.-135. Caption: Cinema Stars.
Spanish postcard. Mailed in 1921.
Spanish card by La Novela Semanal Cinemátografica, no. 82.
Inspected on Ellis Island
Thomas J. 'Tom' Moore was born in 1883 in Fordstown Crossroads, Ireland. Along with his brothers, Owen, Matt, and Joe, and their sister Mary, he emigrated to the United States as a steerage passenger on board the S.S. Anchoria and was inspected on Ellis Island in May 1896.
Tom, Owen, and Matt all would also have successful acting careers. Tom first appeared on the stage when he was 21.
Moore appeared in his first silent film in 1908. In 1908 and 1909 he appeared in some short films by D.W. Griffith , including The Christmas Burglars (D.W. Griffith, 1908), with Florence Lawrence, and The Voice of the Violin (D.W. Griffith, 1909), with Arthur V. Johnson.
During the 1910s, Moore worked for Kalem, Pathé, and Goldwyn. His films included The Primrose Ring (Robert Z. Leonard, 1917), The Jaguar's Claws (Marshall Neilan, 1917), and Go West, Young Man (Harry Beaumont, 1918).
He also directed 17 films in 1914 and 1915, including The Secret Room (1915). In 1914, Moore married silent star Alice Joyce , with whom he had a daughter, Alice Moore (1916–1960), who acted in six films with her father from 1934 to 1937.
American postcard. Tom Moore in The Gay Lord Quex (Harry Beaumont, 1919), a lost American silent comedy, produced by Goldwyn Pictures. It is based on the 1899 play 'The Gay Lord Quex' by the British writer Arthur Wing Pinero.
American postcard.
A whirlwind romance
While in New York City on New Year's Eve 1920, Tom Moore met the young French actress Renée Adorée. A whirlwind romance ensued and six weeks after their meeting, they were married in 1921, in his home in Beverly Hills. The marriage lasted only a few years.
In 1921, he was voted by a trade journal as one of the top fifteen male stars at the box office. He joined Paramount and starred in Dangerous Money (Frank Tuttle, 1924) with Bebe Daniels , the drama Manhandled (Allan Dwan, 1924) with Gloria Swanson , and the crime drama On Thin Ice (Malcolm St. Clair, 1925).
His brother, Owen Moore, was also an actor and was married to Mary Pickford . In 1929, the brothers starred with a third brother, Matt Moore, in Side Street (Malcolm St. Clair, 1929).
In 1931, Tom Moore was married a third time, to actress Eleanor Merry. The Great Depression saw many studios close and much consolidation as the motion picture industry went through tough times. Moore retired from the screen in the mid-1930s.
Ten years later, he returned to act in minor supporting roles. His last appearance was in the network television play The Secret (Justus Addiss, 1955), with Francis X. Bushman and Madge Kennedy.
In 1955, Tom Moore died of cancer at age 71 in Santa Monica, California. He has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 1640 Vine Street.
British postcard in the "Pictures" Portrait Gallery, by Pictures Ltd., London, no. 124.
Austrian postcard by Iris Verlag, no. 992. Photo: Fanamet.
British Real Photograph postcard by Picturegoer, London, no. 148.
Sources: Los Angeles Times, Wikipedia, and .
British postcard by Lilywhite, no. C.M.-135. Caption: Cinema Stars.
Spanish postcard. Mailed in 1921.
Spanish card by La Novela Semanal Cinemátografica, no. 82.
Inspected on Ellis Island
Thomas J. 'Tom' Moore was born in 1883 in Fordstown Crossroads, Ireland. Along with his brothers, Owen, Matt, and Joe, and their sister Mary, he emigrated to the United States as a steerage passenger on board the S.S. Anchoria and was inspected on Ellis Island in May 1896.
Tom, Owen, and Matt all would also have successful acting careers. Tom first appeared on the stage when he was 21.
Moore appeared in his first silent film in 1908. In 1908 and 1909 he appeared in some short films by D.W. Griffith , including The Christmas Burglars (D.W. Griffith, 1908), with Florence Lawrence, and The Voice of the Violin (D.W. Griffith, 1909), with Arthur V. Johnson.
During the 1910s, Moore worked for Kalem, Pathé, and Goldwyn. His films included The Primrose Ring (Robert Z. Leonard, 1917), The Jaguar's Claws (Marshall Neilan, 1917), and Go West, Young Man (Harry Beaumont, 1918).
He also directed 17 films in 1914 and 1915, including The Secret Room (1915). In 1914, Moore married silent star Alice Joyce , with whom he had a daughter, Alice Moore (1916–1960), who acted in six films with her father from 1934 to 1937.
American postcard. Tom Moore in The Gay Lord Quex (Harry Beaumont, 1919), a lost American silent comedy, produced by Goldwyn Pictures. It is based on the 1899 play 'The Gay Lord Quex' by the British writer Arthur Wing Pinero.
American postcard.
A whirlwind romance
While in New York City on New Year's Eve 1920, Tom Moore met the young French actress Renée Adorée. A whirlwind romance ensued and six weeks after their meeting, they were married in 1921, in his home in Beverly Hills. The marriage lasted only a few years.
In 1921, he was voted by a trade journal as one of the top fifteen male stars at the box office. He joined Paramount and starred in Dangerous Money (Frank Tuttle, 1924) with Bebe Daniels , the drama Manhandled (Allan Dwan, 1924) with Gloria Swanson , and the crime drama On Thin Ice (Malcolm St. Clair, 1925).
His brother, Owen Moore, was also an actor and was married to Mary Pickford . In 1929, the brothers starred with a third brother, Matt Moore, in Side Street (Malcolm St. Clair, 1929).
In 1931, Tom Moore was married a third time, to actress Eleanor Merry. The Great Depression saw many studios close and much consolidation as the motion picture industry went through tough times. Moore retired from the screen in the mid-1930s.
Ten years later, he returned to act in minor supporting roles. His last appearance was in the network television play The Secret (Justus Addiss, 1955), with Francis X. Bushman and Madge Kennedy.
In 1955, Tom Moore died of cancer at age 71 in Santa Monica, California. He has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 1640 Vine Street.
British postcard in the "Pictures" Portrait Gallery, by Pictures Ltd., London, no. 124.
Austrian postcard by Iris Verlag, no. 992. Photo: Fanamet.
British Real Photograph postcard by Picturegoer, London, no. 148.
Sources: Los Angeles Times, Wikipedia, and .
March 1, 2021
Portrait by Nanni
Giovanni Nanni (1888-1969) was a renowned Italian painter and illustrator of postcards. He was famous for his WWI postcard portraits of elegant ladies with capricious hats. Beloved is also his 1920s and 1930s Art Deco styled publicity for brands such as Olivetti, Pirelli, and Fernet Branca. In the 1930s Nanni did a series of portraits of Italian and foreign stars of cinema, theatre and opera, issued on postcards, and often promoted by various brands of pharmaceutical and consumer products, as well as La Voce del Padrone (His Master's Voice) and the department store La Rinascente. Many of the cards on opera and stage stars were issued by the company Alberoni, which produced sweets against coughing (convenient in opera houses and theatres). The Hollywood stars were promoted by the liquor brands Fernet Branca and Bisleri (even if Bisleri also promoted mineral water). In postwar years (possibly the 1960s or 1970s), there was a reissue of these cards, so this album holds both original postcards and reproductions in our collection.
Italian postcard by Edizioni artistiche Alberani. Portrait by Nanni. Alberani was a Bologna-based pharmaceutic company, which for decades made publicity for its 'sali di frutta'. Here Vittorio De Sica is clearly associated with the Jazz Age.
Italian director Vittorio De Sica (1901-1974) was a leading figure in the Neorealist film movement. De Sica directed 34 feature films, for which he won numerous international prizes including four Oscars. As an actor, he made more than 150 films and is best known for his 1930s comedies with Assia Noris and his postwar earthy comedies in which he played bright and charming roles opposite sex goddesses Gina Lollobrigida and Sophia Loren.
Italian postcards by Edizioni Artistiche Alberani. Portrait by Nanni.
Isa Miranda (1905–1982) was the only international film star produced by the Italian fascist cinema. In Hollywood, she was billed as the ‘Italian Marlene Dietrich’ and played femme fatale roles. Later she became one of the most significant European film actresses during the 1940s and early 1950s.
Italian postcard by Ed. Branca. Portrait by Nanni / Artisti Associati (United Artists). Dolores del Río was a beloved star in Italy. She visited Rome in 1928 and was filmed by the Italian newsreel company LUCE then. See Youtube. Del Rio was filmed leaving the hotel Excelsior and visiting Castel Sant'Angelo, the Colosseum, and the university. She was almost crushed by the wild students.
Mexican and American actress Dolores del Río (1905–1983) was a Hollywood star in the 1920s and 1930s, and one of the most important female actresses of the Golden Age of Mexican cinema in the 1940s and 1950s. Del Río was the first major Latin cross-over star in Hollywood and was considered one of the most beautiful faces that have emerged in Hollywood cinema. She also appeared in several European films.
Vintage Italian postcard. Portrait by Nanni. Sponsored by Fernet-Branca liquor.
Vintage Italian postcard. Portrait by Nanni. Sponsored by Fernet-Branca liquor.
Italian postcard (reproduction). Portrait by Nanni. This card refers to Garbo's silent depiction of 'Anna Karenina', entitled: Love (1927). In 1935 she did a sound version too.
Swedish Greta Garbo (1905-1990) was one of the greatest and most glamorous film stars ever produced by the Hollywood studio system. She was part of the Golden Age of the silent cinema of the 1920s and was one of the few actors who made a glorious transition to the talkies. She started her career in the European cinema and would always stay more popular in Europe than in the USA.
Italian postcards by Ed. Art. La Rinascente. La Rinascente is a famous Italian department store. Portrait by Nanni.
Charming and elegant Vera Vergani (1894-1989) was primarily an Italian stage actress, famous for her interpretations in the first stagings of Pirandello’s plays. She became one of the popular divas of the Italian cinema when she appeared in a dozen silent films between 1917 and 1921 for directors like Augusto Genina and Roberto Roberti.
Italian postcard by Edizioni Artistiche La Rinascente. Portrait by Nanni.
Andreina Pagnani (1906-1981) was an Italian actress and voice actress. She was a primadonna of the Italian theatre, but also appeared in silent and sound films. She became popular as Maigret's wife in the TV series Le inchieste del commissario Maigret/The Investigations of Commissioner Maigret (1964-1972).
Italian postcard by Ed. Art. Alberani. Artwork by Nanni. The painting is based on a part of a still of La signora di tutti/Everybody's Woman (Max Ophüls, 1934). See also this postcard.
Franco Coop (1891-1962) was a highly prolific actor in Italian sound cinema from the early 1930s onwards. In La signora di tutti/Everybody's Woman (Max Ophüls, 1934), Mario Ferrari and Franco Coop as the producer and the agent challenge each other when striking a deal over film star Gaby Doriot (Isa Miranda).
Italian postcard by Ed. Art. Alberani. Portrait by Nanni. Behind Sergio Tòfano the character of Signor Buonaventura, Tofano's popular creation,.
Sergio Tòfano (1886-1973) was an Italian actor, director, playwright, scene designer, and illustrator. He specialised as a comic actor, giving his role a new elegance and complexity. He interpreted works of multiple authors going from Molnár to Shaw. After the Second World War, he worked with the most important innovative stage directors such as Luchino Visconti and Giorgio Strehler. His film acting career set off with the early sound film comedy La segretaria privata/The Private Secretary (Goffredo Alessandrini, 1931), starring Elsa Merlini. Many other comedies at Cines-Pittaluga followed in the early 1930s.
Italian postcard. Portrait by Nanni. Soprano Toti Dal Monte as the title character in the Donizetti opera 'Lucia di Lammermoor', one of her famous performances, together with Donizetti's 'Elisir d'amore' and Puccini's 'Madama Butterfly'. Reproduction.
Toti Dal Monte (1893-1975) was a celebrated Italian operatic soprano. She may be best remembered today for her performance as Cio-cio-san in Puccini's Madama Butterfly', having recorded this role complete in 1939 with Beniamino Gigli as Pinkerton. Debuting at the Scala in 1916, it was during an American tour that conductor Arturo Toscanini discovered the perfect talent of the young singer and let her perform again at the Scala in 'Rigoletto'. From then, a golden career followed in the 1920s and 1930s. She also achieved great successes in cinema, starring in the films Il carnevale di Venezia (Giuseppe Adami, Giacomo Gentilomo, 1939) and Cuore di mamma (Luigi Capuano, 1954), as well as in a cameo in Enrico Maria Salerno's Anonimo veneziano (1970).
Italian postcar by La Voce del Padrone, S.A. Nazionale del Grammofono, Milano. Artwork by Nanni. Beniamino Gigli as the title character in the Italian opera 'Andrea Chénier' (1896) by Umberto Giordano, libretto by Luigi Illica.
Beniamino Gigli (1890-1957) was one of the most famous Italian opera singers, internationally respected for the beauty of his voice and his vocal technique. Between 1935 and 1950 he also starred in various Italian fiction films.
Italian postcard by Ed. Artistiche Alberani. Portrait by Nanni. Feodor Chaliapin as Mephistopheles in 'Faust' by Gounod.
Italian postcard by S.A. Nazionale del Grammofono, Milano, in the series 'artists of La Voce del Padrone' (His Master's Voice). Portrait by Nanni. The bass Feodor Ivanovich Chaliapin as Ivan the Terrible in 'The Maid of Pskov' by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov.
Russian opera singer Feodor Ivanovich Chaliapin (1873–1938) was the possessor of a large, deep, and expressive bass voice. He enjoyed an important international career at major opera houses and is often credited with establishing the tradition of naturalistic acting in his chosen art form. In 1922, he settled in Paris and performed at the Paris Opera,. His acting and singing were sensational. He made many sound recordings between 1900 and 1938, of which the 1913 recordings of the Russian folk songs 'Vdol po Piterskoi' and 'The Song of the Volga Boatmen' are best known. The only sound film which shows his acting style is Don Quichotte/Don Quixote (Georg Wilhelm Pabst, 1933).
Italian postcard. Portrait by Nanni. Tenor Antonio Cortis as the painter Mario Cavaradossi in the opera 'Tosca' by Puccini. You can hear him sing the famous aria 'E lucevan le stelle' from 'Tosca' at YouTube (recording of 1929).
Antonio Cortis (1891-1952) was a Spanish tenor with an outstanding voice. He was acclaimed by audiences on both sides of the Atlantic for his exciting performances of Italian operatic works, especially those by Giuseppe Verdi, Giacomo Puccini, and the verismo composers such as Mascagni. Between 1925 and 1930 he made many recordings of operatic arias and songs for HMV and Victor. After a three-year contract in Rome (1920-1922) and a long contract with the Chicago Civic Opera (1924-1932) he settled in Spain because of the Depression in the US. By the mid-1930s and the onset of the Spanish Civil War, he stopped singing.
Italian postcard, a postwar reproduction (1960s?). Portrait by Nanni. Tito Schipa (tenor) in 'Rigoletto'.
Tito Schipa (1888-1965) was an Italian tenor of Albanese descent. He was considered the best 'tenore di grazia' (light tenor) in history. Schipa also acted in various Italian sound films of the 1930s and 1940s.
Italian postcard by Edizioni Artistiche Alberani. Portrait by Nanni. Luigi Rossi-Morelli in 'Boris Godunov'. Caption: Pastiglie Madonna della Salute contro le tosse (Madonna della Salute tablets against coughs).
Luigi Rossi-Morelli (1887-1940) was an Italian baritone. During the 1930s, he appeared at La Scala over and over again and counted as the most significant Wagner baritone in Italy.
Italian postcard by Edizioni Artistiche Alberani. Portrait by Nanni. Gina Cigna in the opera 'Fra Diavolo' by Auber. Caption: Pastiglie Madonna della Salute contro le tosse (Madonna della Salute tablets against coughs).
Geneviève Cigna, known as Gina Cigna (1900-2001) was an Italian singer of French origin. She was one of the great dramatic sopranos of her time. She made her debut at La Scala in Milan in 1927, under the name Ginette Sens, in the role of Freia in 'Das Rheingold' but wit ent unnoticed. In 1929, she made a second debut at La Scala, under the name of Gina Cigna, in 'Donna Anna'. It was a triumph. She thus established herself as the star dramatic soprano of La Scala, where she sang in operas such as 'Il trovatore', 'Un ballo in maschera', 'Aida', and 'Tosca'. However, her name remains mainly associated with 'Norma', 'La Gioconda', and 'Turandot', her favorite roles, which she sang on all the major stages. Her career ended abruptly in 1948, when she was the victim of a car accident.
Italian postcard by Edizioni Artistiche Alberani. Portrait by Nanni. Aureliano Pertile in the opera 'Isabeau' by Mascagni. Caption: Pastiglie Madonna della Salute contro le tosse (Madonna della Salute tablets against coughs).
Italian tenor Aureliano Pèrtile (1885-1952) was chosen by Giacomo Puccini to interpret 'La rondine' in 1917 Three years later, he had a great success in 'Mefistofele' and 'Aida', at the Verona Arena. In 1922, Arturo Toscanini chose him to play 'Mefistofele' again at La Scala. It started his partnership with the great director at the Scala theater. Pertile was considered the "tenor of Toscanini" par excellence and participated in almost all the opera seasons of La Scala until 1937.
Italian postcard by Edizioni Artistiche Alberani. Portrait by Nanni. Luigi Montesanto. Caption: Pastiglie Madonna della Salute contro le tosse (Madonna della Salute tablets against coughs).
Luigi Montesanto (1887-1954) was an Italian baritone. In 1909, he made his debut in 'Carmen' in Conegliano Veneto, and with the same opera he made his debut at La Scala in the 1912-1913 season. In 1918, he was the first interpreter of Giacomo Puccini's 'Il tabarro' at the Metropolitan. Montesanto had a brilliant international career, and sang in Lisbon, Moscow, Madrid, Paris, Prague, Buenos Aires, and Chicago. Between 1909 and 1936, he interpreted at the Teatro Massimo many operas including 'La bohème', 'Tristan', 'La Gioconda', and 'Rigoletto'.
Italian postcard by Edizioni Artistiche Alberani. Portrait by Nanni. Duilio Baronti in the opera 'Lucia di Lammermoor' by Donizetti. Caption: Pastiglie Madonna della Salute contro le tosse (Madonna della Salute tablets against coughs).
Duilio Baronti was a popular bass singer at the Italian opera. In the season 1930-1931, he sang at the Scala in Milan the part of Raimondo in Donizetti's 'Lucia di Lammermoor'. On the whole, Baronti was between 1929 and 1932 a regular of the Scala, in operas by Verdi, Gounod, Wagner, Mozart, Ponchielli, Puccini, etc. In 1935 he sang opposite Aurelio Pertile in the premiere of Mascagni's 'Nerone'.
Italian postcard. Artwork by Nanni.
Benvenuto Franci (1891-1985) was a very versatile Italian opera singer. His voice was beautiful and toned, and suited the dramatic, committed roles of the baritone repertoire well. He made his debut at the Teatro Costanzi (the present Teatro dell' Opera) in Rome in the role of Giannetto in the opera 'Lodoletta' by Pietro Mascagni in 1918. Soon after, also in Rome, he played the role of Pharaoh in Rossini's 'Moses', and Ford in Verdi's 'Falstaff'. He later sang in the world premiere of Mascagni's opera 'Il piccolo Marat', and as Amonasro in Verdi's 'Aida'. His career continued brilliantly at the Liceu in Barcelona, at the Teatro Real in Madrid, and at the Arena in Verona, and at Covent Garden in London. At the Teatro alla Scala in Milan, he sang starting from 1923.
Italian postcards. Art by Nanni. Nani depicts typical Parisians of the 'apaches' low-life, often represented on stage and on film. Captions: Nella via / Dans la rue / In the street. Reproduction.
Italian postcard. Artwork by Nanni. During the First Word War Nanni made many of these sentimental, romantic scenes on departing or returning officers and soldiers.
Italian postcard by Uff. Rev. Stampa, Milano, 22-3-1917. Artwork by Giovanni (Nanni). Nanni did a series with lady shawls representing the flags of the allies during WWI. This picture refers to the Belgian flag.
Italian postcard. Artwork by Nanni. During the First World War Nanni made many postcards that display the latest fashion in ladies' hats.
Source: Lungomarecastiglioncello (Italian).
Italian postcard by Edizioni artistiche Alberani. Portrait by Nanni. Alberani was a Bologna-based pharmaceutic company, which for decades made publicity for its 'sali di frutta'. Here Vittorio De Sica is clearly associated with the Jazz Age.
Italian director Vittorio De Sica (1901-1974) was a leading figure in the Neorealist film movement. De Sica directed 34 feature films, for which he won numerous international prizes including four Oscars. As an actor, he made more than 150 films and is best known for his 1930s comedies with Assia Noris and his postwar earthy comedies in which he played bright and charming roles opposite sex goddesses Gina Lollobrigida and Sophia Loren.
Italian postcards by Edizioni Artistiche Alberani. Portrait by Nanni.
Isa Miranda (1905–1982) was the only international film star produced by the Italian fascist cinema. In Hollywood, she was billed as the ‘Italian Marlene Dietrich’ and played femme fatale roles. Later she became one of the most significant European film actresses during the 1940s and early 1950s.
Italian postcard by Ed. Branca. Portrait by Nanni / Artisti Associati (United Artists). Dolores del Río was a beloved star in Italy. She visited Rome in 1928 and was filmed by the Italian newsreel company LUCE then. See Youtube. Del Rio was filmed leaving the hotel Excelsior and visiting Castel Sant'Angelo, the Colosseum, and the university. She was almost crushed by the wild students.
Mexican and American actress Dolores del Río (1905–1983) was a Hollywood star in the 1920s and 1930s, and one of the most important female actresses of the Golden Age of Mexican cinema in the 1940s and 1950s. Del Río was the first major Latin cross-over star in Hollywood and was considered one of the most beautiful faces that have emerged in Hollywood cinema. She also appeared in several European films.
Vintage Italian postcard. Portrait by Nanni. Sponsored by Fernet-Branca liquor.
Vintage Italian postcard. Portrait by Nanni. Sponsored by Fernet-Branca liquor.
Italian postcard (reproduction). Portrait by Nanni. This card refers to Garbo's silent depiction of 'Anna Karenina', entitled: Love (1927). In 1935 she did a sound version too.
Swedish Greta Garbo (1905-1990) was one of the greatest and most glamorous film stars ever produced by the Hollywood studio system. She was part of the Golden Age of the silent cinema of the 1920s and was one of the few actors who made a glorious transition to the talkies. She started her career in the European cinema and would always stay more popular in Europe than in the USA.
Italian postcards by Ed. Art. La Rinascente. La Rinascente is a famous Italian department store. Portrait by Nanni.
Charming and elegant Vera Vergani (1894-1989) was primarily an Italian stage actress, famous for her interpretations in the first stagings of Pirandello’s plays. She became one of the popular divas of the Italian cinema when she appeared in a dozen silent films between 1917 and 1921 for directors like Augusto Genina and Roberto Roberti.
Italian postcard by Edizioni Artistiche La Rinascente. Portrait by Nanni.
Andreina Pagnani (1906-1981) was an Italian actress and voice actress. She was a primadonna of the Italian theatre, but also appeared in silent and sound films. She became popular as Maigret's wife in the TV series Le inchieste del commissario Maigret/The Investigations of Commissioner Maigret (1964-1972).
Italian postcard by Ed. Art. Alberani. Artwork by Nanni. The painting is based on a part of a still of La signora di tutti/Everybody's Woman (Max Ophüls, 1934). See also this postcard.
Franco Coop (1891-1962) was a highly prolific actor in Italian sound cinema from the early 1930s onwards. In La signora di tutti/Everybody's Woman (Max Ophüls, 1934), Mario Ferrari and Franco Coop as the producer and the agent challenge each other when striking a deal over film star Gaby Doriot (Isa Miranda).
Italian postcard by Ed. Art. Alberani. Portrait by Nanni. Behind Sergio Tòfano the character of Signor Buonaventura, Tofano's popular creation,.
Sergio Tòfano (1886-1973) was an Italian actor, director, playwright, scene designer, and illustrator. He specialised as a comic actor, giving his role a new elegance and complexity. He interpreted works of multiple authors going from Molnár to Shaw. After the Second World War, he worked with the most important innovative stage directors such as Luchino Visconti and Giorgio Strehler. His film acting career set off with the early sound film comedy La segretaria privata/The Private Secretary (Goffredo Alessandrini, 1931), starring Elsa Merlini. Many other comedies at Cines-Pittaluga followed in the early 1930s.
Italian postcard. Portrait by Nanni. Soprano Toti Dal Monte as the title character in the Donizetti opera 'Lucia di Lammermoor', one of her famous performances, together with Donizetti's 'Elisir d'amore' and Puccini's 'Madama Butterfly'. Reproduction.
Toti Dal Monte (1893-1975) was a celebrated Italian operatic soprano. She may be best remembered today for her performance as Cio-cio-san in Puccini's Madama Butterfly', having recorded this role complete in 1939 with Beniamino Gigli as Pinkerton. Debuting at the Scala in 1916, it was during an American tour that conductor Arturo Toscanini discovered the perfect talent of the young singer and let her perform again at the Scala in 'Rigoletto'. From then, a golden career followed in the 1920s and 1930s. She also achieved great successes in cinema, starring in the films Il carnevale di Venezia (Giuseppe Adami, Giacomo Gentilomo, 1939) and Cuore di mamma (Luigi Capuano, 1954), as well as in a cameo in Enrico Maria Salerno's Anonimo veneziano (1970).
Italian postcar by La Voce del Padrone, S.A. Nazionale del Grammofono, Milano. Artwork by Nanni. Beniamino Gigli as the title character in the Italian opera 'Andrea Chénier' (1896) by Umberto Giordano, libretto by Luigi Illica.
Beniamino Gigli (1890-1957) was one of the most famous Italian opera singers, internationally respected for the beauty of his voice and his vocal technique. Between 1935 and 1950 he also starred in various Italian fiction films.
Italian postcard by Ed. Artistiche Alberani. Portrait by Nanni. Feodor Chaliapin as Mephistopheles in 'Faust' by Gounod.
Italian postcard by S.A. Nazionale del Grammofono, Milano, in the series 'artists of La Voce del Padrone' (His Master's Voice). Portrait by Nanni. The bass Feodor Ivanovich Chaliapin as Ivan the Terrible in 'The Maid of Pskov' by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov.
Russian opera singer Feodor Ivanovich Chaliapin (1873–1938) was the possessor of a large, deep, and expressive bass voice. He enjoyed an important international career at major opera houses and is often credited with establishing the tradition of naturalistic acting in his chosen art form. In 1922, he settled in Paris and performed at the Paris Opera,. His acting and singing were sensational. He made many sound recordings between 1900 and 1938, of which the 1913 recordings of the Russian folk songs 'Vdol po Piterskoi' and 'The Song of the Volga Boatmen' are best known. The only sound film which shows his acting style is Don Quichotte/Don Quixote (Georg Wilhelm Pabst, 1933).
Italian postcard. Portrait by Nanni. Tenor Antonio Cortis as the painter Mario Cavaradossi in the opera 'Tosca' by Puccini. You can hear him sing the famous aria 'E lucevan le stelle' from 'Tosca' at YouTube (recording of 1929).
Antonio Cortis (1891-1952) was a Spanish tenor with an outstanding voice. He was acclaimed by audiences on both sides of the Atlantic for his exciting performances of Italian operatic works, especially those by Giuseppe Verdi, Giacomo Puccini, and the verismo composers such as Mascagni. Between 1925 and 1930 he made many recordings of operatic arias and songs for HMV and Victor. After a three-year contract in Rome (1920-1922) and a long contract with the Chicago Civic Opera (1924-1932) he settled in Spain because of the Depression in the US. By the mid-1930s and the onset of the Spanish Civil War, he stopped singing.
Italian postcard, a postwar reproduction (1960s?). Portrait by Nanni. Tito Schipa (tenor) in 'Rigoletto'.
Tito Schipa (1888-1965) was an Italian tenor of Albanese descent. He was considered the best 'tenore di grazia' (light tenor) in history. Schipa also acted in various Italian sound films of the 1930s and 1940s.
Italian postcard by Edizioni Artistiche Alberani. Portrait by Nanni. Luigi Rossi-Morelli in 'Boris Godunov'. Caption: Pastiglie Madonna della Salute contro le tosse (Madonna della Salute tablets against coughs).
Luigi Rossi-Morelli (1887-1940) was an Italian baritone. During the 1930s, he appeared at La Scala over and over again and counted as the most significant Wagner baritone in Italy.
Italian postcard by Edizioni Artistiche Alberani. Portrait by Nanni. Gina Cigna in the opera 'Fra Diavolo' by Auber. Caption: Pastiglie Madonna della Salute contro le tosse (Madonna della Salute tablets against coughs).
Geneviève Cigna, known as Gina Cigna (1900-2001) was an Italian singer of French origin. She was one of the great dramatic sopranos of her time. She made her debut at La Scala in Milan in 1927, under the name Ginette Sens, in the role of Freia in 'Das Rheingold' but wit ent unnoticed. In 1929, she made a second debut at La Scala, under the name of Gina Cigna, in 'Donna Anna'. It was a triumph. She thus established herself as the star dramatic soprano of La Scala, where she sang in operas such as 'Il trovatore', 'Un ballo in maschera', 'Aida', and 'Tosca'. However, her name remains mainly associated with 'Norma', 'La Gioconda', and 'Turandot', her favorite roles, which she sang on all the major stages. Her career ended abruptly in 1948, when she was the victim of a car accident.
Italian postcard by Edizioni Artistiche Alberani. Portrait by Nanni. Aureliano Pertile in the opera 'Isabeau' by Mascagni. Caption: Pastiglie Madonna della Salute contro le tosse (Madonna della Salute tablets against coughs).
Italian tenor Aureliano Pèrtile (1885-1952) was chosen by Giacomo Puccini to interpret 'La rondine' in 1917 Three years later, he had a great success in 'Mefistofele' and 'Aida', at the Verona Arena. In 1922, Arturo Toscanini chose him to play 'Mefistofele' again at La Scala. It started his partnership with the great director at the Scala theater. Pertile was considered the "tenor of Toscanini" par excellence and participated in almost all the opera seasons of La Scala until 1937.
Italian postcard by Edizioni Artistiche Alberani. Portrait by Nanni. Luigi Montesanto. Caption: Pastiglie Madonna della Salute contro le tosse (Madonna della Salute tablets against coughs).
Luigi Montesanto (1887-1954) was an Italian baritone. In 1909, he made his debut in 'Carmen' in Conegliano Veneto, and with the same opera he made his debut at La Scala in the 1912-1913 season. In 1918, he was the first interpreter of Giacomo Puccini's 'Il tabarro' at the Metropolitan. Montesanto had a brilliant international career, and sang in Lisbon, Moscow, Madrid, Paris, Prague, Buenos Aires, and Chicago. Between 1909 and 1936, he interpreted at the Teatro Massimo many operas including 'La bohème', 'Tristan', 'La Gioconda', and 'Rigoletto'.
Italian postcard by Edizioni Artistiche Alberani. Portrait by Nanni. Duilio Baronti in the opera 'Lucia di Lammermoor' by Donizetti. Caption: Pastiglie Madonna della Salute contro le tosse (Madonna della Salute tablets against coughs).
Duilio Baronti was a popular bass singer at the Italian opera. In the season 1930-1931, he sang at the Scala in Milan the part of Raimondo in Donizetti's 'Lucia di Lammermoor'. On the whole, Baronti was between 1929 and 1932 a regular of the Scala, in operas by Verdi, Gounod, Wagner, Mozart, Ponchielli, Puccini, etc. In 1935 he sang opposite Aurelio Pertile in the premiere of Mascagni's 'Nerone'.
Italian postcard. Artwork by Nanni.
Benvenuto Franci (1891-1985) was a very versatile Italian opera singer. His voice was beautiful and toned, and suited the dramatic, committed roles of the baritone repertoire well. He made his debut at the Teatro Costanzi (the present Teatro dell' Opera) in Rome in the role of Giannetto in the opera 'Lodoletta' by Pietro Mascagni in 1918. Soon after, also in Rome, he played the role of Pharaoh in Rossini's 'Moses', and Ford in Verdi's 'Falstaff'. He later sang in the world premiere of Mascagni's opera 'Il piccolo Marat', and as Amonasro in Verdi's 'Aida'. His career continued brilliantly at the Liceu in Barcelona, at the Teatro Real in Madrid, and at the Arena in Verona, and at Covent Garden in London. At the Teatro alla Scala in Milan, he sang starting from 1923.
Italian postcards. Art by Nanni. Nani depicts typical Parisians of the 'apaches' low-life, often represented on stage and on film. Captions: Nella via / Dans la rue / In the street. Reproduction.
Italian postcard. Artwork by Nanni. During the First Word War Nanni made many of these sentimental, romantic scenes on departing or returning officers and soldiers.
Italian postcard by Uff. Rev. Stampa, Milano, 22-3-1917. Artwork by Giovanni (Nanni). Nanni did a series with lady shawls representing the flags of the allies during WWI. This picture refers to the Belgian flag.
Italian postcard. Artwork by Nanni. During the First World War Nanni made many postcards that display the latest fashion in ladies' hats.
Source: Lungomarecastiglioncello (Italian).
February 28, 2021
Rochelle Hudson
American film actress Rochelle Hudson (1916–1972) appeared in Hollywood films from the early 1930s through the 1960s. Her roles went from ingenue to leading lady to character actress. She is best remembered for co-starring in the tense and gripping social drama Wild Boys of the Road (William A. Wellman, 1933), playing Cosette in Les Misérables (Richard Boleslawski, 1935), as the older sister of Shirley Temple in Curly Top (Irving Cummings, 1935), and as Natalie Wood's mother in Rebel Without a Cause (Nicholas Ray, 1955).
British postcard by De Reszke Cigarettes, no. 19.
British postcard by Art Photo, no. 95. Photo: Fox Films.
German collectors card by Ross Verlag in the Bunte Filmbilder series, II Folge, Bild no. 374, for Lloyd Zigaretten. Photo: Fox-Film.
British Handcoloured Real Photograph postcard in the Colourgraph Series, London, no. C 174.
"When a girl goes wrong, men go right after her!"
Rochelle Elizabeth Hudson was born in Oklahoma City in 1916. Her father, Ollie Lee Hudson, worked for the State Employment Bureau in Oklahoma and was a direct descendant of famed explorer Henry Hudson, who discovered the Hudson River and Hudson Bay.
Prodded by an ambitious stage mother, the 15-years-old Hudson became a WAMPAS Baby Star in 1931. RKO Pictures, which signed the teenager, added two years to her age because the public would never accept a 15-year-old in romantic leads.
In She Done Him Wrong (Lowell Sherman, 1933), she played Sally Glynn, the fallen ingenue to whom Mae West imparts the immortal wisdom, "When a girl goes wrong, men go right after her!"
During her peak years in the 1930s, Hudson's roles included: Claudette Colbert 's adult daughter in Imitation of Life (John M. Stahl, 1934), Richard Cromwell's love interest in the Will Rogers showcase Life Begins at Forty (George Marshall, 1935), and the daughter of carnival barker W.C. Fields in Poppy (A. Edward Sutherland, 1936).
Later she made mainly B-films and worked for television. Hudson co-starred in the CBS sitcom That's My Boy (1954-1955), based on the 1951 Jerry Lewis and Dean Martin film.
British postcard in the Film Weekly Series, London.
Italian postcard by Rizzoli & C., Milano, 1936. Photo: 20th Century Fox.
British postcard by Milton, no. 111. Photo: Fox Films.
This thing makes Ed Wood look like a big-budget A-list director!
Rochelle Hudson abandoned Hollywood for a time after playing Natalie Wood's mother in Rebel Without a Cause (Nicholas Ray, 1955) to run a 10,000-acre ranch in Arizona. She later moved to Tulsa, Oklahoma, and worked for a petroleum refinery.
Missing California, she returned in 1963 and, briefly, restarted her career, but left Hollywood for good in 1967. Her final film was Gallery of Horror (David L. Hewitt, 1967) with Lon Chaney Jr. John Bender at IMDb : "This film utterly amazed me in that it so completely had all the production values of a high school play! This thing makes Ed Wood look like a big-budget A-list director!"
Rochelle Hudson was married four times. Her first husband was Charles Brust. Little is known of the marriage other than it ended in divorce. She remarried in 1939 to Harold Thompson, who was the head of the Storyline Department at Disney Studios.
She assisted Thompson, who was doing espionage work in Mexico as a civilian during World War II. They posed as a vacationing couple to various parts of Mexico, to detect if there was any German activity in these areas. One of their more successful vacations uncovered a supply of high test aviation gas hidden by German agents in Baja, California. They divorced in 1947.
A year later, she married a third time to Los Angeles Times sportswriter, Dick Irving Hyland. The marriage lasted two years before the couple divorced. Her final marriage was to Robert Mindell, a hotel executive. The two remained together for eight years before they divorced in 1971.
In 1967, she had moved to Palm Desert where she found success in real estate. In 1972, Hudson was found dead in her home at the Palm Desert Country Club. A business associate discovered her body sprawled on the bathroom floor. Rochelle Hudson died of a heart attack brought on by a liver ailment. Her only close survivor was her mother.
British collectors card in the Glamour Girls of Stage and Films series by Arcadia Works, London, for Carreras Cigarettes, no. 24.
British Real Photograph postcard, London, no. FS 122. Photo: 20th Century Fox. Brian Donlevy and Rochelle Hudson in Born Reckless (Malcolm St. Clair, 1937).
British postcard in the Picturegoer Series, London, no. 689a. Photo: Fox.
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. A 1014/1, 1937-1938. Photo: Hämmerer / Ufa.
Sources: Wikipedia and .
British postcard by De Reszke Cigarettes, no. 19.
British postcard by Art Photo, no. 95. Photo: Fox Films.
German collectors card by Ross Verlag in the Bunte Filmbilder series, II Folge, Bild no. 374, for Lloyd Zigaretten. Photo: Fox-Film.
British Handcoloured Real Photograph postcard in the Colourgraph Series, London, no. C 174.
"When a girl goes wrong, men go right after her!"
Rochelle Elizabeth Hudson was born in Oklahoma City in 1916. Her father, Ollie Lee Hudson, worked for the State Employment Bureau in Oklahoma and was a direct descendant of famed explorer Henry Hudson, who discovered the Hudson River and Hudson Bay.
Prodded by an ambitious stage mother, the 15-years-old Hudson became a WAMPAS Baby Star in 1931. RKO Pictures, which signed the teenager, added two years to her age because the public would never accept a 15-year-old in romantic leads.
In She Done Him Wrong (Lowell Sherman, 1933), she played Sally Glynn, the fallen ingenue to whom Mae West imparts the immortal wisdom, "When a girl goes wrong, men go right after her!"
During her peak years in the 1930s, Hudson's roles included: Claudette Colbert 's adult daughter in Imitation of Life (John M. Stahl, 1934), Richard Cromwell's love interest in the Will Rogers showcase Life Begins at Forty (George Marshall, 1935), and the daughter of carnival barker W.C. Fields in Poppy (A. Edward Sutherland, 1936).
Later she made mainly B-films and worked for television. Hudson co-starred in the CBS sitcom That's My Boy (1954-1955), based on the 1951 Jerry Lewis and Dean Martin film.
British postcard in the Film Weekly Series, London.
Italian postcard by Rizzoli & C., Milano, 1936. Photo: 20th Century Fox.
British postcard by Milton, no. 111. Photo: Fox Films.
This thing makes Ed Wood look like a big-budget A-list director!
Rochelle Hudson abandoned Hollywood for a time after playing Natalie Wood's mother in Rebel Without a Cause (Nicholas Ray, 1955) to run a 10,000-acre ranch in Arizona. She later moved to Tulsa, Oklahoma, and worked for a petroleum refinery.
Missing California, she returned in 1963 and, briefly, restarted her career, but left Hollywood for good in 1967. Her final film was Gallery of Horror (David L. Hewitt, 1967) with Lon Chaney Jr. John Bender at IMDb : "This film utterly amazed me in that it so completely had all the production values of a high school play! This thing makes Ed Wood look like a big-budget A-list director!"
Rochelle Hudson was married four times. Her first husband was Charles Brust. Little is known of the marriage other than it ended in divorce. She remarried in 1939 to Harold Thompson, who was the head of the Storyline Department at Disney Studios.
She assisted Thompson, who was doing espionage work in Mexico as a civilian during World War II. They posed as a vacationing couple to various parts of Mexico, to detect if there was any German activity in these areas. One of their more successful vacations uncovered a supply of high test aviation gas hidden by German agents in Baja, California. They divorced in 1947.
A year later, she married a third time to Los Angeles Times sportswriter, Dick Irving Hyland. The marriage lasted two years before the couple divorced. Her final marriage was to Robert Mindell, a hotel executive. The two remained together for eight years before they divorced in 1971.
In 1967, she had moved to Palm Desert where she found success in real estate. In 1972, Hudson was found dead in her home at the Palm Desert Country Club. A business associate discovered her body sprawled on the bathroom floor. Rochelle Hudson died of a heart attack brought on by a liver ailment. Her only close survivor was her mother.
British collectors card in the Glamour Girls of Stage and Films series by Arcadia Works, London, for Carreras Cigarettes, no. 24.
British Real Photograph postcard, London, no. FS 122. Photo: 20th Century Fox. Brian Donlevy and Rochelle Hudson in Born Reckless (Malcolm St. Clair, 1937).
British postcard in the Picturegoer Series, London, no. 689a. Photo: Fox.
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. A 1014/1, 1937-1938. Photo: Hämmerer / Ufa.
Sources: Wikipedia and .
February 27, 2021
Before Hollywood: The Flying "A"
The American Film Manufacturing Company, also known as The Flying "A", was an influential and prolific American film studio between 1912 and 1921. In 1915, the formal name was changed to the American Film Company. The studio, located in Santa Barbara, produced nearly one thousand silent films before it was closed.
American postcard by Flying A. Photo: Flying A. Charlotte Burton in The Diamond from the Sky (Jacques Jaccard, William Desmond Taylor, 1915). Collection: Marlene Pilaete.
Charlotte E. Burton (1881-1942) was an American silent film actress. She worked for such pioneering studios as Flying A and Essanay. Her films for Flying A included the short drama The Rose of San Juan (Sydney Ayres, 1913) with Sydney Ayres and Louise Lester, and the short drama Her Big Story (Allan Dwan, 1913) starring J. Warren Kerrigan, and Jail Birds (Sydney Ayres, 1914) starring William Garwood and Jack Richardson. She appeared opposite Lottie Pickford in the serial The Diamond from the Sky (Jacques Jaccard, William Desmond Taylor, 1915), which told the story of the diamond heirloom of the Stanley family.
American postcard by Flying A, no. 7. Photo: Flying A.
American silent film actress Jessalyn Van Trump (1887-1939) starred and supported in over 110 films between 1911 and 1928. Jessalyn starred opposite the legendary cowboy star J. Warren Kerrigan in many short Westerns produced by the American Film Company (or Flying A), including Three Daughters of the West (Allan Dwan, 1911), and The Smoke of the .45 (Allan Dwan, 1911). The following year, she played in Geronimo's Last Raid (John Emerson, 1912), opposite J. Warren Kerrigan, Pauline Bush, and Jack Richardson. The film is set around the capture and escape of Geronimo, a prominent Native American leader of the Chiricahua Apache.
American postcard by Flying A, no. 8. Photo: Flying A.
James Morrison (1888-1974) was an American silent film actor and author. As one of the Vitagraph company's first matinee idols, he starred in countless one and two-reel melodramas and remained with this company for six years. He later returned to Vitagraph often as a freelance actor as well. He appeared in 187 films between 1911 and 1927.
American postcard by Flying A, no. 12. Photo: Flying A.
J. (Jack) Warren Kerrigan (1879-1947) started to act as a leading man in short films for Essanay Studios from 1910 onwards. In 1910 he already acted in some 20 short films at Essanay: Westerns, comedies, etc., quite a few directed by ‘Broncho Billy ‘ Gilbert M. Anderson. In the very same year, Kerrigan shifted to the Flying A, where Kerrigan was often cast as a modern man of the age. His nickname was The Gibson Man. Some of his films at American were directed by Allan Dwan. At American, the production must have had killing time schedules, as according to IMDb some 90 short films were produced in 1911, almost 100 in 1912, some 75 in 1913, so basically two every week. During 1913 both Dwan and Kerrigan shifted to the Victor company (later Universal).
American postcard by Flying A, no. 13. Photo: Flying A.
Jack Richardson (1870-1960) was a star of early American cinema. In 1911, he was signed to a contract in silent films by the American Film Manufacturing Company and appeared in dozens of short (10 minutes) Westerns such as The Boss of Lucky Ranch (Allan Dwan, 1911), A Cowboy's Sacrifice (Allan Dwan, 1911) and The Sheriff's Captive (Allan Dwan, 1911), all with J. Warren Kerrigan and Pauline Bush. Richardson worked at Flying A for several years. His short films there include the Western Geronimo's Last Raid (John Emerson, 1912), the historical drama In the Days of Trajan (Lorimer Johnston, 1913), A Story of Little Italy (Lorimer Johnston, 1914) with Sydney Ayres, The Black Ghost Bandit (Tom Ricketts, 1915) in which he starred, and The Awakening (William Bertram, 1916) with Art Acord.
American postcard by Flying A, no. 14. Photo: Flying A.
George Periolat (1874-1940) was a versatile American actor, who acted in 170 mostly silent films. From 1910 he acted for the American Film Manufacturing Company (The Flying A). In 1911, he moved to California and continued to play in several short films by director Allan Dwan for The Flying A. In late July 1913, Dwan visited Universal's offices in New York City. Carl Laemmle offered Dwan and his colleagues double their pay from The Flying A if they would come to Universal. In the following weeks, J. Warren Kerrigan, Pauline Bush, and George Periolat moved to Universal and would work together with Dwan on The Restless Spirit (Allan Dwan, 1913).
American postcard by Flying A, no. 15. Photo: Flying A.
J. (Jack) Warren Kerrigan (1879-1947) was an American star of the silent screen. From 1910, he had a most active career first in shorts at Essanay, American at Victor, then in features at Universal. After a gap in the early 1920s, he came back with a bang in James Cruze's The Covered Wagon (1923) but stopped acting in 1924 after a car accident.
Santa Barbara as a filmmaking center rivaled only by Hollywood
The American Film Manufacturing Company was founded in Chicago in the fall of 1910 by Samuel S. Hutchinson, John Freuler, Charles J. Hite, and Harry Aitken, four Midwestern businessmen who joined forces and capital to create the company.
Flying "A" Studios was located in La Mesa, California, from August 1911 to July 1912, using filming locations in La Mesa and other East County areas such as Lakeside, in addition to sites around San Diego.
Under the leadership of Allan Dwan, Flying "A" made over 150 films in San Diego County. The films were usually Westerns, comedies, or an occasional local documentary. The Flying A Westerns were popular with the public and kept Dwan and his crew extremely busy. The Dwan Westerns gave the Flying A the ability to mount large advertising campaigns, create additional films, and become a player in the motion picture industry.
While mostly filming in the backcountry near La Mesa, some sets were built behind the Flying A Studios. Dwan would occasionally film a cowboy chase scene and then build a plot around that chase. Dwan's troupe of actors became very popular with the public.
In August 1912, Flying "A" Studios established its Western branch in Santa Barbara. Prior to this, three shooting companies were created. Two would work at the studio or surrounding locales of Chicago, while it was the third unit that was sent out to concentrate on Westerns. This Western unit would move through the southwest with stops in New Mexico, Arizona, and finally California.
The third unit would eventually settle in the town of La Mesa before moving Northwest to Santa Barbara. California was chosen for its sunny weather, and to avoid the constraints of the Edison Trust (The Motion Picture Patents Company or MPPC) operating in Chicago and New York.
The main reason for choosing Santa Barbara before La Mesa was that the American Film Company wanted to have urban backdrops in some of its films. During its operation between 1912 and 1917, Flying "A" Studios was one of the largest motion picture studios in the United States. At the time, this made Santa Barbara a filmmaking center rivaled only by Hollywood.
When the American Film Company was formed in 1910, it culled many performers, directors, scenario writers, and crew members from Essanay Studios. Among the directors and writers that worked for American were Frank Beal, Allan Dwan, J. Warren Kerrigan, and Tom Ricketts. In 1913, Wallace Reid directed several society dramas for the company.
The company's roster of actors included Dot Farley, Margarita Fischer, Mary Miles Minter, and William Russell .
In mid-1918, American Film Company lost its primary distributor when Mutual Film folded. The company signed with a new distributor, Pathé, and continued to produce features. Over the next three years, the company's output decreased significantly. In 1921, one of American's most prominent contract players, Margarita Fischer, left the company. American Film Company was dissolved shortly thereafter.
American postcard by Flying A, no. 16. Photo: Flying A.
In the early days of silent pictures, legendary director Marshall Neilan (1891-1958) started his film career as an actor. In 1912, Neilan worked as a car salesman at a dealership in La Mesa when he was instructed to deliver a car to a nearby film location, whose director had just purchased it. Neilan delivered the car to the director, Allan Dwan, at the Flying A. Since Dwan didn't know how to drive, Neilan took him out and taught him. The two hit it off and Dwan asked Neilan if he wanted to be an actor in his film The Stranger at Coyote (Allan Dwan, 1912), starring J. Warren Kerrigan and Pauline Bush. When Neilan discovered that the job would pay twice as much as his car salesman job, he took it, beginning his long career as an actor, writer, and director.
American postcard by Flying A, no. 17. Photo: Flying A.
American silent film actress Pauline Bush (1886-1969) was nicknamed "The Madonna of the Movies". From 1910 to 1924, she appeared in some 250 films. At The Flying A, she often co-starred with J. Warren Kerrigan in short films like The Hand of Uncle Sam (Tom Ricketts, 1910) and The Recognition (Allan Dwan, 1912). In 1915, she married Allan Dwan.
American postcard by Flying A, no. 22. Photo: Flying A. Collection: Marlene Pilaete.
American actress Vivian Rich (1893-1957) was a prolific silent screen star. She was a leading lady for such pioneering studios as Flying A and Nestor. From 1912 on, she starred in almost 200 films.
American postcard by Flying A, no. 24. Photo: Flying A.
Edward Coxen (1880-1954) was an English-born American actor. He started his film career at Flying A in 1912 and appeared in over 200 both silent and sound films during his career. Much of his work was in melodramas and Westerns.
American postcard by Flying A, no. 25. Photo: Flying A.
American postcard by Flying A, no. 27. Photo: Flying A.
George Field (1877-1925) was an American actor and director of silent films. From 1913 till 1916, he worked for Flying A in such short Westerns as The Fugitive (Wallace Reid, 1913) and The Cowboy Heir (N.N., 1913) and dramas like The Hermit (Tom Ricketts, 1914) opposite Edward Coxen and Winifred Greenwood. Field starred in 207 films until 1924.
American postcard by Flying A, no. 28. Photo: Flying A. Collection: Marlene Pilaete.
Winifred Greenwood (1885-1961) was an American silent film actress. She starred in a number of films with Charlotte Burton including The Shriner's Daughter (Thomas Ricketts, 1913). She played a child model in The Beggar Child (William Desmond Taylor, 1914). Between 1910 and 1927, she starred in over 200 films.
American postcard by Flying A, no. 29. Photo: Flying A.
American actor Sydney Ayres (1879-1916) was a handsome, dark wavy-haired leading man who appeared on the New York stage and starred in early silent films. Ayres also directed and wrote scenarios. He worked for various studios including Flying A.
American postcard by Flying A. Photo: Flying A. Collection: Marlene Pilaete.
American silent film actress Louise Lester (1867-1952) was the first female star of the Western. She starred in over 150 films before her retirement in 1935. She made her film debut at the Flying A Company in Santa Barbara, California. She was the first actress to play Calamity Jane on screen in a series of short Westerns made between 1912 and 1917.
Sources: Santa Barbara Historical Museum, Wikipedia, and IMDb.
Check out our earlier Before Hollywood posts: Vitagraph, Essanay, Biograph, and Lubin.
American postcard by Flying A. Photo: Flying A. Charlotte Burton in The Diamond from the Sky (Jacques Jaccard, William Desmond Taylor, 1915). Collection: Marlene Pilaete.
Charlotte E. Burton (1881-1942) was an American silent film actress. She worked for such pioneering studios as Flying A and Essanay. Her films for Flying A included the short drama The Rose of San Juan (Sydney Ayres, 1913) with Sydney Ayres and Louise Lester, and the short drama Her Big Story (Allan Dwan, 1913) starring J. Warren Kerrigan, and Jail Birds (Sydney Ayres, 1914) starring William Garwood and Jack Richardson. She appeared opposite Lottie Pickford in the serial The Diamond from the Sky (Jacques Jaccard, William Desmond Taylor, 1915), which told the story of the diamond heirloom of the Stanley family.
American postcard by Flying A, no. 7. Photo: Flying A.
American silent film actress Jessalyn Van Trump (1887-1939) starred and supported in over 110 films between 1911 and 1928. Jessalyn starred opposite the legendary cowboy star J. Warren Kerrigan in many short Westerns produced by the American Film Company (or Flying A), including Three Daughters of the West (Allan Dwan, 1911), and The Smoke of the .45 (Allan Dwan, 1911). The following year, she played in Geronimo's Last Raid (John Emerson, 1912), opposite J. Warren Kerrigan, Pauline Bush, and Jack Richardson. The film is set around the capture and escape of Geronimo, a prominent Native American leader of the Chiricahua Apache.
American postcard by Flying A, no. 8. Photo: Flying A.
James Morrison (1888-1974) was an American silent film actor and author. As one of the Vitagraph company's first matinee idols, he starred in countless one and two-reel melodramas and remained with this company for six years. He later returned to Vitagraph often as a freelance actor as well. He appeared in 187 films between 1911 and 1927.
American postcard by Flying A, no. 12. Photo: Flying A.
J. (Jack) Warren Kerrigan (1879-1947) started to act as a leading man in short films for Essanay Studios from 1910 onwards. In 1910 he already acted in some 20 short films at Essanay: Westerns, comedies, etc., quite a few directed by ‘Broncho Billy ‘ Gilbert M. Anderson. In the very same year, Kerrigan shifted to the Flying A, where Kerrigan was often cast as a modern man of the age. His nickname was The Gibson Man. Some of his films at American were directed by Allan Dwan. At American, the production must have had killing time schedules, as according to IMDb some 90 short films were produced in 1911, almost 100 in 1912, some 75 in 1913, so basically two every week. During 1913 both Dwan and Kerrigan shifted to the Victor company (later Universal).
American postcard by Flying A, no. 13. Photo: Flying A.
Jack Richardson (1870-1960) was a star of early American cinema. In 1911, he was signed to a contract in silent films by the American Film Manufacturing Company and appeared in dozens of short (10 minutes) Westerns such as The Boss of Lucky Ranch (Allan Dwan, 1911), A Cowboy's Sacrifice (Allan Dwan, 1911) and The Sheriff's Captive (Allan Dwan, 1911), all with J. Warren Kerrigan and Pauline Bush. Richardson worked at Flying A for several years. His short films there include the Western Geronimo's Last Raid (John Emerson, 1912), the historical drama In the Days of Trajan (Lorimer Johnston, 1913), A Story of Little Italy (Lorimer Johnston, 1914) with Sydney Ayres, The Black Ghost Bandit (Tom Ricketts, 1915) in which he starred, and The Awakening (William Bertram, 1916) with Art Acord.
American postcard by Flying A, no. 14. Photo: Flying A.
George Periolat (1874-1940) was a versatile American actor, who acted in 170 mostly silent films. From 1910 he acted for the American Film Manufacturing Company (The Flying A). In 1911, he moved to California and continued to play in several short films by director Allan Dwan for The Flying A. In late July 1913, Dwan visited Universal's offices in New York City. Carl Laemmle offered Dwan and his colleagues double their pay from The Flying A if they would come to Universal. In the following weeks, J. Warren Kerrigan, Pauline Bush, and George Periolat moved to Universal and would work together with Dwan on The Restless Spirit (Allan Dwan, 1913).
American postcard by Flying A, no. 15. Photo: Flying A.
J. (Jack) Warren Kerrigan (1879-1947) was an American star of the silent screen. From 1910, he had a most active career first in shorts at Essanay, American at Victor, then in features at Universal. After a gap in the early 1920s, he came back with a bang in James Cruze's The Covered Wagon (1923) but stopped acting in 1924 after a car accident.
Santa Barbara as a filmmaking center rivaled only by Hollywood
The American Film Manufacturing Company was founded in Chicago in the fall of 1910 by Samuel S. Hutchinson, John Freuler, Charles J. Hite, and Harry Aitken, four Midwestern businessmen who joined forces and capital to create the company.
Flying "A" Studios was located in La Mesa, California, from August 1911 to July 1912, using filming locations in La Mesa and other East County areas such as Lakeside, in addition to sites around San Diego.
Under the leadership of Allan Dwan, Flying "A" made over 150 films in San Diego County. The films were usually Westerns, comedies, or an occasional local documentary. The Flying A Westerns were popular with the public and kept Dwan and his crew extremely busy. The Dwan Westerns gave the Flying A the ability to mount large advertising campaigns, create additional films, and become a player in the motion picture industry.
While mostly filming in the backcountry near La Mesa, some sets were built behind the Flying A Studios. Dwan would occasionally film a cowboy chase scene and then build a plot around that chase. Dwan's troupe of actors became very popular with the public.
In August 1912, Flying "A" Studios established its Western branch in Santa Barbara. Prior to this, three shooting companies were created. Two would work at the studio or surrounding locales of Chicago, while it was the third unit that was sent out to concentrate on Westerns. This Western unit would move through the southwest with stops in New Mexico, Arizona, and finally California.
The third unit would eventually settle in the town of La Mesa before moving Northwest to Santa Barbara. California was chosen for its sunny weather, and to avoid the constraints of the Edison Trust (The Motion Picture Patents Company or MPPC) operating in Chicago and New York.
The main reason for choosing Santa Barbara before La Mesa was that the American Film Company wanted to have urban backdrops in some of its films. During its operation between 1912 and 1917, Flying "A" Studios was one of the largest motion picture studios in the United States. At the time, this made Santa Barbara a filmmaking center rivaled only by Hollywood.
When the American Film Company was formed in 1910, it culled many performers, directors, scenario writers, and crew members from Essanay Studios. Among the directors and writers that worked for American were Frank Beal, Allan Dwan, J. Warren Kerrigan, and Tom Ricketts. In 1913, Wallace Reid directed several society dramas for the company.
The company's roster of actors included Dot Farley, Margarita Fischer, Mary Miles Minter, and William Russell .
In mid-1918, American Film Company lost its primary distributor when Mutual Film folded. The company signed with a new distributor, Pathé, and continued to produce features. Over the next three years, the company's output decreased significantly. In 1921, one of American's most prominent contract players, Margarita Fischer, left the company. American Film Company was dissolved shortly thereafter.
American postcard by Flying A, no. 16. Photo: Flying A.
In the early days of silent pictures, legendary director Marshall Neilan (1891-1958) started his film career as an actor. In 1912, Neilan worked as a car salesman at a dealership in La Mesa when he was instructed to deliver a car to a nearby film location, whose director had just purchased it. Neilan delivered the car to the director, Allan Dwan, at the Flying A. Since Dwan didn't know how to drive, Neilan took him out and taught him. The two hit it off and Dwan asked Neilan if he wanted to be an actor in his film The Stranger at Coyote (Allan Dwan, 1912), starring J. Warren Kerrigan and Pauline Bush. When Neilan discovered that the job would pay twice as much as his car salesman job, he took it, beginning his long career as an actor, writer, and director.
American postcard by Flying A, no. 17. Photo: Flying A.
American silent film actress Pauline Bush (1886-1969) was nicknamed "The Madonna of the Movies". From 1910 to 1924, she appeared in some 250 films. At The Flying A, she often co-starred with J. Warren Kerrigan in short films like The Hand of Uncle Sam (Tom Ricketts, 1910) and The Recognition (Allan Dwan, 1912). In 1915, she married Allan Dwan.
American postcard by Flying A, no. 22. Photo: Flying A. Collection: Marlene Pilaete.
American actress Vivian Rich (1893-1957) was a prolific silent screen star. She was a leading lady for such pioneering studios as Flying A and Nestor. From 1912 on, she starred in almost 200 films.
American postcard by Flying A, no. 24. Photo: Flying A.
Edward Coxen (1880-1954) was an English-born American actor. He started his film career at Flying A in 1912 and appeared in over 200 both silent and sound films during his career. Much of his work was in melodramas and Westerns.
American postcard by Flying A, no. 25. Photo: Flying A.
American postcard by Flying A, no. 27. Photo: Flying A.
George Field (1877-1925) was an American actor and director of silent films. From 1913 till 1916, he worked for Flying A in such short Westerns as The Fugitive (Wallace Reid, 1913) and The Cowboy Heir (N.N., 1913) and dramas like The Hermit (Tom Ricketts, 1914) opposite Edward Coxen and Winifred Greenwood. Field starred in 207 films until 1924.
American postcard by Flying A, no. 28. Photo: Flying A. Collection: Marlene Pilaete.
Winifred Greenwood (1885-1961) was an American silent film actress. She starred in a number of films with Charlotte Burton including The Shriner's Daughter (Thomas Ricketts, 1913). She played a child model in The Beggar Child (William Desmond Taylor, 1914). Between 1910 and 1927, she starred in over 200 films.
American postcard by Flying A, no. 29. Photo: Flying A.
American actor Sydney Ayres (1879-1916) was a handsome, dark wavy-haired leading man who appeared on the New York stage and starred in early silent films. Ayres also directed and wrote scenarios. He worked for various studios including Flying A.
American postcard by Flying A. Photo: Flying A. Collection: Marlene Pilaete.
American silent film actress Louise Lester (1867-1952) was the first female star of the Western. She starred in over 150 films before her retirement in 1935. She made her film debut at the Flying A Company in Santa Barbara, California. She was the first actress to play Calamity Jane on screen in a series of short Westerns made between 1912 and 1917.
Sources: Santa Barbara Historical Museum, Wikipedia, and IMDb.
Check out our earlier Before Hollywood posts: Vitagraph, Essanay, Biograph, and Lubin.
February 26, 2021
La Collectionneuse: Caricatures of female stars
There are several definitions of a “caricature”. Here is one I’ve found especially interesting: “A caricature of someone is a drawing that exaggerates their appearance or behavior in a humorous or critical way”. Yes, caricatures can range from rather benevolent to cruel or unflattering. But most of the time, being caricatured meant that you had achieved a certain degree of fame. So, the celebrities could accept it more easily, as it was proof of their prominence.
Here is a selection of caricature postcards from my collection. I hope you will enjoy them as much as I had fun selecting them.
Julie Andrews
Vintage American postcard. Caricature by Al Hirschfeld. Caption on the back: “JULIE ANDREWS as the STAR! Drawn by the distinguished American artist, Al Hirschfeld, during a visit to the set of the Robert Wise Film, STAR !, directed by Robert Wise, produced by Saul Chaplin and released by 20th Century Fox.” Collection: Marlene Pilaete.
Al Hirschfeld (1903-2003) was a major 20th Century’s American illustrator, famous for his caricatures of celebrities, including Broadway and movie stars, singers, and politicians.
Constance Bennett
American postcard published by Sardi’s. Caricature by Joe Grant. Collection: Marlene Pilaete.
Sardi’s is the name of a famous restaurant. The original Sardi’s opened in New York in 1927 and quickly became a Broadway institution. In 1932, a Sardi’s restaurant opened in Hollywood but was destroyed in a fire in 1936.
Joe Grant (1908-2005) worked as a caricaturist before joining the Walt Disney studios, where he became a celebrated writer and character designer.
Shirley Temple
American postcard published by Sardi’s. Caricature by Charles R. Steindl. Collection: Marlene Pilaete.
After he had emigrated to the U.S.A., Hungarian-born Charles R. Steindl first worked as a photographer. Later, in the 1930s, he wisely turned to the art of caricature, which brought him recognition.
Elissa Landi
Italian postcard by Eliocromia Zacchetti e C., no. A98. Caricature by Nino Za. Collection: Marlene Pilaete.
Giuseppe Zanini a.k.a. Nino Za (1906-1996) was a renowned Italian caricaturist of the 1930s and 1940s. Later, from 1955 to 1984, he owned an art gallery in Rome.
This card comes from a first series of caricature postcards. They were published in the first half of the 1930s and were devoted to international and some Italian film stars.
Clara Calamai
Italian postcard by Caimo & C. - Genova. Caricature by Nino Za. Collection: Marlene Pilaete.
This card comes from a second series of caricature postcards. They were published at the beginning of the 1940s and were devoted to Italian film stars.
Joan Crawford
Italian postcard by Edizione C.F. Torino. Caricature by Piero Cattaneo. Collection: Marlene Pilaete.
Piero Cattaneo (1894-1984) was a well-known Italian sculptor, ceramist, and caricaturist.
Marlene Dietrich and Charles Boyer
Spanish postcard by PD or DP (series 1091). Caption: “If the film features Charles Boyer and Marlene, it will surely be a hit”. Collection: Marlene Pilaete.
It’s a pity that this card is not signed, as it is an especially cute one. With his cap, his striped shirt, and a cigarette in his mouth, Boyer is turned into a perfect example of the underworld Frenchman, and Marlene Dietrich is quite easily recognizable with her high cheekbones, plucked eyebrows, and long eyelashes. Dietrich and Boyer co-starred in The Garden of Allah (1936) but the action of the film takes place in the Sahara Desert, which is not the case with this postcard. For the scenery, maybe the artist has been inspired by a scene from the film Arch of Triumph (1947) showing Charles Boyer and Ingrid Bergman around a streetlight.
Anita Ekberg
Spanish postcard by Imprime Graficas Torroba. Caption: “Are they real?” Collection: Marlene Pilaete.
The postcards in this series were produced in the mid-1970s for the Spanish men’s magazine 'Divachistes' and always emphasized the female stars’ sexy side. All of them have one uneven border, which indicates that they were bound to the magazine and that they were tear-off postcards. Unfortunately, I’ve not been able to decipher the caricaturist’s name which looks like Mongini or Mancini.
Franciska Gaal
Austrian postcard no. A.E. 59. Caricature by Kora. Collection: Marlene Pilaete.
Ferdinand Körber a.k.a. Kora (1897-1953) notably worked for the communist Austrian newspaper 'Volkstimme'. On a lighter side, he also made funny caricatures of film stars in the 1930s.
Dina Galli
Italian postcard by I.G.A.P. Roma. Caricature by Onor. Collection: Marlene Pilaete.
Umberto Onorato a.k.a. Onor (1898-1967) was a noted Italian caricaturist of stage and movie stars and notably worked for magazines such as 'Il Dramma' and 'Il travaso delle idee'.
Greta Garbo
Italian postcard by Edizione Foto-Unione Roma. Caricature by Xavier Cugat. Collection: Marlene Pilaete.
Xavier Cugat (1900-1990) was one of the 20th Century’s most famous Latin bandleaders. He also worked as a caricaturist in the 1920s.
Maria Guerrero
Spanish postcard by Edt. Prensa Popular - Madrid, no. 11. Caricature by Manuel Tovar Siles. Collection: Marlene Pilaete.
Spanish artist Manuel Tovar Siles (1875-1935) won fame as a caricaturist and notably worked for magazines such as 'La Novela Teatral'.
Myrna Loy
Italian postcard B.F.F. Edit. Firenze, no. 3521. Caricature by Sotéro. Collection: Marlene Pilaete.
Sotero Cosme (1905-1978) was a distinguished Brazilian painter, illustrator, caricaturist and engraver.
Jeanette MacDonald and Brian Aherne
Spanish postcard by I.G. Viladot S/L, Barcelona. Caricature by Jacques Kapralik. Collection: Marlene Pilaete.
Born in Romania, Jacques Kapralik (1906-1960) emigrated to the U.S.A. in 1936. This talented and inventive artist created intricately cut-out miniature figures which were then photographed against painted backgrounds, to give them a 3-D effect. Kapralik worked for many Hollywood film studios, such as Universal and M.G.M.
Yvonne Printemps
French postcard by Publications J.P. Paris. Caricature by Raoul Cabrol. Collection: Marlene Pilaete.
Raoul Cabrol (1895-1956) was one of the most famous French caricaturists of his time. For the record, one of his caricatures of Hitler published in a Luxembourg newspaper in 1938 caused a fit of rage from the German dictator.
Spinelly
Vintage French postcard. Caricature by Charles Gesmar. Collection: Marlene Pilaete.
Charles Gesmar (1900-1928) had a short but brilliant career as a poster designer, illustrator, and costume designer.
Sarah Bernhardt, Cléo de Mérode, Caroline Otero and Yvette Guilbert
French publicity postcard advertising 'Cristal Mont-Pilat' mineral water. Collection: Marlene Pilaete.
Unsigned caricatures depicting four celebrities from the Belle-Epoque.
Judy Canova and Joe E. Brown
Spanish postcard by Ediciones ARFA - Barcelona, no. 51/7. Caption: “Who’s Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf?”
Judy Canova is dressed as the Little Red Riding Hood and Joe E. Brown plays the part of the Wolf disguised as the grandmother. Judy Canova and Joe E. Brown, who was nicknamed “Bocazas” (Big Mouth) in Spain, starred together in Chatterbox (1943). The artist’s name could be 'Domingo', 'Dimingo', 'Diminyo', or any other variation. I can’t be sure as the signature is quite cryptic.
Text by Marlene Pilaete.
More? Check out our post of last week on film star caricatures from Germany and Italy or this earlier post.
Here is a selection of caricature postcards from my collection. I hope you will enjoy them as much as I had fun selecting them.
Julie Andrews
Vintage American postcard. Caricature by Al Hirschfeld. Caption on the back: “JULIE ANDREWS as the STAR! Drawn by the distinguished American artist, Al Hirschfeld, during a visit to the set of the Robert Wise Film, STAR !, directed by Robert Wise, produced by Saul Chaplin and released by 20th Century Fox.” Collection: Marlene Pilaete.
Al Hirschfeld (1903-2003) was a major 20th Century’s American illustrator, famous for his caricatures of celebrities, including Broadway and movie stars, singers, and politicians.
Constance Bennett
American postcard published by Sardi’s. Caricature by Joe Grant. Collection: Marlene Pilaete.
Sardi’s is the name of a famous restaurant. The original Sardi’s opened in New York in 1927 and quickly became a Broadway institution. In 1932, a Sardi’s restaurant opened in Hollywood but was destroyed in a fire in 1936.
Joe Grant (1908-2005) worked as a caricaturist before joining the Walt Disney studios, where he became a celebrated writer and character designer.
Shirley Temple
American postcard published by Sardi’s. Caricature by Charles R. Steindl. Collection: Marlene Pilaete.
After he had emigrated to the U.S.A., Hungarian-born Charles R. Steindl first worked as a photographer. Later, in the 1930s, he wisely turned to the art of caricature, which brought him recognition.
Elissa Landi
Italian postcard by Eliocromia Zacchetti e C., no. A98. Caricature by Nino Za. Collection: Marlene Pilaete.
Giuseppe Zanini a.k.a. Nino Za (1906-1996) was a renowned Italian caricaturist of the 1930s and 1940s. Later, from 1955 to 1984, he owned an art gallery in Rome.
This card comes from a first series of caricature postcards. They were published in the first half of the 1930s and were devoted to international and some Italian film stars.
Clara Calamai
Italian postcard by Caimo & C. - Genova. Caricature by Nino Za. Collection: Marlene Pilaete.
This card comes from a second series of caricature postcards. They were published at the beginning of the 1940s and were devoted to Italian film stars.
Joan Crawford
Italian postcard by Edizione C.F. Torino. Caricature by Piero Cattaneo. Collection: Marlene Pilaete.
Piero Cattaneo (1894-1984) was a well-known Italian sculptor, ceramist, and caricaturist.
Marlene Dietrich and Charles Boyer
Spanish postcard by PD or DP (series 1091). Caption: “If the film features Charles Boyer and Marlene, it will surely be a hit”. Collection: Marlene Pilaete.
It’s a pity that this card is not signed, as it is an especially cute one. With his cap, his striped shirt, and a cigarette in his mouth, Boyer is turned into a perfect example of the underworld Frenchman, and Marlene Dietrich is quite easily recognizable with her high cheekbones, plucked eyebrows, and long eyelashes. Dietrich and Boyer co-starred in The Garden of Allah (1936) but the action of the film takes place in the Sahara Desert, which is not the case with this postcard. For the scenery, maybe the artist has been inspired by a scene from the film Arch of Triumph (1947) showing Charles Boyer and Ingrid Bergman around a streetlight.
Anita Ekberg
Spanish postcard by Imprime Graficas Torroba. Caption: “Are they real?” Collection: Marlene Pilaete.
The postcards in this series were produced in the mid-1970s for the Spanish men’s magazine 'Divachistes' and always emphasized the female stars’ sexy side. All of them have one uneven border, which indicates that they were bound to the magazine and that they were tear-off postcards. Unfortunately, I’ve not been able to decipher the caricaturist’s name which looks like Mongini or Mancini.
Franciska Gaal
Austrian postcard no. A.E. 59. Caricature by Kora. Collection: Marlene Pilaete.
Ferdinand Körber a.k.a. Kora (1897-1953) notably worked for the communist Austrian newspaper 'Volkstimme'. On a lighter side, he also made funny caricatures of film stars in the 1930s.
Dina Galli
Italian postcard by I.G.A.P. Roma. Caricature by Onor. Collection: Marlene Pilaete.
Umberto Onorato a.k.a. Onor (1898-1967) was a noted Italian caricaturist of stage and movie stars and notably worked for magazines such as 'Il Dramma' and 'Il travaso delle idee'.
Greta Garbo
Italian postcard by Edizione Foto-Unione Roma. Caricature by Xavier Cugat. Collection: Marlene Pilaete.
Xavier Cugat (1900-1990) was one of the 20th Century’s most famous Latin bandleaders. He also worked as a caricaturist in the 1920s.
Maria Guerrero
Spanish postcard by Edt. Prensa Popular - Madrid, no. 11. Caricature by Manuel Tovar Siles. Collection: Marlene Pilaete.
Spanish artist Manuel Tovar Siles (1875-1935) won fame as a caricaturist and notably worked for magazines such as 'La Novela Teatral'.
Myrna Loy
Italian postcard B.F.F. Edit. Firenze, no. 3521. Caricature by Sotéro. Collection: Marlene Pilaete.
Sotero Cosme (1905-1978) was a distinguished Brazilian painter, illustrator, caricaturist and engraver.
Jeanette MacDonald and Brian Aherne
Spanish postcard by I.G. Viladot S/L, Barcelona. Caricature by Jacques Kapralik. Collection: Marlene Pilaete.
Born in Romania, Jacques Kapralik (1906-1960) emigrated to the U.S.A. in 1936. This talented and inventive artist created intricately cut-out miniature figures which were then photographed against painted backgrounds, to give them a 3-D effect. Kapralik worked for many Hollywood film studios, such as Universal and M.G.M.
Yvonne Printemps
French postcard by Publications J.P. Paris. Caricature by Raoul Cabrol. Collection: Marlene Pilaete.
Raoul Cabrol (1895-1956) was one of the most famous French caricaturists of his time. For the record, one of his caricatures of Hitler published in a Luxembourg newspaper in 1938 caused a fit of rage from the German dictator.
Spinelly
Vintage French postcard. Caricature by Charles Gesmar. Collection: Marlene Pilaete.
Charles Gesmar (1900-1928) had a short but brilliant career as a poster designer, illustrator, and costume designer.
Sarah Bernhardt, Cléo de Mérode, Caroline Otero and Yvette Guilbert
French publicity postcard advertising 'Cristal Mont-Pilat' mineral water. Collection: Marlene Pilaete.
Unsigned caricatures depicting four celebrities from the Belle-Epoque.
Judy Canova and Joe E. Brown
Spanish postcard by Ediciones ARFA - Barcelona, no. 51/7. Caption: “Who’s Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf?”
Judy Canova is dressed as the Little Red Riding Hood and Joe E. Brown plays the part of the Wolf disguised as the grandmother. Judy Canova and Joe E. Brown, who was nicknamed “Bocazas” (Big Mouth) in Spain, starred together in Chatterbox (1943). The artist’s name could be 'Domingo', 'Dimingo', 'Diminyo', or any other variation. I can’t be sure as the signature is quite cryptic.
Text by Marlene Pilaete.
More? Check out our post of last week on film star caricatures from Germany and Italy or this earlier post.
February 25, 2021
Pietro der Kosar (1925)
Pietro, der Korsar/Peter the Pirate (Arthur Robison, 1925), also known in English as The Sea Wolves or The Love Pirate, is a German silent historical adventure film starring Paul Richter, Aud Egede-Nissen, and Rudolf Klein-Rogge. The film was based on a novel by German author Wilhelm Hegeler, 'Pietro der Korsar und die Jüdin Cheirinca' (Pietro the Corsair and the Jewess Cheirinca).
German postcard by Ross Verlag, Berlin, no. 1024/1, 1927-1928. Photo: Ufa. Paul Richter in Pietro der Korsar/Peter the Pirate (Arthur Robison, 1925).
French postcard. Photo: Mon. Cawa-Film. Aud Egede Nissen and Paul Richter in Pietro der Korsar/Peter the Pirate (Arthur Robison, 1925).
German postcard by Ross Verlag, Berlin, no. 992/1, 1925-1926. Photo: Ufa. Paul Richter in Pietro der Korsar/Peter the Pirate (Arthur Robison, 1925).
The strict rules of the Corsairs
In Pietro, der Korsar/Peter the Pirate (Arthur Robison, 1925), Paul Richter plays Pietro, the son of an oil trader (Fritz Richard) on the Italian coast. Pietro would like to be a corsair, and he constantly observes their fort on an offshore island.
When the corsair Salvatore ( Rudolf Klein-Rogge ) raids his father's house, Pietro overwhelms him. The corsair can flee. From then on, Pietro and his family fear the corsairs' revenge.
However, Salvatore, who owes his life to Pietro, takes him in with the corsairs. With these pirates, he must submit to their strict rules. Meanwhile, Salvatore rises to their leader.
Salvatore is seriously injured while capturing a merchant ship. He is taken to a doctor's house. There he falls in love with the daughter Juana ( Aud Egede Nissen ). He takes her to his fort.
After a short time, Juana discovers that Salvatore is a weakling. Her only interest is Pietro, and hatred and distrust arise between Salvatore and Pietro. A knife fight should decide. However, Salvatore is shot dead by an invading mercenary and Juana stands between the gun and Pietro to atone for her guilt.
German postcard by Ross Verlag, Berlin, no. 26/1. Photo: Ufa. Aud Egede Nissen and Rudolf Klein-Rogge in Pietro der Korsar/Peter the Pirate (Arthur Robison, 1925).
German postcard by Ross Verlag, Berlin, no. 26/4. Photo: Ufa. Paul Richter in Pietro der Korsar/Peter the Pirate (Arthur Robison, 1925).
German postcard by Ross Verlag, Berlin, no. 26/5, 1927-1928. Photo: Ufa. Aud Egede Nissen and Paul Richter in Pietro der Korsar/Peter the Pirate (Arthur Robison, 1925).
German postcard by Ross Verlag, Berlin, no. 26/10, 1927-1928. Photo: Ufa. Paul Richter in Pietro der Korsar/Peter the Pirate (Arthur Robison, 1925).
A school of acting dating back to the Spanish Armada
Pietro der Korsar/Peter the Pirate (Arthur Robison, 1925) was produced by Erich Pommer for the Ufa (Universum-Film AG) in Berlin. Director p of photography was Fritz Arno Wagner, and Albin Grau was responsible for the buildings and the costumes.
The shooting took place from August to October 1924 on the coast near Rome and in the open-air site of the Ufa studios in Neubabelsberg. Decla-Bioscop-Verleih GmbH in Berlin distributed the film. The world premiere took place on 19 February 1925 at U.T. Alexanderplatz Berlin. The post-censorship issued a youth ban.
The international critics found only a few kind words for the film. In the New York Times, Mordaunt Hall wrote on 7 January 1927: “Sandwiched in between Chaplin's famous comedy, Easy Street, and three other ancient American films, there is at the Fifth Avenue Playhouse a tedious Ufa picture, known as Peter the Pirate.
It is a story of sea robbers of the dim past, and the aggregation of players appears to be emulating a school of acting dating back to the Spanish Armada. Even Paul Richter, who gave such a distinguished performance in the film version of Siegfried, seems to have found his colleagues' art contagious. Mr. Richter is a pale-faced fighter with gymnastic shoes and a shirt always open at the collar.
As Peter he longs for adventure and, of course, it comes his way. So he becomes associated with a band of ruddy villains, who try and make you think that they would just as soon cut a throat as gulp down a glass of wine. Actually, these followers of the skull and crossbones look as if they had been shanghaied from a modern costume dance. This weak link in the chain of Ufa productions was directed by Arthur Robison, producer of the film version of Manon Lescaut."
German postcard by Ross Verlag, Berlin, no. 1024/2, 1927-1928. Photo: Ufa. Paul Richter in Pietro der Korsar/Peter the Pirate (Arthur Robison, 1925).
German postcard by Ross Verlag, Berlin, no. 1024/3, 1927-1928. Photo: Ufa. Paul Richter and Aud Egede Nissen in Pietro der Korsar/Peter the Pirate (Arthur Robison, 1925).
German postcard by Ross Verlag, Berlin, no. 1024/4, 1927-1928. Photo: Ufa. Paul Richter and Aud Egede Nissen in Pietro der Korsar/Peter the Pirate (Arthur Robison, 1925).
German postcard by Ross Verlag, Berlin, no. 1024/5, 1927-1928. Photo: Ufa. Paul Richter and Aud Egede Nissen in Pietro der Korsar/Peter the Pirate (Arthur Robison, 1925).
Sources: Wikipedia (German and English), and IMDb.
German postcard by Ross Verlag, Berlin, no. 1024/1, 1927-1928. Photo: Ufa. Paul Richter in Pietro der Korsar/Peter the Pirate (Arthur Robison, 1925).
French postcard. Photo: Mon. Cawa-Film. Aud Egede Nissen and Paul Richter in Pietro der Korsar/Peter the Pirate (Arthur Robison, 1925).
German postcard by Ross Verlag, Berlin, no. 992/1, 1925-1926. Photo: Ufa. Paul Richter in Pietro der Korsar/Peter the Pirate (Arthur Robison, 1925).
The strict rules of the Corsairs
In Pietro, der Korsar/Peter the Pirate (Arthur Robison, 1925), Paul Richter plays Pietro, the son of an oil trader (Fritz Richard) on the Italian coast. Pietro would like to be a corsair, and he constantly observes their fort on an offshore island.
When the corsair Salvatore ( Rudolf Klein-Rogge ) raids his father's house, Pietro overwhelms him. The corsair can flee. From then on, Pietro and his family fear the corsairs' revenge.
However, Salvatore, who owes his life to Pietro, takes him in with the corsairs. With these pirates, he must submit to their strict rules. Meanwhile, Salvatore rises to their leader.
Salvatore is seriously injured while capturing a merchant ship. He is taken to a doctor's house. There he falls in love with the daughter Juana ( Aud Egede Nissen ). He takes her to his fort.
After a short time, Juana discovers that Salvatore is a weakling. Her only interest is Pietro, and hatred and distrust arise between Salvatore and Pietro. A knife fight should decide. However, Salvatore is shot dead by an invading mercenary and Juana stands between the gun and Pietro to atone for her guilt.
German postcard by Ross Verlag, Berlin, no. 26/1. Photo: Ufa. Aud Egede Nissen and Rudolf Klein-Rogge in Pietro der Korsar/Peter the Pirate (Arthur Robison, 1925).
German postcard by Ross Verlag, Berlin, no. 26/4. Photo: Ufa. Paul Richter in Pietro der Korsar/Peter the Pirate (Arthur Robison, 1925).
German postcard by Ross Verlag, Berlin, no. 26/5, 1927-1928. Photo: Ufa. Aud Egede Nissen and Paul Richter in Pietro der Korsar/Peter the Pirate (Arthur Robison, 1925).
German postcard by Ross Verlag, Berlin, no. 26/10, 1927-1928. Photo: Ufa. Paul Richter in Pietro der Korsar/Peter the Pirate (Arthur Robison, 1925).
A school of acting dating back to the Spanish Armada
Pietro der Korsar/Peter the Pirate (Arthur Robison, 1925) was produced by Erich Pommer for the Ufa (Universum-Film AG) in Berlin. Director p of photography was Fritz Arno Wagner, and Albin Grau was responsible for the buildings and the costumes.
The shooting took place from August to October 1924 on the coast near Rome and in the open-air site of the Ufa studios in Neubabelsberg. Decla-Bioscop-Verleih GmbH in Berlin distributed the film. The world premiere took place on 19 February 1925 at U.T. Alexanderplatz Berlin. The post-censorship issued a youth ban.
The international critics found only a few kind words for the film. In the New York Times, Mordaunt Hall wrote on 7 January 1927: “Sandwiched in between Chaplin's famous comedy, Easy Street, and three other ancient American films, there is at the Fifth Avenue Playhouse a tedious Ufa picture, known as Peter the Pirate.
It is a story of sea robbers of the dim past, and the aggregation of players appears to be emulating a school of acting dating back to the Spanish Armada. Even Paul Richter, who gave such a distinguished performance in the film version of Siegfried, seems to have found his colleagues' art contagious. Mr. Richter is a pale-faced fighter with gymnastic shoes and a shirt always open at the collar.
As Peter he longs for adventure and, of course, it comes his way. So he becomes associated with a band of ruddy villains, who try and make you think that they would just as soon cut a throat as gulp down a glass of wine. Actually, these followers of the skull and crossbones look as if they had been shanghaied from a modern costume dance. This weak link in the chain of Ufa productions was directed by Arthur Robison, producer of the film version of Manon Lescaut."
German postcard by Ross Verlag, Berlin, no. 1024/2, 1927-1928. Photo: Ufa. Paul Richter in Pietro der Korsar/Peter the Pirate (Arthur Robison, 1925).
German postcard by Ross Verlag, Berlin, no. 1024/3, 1927-1928. Photo: Ufa. Paul Richter and Aud Egede Nissen in Pietro der Korsar/Peter the Pirate (Arthur Robison, 1925).
German postcard by Ross Verlag, Berlin, no. 1024/4, 1927-1928. Photo: Ufa. Paul Richter and Aud Egede Nissen in Pietro der Korsar/Peter the Pirate (Arthur Robison, 1925).
German postcard by Ross Verlag, Berlin, no. 1024/5, 1927-1928. Photo: Ufa. Paul Richter and Aud Egede Nissen in Pietro der Korsar/Peter the Pirate (Arthur Robison, 1925).
Sources: Wikipedia (German and English), and IMDb.
February 24, 2021
Edward Everett Horton
It seemed like American actor Edward Everett Horton (1886-1970) appeared in just about every Hollywood comedy made in the 1930s. He was always the perfect counterpart to the great gentlemen and protagonists of the films. Horton specialised in the fretful, woebegone 'Nervous Nellie' types.
British Real Photograph postcard by Sarony, no. 74. Photo: Warner Bros. Caption: No. 40 of a second Series of 42 CINEMA STARS issued with Sarony Cigarettes.
British postcard in the Picturegoer Series, London, no. 745. Photo: United Artists / Columbia.
British postcard in the Picturegoer Series, London, no. 745a. Photo: Universal.
The drama club that changed the direction of his life
Edward Everett Horton Jr. was born in 1886 in Brooklyn, New York City, to Isabella S. (Diack) and Edward Everett Horton, a print typesetter for the New York Times. He was the eldest of four children; George, Winter Davis, and Hannahbelle were his siblings.
The family remained close throughout their lives. Edward's mother lived with him until she died at the age of 101. His brothers and sister also spent their later years residing at his Encino estate.
Edward was a student at Oberlin College in Ohio. However, he was asked to leave after he climbed to the top of a building and, after a crowd gathered, threw off a dummy, making them think he had jumped. He then studied business at both Polytechnic Institute and Columbia.
At Columbia, however, he joined the university's drama club and that changed the direction of his life. He quickly decided on an acting career rather and he left Columbia before graduating.
In 1907, he joined the Dempsey Company, a stock company on Staten Island. There he performed in several Gilbert and Sullivan light operas, including 'The Mikado'. His rich baritone singing voice enabled him to appear in chorus on Broadway and he joined the prestigious Louis Mann company, playing in stock and learning his new trade.
He went on to join several theatre companies in the 1910s, including the Orpheum Players in Philadelphia, The Baker Stock Company in Oregon, and the Crescent Theatre in Brooklyn. In the 1920s he acted in and managed the Majestic Theater in Los Angeles with his brother and business manager, George.
He made his film debut in the comedy Too Much Business (Jess Robbins, 1922). In only his fourth film, Horton struck gold as a screen comedy performer with his starring role as the butler in the Western comedy Ruggles of Red Gap (James Cruze, 1923) opposite Ernest Torrence . Charles Laughton would play Ruggles in the 1935 version.
Horton portrayed the lead role of an idealistic young classical composer in the drama Beggar on Horseback (James Cruze, 1925) with Esther Ralston . Unlike many of his silent-film colleagues, the stage-trained Horton had no problems in adapting to the sound, despite - or perhaps because of - his quavering, slightly effeminate voice. He appeared in such early talkies as the horror film The Terror (Roy Del Ruth, 1928) with May McAvoy and Louise Fazenda, and Sonny Boy (Archie Mayo, 1929) with child star Davey Lee and Betty Bronson .
British postcard in the Film Shots series by Film Weekly. Photo: Paramount. Edward Everett Horton, Baby LeRoy and Maurice Chevalier in A Bedtime Story (Norman Taurog, 1933).
British card. Photo: Paramount. Maurice Chevalier and Edward Everett Horton in The Way to Love (Norman Taurog, 1933).
Cultivating his own special variation of the double-take
Edward Everett Horton played the role of Professor Nick Potter in Holiday (Edward H. Griffith, 1930) and again in the remake, Holiday (George Cukor, 1938) starring Katharine Hepburn and Cary Grant . He also made an impact playing The Mad Hatter in Alice in Wonderland (Norman Z. McLeod, 1933).
Other classics in which he played character roles are The Front Page (Lewis Milestone, 1931) with Adolphe Menjou and Pat O'Brien, The Gay Divorcee (Mark Sandrich, 1934) with Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers , Top Hat (Mark Sandrich, 1935) again with Astaire and Rogers, and Here Comes Mr. Jordan (Alexander Hall, 1941).
Horton cultivated his own special variation of the double-take (an actor's reaction to something, followed by a delayed, more extreme reaction). In Horton's version, he smiled ingratiatingly and nodded in agreement with what just happened; then, when realisation set in, his facial features collapsed entirely into a sober, troubled mask.
From 1932 to 1938 he worked often with Ernst Lubitsch such as on Trouble in Paradise (Ernst Lubitsch, 1932), Design for Living (Ernst Lubitsch, 1933), and The Merry Widow (Ernst Lubitsch, 1934) starring Maurice Chevalier and Jeanette MacDonald. Later he worked with Frank Capra on Lost Horizon (Frank Capra, 1937) as the erratic paleontologist, Alexander P. Lovett, and Arsenic and Old Lace (Frank Capra, 1944).
During the 1950s, Horton embraced the new medium of television with enthusiasm. His television career started in 1949 in the drama The Man Who Came to Dinner and he appeared regularly on the small screen for the next 20 years in programs such as I Love Lucy (1952), The Red Skelton Hour (1957-1962), Dennis the Menace (1962-1963), Burke's Law (1963-1965), and Batman (1966).
He gained a completely new fanbase as the storyteller in the animated series Fractured Fairy Tales (1959-1962). He was also the befuddled Hekawi medicine man Roaring Chicken on the Western comedy series F Troop (1965). His later feature films include Pocketful of Miracles (Frank Capra, 1961) starring Bette Davis and Glenn Ford , the highly successful It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (Stanley Kramer, 1963) with Spencer Tracy, and Sex and the Single Girl (Richard Quine, 1964), starring Tony Curtis and Natalie Wood.
His last film role was in the comedy Cold Turkey (Norman Lear, 1971), in which his character sat in a wheelchair and communicated only through facial expressions. Horton died before the film was released. During his long career, he appeared in more than 120 films and never tied himself down with a long-term contract to any single studio.
He remained a freelancer throughout his long career. In the theatre, he appeared in a number of revivals of the comedy play 'Springtime for Henry' beginning in the 1930s and extending into the 1960s. He played the part of the effete Henry Dewlip more than 3,000 times.
At the age of 84, Edward Everett Horton died of cancer in 1970 in Encino, Los Angeles. He is interred at Forest Lawn, Glendale, CA. According to an in-depth article by Eve Golden in Classic Images magazine, Edward's longtime companion was actor Gavin Gordon, who was 15 years his junior. Not much was ever documented on the couple. They had appeared together in a 1931 production of Noël Coward's 'Private Lives' and acted in one film together, Pocketful of Miracles (Frank Capra, 1961). For his contribution to the motion picture industry, Edward Everett Horton has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6427 Hollywood Boulevard.
Italian postcard in the '100 Artisti del Cinema' series by Edizione ELAH 'La Casa delle caramelle', no. 29. Photo: Warner Bros. Edward Everett Horton in It's Love I'm After (Archie Mayo, 1937). The Italian film title was Avventura a mezzanotte.
American Arcade card.
Sources: Chris Whiteley (Hollywood's Golden Age), (IMDb), Wikipedia, and .
British Real Photograph postcard by Sarony, no. 74. Photo: Warner Bros. Caption: No. 40 of a second Series of 42 CINEMA STARS issued with Sarony Cigarettes.
British postcard in the Picturegoer Series, London, no. 745. Photo: United Artists / Columbia.
British postcard in the Picturegoer Series, London, no. 745a. Photo: Universal.
The drama club that changed the direction of his life
Edward Everett Horton Jr. was born in 1886 in Brooklyn, New York City, to Isabella S. (Diack) and Edward Everett Horton, a print typesetter for the New York Times. He was the eldest of four children; George, Winter Davis, and Hannahbelle were his siblings.
The family remained close throughout their lives. Edward's mother lived with him until she died at the age of 101. His brothers and sister also spent their later years residing at his Encino estate.
Edward was a student at Oberlin College in Ohio. However, he was asked to leave after he climbed to the top of a building and, after a crowd gathered, threw off a dummy, making them think he had jumped. He then studied business at both Polytechnic Institute and Columbia.
At Columbia, however, he joined the university's drama club and that changed the direction of his life. He quickly decided on an acting career rather and he left Columbia before graduating.
In 1907, he joined the Dempsey Company, a stock company on Staten Island. There he performed in several Gilbert and Sullivan light operas, including 'The Mikado'. His rich baritone singing voice enabled him to appear in chorus on Broadway and he joined the prestigious Louis Mann company, playing in stock and learning his new trade.
He went on to join several theatre companies in the 1910s, including the Orpheum Players in Philadelphia, The Baker Stock Company in Oregon, and the Crescent Theatre in Brooklyn. In the 1920s he acted in and managed the Majestic Theater in Los Angeles with his brother and business manager, George.
He made his film debut in the comedy Too Much Business (Jess Robbins, 1922). In only his fourth film, Horton struck gold as a screen comedy performer with his starring role as the butler in the Western comedy Ruggles of Red Gap (James Cruze, 1923) opposite Ernest Torrence . Charles Laughton would play Ruggles in the 1935 version.
Horton portrayed the lead role of an idealistic young classical composer in the drama Beggar on Horseback (James Cruze, 1925) with Esther Ralston . Unlike many of his silent-film colleagues, the stage-trained Horton had no problems in adapting to the sound, despite - or perhaps because of - his quavering, slightly effeminate voice. He appeared in such early talkies as the horror film The Terror (Roy Del Ruth, 1928) with May McAvoy and Louise Fazenda, and Sonny Boy (Archie Mayo, 1929) with child star Davey Lee and Betty Bronson .
British postcard in the Film Shots series by Film Weekly. Photo: Paramount. Edward Everett Horton, Baby LeRoy and Maurice Chevalier in A Bedtime Story (Norman Taurog, 1933).
British card. Photo: Paramount. Maurice Chevalier and Edward Everett Horton in The Way to Love (Norman Taurog, 1933).
Cultivating his own special variation of the double-take
Edward Everett Horton played the role of Professor Nick Potter in Holiday (Edward H. Griffith, 1930) and again in the remake, Holiday (George Cukor, 1938) starring Katharine Hepburn and Cary Grant . He also made an impact playing The Mad Hatter in Alice in Wonderland (Norman Z. McLeod, 1933).
Other classics in which he played character roles are The Front Page (Lewis Milestone, 1931) with Adolphe Menjou and Pat O'Brien, The Gay Divorcee (Mark Sandrich, 1934) with Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers , Top Hat (Mark Sandrich, 1935) again with Astaire and Rogers, and Here Comes Mr. Jordan (Alexander Hall, 1941).
Horton cultivated his own special variation of the double-take (an actor's reaction to something, followed by a delayed, more extreme reaction). In Horton's version, he smiled ingratiatingly and nodded in agreement with what just happened; then, when realisation set in, his facial features collapsed entirely into a sober, troubled mask.
From 1932 to 1938 he worked often with Ernst Lubitsch such as on Trouble in Paradise (Ernst Lubitsch, 1932), Design for Living (Ernst Lubitsch, 1933), and The Merry Widow (Ernst Lubitsch, 1934) starring Maurice Chevalier and Jeanette MacDonald. Later he worked with Frank Capra on Lost Horizon (Frank Capra, 1937) as the erratic paleontologist, Alexander P. Lovett, and Arsenic and Old Lace (Frank Capra, 1944).
During the 1950s, Horton embraced the new medium of television with enthusiasm. His television career started in 1949 in the drama The Man Who Came to Dinner and he appeared regularly on the small screen for the next 20 years in programs such as I Love Lucy (1952), The Red Skelton Hour (1957-1962), Dennis the Menace (1962-1963), Burke's Law (1963-1965), and Batman (1966).
He gained a completely new fanbase as the storyteller in the animated series Fractured Fairy Tales (1959-1962). He was also the befuddled Hekawi medicine man Roaring Chicken on the Western comedy series F Troop (1965). His later feature films include Pocketful of Miracles (Frank Capra, 1961) starring Bette Davis and Glenn Ford , the highly successful It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (Stanley Kramer, 1963) with Spencer Tracy, and Sex and the Single Girl (Richard Quine, 1964), starring Tony Curtis and Natalie Wood.
His last film role was in the comedy Cold Turkey (Norman Lear, 1971), in which his character sat in a wheelchair and communicated only through facial expressions. Horton died before the film was released. During his long career, he appeared in more than 120 films and never tied himself down with a long-term contract to any single studio.
He remained a freelancer throughout his long career. In the theatre, he appeared in a number of revivals of the comedy play 'Springtime for Henry' beginning in the 1930s and extending into the 1960s. He played the part of the effete Henry Dewlip more than 3,000 times.
At the age of 84, Edward Everett Horton died of cancer in 1970 in Encino, Los Angeles. He is interred at Forest Lawn, Glendale, CA. According to an in-depth article by Eve Golden in Classic Images magazine, Edward's longtime companion was actor Gavin Gordon, who was 15 years his junior. Not much was ever documented on the couple. They had appeared together in a 1931 production of Noël Coward's 'Private Lives' and acted in one film together, Pocketful of Miracles (Frank Capra, 1961). For his contribution to the motion picture industry, Edward Everett Horton has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6427 Hollywood Boulevard.
Italian postcard in the '100 Artisti del Cinema' series by Edizione ELAH 'La Casa delle caramelle', no. 29. Photo: Warner Bros. Edward Everett Horton in It's Love I'm After (Archie Mayo, 1937). The Italian film title was Avventura a mezzanotte.
American Arcade card.
Sources: Chris Whiteley (Hollywood's Golden Age), (IMDb), Wikipedia, and .
February 23, 2021
Ebba Thomsen
Ebba Thomsen (1887-1973) was a Danish actress during the golden era of silent films in Denmark. Thomsen was best known for her roles as the elegant leading lady opposite the Danish matinee idol Valdemar Psilander.
German postcard by Verlag Hermann Leiser, Berlin, no. 5651.
German postcard by Verlag Hermann Leiser, Berlin, no. 7280. Olaf Fönss and Ebba Thomsen in Verdens Undergang/The end of the world (August Blom, 1916), released in Germany as Das jüngste Gericht.
German postcard by Verlag Hermann Leiser, Berlin, no. 7281. Olaf Fønss and Ebba Thomsen in Verdens Undergang/The end of the world (August Blom, 1916).
German postcard by Verlag Hermann Leiser, Berlin, no. 5299.
An absolute sense of style
Ebba Ove Thomsen was born in 1887 in Copenhagen, Denmark, as the daughter of one of the leading fashion designers of the time. Thomsen later credited her father with giving her "an absolute sense of style. I knew precisely how every fabric should look on me, whether it was a princess' gown or a washerwoman's rags."
She made her stage debut at Det Ny Teater in 1910 and began filming in 1912 at Nordisk Film. From the beginning to the early 1920s, she was one of the most used actresses of the time and appeared in about 75 films - the majority as the lead actress.
Just like her female colleagues Clara Wieth and Else Frölich , she achieved film star status in Denmark, particularly while working with Nordisk Film's biggest male film star Valdemar Psilander , e.g. in Den sorte kansler/The black chancellor (August Blom, 1912), Den glade løjtnant/When Bacchus Reigns (Robert Dinesen, 1912), and Arbejdet adler/A Master of Men (Robert Dinesen, 1914).
In a newspaper interview for her 50th birthday, Ebba Thomsen said that her "unique success depended on two things: "First, that Psilander and I suited one another. I was actually a little too tall for him, yet our types suited each other, our movements, our acting. In short, we were a born 'film-couple'."
Thomsen was also paired with Robert Dinesen in such films as Guvernørens datter/The Governor's Daughter (August Blom, 1912) and Den tredie magt/The Stolen Treaty (August Blom, 1913) and with Olaf Fönss in Atlantis (August Blom, 1913), Den mystiske Fremmede/A Deal with the Devil (Holger-Madsen 1914), and Verdens Undergang/The End of the World (August Blom, 1916). She also co-starred with Gunnar Tolnaes , Alf Blütecher , Einar Zangenberg, and Svend Kornbeck.
Spanish minicard, no. 1. Ebba Thomsen and Nicolai Johannsen in Et kaerlighedsoffer/I will repay (Robert Dinesen, 1914), released in Spain as El infierno del amor.
Spanish minicard, no. 2. Ebba Thomsen and Thorkild Roose in Et kaerlighedsoffer/I will repay (Robert Dinesen, 1914), released in Spain as El infierno del amor.
Spanish minicard, no. 3. Ebba Thomsen in Et kaerlighedsoffer/I will repay (Robert Dinesen, 1914), released in Spain as El infierno del amor.
Spanish minicard, no. 4. Ebba Thomsen, Nicolai Johannsen and Thorkild Roose in Et kaerlighedsoffer/I will repay (Robert Dinesen, 1914), released in Spain as El infierno del amor.
Spanish minicard, no. 5. Ebba Thomsen and Nicolai Johannsen in Et kaerlighedsoffer/I will repay (Robert Dinesen, 1914), released in Spain as El infierno del amor.
Spanish minicard, no. 6. Ebba Thomsen and Nicolai Johannsen in Et kaerlighedsoffer/I will repay (Robert Dinesen, 1914), released in Spain as El infierno del amor.
Usually cast as princesses, countesses, or artists
Ebba Thomsen was directed by August Blom in many of her films in 1912. From 1913 on, it was Robert Dinesen who directed most of her films. In the early 1920s, Fritz Magnussen often directed her. Thomsen was usually cast as princesses, countesses, or artists.
In 1915 Thomsen married the Norwegian actor Thorleif Brinch Lund, with whom she had acted in I Farens Stund/In Father's Time (Robert Dinesen, 1915). In 1917, she left Nordisk Film and traveled with her husband to Norway, where they ran a touring company, but without much success.
In 1920 Thomsen returned to Denmark and cinema and recorded a number of films for Astra film with director Fritz Magnussen. In 1924 she recorded the last two films for Nordisk film and then withdrew from the film in 1925.
In 1930 she performed one last time at the Dagmarteatret. In 1952, she returned briefly to record her only sound film, Husmandstøsen/The Housewife (Alice O'Fredericks, 1952). She was then 65 years old.
Ebba Thomsen died in 1973 in Copenhagen, at the age of 86. She is buried in Gentofte Cemetery.
Spanish postcard by Union Postal Universal. Photo: Nordisk. Caption: Artista de la casa Nordisk. The name of the actress is misspelled.
German postcard by Photochemie, Berlin, no. K. 1787. Photo: Nordisk.
German postcard by Photochemie, Berlin, no. K. 1788. Photo: Nordisk.
German postcard by Photochemie, Berlin, no. K. 1916. Photo: Nordisk Films. Valdemar Psilander and Ebba Thomsen in Das zweite Ich, German release title for Lykken/The Road to Happiness (Holger-Madsen, 1918).
German postcard by Verlag Hermann Leiser, Berlin, no. 5030.
Sources: Danish Film Database, Wikipedia (English and Danish), and .
German postcard by Verlag Hermann Leiser, Berlin, no. 5651.
German postcard by Verlag Hermann Leiser, Berlin, no. 7280. Olaf Fönss and Ebba Thomsen in Verdens Undergang/The end of the world (August Blom, 1916), released in Germany as Das jüngste Gericht.
German postcard by Verlag Hermann Leiser, Berlin, no. 7281. Olaf Fønss and Ebba Thomsen in Verdens Undergang/The end of the world (August Blom, 1916).
German postcard by Verlag Hermann Leiser, Berlin, no. 5299.
An absolute sense of style
Ebba Ove Thomsen was born in 1887 in Copenhagen, Denmark, as the daughter of one of the leading fashion designers of the time. Thomsen later credited her father with giving her "an absolute sense of style. I knew precisely how every fabric should look on me, whether it was a princess' gown or a washerwoman's rags."
She made her stage debut at Det Ny Teater in 1910 and began filming in 1912 at Nordisk Film. From the beginning to the early 1920s, she was one of the most used actresses of the time and appeared in about 75 films - the majority as the lead actress.
Just like her female colleagues Clara Wieth and Else Frölich , she achieved film star status in Denmark, particularly while working with Nordisk Film's biggest male film star Valdemar Psilander , e.g. in Den sorte kansler/The black chancellor (August Blom, 1912), Den glade løjtnant/When Bacchus Reigns (Robert Dinesen, 1912), and Arbejdet adler/A Master of Men (Robert Dinesen, 1914).
In a newspaper interview for her 50th birthday, Ebba Thomsen said that her "unique success depended on two things: "First, that Psilander and I suited one another. I was actually a little too tall for him, yet our types suited each other, our movements, our acting. In short, we were a born 'film-couple'."
Thomsen was also paired with Robert Dinesen in such films as Guvernørens datter/The Governor's Daughter (August Blom, 1912) and Den tredie magt/The Stolen Treaty (August Blom, 1913) and with Olaf Fönss in Atlantis (August Blom, 1913), Den mystiske Fremmede/A Deal with the Devil (Holger-Madsen 1914), and Verdens Undergang/The End of the World (August Blom, 1916). She also co-starred with Gunnar Tolnaes , Alf Blütecher , Einar Zangenberg, and Svend Kornbeck.
Spanish minicard, no. 1. Ebba Thomsen and Nicolai Johannsen in Et kaerlighedsoffer/I will repay (Robert Dinesen, 1914), released in Spain as El infierno del amor.
Spanish minicard, no. 2. Ebba Thomsen and Thorkild Roose in Et kaerlighedsoffer/I will repay (Robert Dinesen, 1914), released in Spain as El infierno del amor.
Spanish minicard, no. 3. Ebba Thomsen in Et kaerlighedsoffer/I will repay (Robert Dinesen, 1914), released in Spain as El infierno del amor.
Spanish minicard, no. 4. Ebba Thomsen, Nicolai Johannsen and Thorkild Roose in Et kaerlighedsoffer/I will repay (Robert Dinesen, 1914), released in Spain as El infierno del amor.
Spanish minicard, no. 5. Ebba Thomsen and Nicolai Johannsen in Et kaerlighedsoffer/I will repay (Robert Dinesen, 1914), released in Spain as El infierno del amor.
Spanish minicard, no. 6. Ebba Thomsen and Nicolai Johannsen in Et kaerlighedsoffer/I will repay (Robert Dinesen, 1914), released in Spain as El infierno del amor.
Usually cast as princesses, countesses, or artists
Ebba Thomsen was directed by August Blom in many of her films in 1912. From 1913 on, it was Robert Dinesen who directed most of her films. In the early 1920s, Fritz Magnussen often directed her. Thomsen was usually cast as princesses, countesses, or artists.
In 1915 Thomsen married the Norwegian actor Thorleif Brinch Lund, with whom she had acted in I Farens Stund/In Father's Time (Robert Dinesen, 1915). In 1917, she left Nordisk Film and traveled with her husband to Norway, where they ran a touring company, but without much success.
In 1920 Thomsen returned to Denmark and cinema and recorded a number of films for Astra film with director Fritz Magnussen. In 1924 she recorded the last two films for Nordisk film and then withdrew from the film in 1925.
In 1930 she performed one last time at the Dagmarteatret. In 1952, she returned briefly to record her only sound film, Husmandstøsen/The Housewife (Alice O'Fredericks, 1952). She was then 65 years old.
Ebba Thomsen died in 1973 in Copenhagen, at the age of 86. She is buried in Gentofte Cemetery.
Spanish postcard by Union Postal Universal. Photo: Nordisk. Caption: Artista de la casa Nordisk. The name of the actress is misspelled.
German postcard by Photochemie, Berlin, no. K. 1787. Photo: Nordisk.
German postcard by Photochemie, Berlin, no. K. 1788. Photo: Nordisk.
German postcard by Photochemie, Berlin, no. K. 1916. Photo: Nordisk Films. Valdemar Psilander and Ebba Thomsen in Das zweite Ich, German release title for Lykken/The Road to Happiness (Holger-Madsen, 1918).
German postcard by Verlag Hermann Leiser, Berlin, no. 5030.
Sources: Danish Film Database, Wikipedia (English and Danish), and .
February 22, 2021
Frédéric Duvallès
Frédéric Duvallès (1884-1971) was a popular French comedian who knew a rich career in French sound cinema of the 1930s and 1950s. Examples are L'héritier du Bal Tabarin (Jean Kemm, 1933), Train de plaisir (Léo Joannon, 1936), and Vacances payées (Maurice Cammage, 1938), in all three he had the lead. Small and thin, Duvallès has a versatile physique and could play both valets and authorities such as bailiffs and priests. All in all, he acted in some 46 films.
French postcard in the 'Nos artistes dans leur loge' series, no. 181. Photo: Comoedia, Paris.
French postcard in the Les Grandes Vedettes series by Radiogravures A. Breger Frères, Paris. Photo: Pathé-Nathan.
French postcard by David Campari, Paris. Photo: Studio Lorelle. Caption: Rather Campari without Paris, than Paris without Campari.
Remarkable bravery
Frédéric Duvallès was born Charles Frédéric Coffinieres in Paris in 1884. His father was a lawyer. .
Frédéric moved from Paris to Marseille, for his stage debut at the Théâtre du Gymnase, in 1908. He went on tour around the world. He was often credited as Duvallès
During WW I, he showed remarkable bravery which earned him the Croix de Guerre and the Military medal and he was named Officer of the Legion of Honor. After the war, he acted on the stage of the Palais-Royal. During the interwar period, he played supporting roles in plays by Labiche, Feydeau, and others.
He made his film debut in the comedy La merveilleuse journée/The Wonderful Day (Yves Mirande, Robert Wyler, 1932) in which he co-starred with André Alerme, Florelle , and Milly Mathis. It was a remake of the silent film, La merveilleuse journée/The Wonderful Day (René Barberis, 1929) and both were based on a play by Yves Mirande.
He appeared opposite Elvire Popesco and André Lefaur in the comedy Dora Nelson (René Guissart, 1935). In the comedy Le roi/The King (Pierre Colombier, 1936) starring Victor Francen and Raimu , he had only a supporting part.
Then he had the lead in the romantic comedy Train de plaisir/Excursion Train (Léo Joannon, 1936), with Germaine Roger. Fernandel was his co-star in Tricoche et Cacolet/Tricoche and Cacolet (Pierre Colombier, 1938).
French postcard. Publicity by the Cinema Victor-Hugo (Pathé-Natan), showing 13-26 October [1933] the film Tout pour rien/All for nothing (René Pujol, 1933), starring Frédéric Duvallès and Jacqueline Francell.
French postcard, no. 20. Photo: Star, Paris.
A weird old man in an ancient, cursed castle
Then followed a long intermission in Frédéric Duvallès's film career. He returned to the screen in the comedy Folie douce (Jean-Paul Paulin, 1951) with Lisette Jambel, and with Louis de Funès in a supporting part.
Then he appeared in the hit comedy Le Portrait de son père/His Father's Portrait (André Berthomieu, 1953) starring Jean Richard and Brigitte Bardot . The film recorded 1,643,820 admissions.
He co-starred with Jean Tissier in the comedy Quand te tues-tu?/When Do You Commit Suicide? (Émile Couzinet, 1953), a remake of the 1931 film of the same title.
One of his best-known films is Jean Renoir's Elena et les Hommes/Elena and Her Men (Jean Renoir, 1956), starring Ingrid Bergman and Jean Marais . Duvallès played a supporting part.
Another supporting role followed in the Operetta À la Jamaïque/Love in Jamaica (André Berthomieu, 1957) starring Luis Mariano and Jane Sourza. He also appeared in the Louis de Funès comedy Ni vu, ni connu/Neither Seen Nor Recognized (Yves Robert, 1958).
He also played in the French-Italian-German thriller La chambre ardente/The Burning Court (Julien Duvivier, 1962). He played a weird old man who is a student of the black arts and lives in an ancient, cursed castle. He is visited by a group of people, including Nadja Tiller and Jean-Claude Brialy , but soon people in the group start being killed off.
His final film was the Spanish-French musical La casta Susana/Chaste Susan (Luis César Amadori, 1963). Frédéric Duvallès passed away in Paris in 1971. He was 86. He rests in the cemetery of Conflans-Sainte-Honorine.
French postcard by A.N., Paris, no. 594. Photo: G.L. Manuel Frères.
French postcard by A.N., Paris, no. 865. Photo: Pathé Natan.
Sources: Donatienne Roby (CinéArtistes - French), Wikipedia (English and French), and .
French postcard in the 'Nos artistes dans leur loge' series, no. 181. Photo: Comoedia, Paris.
French postcard in the Les Grandes Vedettes series by Radiogravures A. Breger Frères, Paris. Photo: Pathé-Nathan.
French postcard by David Campari, Paris. Photo: Studio Lorelle. Caption: Rather Campari without Paris, than Paris without Campari.
Remarkable bravery
Frédéric Duvallès was born Charles Frédéric Coffinieres in Paris in 1884. His father was a lawyer. .
Frédéric moved from Paris to Marseille, for his stage debut at the Théâtre du Gymnase, in 1908. He went on tour around the world. He was often credited as Duvallès
During WW I, he showed remarkable bravery which earned him the Croix de Guerre and the Military medal and he was named Officer of the Legion of Honor. After the war, he acted on the stage of the Palais-Royal. During the interwar period, he played supporting roles in plays by Labiche, Feydeau, and others.
He made his film debut in the comedy La merveilleuse journée/The Wonderful Day (Yves Mirande, Robert Wyler, 1932) in which he co-starred with André Alerme, Florelle , and Milly Mathis. It was a remake of the silent film, La merveilleuse journée/The Wonderful Day (René Barberis, 1929) and both were based on a play by Yves Mirande.
He appeared opposite Elvire Popesco and André Lefaur in the comedy Dora Nelson (René Guissart, 1935). In the comedy Le roi/The King (Pierre Colombier, 1936) starring Victor Francen and Raimu , he had only a supporting part.
Then he had the lead in the romantic comedy Train de plaisir/Excursion Train (Léo Joannon, 1936), with Germaine Roger. Fernandel was his co-star in Tricoche et Cacolet/Tricoche and Cacolet (Pierre Colombier, 1938).
French postcard. Publicity by the Cinema Victor-Hugo (Pathé-Natan), showing 13-26 October [1933] the film Tout pour rien/All for nothing (René Pujol, 1933), starring Frédéric Duvallès and Jacqueline Francell.
French postcard, no. 20. Photo: Star, Paris.
A weird old man in an ancient, cursed castle
Then followed a long intermission in Frédéric Duvallès's film career. He returned to the screen in the comedy Folie douce (Jean-Paul Paulin, 1951) with Lisette Jambel, and with Louis de Funès in a supporting part.
Then he appeared in the hit comedy Le Portrait de son père/His Father's Portrait (André Berthomieu, 1953) starring Jean Richard and Brigitte Bardot . The film recorded 1,643,820 admissions.
He co-starred with Jean Tissier in the comedy Quand te tues-tu?/When Do You Commit Suicide? (Émile Couzinet, 1953), a remake of the 1931 film of the same title.
One of his best-known films is Jean Renoir's Elena et les Hommes/Elena and Her Men (Jean Renoir, 1956), starring Ingrid Bergman and Jean Marais . Duvallès played a supporting part.
Another supporting role followed in the Operetta À la Jamaïque/Love in Jamaica (André Berthomieu, 1957) starring Luis Mariano and Jane Sourza. He also appeared in the Louis de Funès comedy Ni vu, ni connu/Neither Seen Nor Recognized (Yves Robert, 1958).
He also played in the French-Italian-German thriller La chambre ardente/The Burning Court (Julien Duvivier, 1962). He played a weird old man who is a student of the black arts and lives in an ancient, cursed castle. He is visited by a group of people, including Nadja Tiller and Jean-Claude Brialy , but soon people in the group start being killed off.
His final film was the Spanish-French musical La casta Susana/Chaste Susan (Luis César Amadori, 1963). Frédéric Duvallès passed away in Paris in 1971. He was 86. He rests in the cemetery of Conflans-Sainte-Honorine.
French postcard by A.N., Paris, no. 594. Photo: G.L. Manuel Frères.
French postcard by A.N., Paris, no. 865. Photo: Pathé Natan.
Sources: Donatienne Roby (CinéArtistes - French), Wikipedia (English and French), and .
February 21, 2021
Charles 'Buddy' Rogers
Charles 'Buddy' Rogers (1904-1999) was an American film actor and musician. During the peak of his popularity in the late 1920s and early 1930s, he was publicised as "America's Boy Friend". Rogers starred in such films as Wings (1927) and My Best Girl (1927), the latter opposite his later wife Mary Pickford. He also found success as a bandleader and a musician.
British postcard in the Colourgraph series, London, no. C.26. Rogers wears his outfit from Wings (William Wellman, 1927).
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 111/1. Photo: Paramount. Charles Rogers, Nancy Carroll , and Jean Hersholt in Abie's Irish Rose (Victor Fleming, 1928), starring Charles "Buddy" Rogers and Nancy Carroll. It was based on a popular Broadway play.
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 3797/1, 1928-1929. Photo: Paramount.
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 4326/2, 1929-1930. Photo: Paramount.
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 4616/2, 1929-1930. Photo: Paramount.
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 4618/1, 1929-1930. Photo: Paramount. Charles Rogers in Illusion (Lothar Mendes, 1929).
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 4681/1, 1929-1930. Photo: Paramount. Charles Rogers and Nancy Carroll in Close Harmony (John Cromwell, A. Edward Sutherland, 1929).
One of the first films to show two men kissing
Charles Edward 'Buddy' Rogers was born in 1904 in Olathe, Kansas, to Maude and Bert Henry Rogers. His father was a newsman who later became a probate judge in Johnson County. Charles attended Olathe high school and studied at the University of Kansas where he became an active member of Phi Kappa Psi.
In the mid-1920s, he trained at the Paramount Picture School and began acting professionally in Hollywood films. His film debut was a starring role in the silent romantic comedy Fascinating Youth (Sam Wood, 1926), along with Thelma Todd and Josephine Dunn in supporting roles. That year, he also appeared in the comedy So's Your Old Man (Gregory La Cava, 1926) starring W. C. Fields and Alice Joyce .
Nicknamed "Buddy", his most-remembered film performance was opposite Clara Bow and Gary Cooper in the Oscar-winning war film Wings (William A. Wellman, 1927), the first film ever honored as Best Picture. Hundreds of extras and some 300 pilots were involved in the filming, including pilots and planes of the United States Army Air Corps which were brought in for the filming and to provide assistance and supervision.
Wellman extensively rehearsed the scenes for the Battle of Saint-Mihiel over ten days with some 3500 infantrymen on a battlefield made for the production on location. Although the cast and crew had much spare time during the filming because of weather delays, shooting conditions were intense, and Wings took approximately nine months to complete in total. Acclaimed for its technical prowess and realism upon release, the film became the yardstick against which future aviation films were measured, mainly because of its realistic air-combat sequences.
According to Wikipedia , Wings was one of the first films to show two men kissing, and also one of the first widely released films to show nudity. In the enlistment office are nude men undergoing physical exams, who can be seen from behind through a door that is opened and closed. Bow's breasts are revealed for a second during the Paris bedroom scene when military police barge in as she is changing her clothes.
In the scene in which Rogers becomes drunk, the intoxication displayed on the screen was genuine, as although 22 years of age, he had never tasted liquor before, and quickly became inebriated from drinking champagne. A boom was built with the camera mounted on an extension to shoot the Café de Paris scene. For many years, Wings was considered a lost film until 1992 when a print was found in the Cinémathèque Française film archive in Paris and quickly copied from nitrate film to safety film stock.
It was again shown in theaters, including some theaters where the film was accompanied by Wurlitzer pipe organs. In 1997, Wings was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant."
Rogers then appeared in the silent romantic comedy My Best Girl (Sam Taylor, 1927) opposite his future wife Mary Pickford . Charles Rosher received an Academy Award nomination for his cinematography of this film in 1928. He co-starred again with Clara Bow in the romantic comedy Get Your Man (Dorothy Arzner, 1927). His first part-talkie was Abie's Irish Rose (Victor Fleming, 1928) with Nancy Carroll . They co-starred again in the musical Close Harmony (John Cromwell, A. Edward Sutherland, 1929).
Austrian postcard by Iris-Verlag, no. 5741. Photo: Paramount-Film.
French postcard by Cinemagazine-Edition, no. 831. Photo: Paramount. Charles Buddy Rogers and Jean Arthur in the pre-Code drama Young Eagles (William Wellman, 1930).
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 4682/1, 1929-1930. Photo: Paramount. Charles Rogers and June Collyer in the period piece River to Romance (Richard Wallace, 1929), an early sound film.
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 4801/1. 1929-1930. Photo: Paramount. Charles Rogers and June Collyer perhaps in the early sound film Illusion (Lothar Mendes, 1929).
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 4969/1, 1929-1930. Photo: Paramount. Charles Rogers and Nancy Carroll in Illusion (1929).
A sweet and swinging dance band
Charles 'Buddy' Rogers was a talented trombonist skilled on several other musical instruments. He performed with his own dance band in films and on the radio. He performed in such musicals as the all-star American revue Paramount on Parade (Edmund Gouldin, and ten other directors, 1930), and the British musical Dance Band (Marcel Varnel, 1935).
In 1930, he recorded two records for Columbia as a solo singer with a small jazz band accompanying him. In 1932, he signed with Victor and recorded four sweet dance band records with a group organised by drummer, and later actor, Jess Kirkpatrick. In 1933–1934 Rogers took over the popular Joe Haymes orchestra, to which he added drummer Gene Krupa. His later bands were organised by Milt Shaw.
In 1938, he signed with Vocalion and recorded six swing records. During World War II, he served in the United States Navy as a flight training instructor. After making An Innocent Affair (Lloyd Bacon, 1948), he retired from the screen for nine years, concentrating on television and radio work.
His final screen appearance before his retirement from films was in the Western The Parson and the Outlaw (Oliver Drake, 1957). It was produced by Charles 'Buddy' Rogers Productions and distributed by Columbia Pictures. The film stars Anthony Dexter as Billy the Kid, along with Buddy Rogers, Sonny Tufts, Marie Windsor, and Jean Parker.
In 1960, a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame was dedicated to Rogers at 6135 Hollywood Blvd, for his contribution to the motion picture industry. In 1986, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences honored Rogers with The Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award, and in 1993, a Golden Palm Star on the Palm Springs Walk of Stars was dedicated to him.
In 1937, Rogers became the third husband of silent film actress Mary Pickford . Their romance had begun in 1927 when they co-starred in My Best Girl, but they kept it on ice until Pickford's separation and 1936 divorce from Douglas Fairbanks . According to IMDb , he reported that Clark Gable "once told Mary [ Mary Pickford ] when we got married, that it wouldn't last six months" because he was 11 years younger than her. They remained married for 42 years until Pickford's death in 1979.
The couple adopted two children — Roxanne (born 1944, adopted in 1944) and Ronald Charles (born 1937, adopted in 1943). He became estranged from daughter Roxanne when, at age 18, she ran off to marry a man her parents did not approve of. In 1982, Rogers married Beverly Ricono, a well-regarded philanthropist in the Palm Desert area, and the couple remained together till his death.
According to Wikipedia , Rogers was reportedly bisexual and had an affair with Gene Raymond who was married to Jeanette MacDonald. IMDb : "Jeanette MacDonald and Gene Raymond were married on June 16, 1937. Nine days later, Mary Pickford and Charles 'Buddy' Rogers were wed. That same night, both couples left aboard the liner Lurline to honeymoon in Honolulu. Their respective cabins were adjacent, and Raymond and Rogers seem to have already been quite well acquainted. According to reliable sources, the two wives found the two grooms commencing a honeymoon of their own."
Charles 'Buddy' Rogers died in Rancho Mirage, California, in 1999, at the age of 94 of natural causes, and was interred at Forest Lawn Cemetery, Cathedral City, near Palm Springs.
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 5175/2, 1930-1931. Photo: Paramount.
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 5175/3, 1930-1931. Photo: Paramount. Charles Rogers in Heads Up (Victor Schertzinger, 1930).
French postcard by Edition Ross, no. 5542/1, 1930-1931. Photo: Paramount. Charles Rogers in Follow Thru (Lloyd Corrigan, Laurence Schwab, 1930).
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 5547/1, 1930-1931. Photo: Paramount. Charles Rogers and Nancy Carroll in Follow Thru (Lloyd Corrigan, Laurence Schwab, 1930).
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 5667/1, 1930-1931. Photo: Paramount.
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 5742/1, 1930-1931. Photo: Paramount. Charles Rogers and Nancy Carroll in Follow Thru (Lloyd Corrigan, Laurence Schwab, 1930).
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 540. Photo: Paramount. Charles Rogers in Heads Up (Victor Schertzinger, 1930).
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 6404/1, 1931-1932. Photo: Paramount.
Sources: Find A Grave, Wikipedia, and .
British postcard in the Colourgraph series, London, no. C.26. Rogers wears his outfit from Wings (William Wellman, 1927).
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 111/1. Photo: Paramount. Charles Rogers, Nancy Carroll , and Jean Hersholt in Abie's Irish Rose (Victor Fleming, 1928), starring Charles "Buddy" Rogers and Nancy Carroll. It was based on a popular Broadway play.
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 3797/1, 1928-1929. Photo: Paramount.
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 4326/2, 1929-1930. Photo: Paramount.
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 4616/2, 1929-1930. Photo: Paramount.
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 4618/1, 1929-1930. Photo: Paramount. Charles Rogers in Illusion (Lothar Mendes, 1929).
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 4681/1, 1929-1930. Photo: Paramount. Charles Rogers and Nancy Carroll in Close Harmony (John Cromwell, A. Edward Sutherland, 1929).
One of the first films to show two men kissing
Charles Edward 'Buddy' Rogers was born in 1904 in Olathe, Kansas, to Maude and Bert Henry Rogers. His father was a newsman who later became a probate judge in Johnson County. Charles attended Olathe high school and studied at the University of Kansas where he became an active member of Phi Kappa Psi.
In the mid-1920s, he trained at the Paramount Picture School and began acting professionally in Hollywood films. His film debut was a starring role in the silent romantic comedy Fascinating Youth (Sam Wood, 1926), along with Thelma Todd and Josephine Dunn in supporting roles. That year, he also appeared in the comedy So's Your Old Man (Gregory La Cava, 1926) starring W. C. Fields and Alice Joyce .
Nicknamed "Buddy", his most-remembered film performance was opposite Clara Bow and Gary Cooper in the Oscar-winning war film Wings (William A. Wellman, 1927), the first film ever honored as Best Picture. Hundreds of extras and some 300 pilots were involved in the filming, including pilots and planes of the United States Army Air Corps which were brought in for the filming and to provide assistance and supervision.
Wellman extensively rehearsed the scenes for the Battle of Saint-Mihiel over ten days with some 3500 infantrymen on a battlefield made for the production on location. Although the cast and crew had much spare time during the filming because of weather delays, shooting conditions were intense, and Wings took approximately nine months to complete in total. Acclaimed for its technical prowess and realism upon release, the film became the yardstick against which future aviation films were measured, mainly because of its realistic air-combat sequences.
According to Wikipedia , Wings was one of the first films to show two men kissing, and also one of the first widely released films to show nudity. In the enlistment office are nude men undergoing physical exams, who can be seen from behind through a door that is opened and closed. Bow's breasts are revealed for a second during the Paris bedroom scene when military police barge in as she is changing her clothes.
In the scene in which Rogers becomes drunk, the intoxication displayed on the screen was genuine, as although 22 years of age, he had never tasted liquor before, and quickly became inebriated from drinking champagne. A boom was built with the camera mounted on an extension to shoot the Café de Paris scene. For many years, Wings was considered a lost film until 1992 when a print was found in the Cinémathèque Française film archive in Paris and quickly copied from nitrate film to safety film stock.
It was again shown in theaters, including some theaters where the film was accompanied by Wurlitzer pipe organs. In 1997, Wings was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant."
Rogers then appeared in the silent romantic comedy My Best Girl (Sam Taylor, 1927) opposite his future wife Mary Pickford . Charles Rosher received an Academy Award nomination for his cinematography of this film in 1928. He co-starred again with Clara Bow in the romantic comedy Get Your Man (Dorothy Arzner, 1927). His first part-talkie was Abie's Irish Rose (Victor Fleming, 1928) with Nancy Carroll . They co-starred again in the musical Close Harmony (John Cromwell, A. Edward Sutherland, 1929).
Austrian postcard by Iris-Verlag, no. 5741. Photo: Paramount-Film.
French postcard by Cinemagazine-Edition, no. 831. Photo: Paramount. Charles Buddy Rogers and Jean Arthur in the pre-Code drama Young Eagles (William Wellman, 1930).
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 4682/1, 1929-1930. Photo: Paramount. Charles Rogers and June Collyer in the period piece River to Romance (Richard Wallace, 1929), an early sound film.
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 4801/1. 1929-1930. Photo: Paramount. Charles Rogers and June Collyer perhaps in the early sound film Illusion (Lothar Mendes, 1929).
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 4969/1, 1929-1930. Photo: Paramount. Charles Rogers and Nancy Carroll in Illusion (1929).
A sweet and swinging dance band
Charles 'Buddy' Rogers was a talented trombonist skilled on several other musical instruments. He performed with his own dance band in films and on the radio. He performed in such musicals as the all-star American revue Paramount on Parade (Edmund Gouldin, and ten other directors, 1930), and the British musical Dance Band (Marcel Varnel, 1935).
In 1930, he recorded two records for Columbia as a solo singer with a small jazz band accompanying him. In 1932, he signed with Victor and recorded four sweet dance band records with a group organised by drummer, and later actor, Jess Kirkpatrick. In 1933–1934 Rogers took over the popular Joe Haymes orchestra, to which he added drummer Gene Krupa. His later bands were organised by Milt Shaw.
In 1938, he signed with Vocalion and recorded six swing records. During World War II, he served in the United States Navy as a flight training instructor. After making An Innocent Affair (Lloyd Bacon, 1948), he retired from the screen for nine years, concentrating on television and radio work.
His final screen appearance before his retirement from films was in the Western The Parson and the Outlaw (Oliver Drake, 1957). It was produced by Charles 'Buddy' Rogers Productions and distributed by Columbia Pictures. The film stars Anthony Dexter as Billy the Kid, along with Buddy Rogers, Sonny Tufts, Marie Windsor, and Jean Parker.
In 1960, a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame was dedicated to Rogers at 6135 Hollywood Blvd, for his contribution to the motion picture industry. In 1986, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences honored Rogers with The Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award, and in 1993, a Golden Palm Star on the Palm Springs Walk of Stars was dedicated to him.
In 1937, Rogers became the third husband of silent film actress Mary Pickford . Their romance had begun in 1927 when they co-starred in My Best Girl, but they kept it on ice until Pickford's separation and 1936 divorce from Douglas Fairbanks . According to IMDb , he reported that Clark Gable "once told Mary [ Mary Pickford ] when we got married, that it wouldn't last six months" because he was 11 years younger than her. They remained married for 42 years until Pickford's death in 1979.
The couple adopted two children — Roxanne (born 1944, adopted in 1944) and Ronald Charles (born 1937, adopted in 1943). He became estranged from daughter Roxanne when, at age 18, she ran off to marry a man her parents did not approve of. In 1982, Rogers married Beverly Ricono, a well-regarded philanthropist in the Palm Desert area, and the couple remained together till his death.
According to Wikipedia , Rogers was reportedly bisexual and had an affair with Gene Raymond who was married to Jeanette MacDonald. IMDb : "Jeanette MacDonald and Gene Raymond were married on June 16, 1937. Nine days later, Mary Pickford and Charles 'Buddy' Rogers were wed. That same night, both couples left aboard the liner Lurline to honeymoon in Honolulu. Their respective cabins were adjacent, and Raymond and Rogers seem to have already been quite well acquainted. According to reliable sources, the two wives found the two grooms commencing a honeymoon of their own."
Charles 'Buddy' Rogers died in Rancho Mirage, California, in 1999, at the age of 94 of natural causes, and was interred at Forest Lawn Cemetery, Cathedral City, near Palm Springs.
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 5175/2, 1930-1931. Photo: Paramount.
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 5175/3, 1930-1931. Photo: Paramount. Charles Rogers in Heads Up (Victor Schertzinger, 1930).
French postcard by Edition Ross, no. 5542/1, 1930-1931. Photo: Paramount. Charles Rogers in Follow Thru (Lloyd Corrigan, Laurence Schwab, 1930).
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 5547/1, 1930-1931. Photo: Paramount. Charles Rogers and Nancy Carroll in Follow Thru (Lloyd Corrigan, Laurence Schwab, 1930).
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 5667/1, 1930-1931. Photo: Paramount.
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 5742/1, 1930-1931. Photo: Paramount. Charles Rogers and Nancy Carroll in Follow Thru (Lloyd Corrigan, Laurence Schwab, 1930).
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 540. Photo: Paramount. Charles Rogers in Heads Up (Victor Schertzinger, 1930).
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 6404/1, 1931-1932. Photo: Paramount.
Sources: Find A Grave, Wikipedia, and .
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