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German postcard by ISV, no. C 4. Photo: Divina / Gloria / Arthur Grimm.
Beautiful, Austrian born actress Jester Naefe (1924-1967) had a short film career in the German cinema with highlights in the late 1940’s and the mid 1950’s. Because of her roles and her sexy looks the press labeled her the ‘German Marilyn Monroe’.
Jester-Helene Naefe was born in 1924 in Vienna, Austria. She was the daughter of a truck driver, Herbert Naefe. At the age of 16, Jester went to Berlin to follow acting lessons at the Ackermann Theater School. Soon she appeared on stage in the Breslauer Schauspielhaus in Breslau and in the Intimen Theater in Hamburg. In 1948 producer-director Rolf Meyer gave her her first film part in the short film Sie sind nicht gemeint/You Were Not Meant (1948, Answald Krüger) with Erik Ode. This debut was soon followed by more secondary roles in Diese nacht vergess ich nie/I'll Never Forget That Night (1949, Johannes Meyer) with Gustav Fröhlich, Der bagnosträfling/The Prisoner (1949, Gustav Fröhlich) with Paul Dahlke, Wer bist du, den ich liebe?/Who Is This Person I Love? (1949, Géza von Bolváry) with Iván Petrovich, and Das fräulein und der vagabund/The Girl and the Tramp (1949, Albert Benitz) with Hardy Kruger. In 1949 she married the rich, Hungarian business entrepreneur Alfred Tauszky. Jester stopped making films to concentrate on family life. The marriage was tumultuous: Tauszky slapped her in public during a reception in Bad Oldesloe. In 1951 the couple had to leave Hamburg for Rome, when Tauszky was prosecuted for tax evasion. Naefe and Tauszky had two daughters, Vivian (1952) and Silvia (born 1953). In 1953 Tauszky deserted his family and fled to Caracas, Venezuela. Jester returned with her daughters to Germany, first to Hamburg, later to München (Munich).
Jester Naefe took up her film career in 1954 and the flamboyant beauty would make twelve films in the following three years. Among her films were Die Kleine Stadt will schlafen gehen/The Little Town Will Go to Sleep (1954, Hans H. König), Le destructeur/Das bekenntnis der Ina Kahr/Confession of Ina Kahr (1954, Georg Wilhelm Pabst), co-starring with Curd Jürgens, Stern von Rio/Star from Rio (1955, Kurt Neumann) with Willy Fritsch, and Die Goldene Brücke/The Golden Bridge (1956, Paul Verhoeven) with Paul Hubschmid. Her most famous role was as Lydia in the remake of the 1932 operetta Der Kongress tanzt/Congress Dances (1955, Franz Antel). In 1957, during the shooting of the Italian-German coproduction La Ragazza della salina/Sand, Love and Salt (1957, František Cáp) in Portoroz, Yugoslavia, she had a fighting scene with lead actress Isabella Corey. During the scene, she fell and hit the back of her head on a rock. She soon started getting bad headaches, and the headaches were followed by temporary paralysis. Despite her illness she finished the film, costarring Marcello Mastroianni. Easter 1958 her illness seemed vanished, and she went to the USA for a tv show. Hollywood star Gregory Peck reportedly called her ‘one of the most attractive and beautiful women of the world’. In 1959 she was treated again at a Munich hospital, and her illness was diagnosed as multiple sclerosis. Jester Naefe had to retire from the film business. In the 1960’s when the medical bills consumed all of her earnings, she retired to live with her mother, in her modest home in Wolfratshausen in Upper Bavaria. After a long and painfull period of illness she died in 1967 in Geretsried, near Wolfratshausen, forgotten by her colleagues and the public. She was only 42 although the obituaries gave her age as 37. Her daughter Vivian Naefe is now a celebrated film and tv director.
Sources: Philippe Pelletier (Les Gens du Cinéma), Glamour Girls of the Silver Screen, Wikipedia, and IMDb.
German postcard by ISV, no. B 23. Photo: MGM. Publicity still for Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (Richard Brooks, 1958). Collection: Geoffrey Donaldson Institute.
British-American actress Elizabeth Taylor (1932-2011) began as a child star. As an adult she came to be known for her acting talent and beauty. She had a much publicised private life, including eight marriages and several near death experiences. Taylor was considered one of the great actresses of Hollywood's Golden Age.
For more postcards, a bio and clips check out our blog European Film Star Postcards Already over 3 million views! Or follow us at Tumblr or Pinterest.
German postcard by ISV, no. M 10. Photo: Europa Film / Czerwonski.
Renate Ewert (1933-1966) was a German actress, who appeared in several European films and TV series of the 1950s and 1960s. Her suicide started a family tragedy.
Renate Ewert was born in Königsberg, Germany (now Kaliningrad, Russia), in 1933. Her father was a respected grain trader, her mother came from Poland. During the Second World War, mother and daughter fled Königsberg when the Russian front came closer. They settled in Hamburg. Her father followed, after spending four years as a prisoner of war. Renate convinced her father not to let her finish school and instead went to acting classes by Ida Ehre. She applied for the Hamburger Kammerspiele but was rejected. She played in some roles on stage and did synchronizing jobs for foreign films. When director Paul May was casting the role of Barbara Bruks in the third part of the successful series 08/15 – In der Heimat/08/15 - In the homeland (Paul May, 1954), he chose the then 20-year-old Ewert. The film series was based on Hans Hellmut Kirsts novel. From then on, Ewert appeared in many post-war films as the seductive, mysterious girl but never got the dramatic parts she was eager to play. Ewert gained a reputation for lateness and for not always being too reliable on set. She also became fodder for the tabloids, when she had several affairs with such celebrities as actors Erik Schumann and Harald Juhnke, Wörthersee playboy Gerhard Berndt, and beverage dealer Hans-Hermann Weyer. While filming the comedy Mikosch im Geheimdienst/Mikosch in Secret Service (Franz Marischka, Franz Josef Gottlieb, 1958), she started an affair with married producer Franz Marischka. He was 19 years her senior and the tabloids went wild. There were rumors she was the cause for Marischka’s divorce from his wife, Inge. Later, she, Marischka, and Inge. Now his ex, lived in the same apartment house in Munich-Schwabing, only two stories apart. She also had an affair with actor Paul Hubschmid while he was on the Vienna stage in My Fair Lady. Renate became the cause for a first suicide attempt by his wife, Ursula von Teubern. When Ursula Hubschmid eventually committed suicide, Renate felt guilty and started taking drugs.
In 1960 Renate Ewert starred in the West German/Danish crime film Der rote Kreis/The Crimson Circle (Jürgen Roland, 1960). Scotland Yard detectives pursue a ruthless league of blackmailers known as The Crimson Circle. It was one of the many German Edgar Wallace adaptations of the 1960s, in this case of the 1922 novel The Crimson Circle. Der rote Kreis was the second film in the Wallace series produced by Rialto. The film's success encouraged the producers to meet with Penelope Wallace and secure the film rights for all available Wallace novels. That same year, Renate also starred in Schlagerparade 1960 (Franz Marischka, 1960) and in the follow-up Schlagerparade 1961 (Franz Marischka, 1961). In France she made the films L'appartement des filles/Girl's Apartment (Michel Deville, 1963) with Mylène Demongeot, and Échappement libre/Backfire (Jean Becker, 1964) starring Jean-Paul Belmondo. Another thriller was Hotel der toten Gäste/Hotel of the dead guests (Eberhard Itzenplitz, 1965) starring Joachim Fuchsberger, Karin Dor, and Elke Sommer. It was based on a novel by Heather Gardiner, an Australian mystery author who died in a car crash after just publishing two novels. In the film, which was shot in Bavaria, the police are called to a hotel, filled with visitors in town for a music festival, where one of the guests has been murdered. She also had a supporting part in Angélique, marquise des anges/Angélique (Bernard Borderie, 1964), the first part of the series of romantic costume films based on the popular novels by Anne and Serge Golon. Despite the success of this film, an international career did not establish. On 10 December 1966, Renate Ewert was found dead on the floor of the bedroom of her apartment in Munich. She was found by actress Susanne Cramer, a friend who lived in the US and wanted to visit her. Ewert had died of pills and alcohol several days earlier, only 33. Dressed in a nightgown and weakened by pills, she starved to death and was nothing but skin and bones. In death her weight was only 34 kilos. A month earlier her friend, Marischka had left for Berlin, and shortly afterwards, her telephone service was cut because of nonpayment. Distraught at the death of his daughter, her father Paul Ewert, who had insisted on an autopsy to determine the cause of death, took his life in 1967 with sleeping pills. In his suicide note he asked his wife to forgive him. Helene poisoned herself in 1969.
Sources: Holger Haase (Hallo, hier spricht...), F. Wassermann (IMDb), Glamour Girls of the Silver Screen, Wikipedia (German and English) and IMDb.
German postcard by ISV, no. E 29. Photo: MGM. Publicity still for Ben-Hur (1959).
Tall, well built and ruggedly handsome American actor Charlton Heston (1923-2008) appeared in 100 Hollywood films over the course of 60 years. With features chiselled in stone, he became famous for playing a long list of historical figures, particularly in Biblical epics. His film debut was in the film noir Dark City (1950). His breakthrough came when Cecil B. DeMille cast him as a circus manager in The Greatest Show on Earth (1952). Heston became an icon for portraying Moses in the hugely successful film The Ten Commandments (1956). Furthermore, he is best known for his roles in Orson Welles' widely acclaimed film noir Touch of Evil (1958), Ben-Hur (1959) - for which he won the Oscar for Best Actor, El Cid (1961), and Planet of the Apes (1968). These starring roles gave the actor a grave, authoritative persona and embodied responsibility, individualism and masculinity. Heston rejected scripts that did not emphasize those virtues. He was a supporter of Democratic politicians and civil rights in the 1960s, but eventually he rejected liberalism, founded a conservative political action committee and supported Ronald Reagan. Heston's most famous role in politics came as the five-term president of the National Rifle Association from 1998 to 2003. In 2001, Heston made a cameo appearance as an elderly, dying chimpanzee in Tim Burton's remake of Planet of the Apes.
Sources: Wikipedia and IMDb.
German postcard by ISV, nr. H 84.
The Blue Diamonds is one of the most successful Dutch pop acts ever. Their biggest hit was the evergreen Ramona. Incidentally the Dutch-Indonesian brothers Ruud and Riem de Wolff also acted in films and on tv.
For more postcards, a bio and clips check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.
German postcard by ISV, no. T 16. Sent by mail in the Netherlands in 1972.
In the late 1950s British singer, actor and Sir Cliff Richard (1940) was known as Britain's answer to Elvis Presley. The ‘Cliff Richard musical’ became the number one cinema box office attraction in Britain for both 1962 and 1963.
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German postcard by ISV, no. H 11. Photo: Sam Lévin, 1957.
Brigitte Bardot (1934) was the sex kitten of the European cinema. She was every man's idea of the girl he'd like to meet in Paris.
For more postcards, a bio and clips check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.
We continue our series of postcards of 'la belle BB'. ISV also produced this card with a photograph that must be taken at the same session, or is it even the same photo, mirrored and colored?
German postcard by ISV, nr. K 9.
English pop singer, actor and financial journalist Adam Faith (1940-2003) started as one of the more popular British teen idols, turned into a top actor and then became a financier. In the early 1960’s he was the first British artist with his initial seven hits lodging in the Top 5, just before the Beatles came along and changed the entire musical landscape.
German postcard by ISV, no. M 7. Photo: Les Films Morceau/Europa-Film.
French starlet Dany Carrel (1932) with her bob haircut of dark reddish hair, a pair of incredible oriental eyes, and friendly manners, was a welcome breath of sexy exoticism in the French cinema of the 1950s and 1960s. Dany played good-willed flirtatious girls in many melodramas and comedies, alongside top directors and stars.
Dany Carrel was born as Yvonne Suzanne Chazelles du Chaxel in Tourane, French Indochina (now Da Nang, Vietnam). She was the child of French customs agent Aimé and native Kam. Only many years later she would learn of this heritage. Aimé had a legitimate wife back in Europe and still produced two children with Kam (Yvonne and her sister Alice). He died soon after, as Yvonne was shipped to France to meet a godmother that placed her in a religious institution. After some acting classes Dany got an entry in the cinema. She made her film debut in Dortoir des grandes/Inside a Girls' Dormitory (1953, Henri Decoin), starring Jean Marais, Françoise Arnoul, Jeanne Moreau and Louis de Funès. Decoin proposed to change her name, suggesting Carrel as a medical book written by a doctor named Alexis Carrel was lying on his desk. Yvonne, tired of being nicknamed Vovonne ou Vonette, chose herself the Dany part, a diminutive that couldn’t be played with or distorted. For the next few years, Dany Carrel could be seen in minor melodramas and light comedies, often playing saucy girls from the working-class neighborhood, but never with a really mean streak. Quickly, she got main female starring roles in lower-budgeted pictures, and she also co-starred with such acting giants as Gérard Philippe in Les grandes manoeuvres/The Grand Maneuver (1955, René Clair) and Pot-Bouille/Lovers of Paris (1957, Julien Duvivier), or Jean Gabin in Des gens sans importance/People of No Importance (1956, Henri Verneuil). Dany was a big revelation to the public in Portes des Lilas/Gate of Lilacs (1957, René Clair), opposite Pierre Brasseur. Sometimes tricked by wanna-be bad boys, Dany retained her intelligence and never played dumb.
Then Dany Carrel began a phase of international projects, such as the German-French co- production Die Gans von Sedan/Without Trumpet or Drum (1959, Helmut Käutner) with Hardy Krüger, and the Hollywood production The Enemy General (1960, George Sherman) starring Van Johnson. In 1960 she appeared also in two interesting horror films, Il mulino delle donne di pietra/Mill of the Stone Women (1960, Giorgio Ferroni) and The Hands of Orlac (1960, Edmond T. Gréville). The Franco-Italian co-production, Il mulino delle donne di pietra, starring Pierre Brice, has effective macabre touches. Dany makes for a very believable damsel in distress, and also gets to reveal a bit more of herself when she’s tied down on a table and menaced by a mad doctor. A couple of times Dany appeared ‘nude’ on screen, but in the early 1960’s nude usually meant a sideway glimpse at a naked breast. In The Hands of Orlac, which was simultaneously filmed in a French version, Les main d’Orlac, she starred with Mel Ferrer and Christopher Lee. For the first half of the 1960’s, she was seen in several gangster pictures, with serious or comedic plots. She co-starred with some of the great comedians of that era, including Louis de Funès in Une souris chez les hommes/A Mouse with the Men (1964, Jacques Poitrenaud), and Jean Lefebvre in Un idiot à Paris/Idiot in Paris (1967, Serge Korber). She got a good supporting part in Henri-Georges Clouzot’s La prisonnière/Woman in Chains (1968), playing a nude model sweating it out when only wearing a see-through raincoat under harsh lights for a fetish photo session. Then she began to slow down on film roles. After the heist film Trois milliards sans ascenseur/3000 Million Without an Elevator (1972, Roger Pigaut) she mainly appeared in tv roles. In the early 1980’s she returned to the screen in comedies like Faut s'les faire!... Ces légionnaires (1981, Alain Nauroy) with Henri Garcin. In 1991 she published her book L’annamite/The Vietnamese, recalling her youth. She supervised the tv adaptation L’annamite (1995, Thierry Chabert), in which actress Gaëlle Le Fur played the Yvonne/Dany role, and Dany Carrel herself appeared as the adult Dany. That same year, she could also be seen in the play Laisse parler ta mère/Let Your Mother Talk.
Sources: Cult Sirens, and IMDb.
German postcard by ISV, no. H 19.
Today it's the 80th birthday of bellissima Sophia Loren! Sofia Villani Scicolone was born at the Clinica Regina Margherita in Rome on 20 September 1934. La Loren rose to fame in post-war Italy as a voluptuous sex goddess. Soon after she became one of the most successful stars of the 20th Century, who won an Oscar for her mother role in La Ciociara. As a salute, a post with 20 of our favourite postcards of this gorgeous super star of the European cinema!
For more postcards of La Loren, check out our special birthday post at European Film Star Postcards or follow us at Tumblr or Pinterest.
German postcard by ISV, no. C 3. Photo: Constantin. Publicity still for Unter Geiern/Among Vultures (Alfred Vohrer, 1964) with Stewart Granger as Old Surehand.
English actor Stewart Granger (1913-1993) made over 60 films but is mainly associated with heroic and romantic leading roles. He was quoted: “I've never done a film I'm proud of”. Tall, dark, dignified, and handsome, Granger became England's top box office star in the 1940s which attracted Hollywood's attention.
For more postcards, a bio and clips check out our blog European Film Star Postcards or follow us at Tumblr or Pinterest.
German postcard by ISV, no. 136.
Singer, actress and composer Petula Clark (1932) is the most successful British female solo recording artist. She began as as Britain's Shirley Temple, and appeared in over 30 films. During the 1960’s she became internationally known for her upbeat hits, including the evergreen Downtown.
For more postcards, a bio and clips check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.
I bet some of you thought I had forgotten about LEGO. Well this proves you wrong. :P Spent about six hours building this over two days. I've really been wanting to build a nice spaceship after seeing all of the nice STG fighters. It's quite sturdy, and I've had some great swoosh sessions.
Also my entry for the Part Challenge.
Forward flare shamelessly stolen from Ochre Jelly.
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June 2014
German postcard by ISV, no. H 14.
Entertainer Tommy Steele (1936) was Britain's first teen idol and rock 'n roll star. His cheeky Cockney image and boy-next-door looks won him success as a musician, singer and actor.
For more postcards, a bio and clips check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.
German postcard by ISV, no. C 16. Photo: Constantin. Publicity still for Unter Geiern/Among Vultures (1964, Alfred Vohrer).
German actor Götz George (1938-2016) was a popular film and theatre star for five decades but he gained international stardom on television in the Krimi series Tatort as the maverick police detective Horst Schimanski.
For more postcards, a bio and clips check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.
German postcard by ISV, no. H 51.
With his blond, tanned, surfer-boy good looks, Tab Hunter (1931) was one of Hollywood’s hottest teen idols of the 1950s era. The American actor, singer, and author portrayed boy-next-door marines, cowboys and swoon-bait sweethearts, and had a huge hit with the song Young Love (1957). When his career faded during the 1960s, he starred in Italy in Spaghetti Westerns. In the 1980s Hunter returned in the camp classics Polyester (1981) and Lust in the Dust (1985).
Tab Hunter was born Arthur Andrew Kelm in New York City, in 1931. He is the son of Gertrude (Gelien) and Charles Kelm. Hunter's father was an abusive man and within a few years of his birth, his parents divorced and his mother moved with her two sons to California. Tab’s older brother Walter John Gelien (1930) would die in Vietnam in 1965 leaving seven children. As a teenager, Hunter was a figure skater, competing in both singles and pairs. He joined the U.S. Coast Guard at the age of 15, lying about his age to enlist. While in the Coast Guard, he gained the nickname ‘Hollywood’ for his penchant for watching movies rather than going to bars while on liberty. He was eventually discharged when the age deception was revealed. Returning home, his life-long passion for horseback riding led to a job with a riding academy. He was given the stage name Tab Hunter by his first agent, Henry Willson. With no previous experience Tab made his first, albeit minor, film debut in the racially trenchant drama The Lawless (Joseph Losey, 1950) starring Gail Russell. His fetching handsomeness and trim, athletic physique landed him a role in the British production Saturday Island (Stuart Heisler, 1952) opposite Linda Darnell. His shirt remained off for a good portion of the film, which certainly did not go unnoticed. He was signed by Warner Bros. The Hollywood studio system artificially groomed him and nicknamed him ‘The Sigh Guy’. His co-starring role as young Marine Danny in the World War II drama Battle Cry (Raoul Walsh, 1955), made him one of Hollywood's top young romantic leads. In the film based on the Leon Uris novel, Hunter has an affair with an older woman (Dorothy Malone), but ends up marrying the girl next door (Mona Freeman). In September 1955, the tabloid magazine Confidential reported Hunter's 1950 arrest f following an L.A. raid on a ‘pajama party’ in Walnut Park. Tab was eventually fined $50 for a reduced ‘disorderly conduct’ charge after originally being charged with ‘idle, lewd or dissolute conduct.’ The article, and a second one focusing on Rory Calhoun's prison record, were the result of a deal Henry Willson had brokered with Confidential in exchange for not revealing his client Rock Hudson's sexual orientation. Surprisingly this had no negative effect on Hunter's career. His hit films of these years include The Burning Hills (Stuart Heisler, 1955) with Natalie Wood, The Girl He Left Behind (David Butler, 1956), and Gunman’s Walk (Phil Karlson, 1957) with Van Heflin. Hunter, James Dean, and Natalie Wood were the last of the actors placed under exclusive studio contract to Warner Bros. In 1957, Hunter had a hit record with the song Young Love, which was #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart for six weeks and became one of the larger hits of the Rock n' Roll era. Another hit record was Ninety-Nine Ways, which peaked at #11. His success prompted Jack L. Warner to enforce the actor's contract with the Warner Bros. studio by banning Dot Records, the label for which Hunter had recorded the single (and which was owned by rival Paramount Pictures), from releasing a follow-up album he had recorded for them. He established Warner Bros. Records specifically for Hunter. In 1958, Hunter starred in the musical film Damn Yankees (George Abbott, Stanley Donen, 1958), in which he played Joe Hardy of Washington DC's American League baseball club. Another success was That Kind of Woman (Sidney Lumet, 1959) with Sophia Loren. Hunter was Warner Bros.' top money-grossing star from 1955 through 1959.
Tab Hunter's failure to win the role of Tony in the film adaptation of West Side Story (Jerome Robbins, Robert Wise, 1961) prompted him to agree to star in a weekly television sitcom. In 1960, prior to the program's debut, he was arrested by the police for allegedly beating his dog Fritz. His 11-day trial started in mid-October, a month after The Tab Hunter Show debuted on on NBC. The neighbour who initiated the charges had done so for spite when Hunter declined her repeated invitations to dinner, and he was acquitted by the jury. The Tab Hunter Show had moderate ratings and was cancelled after one season. Following the film comedy The Pleasure of His Company (George Seaton, 1961) opposite Debbie Reynolds, the quality of his films fell off drastically during the 1960s. In Italy he made the fantasy L'arciere delle mille e una note/ The Golden Arrow (Antonio Margheriti, 1962) with Rossana Podestà. In Great Britain he starred in The City Under the Sea (Jacques Tourneur, 1965) with Vincent Price. For a short time in the late 1960s, after several seasons of starring in summer stock and dinner theatre in shows such as Bye Bye Birdie, The Tender Trap and Under the Yum Yum Tree. Hunter settled in the south of France, and acted in Spaghetti Westerns like El dedo del destino/ The Cups of San Sebastian (Richard Rush, 1967) and La vendetta è il mio perdono/Shotgun (Roberto Mauri, 1968). During the 1970 he worked mainly for TV but also starred in the horror film Sweet Kill (Curtis Hanson, 1972) and appeared in the Western The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean (John Huston, 1972). His career was revived in the 1980s, when he spoofed his old clean-cut image by appearing opposite Divine in the camp classics Polyester (John Waters, 1981) and Lust in the Dust (Paul Bartel, 1985), which Hunter also co-produced. He then played Mr. Stewart, the substitute teacher in Grease 2 (Patricia Birch, 1982), who sang Reproduction. Hunter had a major role in the horror film Cameron's Closet (Armand Mastroianni, 1988). He also wrote, co-produced and starred in Dark Horse (David Hemmings, 1992). Hunter's autobiography, Tab Hunter Confidential: The Making of a Movie Star (2006), co-written with Eddie Muller, became a New York Times best-seller as did the paperback edition in 2007. The book is still currently in publication and was nominated for several writing awards. In the book, he acknowledged that he is gay, confirming rumours that had circulated since the height of his fame. According to William L. Hamilton of The New York Times, detailed reports about Hunter's alleged romances with close friends Debbie Reynolds and Natalie Wood, were strictly the fodder of studio publicity departments. Hunter had a long-term relationship with actor Anthony Perkins and shorter flings with dancer Rudolf Nureyev and champion figure skater Ronnie Robertson, before settling down with his partner of over 30 years, Allan Glaser. In 2015 Hunter's partner Allan Glaser produced the documentary Tab Hunter Confidential (Jeffrey Schwarz, 2015), based on Hunter’s autobiography, which re-entered the New York Times Best Seller list during the release of the documentary.
Sources: Gary Brumburgh (IMDb), Wikipedia, and IMDb.
German postcard by ISV, no. 4. Photo: Curd Jürgens and Romy Schneider in Katia / Adorable Sinner (Robert Siodmak, 1959).
Tall, blonde, blue-eyed Curd Jürgens (1915-1982) played German soldiers in countless World War II films, usually billed as Curt Jurgens. Although the German-Austrian actor appeared in over 100 films, Jürgens considered himself primarily a stage actor. He also directed a few films with limited success and wrote screenplays.
Romy Schneider (1938-1982) was one of the most beautiful and intelligent actors of her generation. More than 30 years after her death she still has an immense popular appeal.
For more postcards, a bio and clips check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.
German postcard by ISV, nr. H 76, circa 1964.
For more postcards, a bio and clips check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.
German Postcard by ISV, nr. M 19. Photo: Europa Film/Lilo.
German Stage and film actress Sabine Sinjen (1942-1995) was a teenage star of the 1950's, who became la protagonist of the Neue Deutsche Film in the 1960's.
For more postcards, a bio and clips check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.
German postcard by ISV, no. H 37.
American trumpeter Louis Armstrong (1901-1971) was one of the most important creative forces in the early development and perpetuation of Jazz. Armstrong, nicknamed Satchmo, is renowned for his charismatic stage presence and voice almost as much as for his trumpet playing. He recorded hit songs for five decades and composed dozens of songs that have become jazz standards. With his superb comic timing and unabashed joy of life, Louis Armstrong also appeared in more than thirty films.
Louis Daniel Armstrong was born in New Orleans in the Storyville District known as 'the Battlefield' in 1901. He left school at the 5th grade to help support his family. He sang on street corners, sold newspapers and delivered coal. He went to the Colored Waif's Home for shooting a gun to celebrate New Year's Eve on 31 December 1912. He learned to play the bugle cornet and to read music from Peter Davis at the Waif's Home. After 18 months, he left the Waif's Home determined to become a musician. Armstrong first married Daisy Parker as his career as a musician developed. He followed his mentor, Joe 'King' Oliver, to Chicago to play in the Creole Jazz Band. While in Chicago, Armstrong networked with other jazz musicians, reconnecting with his friend, Bix Biederbecke, and made new contacts, which included Hoagy Carmichael and Lil Hardin. Lil was a graduate of Fisk University and an excellent pianist who could read, write and arrange music. She encouraged and enhanced Louis' career, and they married in 1924. Armstrong became very popular and one of the genre's most sought after trumpeters. He traveled a great deal and spent considerable time in Chicago and New York. He first moved to the Big Apple in 1924 to join Fletcher Henderson's Orchestra. Armstrong stayed in New York for a while but moved back to Chicago in October of 1925. He later went back to New York in 1929. During that time, some of the Jazz icon's most important and successful work was accomplished with his Hot Fives and Hot Sevens Bands. He and Lil Hardin separated in 1931 and later divorced in 1938. After his divorce, Louis married Alpha Smith in 1938. While maintaining a vigorous work schedule, as well as living and travelling back and forth to Chicago and California, Armstrong moved back to New York in the late 1930s and later married Lucille Wilson in 1942.
Louis Armstrong was also an influential singer, with his instantly recognisable gravelly voice. Armstrong had nineteen Top Ten hits including Stardust, What a Wonderful World, When The Saints Go Marching In, Dream a Little Dream of Me, Ain't Misbehavin', You Rascal You, and Stompin' at the Savoy. He demonstrated great dexterity as an improviser, bending the lyrics and melody of a song for expressive purposes. He was also very skilled at scat singing. Armstrong appeared in more than a dozen Hollywood films, usually playing a bandleader or musician. In 1947, he played himself opposite Billie Holiday in the film New Orleans (Arthur Lubin, 1947), which chronicled the demise of the Storyville district and the ensuing exodus of musicians from New Orleans to Chicago. Armstrong also had a part in The Glenn Miller Story (Anthony Mann, 1954) in which Glenn (James Stewart) jammed with Armstrong and a few other noted musicians of the time. His most familiar role was as the bandleader cum narrator in the musical High Society (Charles Walters, 1956), in which he sang the title song and performed a duet with Bing Crosby. In The Five Pennies (Melville Shavelson, 1959), the story of the cornetist Red Nichols, Armstrong played himself as well as singing and playing several classic numbers. With leading actor Danny Kaye, Armstrong performed a duet of When the Saints Go Marching In, during which Kaye impersonated Armstrong. He also appeared in several European films, including the Italian-French musical Saluti e baci/The Road to Happiness (Maurice Labro, Giorgio Simonelli, 1953) with Georges Guétary, the German musical Die Nacht vor der Premiere/The Night before the Premiere (Georg Jacoby, 1959) with Marika Rökk, and the Danish musical Kærlighedens melodi/The melody of love (Bent Christensen, 1959) with Nina and Frederik. Armstrong's influence extends well beyond jazz, and by the end of his career in the 1960s, he was widely regarded as a profound influence on popular music in general. In 1964, Armstrong knocked The Beatles off the top of the Billboard Hot 100 chart with Hello, Dolly!, which gave the 63-year-old performer a U.S. record as the oldest artist to have a number one song. Armstrong was one of the first truly popular African-American entertainers to 'cross over', whose skin color was secondary to his music in an America that was extremely racially divided at the time. He rarely publicly politicised his race, often to the dismay of fellow African Americans, but Armstrong was the only Black Jazz musician to publicly speak out against school segregation in 1957 during the Little Rock crisis. His artistry and personality allowed him access to the upper echelons of American society, then highly restricted for black men. Despite his fame, he remained a humble man and lived a simple life in a working-class neighborhood. He remained married to Lucille Wilson until his death in 1971. He left his entire estate tohis beloved wife. Louis Armstrong wrote two autobiographies.
Sources: Louis Armstrong Educational Foundation, Wikipedia and IMDb.
German postcard by ISV, no. C 8. Photo: Constantin. Elke Sommer as Annie Dillman, and Stewart Granger as Old Surehand in Unter Geiern/Among Vultures (Alfred Vohrer, 1964).
In the late 1950s, blonde, German Elke Sommer (1940) was a European sex symbol before conquering Hollywood in the early 1960s. With her trademark pouty lips, high cheekbones, and sky-high bouffant hair-dos, Sommer made 99 film and television appearances between 1959 and 2005. The gorgeous film star was also one of the most popular pin-up girls of the sixties and posed twice for Playboy magazine.
English actor Stewart Granger (1913-1993) made over 60 films but is mainly associated with heroic and romantic leading roles. He was quoted: “I've never done a film I'm proud of”. Tall, dark, dignified, and handsome, Granger became England's top box office star in the 1940s which attracted Hollywood's attention.
And, please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.
German postcard by ISV, no. A 17. Photo: 20th Century Fox. Gary Cooper in Garden of Evil (Henry Hathaway, 1954).
American screen legend Gary Cooper (1901-1961) is well remembered for his stoic, understated acting style in more than one hundred Westerns, comedies and dramas. He received five Oscar nominations and won twice for his roles as Alvin York in Sergeant York (1941) and as Will Kane in High Noon (1952).
Frank James Cooper was born in Helena, Montana in 1901. His parents were English immigrants, Alice Cooper-Brazier and Charles Henry Cooper, a prominent lawyer, rancher, and eventually a state supreme court judge. Frank left school in 1918 and returned to the family ranch to help raise their five hundred head of cattle and work full-time as a cowboy. In 1919, his father arranged for his son to complete his high school education at Gallatin County High School in Bozeman, Montana. His English teacher, Ida W. Davis, played an important role in encouraging him to focus on academics, join the school's debating team, and become involved in dramatics. He was in a car accident as a teenager that caused him to walk with a limp the rest of his life. In the fall of 1924, Cooper's parents moved to Los Angeles to administer the estates of two relatives. Cooper joined them and there he met some cowboys from Montana who were working as film extras and stuntmen in low-budget Western films. Cooper decided to try his hand working as a film extra for five dollars a day, and as a stuntman for twice that amount. In early 1925, Cooper began his film career working as an extra and stuntman on Poverty Row in such silent Westerns as Riders of the Purple Sage (Lynn Reynolds, 1925) with Tom Mix, and The Trail Rider (W.S. Van Dyke, 1925) with Buck Jones. Cooper paid for a screen test and hired casting director Nan Collins to work as his agent. Collins changed his first name to ‘Gary’ after her hometown of Gary, Indiana. Cooper also worked in non-Western films. He appeared as a masked Cossack in The Eagle (Clarence Brown, 1925) with Rudolph Valentino, as a Roman guard in Ben-Hur (Fred Niblo, 1925) with Ramón Novarro, and as a flood survivor in The Johnstown Flood (Irving Cummings, 1926) with George O'Brien. Gradually he began to land credited roles that offered him more screen time, such as Tricks (Bruce M. Mitchell, 1925), in which he played the film's antagonist. As a featured player, he began to attract the attention of major film studios and in June 1926, Cooper signed a contract with Samuel Goldwyn Productions. His first important film role was in The Winning of Barbara Worth (Henry King, 1926) with Ronald Colman and Vilma Bánky. The film was a major success, and critics called Cooper a "dynamic new personality" and future star. Cooper signed a five-year contract with Jesse L. Lasky at Paramount Pictures for $175 per week. In 1927, with help from established silent film star Clara Bow, Cooper landed high-profile roles opposite her in Children of Divorce (Frank Lloyd, 1927) and Wings (William A. Wellman, 1927), the first film to win an Academy Award for Best Picture. With each new film, Cooper's acting skills improved and his popularity continued to grow, especially among female movie-goers. He received a thousand fan letters per week. The studio placed him opposite popular leading ladies in films such as Beau Sabreur (John Waters, 1928) with Evelyn Brent, Half a Bride (Gregory La Cava, 1928) with Esther Ralston, and Lilac Time (George Fitzmaurice, 1928) with Colleen Moore. The latter introduced synchronized music and sound effects, and became one of the biggest box office hits of the year.
In 1929, Gary Cooper became a major film star with his first sound picture, The Virginian, (Victor Fleming, 1929). The Virginian was one of the first sound films to define the Western code of honour and helped establish many of the conventions of the Western genre. The romantic image of the tall, handsome, and shy cowboy hero that embodied male freedom, courage, and honour was created in large part by Cooper's performance in the film. Cooper transitioned naturally to the sound medium, with his deep, clear, and pleasantly drawling voice. One of the high points of Cooper's early career was his portrayal of a sullen legionnaire in Josef von Sternberg's Morocco (1930) with Marlene Dietrich in her American debut. Cooper produced one of his finest performances to that point in his career. In the Dashiell Hammett crime drama City Streets (Rouben Mamoulian, 1931) he played a misplaced cowboy in a big city who gets involved with gangsters to save the woman (Sylvia Sidney) he loves. After making ten films in two years Cooper was exhausted and had lost thirty pounds. In May 1931, he sailed to Algiers and then Italy, where he lived for the next year. During his time abroad, Cooper stayed with the Countess Dorothy di Frasso who taught him about good food and vintage wines, how to read Italian and French menus in the finest restaurants, and how to socialize among Europe's nobility and upper classes. In 1932, a healthy Cooper returned to Hollywood and negotiated a new contract with Paramount for two films per year, a salary of $4,000 per week, and director and script approval. He appeared opposite Helen Hayes in A Farewell to Arms (Frank Borzage, 1932), the first film adaptation of an Ernest Hemingway novel. Critics praised his highly intense and at times emotional performance, and the film went on to become one of the year's most commercially successful films. The following year, Cooper appeared in the Ernst Lubitsch comedy Design for Living (1933) with Miriam Hopkins and Fredric March, and based loosely on the successful Noël Coward play. Wikipedia: “The film received mixed reviews and did not do well at the box office, but Cooper's performance was singled out for its versatility and revealed his genuine ability to do light comedy”. Then, he appeared in his first of seven films by director Henry Hathaway, Now and Forever (1934), with Carole Lombard and Shirley Temple. The film was a box-office success. His next two Henry Hathaway films were the melodrama Peter Ibbetson (1935) with Ann Harding, about a man caught up in a dream world created by his love for a childhood sweetheart, and the romantic adventure The Lives of a Bengal Lancer (1935), about a daring British officer and his men who defend their stronghold at Bengal against rebellious local tribes. The latter was nominated for six Academy Awards and became one of Cooper's most popular and successful adventure films.
Gary Cooper returned to Poverty Row for the first time since his early silent film days to make Mr. Deeds Goes to Town (Frank Capra, 1936) with Jean Arthur for Columbia Pictures. Cooper plays the character of Longfellow Deeds, an innocent, sweet-natured writer of greeting cards who inherits a fortune, leaves behind his idyllic life in Vermont, and travels to New York where he faces a world of corruption and deceit. For his performance in Mr. Deeds, Cooper received his first Oscar nomination. In the adventure film The General Died at Dawn (Lewis Milestone, 1936) with Madeleine Carroll, he plays an American soldier of fortune in China who helps the peasants defend themselves against the oppression of a cruel warlord. Written by playwright Clifford Odets, the film was a critical and commercial success. In Cecil B. DeMille's sprawling frontier epic The Plainsman (1936) with Jean Arthur—his first of four films with the director—Cooper portrays Wild Bill Hickok in a highly-fictionalized version of the opening of the American western frontier. That year, Cooper appeared for the first time on the Motion Picture Herald exhibitor's poll of top ten film personalities, where he would remain for the next twenty-two years. In Ernst Lubitsch's romantic comedy Bluebeard's Eighth Wife (1938) with Claudette Colbert, Cooper plays a wealthy American businessman in France who falls in love with an impoverished aristocrat's daughter and persuades her to become his eighth wife. In the adventure film Beau Geste (William A. Wellman, 1939) with Ray Milland, he joined the French Foreign Legion to find adventure in the Sahara fighting local tribes. Wikipedia: “Beau Geste provided Cooper with magnificent sets, exotic settings, high-spirited action, and a role tailored to his personality and screen persona.” Cooper cemented his cowboy credentials in The Westerner (William Wyler, 1940). He won his first Academy Award for Best Actor in 1942 for his performance as Alvin York, the most decorated U.S. soldier from the Great War, in Sergeant York (Howard Hawks, 1941). Cooper worked with Ingrid Bergman in For Whom the Bell Tolls (Sam Wood, 1943) which earned him his third Oscar nomination. The film was based on a novel by Ernest Hemingway, with whom Cooper developed a strong friendship. On 23 October 1947, he appeared before the House Un-American Activities Committee in Washington, not under subpoena but responding to an invitation to give testimony on the alleged infiltration of Hollywood by communists. Although he never said he regretted having been a friendly witness, as an independent producer, he hired blacklisted actors and technicians. He did say he had never wanted to see anyone lose the right to work, regardless of what he had done. Cooper won his second Oscar for his performance as Marshal Will Kane in High Noon (Fred Zinnemann, 1952), one of his finest roles and a kind of come-back after a series of flops. He continued to play the lead in films almost to the end of his life. His later box office hits included the influential Western Vera Cruz (Robert Aldrich, 1954) in which he guns down villain Burt Lancaster in a showdown, William Wyler's Friendly Persuasion (1956), in which he portrays a Quaker farmer during the American Civil War, Billy Wilder's Love in the Afternoon (1957) with Audrey Hepburn, and the hard-edged action Western Man of the West (Anthony Mann, 1958), with Lee J. Cobb. Cooper's final film was the British-American co-production The Naked Edge (Michael Anderson, 1961). In April 1960, Cooper underwent surgery for prostate cancer after it had metastasized to his colon. But by the end of the year the cancer had spread to his lungs and bones. On 13 May 1961, six days after his sixtieth birthday, Gary Cooper died. The young and handsome Cooper had affairs with Clara Bow, Lupe Velez, Marlene Dietrich and Tallulah Bankhead. In 1933, he married socialite Veronica Balfe, who, billed as Sandra Shaw, enjoyed a short-lived acting career. They had an ‘open’ marriage and Cooper also had relationships with the actresses Grace Kelly, Anita Ekberg, and Patricia Neal. Sir Cecil Beaton also claimed to have had an affair with him.
Sources: Wikipedia and IMDb.
German postcard by ISV, no. C 8. Photo: Constantin. Publicity still for Unter Geiern/Among Vultures (Alfred Vohrer, 1964).
In the late 1950s, blonde, German Elke Sommer (1940) was a European sex symbol before conquering Hollywood in the early 1960s. With her trademark pouty lips, high cheek bones and sky-high bouffant hair-dos, Sommer made 99 film and television appearances between 1959 and 2005. The gorgeous film star was also one of the most popular pin-up girls of the sixties, and posed twice for Playboy.
English actor Stewart Granger (1913–1993) made over 60 films but is mainly associated with heroic and romantic leading roles. He was quoted: “I've never done a film I'm proud of”. Tall, dark, dignified and handsome, Granger became England's top box office star in the 1940s which attracted Hollywood's attention.
For more postcards, a bio and clips check out our blog European Film Star Postcards or follow us at Tumblr or Pinterest.
German postcard by ISV, no. E 35. Photo: Constantin. Publicity still for The Brides of Fu Manchu (Don Sharp, 1966).
French actress Marie Versini (1940) is best known as Winnetou’s sister. The lovely, beguiling, dark-haired actress had an international film career in the late 1950s and 1960s.
For more postcards, a bio and clips check out our blog European Film Star Postcards or follow us at Tumblr or Pinterest.
German postcard by ISV, nr. C 8. Photo: Divina/Gloria/Filipp.
Austrian actress Maria Holst (1917-1980) appeared in many stage plays of the fanous Viennese Burgtheater and also in several popular films of the 1930’s, 1940’s and 1950’s. She died tragically.
Maria Holst was born as Friedel Anna Marie Emilie Czizek in 1917 in Vienna, Austria-Hungary (now Austria). She was the daughter of a Viennese father and a Norvegian mother. Both were active in art circles and Maria followed in their footsteps. At an early age she was educated at the Comédie Française (according toWikipedia she was trained at a theater school in Prague). She finished her education in Vienna at Max-Reinhardt-Seminar and debuted in Zürich (accoridng to Wikipedia she made her debut in 1935 at the Landestheater Linz). Soon she made herself a name and she had engagements in Vienna at the Jozefstadt, the Volkstheater and the Burgtheater (according to Wikipedia she appeared at the Theater an der Wien, in 1937 at the Stadttheater in Brünn, and from 1938 on she was a member of theEnsemble of the famous Burgtheater in Vienna). In this period she was an important stage actress with such roles as Gloria in George Bernhard Shaw’s Man kann nie wissen (1939), Elisabeth in Friedrich Schiller’s Don Carlos (1942), Prothoe in Heinrich von Kleist’s Penthesilea (1943) and Portia in William Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice (1943).
Maria Holst made her film debut already at the age of 15 in Unsichtbare Gegner/Invisible Opponent (1933, Rudolph Katscher) with Gerda Maurus and Peter Lorre. When she was 19 she appeared in small roles in the classic Burgtheater/Vienna Burgtheater (1936, Willi Forst) and Lumpacivagabundus/Lumpaci the Vagabond (1936, Géza von Bolváry) with Heinz Rühmann. In 1939 she left for Berlin and Munich, returning to the Burgtheater afterwards. In 1940 Willy Forst selected her for the leading part of singer Marie Geistinger in the succesful film Operette/Operetta (1940, Willi Forst). During the wartime followed a few more screen appearances in the operetta film Wiener Blut/Vienna Blood (1942, Willi Forst)- another huge hit, Hundstage/Dog Days (1944, Géza von Cziffra), and Der Gebieterische Ruf/The Commanding call (1944, Gustav Ucicky) opposite Rudolph Forster. After the war she kept her appearances in films rare. She appeared in Märchen vom Glück/ Kiss Me Casanova (1949, Arthur De Glahs) opposite O.W. Fischer, and in Mordprozeß Dr. Jordan/Murder Trial Dr. Jordan (1949, Erich Engels) She preferred to give her attention especially to the theater and performed on the stage in Vienna, Stuttgart, Bad Hersfeld and Berlin. In the 1950's followed her last films including roles in the Heimatfilm Grün ist die Heide/The Heath Is Green (1951, Hans Deppe), Mein Herz darfst du nicht fragen/You Can’t Ask For My Heart (1952, Pual Martin), Rosen aus dem Süden/Roses From the South (1954, Franz Antel), Die Trapp-Familie/The Trapp Family (1956, Wolfgang Liebeneiner), and Lockvogel der Nacht/Nocturnal Stool Pigeons (1959, Wim ten Haaf). In 1980 Maria Holst died tragically in Salzburg, Austria, when she choked on a meal. She was married twice. Her second husband was Dr. Rudolf Röttgers from Berlin.
Sources: The Adroom Archives,Thomas Staedeli (Cyranos), Wikipedia and IMDb.
EC-ISV - c/n 205 - Año de fabricacion: 1969 Mas fotos de aviones desde 2015 hasta 2021 en / More pictures of airplanes from 2015 to 2021 in: www.flickr.com/photos/josebazubiaurre2/sets/7215767405973... Y desde 2022 en / And since 2022 in: www.flickr.com/photos/josebazubiaurre4/albums/72177720296...
22/09/2022. Ladies European Tour 2022. KPMG Women's Irish Open, Dromoland Castle, Ireland. September 22-25 2022. Alexandra Swayne of the Virgin Irelands at the 7th hole. Credit: Mark Runnacles/LET
German postcard by ISV, no. E 22. Photo: Constantin / Grimm.
On 22 January 2014, German singer and actor Fred Bertelmann (1925-2014) died. His biggest hit was the song Der lachende Vagabund (1957), which he also sang in the Schlager film of the same name.
German postcard by ISV, nr. C 6. Photo: Gloria/Bayer.
Blonde Winnie Markus (1921-2002) started as an Ufa star during the Nazi period and became in the 1950’s one of Germany’s most famous actresses.
For more postcards, a bio and clips check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.
German postcard by ISV, no. 16/6. Photo: Lothar Winkler.
Croatian singer and actress Dunja Rajter (1946) is a dark-haired beauty who had a successful career in Germany from the 1963 on. To film fans she is probably best known for her roles as a squaw in two Winnetou Westerns.
Dunja Rajter was born in 1946 in Našice, Yugoslavia, now Croatia. As a schoolgirl she sang in the children's choir of her father, Rudolf Rajter, who was a music teacher in Zagreb. After school, she studied at the Theatre Academy of Zagreb. After her graduation in 1963, she was engaged by the theater company from Zagreb. Before that she had done some small parts in Yugoslavian films like Carevo novo ruho/ The King's New Clothes (1961, Ante Babaja), based on the fairy tale by Hans Christian Andersen, and Pustolov pred vratima/Adventure at the Door (1961, Sime Simatovic) with Ana Karic. In 1962, she appeared in a TV series. The music was composed by Mario Nardelli, who would be her future companion on the guitar. She played Belle in the Eurowestern Winnetou - 1. Teil/Apache Gold (1963, Harald Reinl) which was filmed at the Plitvice Lakes and other Croatian locations. This Karl May adaptation starred Lex Barker as Old Shatterhand and Pierre Brice as his friend, the apache Winnetou. German music promoter and television director Horst Lippmann had spotted her singing in a Yugoslavian TV show and invited her to come to Germany. In 1964 she moved to Germany, where she has lived ever since. During the 1960’s she acted in several feature films and television productions. Her most successful films included the Winnetou film Unter Geiern/Among Vultures (1965, Alfred Vohrer), The Edgar Wallace thriller Der unheimliche Mönch/The Sinister Monk (1965, Harald Reinl) with Karin Dor, and the TV film Der Beginn/The beginning (1966, Peter Lilienthal), that was awarded with the Adolf Grimme Award. She also had a part in the Dutch film To Grab the Ring (1968, Nikolai van der Heijde) with Ben Carruthers and Liesbeth List. Among her other television productions were such series as Grosser mann wass Nun/Big man what now (1967, Eugen York), with Gustav Knuth, Salto Mortale/Somersault (1969-1972, Michael Braun), and Der Kommissar/The Commissioner (1970, Director: Helmut Käutner) featuring Erik Ode.
In the early 1970’s, Dunja Rajter became known as a singer with a husky gypsy voice. She came into the charts with hits like Was ist schon dabei (What's the big deal) (1970) and Salem Aleikum (1971). She was a guest on Harry Belafonte's American television show, has performed in France in various television magazines, and had in Germany even her own personality show. A highlight in her career was a European tour with Ivan Rebroff. Later, she entered the German Hitparade with Junges Herz (Young heart) (1977) and Ich glaub dir (I believe you) (1980). Rajters songs are a mixture of pop and chanson. In 1986, she broke new ground in music and performed in small theaters. The civil war in former Yugoslavia (1991-1995) changed her life. Since then she has supported several children's hospitals in her native Croatia. On TV she appeared in such series as Tisch und Bett/Table and Bed (1993), Löwenzahn/Dandelion (2010) and Traumschiff – Kreuzfahrt ins Glück/Love Boat – Cruisade for Happiness (2011, Wolfgang Rademann). She also appeared on stage. In 2003 and 2012 she performed at the Karl May Festival in Bad Segeberg. She also played the title role in the play Mirandolina (2007) by Carlo Goldoni at the Landesbühne Rheinland Pfalz, and Golde in Anatevka (Fiddler on the Roof) (2008/2009) at the Trier Theatre. Dunja Rajter married three times. Her first marriage was to the Dutch cinematographer Gerard Vandenberg (1970-1971). In 1972 she married singer and bandleader Les Humphries. They have a son, Danny Leslie Humphries (1974), who is a singer and guitarist in the band Glow. The couple divorced in the 1976. In 2009, she married her longtime friend, marketing consultant Michael Eichler. Dunja Rajter lives in Langen.
Sources: Dunja-Rajter.de, Tom B. (Westerns… All’Italiana), Wikipedia (German) and IMDb.
German postcard by ISV, nr. K 15, mailed in 1964. Photo: E. Schneider.
American Singer and actor Gus Backus (1937) was at 19 a member of the Del-Vikings, and later became virtually the flesh-and-blood embodiment of rock 'n roll in Germany. Between 1959 and 1965 he also appeared in 25 German light entertainment films.
Gus Backus was born in Southampton on Long Island, in New York, as Donald Edgar Backus, His father, a foreman on a potatoe plantation, called him Gus. Like millions of other young Americans of the period, he discovered rhythm-and-blues and rock 'n roll during his teens as it got onto the radio. He started writing and playing his own music, under the influence of Fats Domino, Little Richard, and Chuck Berry. At 14, Gus ran away from home when his parents divorced. In Brooklyn. Gus wanted to become a doctor and he worked as a singing shoe cleaner to pay for his medicine studies. In 1956, Backus was drafted into the US Air Force, and was stationed in Pittsburgh, PA. There he became the lead singer of the multiracial Doo Wop group The Del-Vikings, and at 19 he scored a #12-hit with Cool shake. In 1957 Backus was stationed in the German city of Wiesbaden and had to leave The Del-Vikings. After his compulsory military service was finished he decided to stay and settle in Germany. He married and has four children. His brother-in-law suggested him to record German language versions of English hits for the German market. His first single, Ab und zu, was a cover of Elvis Presley’s A fool such as I. The same year he also made his film debut, singing a song in Paradies der Matrosen/Paradise for sailors (1959, Harald Reinl) starring Margit Saad. He also appeared in Mein Schatz, komm mit ans blaue Meer/Come to the Blue Sea, My Dear (1959, Rudolf Schündler) with Joachim Fuchsberger.
In 1960 Gus Backus had his breakthrough with the single Brauner Bär und weiße Taube/Brown bear and White Doves, a cover of Johnny Preston’s hit Running bear. Immediately, he went on with a series of succesful follow-ups like Muß i denn and Da sprach der alte Haüptling/ And So Spoke the Old Chief. His repertory consisted of German language covers of great hits but also of new songs, mainly Schlagers. He continued to make Schlagerfilms like ...und du, mein Schatz, bleibst hier/And You, My Dear, Stays Here (1961, Franz Antel) and Unsere tollen Tanten/Our Awesome Aunts (1961, Rolf Olsen). He had his first #1-hit in Germany in 1961 with Der Mann im Mond/The Man in the Moon. Till 1963 he had such Top 10 Hits like Sauerkraut-Polka, No Bier, no Wein, no Schnaps, Linda, Das Lied vom Angeln and Er macht mich krank, der Mondschein an der Donau. Between 1959 and 1965 Gus Backus appeared in a total of nearly 25 German entertainment films, including Ohne Krimi geht die Mimi nie ins Bett/Mimi Never Goes to Bed Without a Detective (1962, Franz Antel), Holiday in St. Tropez (1964, Ernst Hofbauer), and the boring thriller Hotel der toten Gästen/Hotel of the Dead Guests (1965, Eberhard Itzenplitz). In 1964 the Beatmusic conquered the German charts and it became harder for Gus to score hits. In 1973 he decided to return to the USA and went to work as a foreman in the Texan oil fields. In the 1980’s he returned to Germany to surf the Oldies wave of that period. He settled with his family in München (Munich), where he still lives today. He now performs his old hits with the group Teddy und die Lollipops.
Sources: Bruce Eder (All Music Guide), Wikipedia and IMDb. See also: www.gusbackus.de/.
HNZ Group (PHI Aviation) VH-ISV Sikorsky S-92A Helibus c/n 92-0028. Year of manufacture: 2006. Aircraft first registered in Australia: 19 June 2017. Registration holder as of 19 June 2017 is PHI Aviation. Registered operator as of 19 June 2017 is HNZ Australia Pty Limited. Previous Registrations: N692R & N692PH.
This "Improvised Scanning Vehicle" is a former military low altitude scouting vehicle, repurposed by ill-equipped mining colonies for finding ores.
It can also be outfitted with wings to cover large distances more economically and to extend it's operating altitude.
German postcard by ISV, no. H 18.
English pop singer Frankie Vaughan (1928-1999) issued more than 80 recordings in his lifetime. He was known as ‘Mr. Moonlight’ after one of his early hits and was famous for his fancy tuxedo, top hat and cane. He also starred in cabaret shows in New York and Las Vegas, and in several films, including Let’s Make Love (1960) with Marilyn Monroe.
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German postcard by ISV, nr. D 27. Photo: Pierluigi.
Glamorous Elsa Martinelli (1932) is an Italian actress and former fashion model. She showed her beautiful curves in many European and Hollywood productions of the 1950’s and 1960’s, but somehow never became the star she was destined to become in the mid-1950’s.
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German postcard by ISV, no. H 21. Sent by mail in the Netherlands in 1962. Collection: Geoffrey Donaldson Institute.
Ingrid Bergman (1915-1982) was ‘Sweden's illustrious gift to Hollywood’. In the 1940s the fresh and naturally beautiful actress won three times the Oscar, twice the Emmy, and once the Tony Award for Best Actress. Little known is that before she went to Hollywood she already had a European film career.
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EC-ISV - c/n 205 - Año de fabricacion: 1969 Mas fotos de aviones desde 2015 hasta 2021 en / More pictures of airplanes from 2015 to 2021 in: www.flickr.com/photos/josebazubiaurre2/sets/7215767405973... Y desde 2022 en / And since 2022 in: www.flickr.com/photos/josebazubiaurre4/albums/72177720296...