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Dutch postcard. Photo: M.G.M.

Spanish-American bandleader Xavier Cugat (1900-1990) was known for his musical genius and glitzy persona as the king of the posh nightclub scene with his signature tuxedo, ear-to-ear smile, pencil-thin moustache and chihuahua. He spent his youth in Havana, Cuba and was a trained violinist and arranger. He set the standard for Latin dance music for the Hollywood film industry from the 1930s onwards. 'The Rumbia King' performed in thirteen MGM musicals, weekly radio broadcasts and a sixteen-year engagement at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in New York. With his bombshell wives like Abbe Lane and such iconic performers as Desi Arnaz and Tito Puente, he was one of the greatest promoters of the Latin-American style and helped to pave the way for the artists who followed him.

Xavier Cugat was born Francisco de Asis Javier Cugat Migall de Bru y Deulofeu in 1900 in Girona, Catalonia, Spain. Cugat was born just a few minutes after midnight in the last year of the 19th century. This was considered so remarkable in his home country of Spain that his father, who was a political prisoner at the time, was pardoned and his brothers were exempted from military service. His family moved to Cuba when he was five (or three - sources differ). One of his neighbours was a violin maker who crafted a miniature version of the instrument that would become Cugat's ticket to Fame. In Havana, he was trained as a classical violinist and played in cafés. He went on to work at Le Payret cinema, where he provided background music for the silent films shown there. On the recommendation of his violin teacher and after passing an audition, he was hired by the director of the Havana Symphony Orchestra, where he became the first violinist at the age of 12. In 1915, his family migrated to New York. Like his brother, Francis Cugat (1893-1981), the artist of the famous book cover of 'The Great Gatsby' (1925), he became a graphic designer, more specifically a cartoonist. The Catalan mezzo-soprano Maria Gay introduced the young Xavier to prestigious musicians such as Pau Casals or Enric Granados. Through hard work, Cugat progressed. He met Enrico Caruso, befriended him and accompanied him on his tour of the United States. Caruso got the young man to study with the artistic director of the prestigious Carnegie Hall. Thanks to his contacts in the music world, he could perform at Carnegie Hall, where he met with only moderate success. At the conservatory, he met Rita Montaner, who studied singing there and they married in 1918 In 1920, the young couple divorced. His family returned to Catalonia, enabling 20-year-old Cugat to study in Germany. In 1924, he returned to the United States. Once again, he appeared at Carnegie Hall. This time the audience gave him a standing ovation, but he still failed to win over the critics. Cugat felt deeply offended. In New York, he met up again with his ex Rita Montaner, and he helped her prepare for Cuban and Antillean music shows. When discovering these shows, he decided to abandon the violin. Montaner founded an orchestra which Cugat directed. In 1926, they were both cast on Broadway in the hit revue 'Una noche en España'. The following year, he moved to Los Angeles. In California, he worked as a cartoonist for the Los Angeles Times during the day and tried to find members for his band at night. Cugat finally got his break when his combo played at the fashionable Coconut Grove nightclub in Los Angeles and introduced the rumba. Audiences were captivated by the exotic rhythms and sounds of this music that made them shake their hips in an entirely new way. He christened the band 'Xavier Cugat y sus Gigolos' and his style of music caught on. Cugat convinced the owner to hire South American dancers and made the dancers part of his orchestra. In the late 1920s, the silent film era ended and that of films with sound began. Cugat turned his act into the Vitaphone short A Spanish Ensemble/Xavier Cugat and His Gigolos (1928). In the early 1930s, he appeared with his band in more films such as The Lash (Frank Lloyd, 1930) and In Gay Madrid (Robert Z. Leonard, 1931) starring Ramon Novarro. In 1931, Chaplin asked him to play the violin for one of the musical themes in his film City Lights (Charles Chaplin, 1931). That same year, he hired a 13-year-old dancer, Margarita Carmen Cansino, the future Rita Hayworth, to perform with his band. In 1931 he went with his band to New York for the opening of the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel where he eventually replaced Jack Denny as leader of the resident orchestra.

For sixteen years, Xavier Cugat was orchestra leader at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel. From 1932 on, the band performed daily evenings at the hotel's Starlight Roof cabaret, and soon afterwards at the hotel's Start Room matinees. Cugat kept the faithful Nilo Menéndez on piano and percussionist Ray Gonzalez, to whom he added Alberto Calderon on drums and José Piñita on trumpet. His niece, Margo, provided the dance numbers, and Carmen Castillo was the band's singer. One of his trademark gestures was to hold a chihuahua while he waved his baton with the other arm. In the 1930s and 1940s, Xavier Cugat was nicknamed 'The Rumba King' because of his popularisation of that Latin dance. He drew heavily on Cuban music but reworked it to suit American tastes. Although his music now bears little relation to its original roots, Cugat made an important contribution to the spread of Cuban rhythms. He shuttled between New York and Los Angeles for hotel and radio appearances interspersed with film appearances. Cugat used a variety of singers on his recordings, including Alfredito Valdès, Miguelito Valdès, Connie Francis, and Dinah Shore. His 1940 recording of 'Perfidia' with Miguelito Valdés became a big hit. Cugat was instrumental in bringing Latin music to the attention of the US public. He and his band appeared in several memorable MGM musicals in the 1940s. In such films as You Were Never Lovelier (William A. Seiter, 1942) with Rita Hayworth, Bathing Beauty (George Sidney, 1944), and Week-End at the Waldorf (Robert Z. Leonard, 1945), he usually played himself, even if the character had a name other than Xavier Cugat. Cugat followed new trends closely. For example, he made recordings for the chachacha, the conga, the mambo and the twist at the time they were in vogue. A major hit was 'Brazil,' which reached seventeenth place on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1943. Other well-known songs include 'Bahía' by Ary Barroso, 'Siboney', 'Malagueña', 'Andalucía (The Breeze and I)' by Ernesto Lecuona, 'Tequila' and 'El Cumbachero'. From 1942 to the summer of 1946, the war kept the orchestra away from the recording studios. It placed itself at the disposal of the American Administration for numerous tours of military camps abroad.

In 1947, Xavier Cugat left the Waldorf Astoria with two talented singers in tow: Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis. He toured Venezuela the same year, Peru in 1960 and Bolivia in 1962. In addition to his tours, Cugat appeared in a string of films in the late 1940s. As the head of his orchestra, he could be seen in such musicals as A Date with Judy (Richard Thorpe, 1948), On an Island with You (Richard Thorpe, 1948), and Neptune's Daughter (Edward Buzzell, 1949), starring Esther Williams. He toured the world with his orchestra, to which he added the female voices of Lorrain Allen, Carmen Miranda, Lina Romay and Abbe Lane. He recruited the latter in 1950 and kept her in his band throughout the decade. The first theme she performed with Cugat was 'The Wedding Samba'. Cugat travelled to almost every country in the world. The secret of his success was always knowing how to adapt Latin American music (which he described as "tropical"), simplifying the themes to make them accessible to the tastes of the audiences he hosted. In 1963, Cugat was deeply affected both sentimentally and musically by the departure of Abbe Lane, but he quickly bounced back by taking on a new singer, Charo, whom he made his fifth wife and appointed as a folk singer. After suffering a stroke in 1971, Xavier Cugat retired. In 1973, however, he recorded one last double LP with his orchestra, which remains one of his best-selling and most famous records. He lived in Catalonia and continued to paint, draw and caricature. In 1990, he was awarded the Cross of St. George by the Generalitat of Catalonia. Cugat was married five times. His first marriage was to Rita Montaner (1918–1920), his second was to his band vocalist Carmen Castillo (1929–1944), his third to actress Lorraine Allen (1947–1952), his fourth to singer Abbe Lane (1952–1964), and his fifth to Spanish guitarist and comic actress Charo (1966–1978). His last marriage was the first to take place at Caesars Palace on the Las Vegas Strip. In 1990, Cugat died of heart failure at age 90 in Barcelona and was buried in his hometown of Girona. Cugat received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at the address 1500 Vine Street. Several songs Xavier Cugat recorded, including 'Perfidia', were used in the Wong Kar-Wai films A Fei jing juen/Days of Being Wild (1991) and 2046 (2004). His song 'Cui Cui' was featured in the animated feature Happy Feet (George Miller, Warren Coleman, Judy Morris, 2006), about a tap-dancing penguin who can't sing a love song.

Sources: Xavier Cugat i Mingall, Wikipedia (Dutch, German and English) and IMDb.

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Vintage postcard. Photo: Cornel Lucas.

Blonde and Curvey Diana Dors (1931-1984) was called ‘The English Marilyn Monroe’, to her disgust. In her own words: “I was the first home-grown sex symbol, rather like Britain's naughty seaside postcards." When Marilyn Monroe's first film was shown here [The Asphalt Jungle (1950)], a columnist wrote, 'How much like our Diana Dors she is'.

Diana Dors was born Diana Mary Fluck in Swindon, England, in 1931. Her father, Peter Fluck, was a railroad employee. Her mother, Mary Fluck, had almost died from the traumatic birth of her daughter. Because of this trauma, she lavished on Diana everything she had dreamed of: clothes, dance lessons, visits to the cinema. The actresses on the screen caught Diana's attention and she later said that she wanted to be an actress from the age of three. Physically, Diana grew up fast and she looked and acted much older than she was. 'The Siren of Swindon' began her career on stage when she was only 13. The youngest of her class, she trained at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Arts (LAMDA) in London. At the age of 15, she appeared in her first film, The Shop at Sly Corner (George King, 1947) starring Oskar Homolka. The J. Arthur Rank Organisation offered her a contract and she played several ‘sexy girl in background’ roles in their films. The best of these parts was Charlotte in Oliver Twist (David Lean, 1948) starring Alec Guinness. She made several more films in the late 1940s, including substantial roles in the comedy Here Come The Huggetts (Ken Annakin, 1948), and the 'bad girl' opposite Honor Blackman's more virtuous roles in the cycling comedy A Boy, a Girl and a Bike (Ralph Smart, 1949) and Diamond City (David MacDonald, 1949), a lively British 'Western' set in South Africa's diamond fields. Her appeal stemmed from a combination of glamour and humour, coupled with a lack of vanity. A good example of her early appeal comes in Lady Godiva Rides Again (Frank Launder, 1951) with Dennis Price. It was a light-hearted romp that made fun of the beauty queen business. The American Board of Film Censors banned the film because Diana was showing her navel. However, she's friendly and surprisingly non-threatening in the film, more interested in having fun than in winning. Both critics and the public loved her as a sexy siren.

Diana Dors was one of the first celebrities to court the British press. Her first husband and manager Dennis Hamilton believed any publicity could only benefit the ambitious starlet. One stunt was to set up the company Diana Dors Ltd and another was the announcement of Diana as the youngest Rolls Royce owner at 20 (however, she could not drive). Dors got a 'decent' role in the 'women in prison' drama The Weak and the Wicked (J. Lee Thompson, 1954) opposite Glynis Johns and people started to believe she could act and look decorative. She confirmed her talent with a good role in the fantasy A Kid for Two Farthings (Carol Reed, 1955) with Celia Johnson, and her part as a murderess in Yield to the Night (J. Lee Thompson, 1956), loosely based on the true life story of Ruth Ellis, the last woman executed in Britain for murder. Casting off her sex symbol image, Diana portrayed Mary Hilton whose story is told entirely in flashbacks, as she awaits her final sentencing or possible reprieve, and attempts to tie up the loose ends in her life involving her mother, brother, and husband. Michael Brooke writes at BFI Screenonline: "Eyebrows were raised at Dors being offered such a challenging dramatic role, given that her blonde bombshell image at the time was almost exclusively associated with comedy, but she rose to the occasion, managing to evoke considerable sympathy for her condemned but essentially unsympathetic character." Hollywood snapped Dors up but put her in two unsuitable vehicles, the crime thriller The Unholy Wife (John Farrow, 1957) with Rod Steiger, and the comedy I Married a Woman (Hal Kanter, 1958). A public brawl between her and her husband, Dennis Hamilton, finished her Hollywood career. Diana was pushed fully clothed into her swimming pool at a pool party full of Hollywood A-list celebrities. Hamilton then proceeded to punch the photographer thought to have pushed her into unconsciousness. The celebrities fled and the headlines the following day were 'Ms Dors go home and take Mr Dors with you!'. Her three-movie deal with RKO ended after they cancelled the contract on a moral clause.

Diana Dors returned to Britain but never quite attained the level of her pre-Hollywood period. During the 1960s Dors never stopped working but her roles got smaller and the films worse. In the campy horror film Beserk! (Jim O'Connolly, 1967), she played a performer in a cheesy carnival who ends up cut in half by a power saw. The film starred 63-year-old Joan Crawford who played the outrageous owner and ringmaster of a travelling circus, who'll stop at nothing to draw bigger audiences... Dors was often seen on TV both in the US and the UK. She began to pile on the pounds and rapidly went from blowsy to fat. A weighty role was as the ex-wife of Peter Sellers in There's a Girl in My Soup (Roy Boulting, 1970). Her appearance in The Amazing Mr Blunden (Lionel Jeffries, 1972) got a lot of publicity as she played a slatternly Victorian housekeeper in her sixties. Her major television breakthrough came in 1970 when she starred as a brassy matriarch in Keith Waterhouse and Willis Hall's popular ITV sitcom Queenie's Castle (1970-1972). Despite these successes, she continued to accept any role and took small roles in several British sex comedies, such as Adventures of a Taxi Driver (Stanley Long, 1976). Diana Dors died in 1984 from a recurrence of ovarian cancer, first diagnosed two years earlier. She was 52 years old. For over thirty years, she had lived in the headlines, and now she was missed. She had three sons, Mark and Gary Dawson from her second marriage to comedian/TV emcee Richard Dawson, and Jason Lake from her third marriage to actor Alan Lake. Alan Lake committed suicide not long after her death, which generated even more headlines. Her final film, the Nell Dunn adaptation Steaming (Joseph Losey, 1985) starring Vanessa Redgrave, was released a year later. During her career of nearly four decades, the British public loved Diana Dors, and her life, professional and personal, was followed in a whole new way. The media made her life accessible to the British public: she was down to earth, made mistakes, and had a vulnerability about her. The public followed her ups and downs through the many daily newspapers and magazine articles. With 'The Three M's' from Hollywood: Jayne Mansfield, Mamie Van Doren and Marilyn Monroe, DD has left her mark on popular culture by popularising the 1950s blonde bombshell look. David Absalom at British Pictures: "She's been a National Joke and a National Disgrace in her time, but when she died we realised we'd lost a National Treasure."

Sources: Michael Brooke (BFI Screenonline), David Absalom (British Pictures), Hal Erickson (AllMovie), Denny Jackson (IMDb), DianaDors.com, Wikipedia, and IMDb.

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French postcard, no. 636.

Bright-eyed Mitzi Gaynor (1931) is an American actress, singer, and dancer. She was a leading lady in light musicals, including There's No Business Like Show Business (1954), which featured Irving Berlin's music and starred Ethel Merman, and South Pacific (1958), based on the musical by Rodgers and Hammerstein.

Mitzi Gaynor was born as Francesca Marlene de Czanyi von Gerber in 1931, in Chicago, Illinois. She was the daughter of Pauline, a dancer, and Henry von Gerber, a violinist, cellist, and music director. After her father remarried, she became step-sister to anti-war activist Donald W. Duncan. Her family first moved to Elgin, Illinois, then to Detroit, and later when she was eleven, on to Hollywood. She trained as a ballerina as a child and began her career as a chorus dancer. At 12, she joined the dancing chorus of the Los Angeles Civic Light Opera. She lied about her address so she could attend Hollywood High School. In 1950, she signed a seven-year contract with Twentieth Century Fox where she sang, acted, and danced in several film musicals. A Fox Studio executive thought that Mitzi Gerber sounded like the name of a delicatessen, and they came up with a name that used the same initials. Gaynor made her film debut in a musical, My Blue Heaven (Henry Koster, 1950) supporting Betty Grable and Dan Dailey. She followed it with a college drama Take Care of My Little Girl (Jean Negulesco, 1951), where she played the roommate of Jeanne Crain. Fox then gave Gaynor a star part, in the musical biopic Golden Girl (Lloyd Bacon, 1951). It was a mild success at the box office. Gaynor was one of several stars in the anthology comedy We're Not Married! (Edmund Goulding, 1952) with Ginger Rodgers and Marilyn Monroe, and then she was top-billed in the musical, Bloodhounds of Broadway (Harmon Jones, 1952). Fox put her in another biopic, The I Don't Care Girl (Lloyd Bacon, 1952), where she played Ziegfeld star Eva Tanguay. Gaynor starred in Down Among the Sheltering Palms (Edmund Goulding, 1953), playing a South Sea island girl. She was the female lead in a Western, Three Young Texans (Henry Levin, 1954) with Jeffrey Hunter. Gaynor's most popular film in her time at Fox was There's No Business Like Show Business (Walter Lang, 1954), where she was billed after Ethel Merman, Dan Dailey, Marilyn Monroe, Donald O'Connor and Johnnie Ray.

In 1954, Mitzi Gaynor married Jack Bean, a talent agent and public relations executive for MCA, in San Francisco, California. She had just been released from Twentieth Century-Fox (before the start of There's No Business Like Show Business) with four years left on her contract and decided with the time off to get married. The union was childless. After their wedding, Bean quit MCA, started his own real estate business and managed Gaynor's career. Bean wisely perceived that his new bride was a far more effective performer on a live stage rather than a film set. In 1956, Gaynor appeared in the Paramount remake of Anything Goes (Robert Lewis, 1956), co-starring Bing Crosby, Donald O'Connor, and Zizi Jeanmaire, loosely based on the musical by Cole Porter, P.G. Wodehouse and Guy Bolton. Paramount cast her in another remake, The Birds and the Bees (Norman Taurog, 1956) with David Niven, playing the role originated by Barbara Stanwyck in The Lady Eve (Preston Sturges, 1941). Her third film for Paramount was The Joker Is Wild (Charles Vidor, 1957), a biopic of famous comedian Joe E. Lewis (Frank Sinatra) in which Gaynor played the female lead. In 1957, Gaynor appeared in MGM's Les Girls (George Cukor, 1957), with Gene Kelly and Kay Kendall. Her biggest international fame came from the plum role of Nellie Forbush in the film version of Rodgers and Hammerstein's South Pacific (Joshua Logan, 1958), starring Rossano Brazzi. For her performance, she was nominated for a Best Actress Golden Globe Award. Gaynor followed this with a comedy at MGM, Happy Anniversary (David Miller, 1959) opposite David Niven, and the British musical comedy thriller Surprise Package (Stanley Donen, 1960), with Yul Brynner and Noël Coward. Her last film role was For Love or Money (Michael Gordon, 1963), starring Kirk Douglas. Mitzi Gaynor's film career was over, but happily, she continued to be a major draw on the nightclub and summer musical circuit. She often performed songs at Academy Awards ceremonies. At the 1967 Oscar telecast, she sang the theme from the film Georgy Girl (Silvio Narizzano, 1966) and stopped the show. The Academy had a hard time getting the audience to sit down and stop applauding. Gaynor later added the number to her concert repertoire. Throughout the 1960s and 1970s, she starred in nine acclaimed television specials that garnered 16 Emmy nominations. During the 1990s, Gaynor also became a featured columnist for the influential news magazine The Hollywood Reporter. Her husband Jack Bean died in 2006.

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

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German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 7871/1, 1932-1933. Photo: Ufa. Willy Fritsch in Saison in Kairo/Cairo Season (Reinhold Schünzel, 1933).

From the mid-1920s on, charming Willy Fritsch (1901-1973) replaced Bruno Kastner and Harry Liedtke as the darling of female cinemagoers in Germany. Fritsch became the immensely popular ‘Sunny Boy’ of the Ufa operettas of the 1930s and 1940s, and with his frequent co-star Lilian Harvey he formed the 'dream team of the German cinema'.

Willy (sometimes credited as Willi) Fritsch was born Wilhelm Egon Fritz Fritsch in Kattowitz in German Silesia (now Katowice, Poland) in 1901. He was the son of Lothar Fritsch, a farmer and machine manufacturer, and his wife Anni (née Bauckmann). In 1912 he moved with his family to Berlin, where he planned to become a mechanic. In 1919 he took up acting lessons from the actor Gustav Sczimek. Fritsch debuted with a small role at Max Reinhardt's famous Deutsches Theater. There and at the affiliated Kammerspiele (Chamber theatre) he was cast in smaller stage roles and played young lovers and comic parts. In 1922, he joined the Max Reinhardt Ensemble on its tour through Scandinavia. From 1921 on, Fritsch began to appear as a supporting player in films, like the sound experiment Miss Venus (Ludwig Czerny, 1921). In 1923, he auditioned for the leading role of a blind artist in the melodrama Seine Frau, die Unbekannte/His Mysterious Adventure (Benjamin Christensen, 1923), which was then re-written to fit his rather sunny nature.

Willy Fritsch convincingly played the would-be son of an aristocrat in Der Farmer aus Texas/The Farmer from Texas (Joe May, 1925), which made him the new star of the production company Ufa. Next, he starred as the dashing Lieutenant Niki in Ein Walzertraum/A Waltz Dream (Ludwig Berger, 1925), which turned out to be a significant success in the USA. At AllMovie, Janiss Garza writes: "This UFA silent, based on an old operetta, is far more light-hearted and spirited than the moody, heavy-handed fare that generally came out of Germany." Ufa intervened when United Artists offered Fritsch a contract. His next films, Der Prinz und die Tänzerin/The Prince and the Dancer (Richard Eichberg, 1926) and Der letzte Walzer/The Last Waltz (Arthur Robison, 1927) followed the formula of Ein Walzertraum. Fritsch only occasionally altered his now well-established film image in Spione/Spies (1928) and Frau im Mond/Woman in the Moon (1929), directed by Fritz Lang. Hal Erickson notes at AllMovie: "Spies (Spione) was the first independent production of German 'thriller' director Fritz Lang. The years-ahead-of-its-time plotline involves Russian espionage activity in London. Mastermind is Haghi (Rudolph Klein-Rogge), a supposedly respectable carnival sideshow entertainer. Heading the good guys is Agent 326 (Willy Fritsch), with the help of defecting Russian spy Sonya (Gerda Maurus). The film moves swiftly to several potential climaxes, each more exciting than its predecessor. Haghi's ultimate demise is a superbly staged Pirandellian vignette. Anticipating Citizen Kane by a dozen years, director Lang dispenses with all transitional dissolves and fade-outs, flat-cutting territory from one scene to another."

Willy Fritsch took singing lessons to prepare himself for the sound film Melodie des Herzens/Melody of the Heart (Hanns Schwarz, 1929) with Dita Parlo. His breakthrough came after being paired with Lilian Harvey in Liebeswalzer/The Love Waltz (Wilhelm Thiele, 1930) and the two were also engaged privately. Liebeswalzer established Harvey and Fritsch as the popular 'dream team of the German cinema'. Their next films such as Hokuspokus/Hocuspokus (Gustav Ucicky, 1930), the historical romance Der Kongress tanzt/Congress Dances (Erik Charell, 1931), Ein blonder Traum/A Blonde's Dream (Paul Martin, 1932) - co-written by Billy Wilder, and especially Die Drei von der Tankstelle/Three Good Friends (Wilhelm Thiele, 1930), were huge international box-office hits. Fritsch and Harvey appeared together in twelve films. Each of these films featured several songs, which became popular hits and were also released on records, further adding to the popularity of the two stars. Hal Erickson at AllMovie: "If a poll had ever been conducted amongst fans of international musical-comedy star Lillian Harvey, the actress's most popular vehicle would probably have been Die Drei von Der Tankstelle (Three From the Gas Station) - with Congress Dances running a very close second. The story opens as three debt-ridden young men pool what is left of their savings to open a roadside service station. Their most frequent customer is the wealthy, winsome Ms. Harvey, who frequently shows up fetchingly clad in hiking shorts. Each young man falls in love with the girl, unbeknownst to the other two. Which one will she choose? Most likely, the one who sings the best - and that would be Lillian Harvey's frequent screen vis-a-vis Willy Fritsch."

Willy Fritsch had a long-term contract with Ufa and was paid a monthly salary of 20,000 Reichsmark per month, which was doubled during the 1930s. Eschewing his trademark sunny boy persona, Fritsch proved his range as a character actor in films like Ich bei Tag und Du bei Nacht/I by Day, You by Night (Ludwig Berger, 1932) co-starring Käthe von Nagy, Walzerkrieg/The Battle of the Walzes (Ludwig Berger, 1933) opposite Renate Müller, and the satirical romp Amphitryon/Amphitryon - Happiness from the Clouds (Reinhold Schünzel, 1935) with Paul Kemp. Fritsch managed to survive the Hitler era without any loss of prestige. After the end of the war, he relocated to Hamburg. He spoofed his image as the romantic lover in Film ohne Titel/Film Without a Title (Rudolf Jugert, 1947), and excelled as the comical conférencier in Herrliche Zeiten/Fun Times (Erik Ode, Günter Neumann, 1949). Although still in high demand, Fritsch didn't find satisfying roles in West Germany's post-war cinema. He continued to appear on stage and in films until the early 1960s. He remained a popular figure, partly due to his work as the host of nostalgic radio shows. Since 1937, he was married to dancer and actress Dinah Grace until she died in 1963. They had two sons, Michael and Thomas. After his wife's death, he decided to retire. With his son Thomas Fritsch he starred in his final film, Das hab ich von Papa gelernt/I Learned It from Daddy (Axel von Ambesser, 1964). In 1963 he published his memoir … das kommt nicht wieder/That will never come back, and in 1965 he was honoured with the Filmband in Gold, for his long and important work for the German film. Willy Fritsch died of heart failure in 1973 in Hamburg, Germany. He was 72.

Sources: Filmportal.de, Stephanie D'heil (Steffi-line - German), Thomas Staedeli (Cyranos), Hal Erickson (AllMovie), IMDb and Wikipedia.

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German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 6069/2, 1931-1932. Photo: Atelier Binder, Berlin.

The Austrian actor Willi Forst (1903-1980) was a darling of the German-speaking public. He was also one of the most significant directors, producers, writers and stars of the Wiener Filme, the light Viennese musical comedies of the 1930s. On stage, he played in operettas and revues but also worked with Erwin Piscator and Max Reinhardt.

In 1903, Willi (also written as Willy) Forst was born Wilhelm Anton Frohs in Vienna, Austria-Hungary (now Austria). At age 16, he began his career as an actor on the provincial stages in Austria–Hungary and the German Empire. He was a featured performer in the post-World War I operetta theatres of Vienna and Berlin. He also worked with famous directors like Erwin Piscator and Max Reinhardt. His film debut was in the Austrian film Der Wegweiser/The Signpost (Hans Kottow, 1920). His first major screen roles were opposite Marlene Dietrich in the silent films Café Elektric/Cafe Electric (Gustav Ucicky, 1927) and Gefahren der Brautzeit/Dangers of the Engagement Period (Fred Sauer, 1929).

Willi Forst made his sound and singing film debut in Atlantik/Titanic (Ewald André Dupont, 1929) and soon became known for his distinctive velvety voice and 'charming Viennese' characters. After Zwei Herzen im 3/4 Takt/Two Hearts in Waltz Time (Géza von Bolváry, 1930), he played six more times under the direction of Géza von Bolváry. Most of these successes were written by Walter Reisch, and so were also Ein blonder Traum/A Blonde's Dream (Paul Martin, 1932) with Lilian Harvey and Willy Fritsch, and Der Prinz von Arkadien/The Prince from Arcadien (Karl Hartl, 1932) with Liane Haid. Forst considered the best learning experience for his future role as director, So ein Mädel vergisst man nicht/Unforgettable Girl (1933) directed by expressionist film actor-turned-director Fritz Kortner.

Willi Forst developed the genre of the Wiener Filme with writer Walter Reisch in the 1930s, beginning with the Franz Schubert melodrama Leise flehen meine Lieder/Lover Divine (Willi Forst, 1933). He followed it with the hit Maskerade/Masquerade in Vienna (Willi Forst, 1934), which launched his fame as a significant director and made an instant star of Paula Wessely. For Mazurka (Willi Forst, 1935), he lured Pola Negri back from Hollywood. From the mid-1930s he also recorded many records, largely of sentimental Viennese songs, for the Odeon Records label owned by Carl Lindström AG. He founded his own film company, Willi Forst-Film, in 1937. His best-known film would be the elegant satire Bel Ami (Willi Forst, 1939) based on the novel by Guy de Maupassant. He also played the title role, which would be his alter ego from then on.

Following the annexation of Austria in 1938, Willi Forst was much courted by the Nazis. He succeeded in avoiding overt political statements, concentrating entirely on the light entertainment for which he was famous and which was much in demand during the war. During the seven years of National Socialist rule in Austria, he only made four films, none of them political. His most important work was his Wien-Film trilogy: Operette/Operetta (Willi Forst, 1940), Wiener Blut/Vienna Blood (Willi Forst, 1942), and Wiener Mädeln/Vienna Beauties (Willi Forst, begun in 1944, but not completed until 1949). After the war, he had comparatively little success, except for the film Die Sünderin/The Sinner (Willi Forst, 1951) starring Hildegard Knef and Gustav Fröhlich. The frank treatment of social and sexual mores in Germany during and after the war and a modest nude scene of Knef created a furor at the release, but the film went on to attract an audience of seven million people. Willi Forst's last film was the comedy Wien, du Stadt meiner Träume/Vienna, City of My Dreams (Willi Forst, 1957), with Adrian Hoven and Erika Remberg. Then Willi Forst retired from the film world, acknowledging that his style was no longer in demand. After the death of his wife in 1973, he lived a reclusive life in the Swiss canton of Tessin. He died of cancer in Vienna in 1980 and is buried in Neustift am Walde. At Senses of Cinema, professor Robert von Dassanowsky writes that Forst is "one of Austrian and Central European cinema's greatest filmmakers and influential industry figures, whose lack of presence in the international film 'canon' of important directors today is one more casualty from the negligence that has greeted Austrian cinema since the collapse of its commercial film industry in the 1960s."

Sources: Robert von Dassanowsky (Senses of Cinema), Thomas Staedeli (Cyranos), Filmportal.de, Wikipedia and IMDb.

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Kenneth More en Jayne Mansfield in de film The Sheriff of Fractured Jaw (1958)

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Jayne Mansfield in de film The Sheriff of Fractured Jaw (1958)

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Jayne Mansfield in de film The Sheriff of Fractured Jaw (1958)

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Vintage postcard, no. PP 096.Don Johnson in Miami Vice (1984-1990).

American actor and singer Don Johnson (1949) won a Golden Globe in 1986 for his lead role as James 'Sonny' Crockett in the police series Miami Vice, in which he played more than 100 episodes. Earlier, he was acclaimed for his lead role in the Science-Fiction film A Boy and His Dog (1975). Although he had been acting since 1970, he also released two music albums. His biggest hit was 'Heartbeat' from the 1986 album of the same name. His later films include Tin Cup (1996), Machete (2010), Django Unchained (2012) and Knives Out (2019).

Donnie 'Don' Wayne Johnson was born in Flat Creek, Missouri, in 1949. He is the son of Freddie Wayne Johnson, a farmer and Nell Johnson (née Wilson), a beautician. When he was six years old, his family moved to Kansas. In 1967, he graduated from Wichita South High School, where he was involved in the high school's theatre program. As a senior, he played the lead role of Tony in 'West Side Story'. He studied at the University of Kansas as a theatre major but dropped out after one year, and moved to San Francisco to study drama at the American Conservatory Theatre. In 1969, he starred in the Los Angeles stage production 'Fortune and Men's Eyes'. The play included a prison rape scene with Johnson as the victim. He made his film debut as Stanley Sweetheart in the quickly forgotten drama The Magic Garden of Stanley Sweetheart (Leonard Horn, 1970) about a confused college student's experiences with sex, relationships, and drugs. Johnson continued to work on stage, film and television without breaking into stardom. His notable films from this period were the acid Western Zachariah (George Englund, 1971), the coming-of-age film The Harrad Experiment (Ted Post, 1973), Lollipop and Roses (1974) and the ci-Fi black comedy A Boy and His Dog (L. Q. Jones, 1975). In 1976, Johnson was the roommate of actor Sal Mineo at the time Mineo was murdered. Every TV pilot in which Johnson starred failed to launch. He was nicknamed a six-time loser in Hollywood because he was part of six series that did not make it to television. In the 1980s, Johnson managed to get into a series that became successful, Miami Vice. He played the role of undercover police detective Sonny Crockett and formed a legendary police duo with Philip Michael Thomas as Ricardo Tubbs. John Russell at IMDb: "It revolutionized television with its modern fashion, pop music, unique style and use of real locations." Crockett embodied the masculine cool of the 1980s with his thousand-dollar Versace and Hugo Boss suits over pastel cotton T-shirts, his Ferrari, Rolex and Endeavour yacht. Miami Vice aired between 1984 and 1990. Johnson won a Golden Globe and received a Primetime Emmy Award nomination for his role. Between seasons on Miami Vice, Johnson starred in TV miniseries such as the remake The Long, Hot Summer (Stuart Cooper, 1985). As a singer, he released the albums 'Heartbeat' (1986) and 'Let It Roll' (1989). His 'Heartbeat' cover version peaked at no. 5 on the Billboard Hot 100. After the series ended he focused solely on his film career. Although films like Dead Bang (John Frankenheimer, 1989), The Hot Spot (Dennis Hopper, 1990) and Harley Davidson and the Marlboro Man (Simon Wincer, 1991) with Mickey Rourke, did not fare well with the critics, quite a few of them have obtained a considerable cult following.

In the late 1990s, Don Johnson became successful again as Nash in the television series Nash Bridges (1996-2001) about a detective with the San Francisco Police Department (SFPD). Johnson received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1996. In 2005, Johnson briefly starred in the courtroom television drama show Just Legal as a jaded lawyer with a young and idealistic protégé/partner (Jay Baruchel). It was cancelled after just three episodes. Johnson appeared in the West End of London production of 'Guys and Dolls' (2007). He also appeared in films like the sports film Tin Cup (Ron Shelton, 1996) with Kevin Costner, the Neo-Noir comedy Goodbye Lover (Roland Joffé, 1998) with Patricia Arquette, the romantic comedy When in Rome (Mark Steven Johnson, 2010) with Kristen Bell and Josh Duhamel, and the exploitation action film Machete (Robert Rodriguez, Ethan Maniquis, 2010). Johnson travelled to Europe to make the Norwegian screwball comedy Lange flate ballær II/Long Flat Balls II (Harald Zwart, 2008) and the Italian films Bastardi/Bastards (Federico Del Zoppo, Andres Alce Meldonado, 2008) with Franco Nero, and Torno a vivere da solo/I'll Be Back to Living Alone (Jerry Calà, 2008). In 2012, Quentin Tarantino, a fan of Miami Vice, gave Johnson a role in his film Django Unchained. Johnson played a southern plantation owner named Spencer 'Big Daddy' Bennett. In 2014, he played seasoned Texas Ranger Earl McGraw in Robert Rodriguez's From Dusk Till Dawn: The Series. In 2019, Johnson played Richard Drysdale in the murder mystery Knives Out (Rian Johnson, 2019) starring Daniel Craig and acted as Police Chief Judd Crawford in the superhero series Watchmen (2019). Don Johnson married actress Melanie Griffith twice, the first time for a short period in 1976. Between 1981 and 1985, Johnson lived with actress Patti D'Arbanville. They have a son, actor Jesse Johnson (1982). Johnson had a relationship with Barbra Streisand. Together, they recorded the single 'Till I Loved You'. Between 1989 and 1996, Johnson was married for the second time to Melanie Griffith. In 1989, they had a daughter, film star Dakota Johnson. Johnson married Kelley Phleger in 1999, with whom he had three children: a daughter, Atherton Grace (1999), and two sons, Jasper Breckinridge (2002) and Deacon (2006).

Sources: John Russell (IMDb), Wikipedia (Dutch and English) and IMDb.

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Vintage photo by 20th Century Fox. Mitzi Gaynor in My Blue Heaven (Henry Koster, 1950).

Bright-eyed Mitzi Gaynor (1931) is an American actress, singer, and dancer. She was a leading lady in light musicals, including There's No Business Like Show Business (1954), which featured Irving Berlin's music and starred Ethel Merman, and South Pacific (1958), based on the musical by Rodgers and Hammerstein.

Mitzi Gaynor was born as Francesca Marlene de Czanyi von Gerber in 1931, in Chicago, Illinois. She was the daughter of Pauline, a dancer, and Henry von Gerber, a violinist, cellist, and music director. After her father remarried, she became step-sister to anti-war activist Donald W. Duncan. Her family first moved to Elgin, Illinois, then to Detroit, and later when she was eleven, on to Hollywood. She trained as a ballerina as a child and began her career as a chorus dancer. At 12, she joined the dancing chorus of the Los Angeles Civic Light Opera. She lied about her address so she could attend Hollywood High School. In 1950, she signed a seven-year contract with Twentieth Century Fox where she sang, acted, and danced in several film musicals. A Fox Studio executive thought that Mitzi Gerber sounded like the name of a delicatessen, and they came up with a name that used the same initials. Gaynor made her film debut in a musical, My Blue Heaven (Henry Koster, 1950) supporting Betty Grable and Dan Dailey. She followed it with a college drama Take Care of My Little Girl (Jean Negulesco, 1951), where she played the roommate of Jeanne Crain. Fox then gave Gaynor a star part, in the musical biopic Golden Girl (Lloyd Bacon, 1951). It was a mild success at the box office. Gaynor was one of several stars in the anthology comedy We're Not Married! (Edmund Goulding, 1952) with Ginger Rodgers and Marilyn Monroe, and then she was top-billed in the musical, Bloodhounds of Broadway (Harmon Jones, 1952). Fox put her in another biopic, The I Don't Care Girl (Lloyd Bacon, 1952), where she played Ziegfeld star Eva Tanguay. Gaynor starred in Down Among the Sheltering Palms (Edmund Goulding, 1953), playing a South Sea island girl. She was the female lead in a Western, Three Young Texans (Henry Levin, 1954) with Jeffrey Hunter. Gaynor's most popular film in her time at Fox was There's No Business Like Show Business (Walter Lang, 1954), where she was billed after Ethel Merman, Dan Dailey, Marilyn Monroe, Donald O'Connor and Johnnie Ray.

In 1954, Mitzi Gaynor married Jack Bean, a talent agent and public relations executive for MCA, in San Francisco, California. She had just been released from Twentieth Century-Fox (before the start of There's No Business Like Show Business) with four years left on her contract and decided with the time off to get married. The union was childless. After their wedding, Bean quit MCA, started his own real estate business and managed Gaynor's career. Bean wisely perceived that his new bride was a far more effective performer on a live stage rather than a film set. In 1956, Gaynor appeared in the Paramount remake of Anything Goes (Robert Lewis, 1956), co-starring Bing Crosby, Donald O'Connor, and Zizi Jeanmaire, loosely based on the musical by Cole Porter, P.G. Wodehouse and Guy Bolton. Paramount cast her in another remake, The Birds and the Bees (Norman Taurog, 1956) with David Niven, playing the role originated by Barbara Stanwyck in The Lady Eve (Preston Sturges, 1941). Her third film for Paramount was The Joker Is Wild (Charles Vidor, 1957), a biopic of famous comedian Joe E. Lewis (Frank Sinatra) in which Gaynor played the female lead. In 1957, Gaynor appeared in MGM's Les Girls (George Cukor, 1957), with Gene Kelly and Kay Kendall. Her biggest international fame came from the plum role of Nellie Forbush in the film version of Rodgers and Hammerstein's South Pacific (Joshua Logan, 1958), starring Rossano Brazzi. For her performance, she was nominated for a Best Actress Golden Globe Award. Gaynor followed this with a comedy at MGM, Happy Anniversary (David Miller, 1959) opposite David Niven, and the British musical comedy thriller Surprise Package (Stanley Donen, 1960), with Yul Brynner and Noël Coward. Her last film role was For Love or Money (Michael Gordon, 1963), starring Kirk Douglas. Mitzi Gaynor's film career was over, but happily, she continued to be a major draw on the nightclub and summer musical circuit. She often performed songs at Academy Awards ceremonies. At the 1967 Oscar telecast, she sang the theme from the film Georgy Girl (Silvio Narizzano, 1966) and stopped the show. The Academy had a hard time getting the audience to sit down and stop applauding. Gaynor later added the number to her concert repertoire. Throughout the 1960s and 1970s, she starred in nine acclaimed television specials that garnered 16 Emmy nominations. During the 1990s, Gaynor also became a featured columnist for the influential news magazine The Hollywood Reporter. Her husband Jack Bean died in 2006.

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

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Vintage postcard. Photo: Columbia.

The career of American stage and film actor Larry Parks (1914-1975) arced from bit player and supporting roles to top billing. His best-known role was Al Jolson, whom he portrayed in two films, The Jolson Story (1946) and Jolson Sings Again (1949). His Hollywood career virtually ended when he admitted to having been a member of a Communist Party cell, which led to his blacklisting. In 1962, the ban was lifted on Larry Parks, and he made his comeback in John Huston's Freud. It proved to be his last film.

Samuel Lawrence Klusman Parks was born in Olathe, Kansas, in 1914. He was the son of Nellie (Klusman) and Frank H. Parks. He was raised in his mother's religion Judaism. As a child growing up in Joliet, Illinois, he was plagued by a variety of illnesses, including rheumatic fever, but persevered with physical exercise and sheer strength of will. In 1932, he graduated from Joliet Township High School. He attended the University of Illinois as a pre-med student. His plans to become a doctor dissolved when, to the dismay of his parents, he found a passionate sideline in college dramatics. Parks played in stock companies for some years. He made an inauspicious 1937 Broadway debut with a minor role in the Group Theatre's presentation of 'Golden Boy'. He travelled to Hollywood at John Garfield's suggestion, for a role in a Warner Bros. production of Mama Ravioli. Although the film was cancelled, Parks did sign a contract with Columbia Pictures in 1941. His buildup was slow-moving. He took his first small step with a minor role in Mystery Ship (Lew Landers, 1941). He was oddly cast as an Indian (Jingo-Good) opposite exotic Yvonne De Carlo (Princess Wah-Tah) in The Deerslayer (Lew Landers, 1943). As with most Columbia contract players, Parks received supporting roles in high-budget films and more substantial roles in B pictures. Parks married actress Betty Garrett in 1944. When Columbia was preparing a biopic of Al Jolson, many big-name stars were considered for the title role, including James Cagney and Danny Thomas, but both turned it down. Resident contractee Larry Parks was reportedly the first actor to be interviewed. Parks impressed the producers and won the role. Parks was coached in the role by Al Jolson himself, whose singing voice was heard throughout the film. Reportedly, this association was a pleasant one until Jolson incensed that Columbia had not asked him to star in his own biopic, viciously turned on Parks and treated him atrociously. At the age of 31, his performance in The Jolson Story (Alfred E. Green, 1946) earned Parks an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor. Now that he was a fully-fledged star, Columbia kept him busy in elaborate productions. He appeared opposite the studio's biggest star, Rita Hayworth, in Down to Earth (Alexander Hall, 1947). That year, exhibitors voted him the 15th-biggest star in the US. Gary Brumburgh at IMDb: "Larry hoped for equally challenging roles. His hopes were dashed as the studio instead continued casting him haphazardly in mild-mannered comedies and swashbuckling adventures. Other than the box-office sequel Jolson Sings Again (1949), most of Larry's films were hardly worthy of his obvious talent." Parks tried to break his contract with Columbia in 1948 but was unsuccessful. That year he criticised the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC). Jolson Sings Again (Henry Levin, 1949) was another huge box-office hit. His co-star in the film, Barbara Hale, teamed with him again in the comedy feature Emergency Wedding (Edward Buzzell, 1950). In 1950 he and his wife announced plans to make their own film Stakeout. British exhibitors voted him the 9th-most popular star in the UK.

In 1951, Larry Parks was summoned to appear before the HUAC under threat of being blacklisted in the movie industry, but he begged not to be forced to testify. He eventually did so in tears, only to be blacklisted anyway. Parks eventually gave up the names of his former colleagues to the committee. Following his admission before the committee, Columbia Pictures dropped him from his contract, although it had four years to run, and Parks had been set to star in the film Small Wonder, which later became The First Time. At the time, Parks' fee was $75,000 a film. A romantic comedy he made for MGM, Love Is Better Than Ever (Stanley Donen, 1952) with Elizabeth Taylor, was shelved for a year. He made a TV film for The Ford Television Theatre in 1953 and starred in the British film Tiger by the Tail (John Gilling, 1954) in England. Betty Garrett's career also faced turmoil as a result of her marriage to Parks, and the two spent much of the 1950s doing theatre and musical variety shows. Parks continued to squeeze out a living acting on the stage and doing occasional television programs. His last appearance in a major role was in the John Huston film, Freud (1962) starring Montgomery Clift. Parks eventually left the film industry and formed a successful construction business. Eventually, he and his wife, Betty Garrett, owned many apartment buildings scattered throughout the Los Angeles metropolitan area. Rather than sell them upon completion, Parks decided to retain ownership and collect rents as a landlord, a decision that proved to be extremely profitable. During that period, the couple occasionally performed in Las Vegas showrooms, summer stock productions, and touring companies of Broadway shows. Parks died of a heart attack in 1975 at the age of 60. He and Betty Garrett had two sons, actor Andrew Parks and composer Garrett Parks. Larry Parks was also godfather to actor Jeff Bridges.

Sources: Gary Brumburgh (IMDb), AllMovie, Wikipedia and IMDb.

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French postcard by Cinémagazine-Édition, Paris, no. 66. Photo: Metro Goldwyn Mayer.

American actress Marceline Day (1908-2000) achieved stardom in the mid-1920s, appearing opposite such stars as John Barrymore and Lon Chaney. Adept at comedy, she also starred with top comedians like Buster Keaton and Harry Langdon.

Marceline Day was born as Marceline Newlin in 1908 in Colorado Springs, Colorado. She was the daughter of Frank and Irene Newlin and the younger sister of actress Alice Day. She was raised in Salt Lake City. She attended Venice High School. In 1923, she followed her older sister into the film business when her sister became a bathing beauty in one and two-reel comedies for producer Mack Sennett of Keystone Studios. Sennett cast her alongside Harry Langdon in such short comedies as Picking Peaches (Erle C. Kenton, 1924) and The Luck o' the Foolish (Harry Edwards, 1924). She had a supporting part in the historical drama The Splendid Road (Frank Lloyd, 1925) starring Anna Q. Nilsson, Robert Frazer, and Lionel Barrymore. She co-starred with Richard Talmadge in the action comedy The Wall Street Whiz (Jack Nelson, 1925). Day also appeared in silent Westerns as the sweetheart of some of the top cowboy stars. For Universal, she starred opposite Hoot Gibson in The Taming of the West (Arthur Rosson, 1925), opposite Jack Hoxie in The White Outlaw (Clifford Smith, 1925) and opposite Art Acord in Western Pluck (Travers Vale, 1926). Her popularity snowballed and her success eclipsed the career of her sister Alice, who was herself a well-known actress. Marceline co-starred with Lew Cody and Carmel Myers in the romantic drama The Gay Deceiver (1926), directed by John M. Stahl. In 1926, Day was named one of the WAMPAS Baby Stars, a campaign sponsoring newly emerging actresses. Other Baby Stars that year included Joan Crawford, Janet Gaynor, Mary Astor and Dolores del Río. The campaign contributed to Day's popularity.

MGM cast Marceline Day in the romantic adventure The Beloved Rogue (Alan Crossland, 1927) opposite John Barrymore as legendary Parisian poet/vagabond Francois Villon. Then followed the now lost Horror classic London After Midnight (Tod Browning, 1927) starring Lon Chaney. It became the most successful collaborative film between Chaney and Browning, but it received mixed reviews from critics. The eerie sets, and Chaney's stunning vampire make-up, make for intriguing still photographs. The last known copy of the film was destroyed in the 1965 MGM vault fire, making it one of the most sought-after lost silent films. As Serafina, she was the partner of leading man Ramón Novarro in the adventure film The Road to Romance (John S. Robertson, 1927). Adept at comedy, Day is best remembered for her role in The Cameraman (Edward Sedgwick, 1928), in which she starred as Sally Richards opposite Buster Keaton. The film was a box office hit, grossing $797,000, and was well-received by film critics. During the rise of the sound film, Day made her transition effortlessly thanks to her pleasant, attractive voice. Her first sound film was The Jazz Age (Lynn Shores, 1929) with Douglas Fairbanks Jr. She appeared with her sister in the musical The Show of Shows (John G. Adolfi, 1929). She also appeared in The Wild Party (Dorothy Arzner, 19290 opposite Clara Bow. The film did very well at the box office. In the early 1930s, she left MGM and had to work mainly for smaller film studios with low budgets. Day was soon reduced to appearing in low-budget thrillers and action pictures. By 1933, Day made the transition back to the Western genre, appearing in "B" Westerns starring Tim McCoy, Hoot Gibson, Ken Maynard, Jack Hoxie, and John Wayne. Her last film was The Fighting Parson with Gibson. She appeared in a total of 64 films between 1924 and 1933. In later years, she no longer spoke of her film career and refused numerous requests for interviews from fans or film historians. Marceline Day passed away in 2000 in Cathedral City, California. She was 91. The actress was married twice and had no children. She married furrier Arthur J. Klein in 1930 and was married for a second time in 1959 to John Arthur until he died in 1980.

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

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French postcard by Editions P.I., Paris, offered by Les Carbones Korès "Carboplane", no. 677. Photo: Metro Goldwyn Mayer, 1951.

Joel McCrea (1905-1990) was an American actor whose career spanned 50 years. He was the leading man in three Best Picture Oscar nominees, Dead End (1937), Foreign Correspondent (1940) and The More the Merrier (1943). He starred in more than 80 films and during the 1950s, he became one of the great stars of the American Western.

Joel Albert McCrea was born in 1905 in South Pasadena, California. His surname is pronounced "MC-Cray". He was the son of Lou Whipple McCrea, a professional Christian Science practitioner, and Thomas McCrea, an employee of the L.A. Gas & Electric Company. He was the grandson of a western stagecoach driver who had fought against the Apaches. Joel was raised in the surroundings of Hollywood. In his youth, he was a paperboy for the Los Angeles Times, where he came into contact with Cecil B. DeMille and other people in the film industry. He also witnessed the shooting of D.W. Griffith's epic silent film Intolerance (David Wark Griffith, 1916) and had an extra role in a film series with Ruth Roland. Roland's leading man could not ride well. McCrea, an outstanding horseman since he was nine, doubled for the actor at $2.50 a day and was given a job wrangling for the rest of the shoot. He also held horses for Hollywood cowboy stars William S. Hart and Tom Mix. McCrea attended Hollywood High School with future director Jacques Tourneur who would later direct him in Stars in My Crown (1950), Wichita (1955) and Stranger on Horseback (1955). He then studied at Pomona College where he took acting classes. He got some stage experience at the Pasadena Community Playhouse. McCrea worked as an extra, stunt man, and bit player from 1927 to 1928, when he signed a contract with MGM. There he got his first major role in The Jazz Age (Lynn Shores, 1929). His first leading role was in The Silver Horde (George Archainbaud, 1930) as a fisherman torn between two women, played by top-billed Evelyn Brent and Jean Arthur. In 1930, he left for RKO. Will Rogers took a liking to the young man. They shared a love of ranching and roping and Rogers helped elevate McCrea's career. Rogers advised him to put the money he made from acting into real estate, a venture that made the novice actor a millionaire. His wholesome good looks and quiet manner were soon in demand, primarily in romantic dramas and comedies, and he became an increasingly popular leading man. In 1932, McCrea starred with Dolores Del Rio in Bird of Paradise (King Vidor, 1932), which caused controversy because of some nude scenes. That year, he also co-starred with Fay Wray in the Horror film The Most Dangerous Game (Ernest B. Schoedsack, Irving Pichel, 1932). In 1934, he was first seen together with the two actresses he would often work with. With Miriam Hopkins, he appeared in The Richest Girl in the World (William A. Seiter, 1934) and with Barbara Stanwyck, he co-starred in the romantic drama Gambling Lady (Archie Mayo, 1934). In 1937, he starred in the Best Oscar nominee Dead End (William Wyler, 1937) with Humphrey Bogart, and was the first actor to play the role of Dr. Kildare in the film Internes Can't Take Money (Alfred Santell, 1937), with Barbara Stanwyck. He also starred in the Western Wells Fargo (Frank Lloyd, 1937) with his wife Frances Dee. After losing the lead in The Real Glory (Henry Hathaway, 1939) to Gary Cooper, he realised that as long as Samuel Goldwyn had both Cooper and him under contract, he would always come out second in the studio's choice roles. When he refused to re-sign with Goldwyn, the producer warned him that he'd "never work in this town again!" After that, Goldwyn always referred to the actor as "Joel McCreal." McCrea signed with Cecil B. DeMille for Union Pacific (1939) at Paramount.

The peak of Joel McCrea's career was in the early 1940s. He starred in such films as Alfred Hitchcock's espionage thriller Foreign Correspondent (1940), George Stevens' romantic comedy The More the Merrier (1943) with Jean Arthur, and two comedy classics by Preston Sturges, Sullivan's Travels (1941) with Veronica Lake, and The Palm Beach Story (1942) with Claudette Colbert. He also starred in two Westerns by William A. Wellman, The Great Man's Lady (1942), again with Barbara Stanwyck, and Buffalo Bill (1944). Jim Beaver at IMDb: "He hoped to concentrate on Westerns, but several years passed before he could convince the studio heads to cast him in one. When he proved successful in that genre, more and more Westerns came his way." After the success of The Virginian (Stuart Gilmore, 1946), McCrea decided to focus entirely on Westerns. The only exceptions were the Film Noir Hollywood Story (William Castle, 1951) and the British spy-thriller Rough Shoot (Robert Parrish, 1953). McCrea played the lead in NBC Radio's Tales from the Texas Rangers from 1950 to 1952. The program was a Western police procedural based on real cases from the Texas Rangers. In 1933, McCrea married actress Frances Dee, whom he had met on the set of The Silver Cord. The couple starred together in five films: The Silver Cord (John Cromwell, 1933), One Man's Journey (John S. Robertson, 1933), Come and Get It (Howard Hawks, William Wyler, 1936), Wells Fargo (Frank Lloyd, 1937), Four Faces West (Alfred E. Green, 1948) and Cattle Drive (Kurt Neumann, 1951). Together they had three children: David, Peter and Jody. Jody followed in his parents' footsteps and also became an actor. McCrea and Dee remained married until McCrea's death. In 1959, McCrea and his son Jody starred together in the TV series Wichita Town. A few years later, McCrea co-starred with fellow Western veteran Randolph Scott in Ride the High Country (Sam Peckinpah, 1962). McCrea made a couple of appearances in small films afterwards but was primarily content to maintain his life as a gentleman rancher. In 1966, he returned with The Young Rounders (Casey Tibbs, 1966). In 1968, McCrea received a career achievement award from the L.A. Film Critics Association. He was also inducted into the Western Performers Hall of Fame at the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City, and received two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame; one for his film career, and one for his radio career. His last film was Mustang Country (John C. Champion, 1976). In 1990, McCrea made his last public appearance. He died three weeks later at the age of 84 at the Motion Picture & Television Country House and Hospital in Woodland Hills, Los Angeles, from pneumonia.

Sources: Jim Beaver (IMDb), Wikipedia (Dutch and English) and IMDb.

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Jayne Mansfield in de film Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter? (1957)

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Tony Randall en Jayne Mansfield in de film Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter? (1957)

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Jayne Mansfield in de film Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter? (1957)

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Spanish autographed postcard. Photo: Vicente Ibanez. Collection: Marlène Pilaete.

The new La Collectionneuse post at our blog European Film Star Postcards is dedicated to Spanish photographer Vicente Ibanez. Check it out on 29 April 2024!

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Spanish postcard. Photo: Vicente Ibanez. Collection: Marlène Pilaete.

The new La Collectionneuse post at our blog European Film Star Postcards is dedicated to Spanish photographer Vicente Ibanez. Check it out on 29 April 2024!

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Spanish postcard by Ediciones Tarjefher, no. 121. Photo: Vicente Ibanez. Collection: Marlène Pilaete.

The new La Collectionneuse post at our blog European Film Star Postcards is dedicated to Spanish photographer Vicente Ibanez. Check it out on 29 April 2024!