Leny Escudero

Leny Escudero, originally uploaded by Truus, Bob & Jan too!.

Belgian postcard by S. Best, Anvers (Antwerp), nr. 25. Gift card for Victoria chocolates.

Popular French singer Leny Escudéro (1932) did not want to be a star, but performed his songs to help others. He also appeared in committed roles in films and on tv.

Gianni Morandi

Gianni Morandi, originally uploaded by Truus, Bob & Jan too!.

Spanish postcard by Postal Oscar Color S.A., Hospitalet (Barcelona), nr. 302. Photo: RCA Victor.

Italian pop singer and entertainer Gianni Morandi (1944) reportedly sold more than 30 million recordings and appeared in 18 films. In 1970, he represented Italy at the Eurovision Song Contest with Occhi di ragazza. His career went into a decline in the late 1970’s but underwent a revival in the 1980’s. He won the San Remo Festival in 1987, placed second in 1995 and third in 2000. Having enjoyed four decades of unmatched success, Gianni Morandi is among Italy's greatest performers of all time.

Gian Luigi Morandi was born in the village of Monghidoro on the Tuscan-Emilian Apennines in 1944. His father Renato was active within the Italian Communist Party and Gianni used to help him sell the party newspapers. To make ends meet Morandi worked at an early age as a shoe-shiner, cobbler and as a soda and candy vendor in the village's only cinema. He made his performance debut at age 12, singing in the public square on New Year's Day, 1956. His vocal abilities led him to a number of small gigs, some of which were during the Communist Party’s activities. His parents moved him from traditional schooling to a school in Bologna, where he studied song and performance with master vocalist Alda Scaglioni. He made his official debut in 1958 in Alfonsine, Ravenna; and he made his film debut in the comedy Totò ciak/Totò Clapper Loader (1960, Daniele D'Anza) starring the popular comedian Totò. Morandi formed a band, and was soon referred to as the Italian Paul Anka. In 1962, Morandi won a small talent competition where he met and impressed boxing and entertainment promoter Paul Lionetti, who arranged an audience with executives of RCA Victor. He was signed by RCA Italia and his premier 45 was Andavo a Cento All'ora (I Went to 100 per Hour).

Gianni Morandi achieved national stardom with his third 45, Fatti mandare dalla mamma (Let Your Mother Send You). Some of his songs took momentum through soundtracks of such films as I maniaci/The Maniacs (1964, Lucio Fulci) starring Walter Chiari, and 008: Operation pace/008: Operation Peace (1965, Tullio Piacentini). Morandi also starred in several musicarelli, typical Italian musicals with a flimsy plot, shot and edited in no time after a song had become a hit. During the production of the first of these films, In ginocchio da te/On My Knees For You (1964, Ettore Maria Fizzarotti), Morandi met Laura Efrikian. She was the daughter of a famous conductor of Armenian origin and she was already an established actress. They married secretly in 1966 and when Laura was pregnant Morandi’s military service was temporarily postponed. Later, on leave from military service, Gianni worked on the film Per amore… per magia/For Love…For Magic (1966, Ducio Tessari), an ambitious cross between a musical and the story of Aladdin. The film was a flop at the box office. Throughout the 1960’s he remained Italy’s darling. His songs Non son degno di te (I Am Not Worthy of You) and Scende la pioggia (The Rain Comes Down) were certified as having each sold over one million copies, and were awarded gold discs. He won a number of Italian popular song festivals, including the Canzonissima festival in 1965 with Non son degno di te, in 1968 with Scende la pioggia and in 1969 with Ma chi se ne importa (But Who Cares?).

In 1970 Gianni Morandi represented Italy in Amsterdam at the Eurovision Song Contest with Occhi di Ragazza (Eyes of a Girl). He finished eighth out of eleven. During the late 1970’s he experienced a period of slight decline, but he regained popularity during the 1980s. He won the San Remo Festival in 1987 with Si può dare di più (One Can Give More) together with Enrico Ruggeri and Umberto Tozzi. With Barbara Cola he became 2nd in 1995 with In amore (In Love) and he became 3rd in 2000 with Innamorato (Being In Love), written by Eros Ramazotti. At a performance for War Child in 1999 he sang Maria, Marí together with Luciano Pavarotti. It is estimated that Morandi has sold 30 million recordings. He has written a number of autobiographical books and appeared in 18 films. Morandi also was the host in popular Italian television shows and played as an actor in several TV series, a.o. as Claude Jade's husband Davide in Voglia di volare/Wanting to Fly (1984, Pier Giuseppe Murgia). His later feature films included Il provincial/The Provincial (1971, Luciano Salce), La cosa buffa/The Funny Thing (1972, Aldo Lado), the comedy F.F.S.S. cioè che mi hai portato a fare sopra a Posillipo se non mi vuoi più bene?/The National railways, Or Why Did You Bring Me All the Way to Posillipo if You Don’t Love Me Anymore? (1983, Renzo Arbore) and Panni sporchi/Dirty Linen (1999, Mario Monicelli) with Mariangela Melato and Ornella Muti. Gianni Morandi has 3 children: Marco Morandi and Marianna Morandi from his first wife, Laura Efrikian (they divorced in 1979), and Pietro from his second wife, Anna Dan, whom he married in 2005.

Sources: Evan C. Gutierrez (All Music Guide), Wikipedia and IMDb.

Marisa Mell

Marisa Mell, originally uploaded by Truus, Bob & Jan too!.

Curvaceous Austrian actress Marisa Mell (1939-1992) became a cult figure of 1960’s Italian B-films. Her most famous role is criminal mastermind Eva Kant in Mario Bava’s Diabolik (1968).

Lucy and George Reeves 1957

Lucy and Superman - Lucille Ball with George Reeves in 1957

Brigitte Helm

Brigitte Helm, originally uploaded by shme.

German actress, best remembered as the star of Fritz Lang's "Metropolis" (1927).

Margot Hielscher appeared in 60 films and 200 TV productions

Margot Hielscher, originally uploaded by Truus, Bob & Jan too!.

German postcard by Film-Foto-Verlag, nr. 3854/1. 1941-1944. Photo: Baumann/Terra.

German singer, film actress and costume designer Margot Hielscher (1919) appeared in 60 films and 200 TV productions. She represented Germany twice at the Eurovision Song Contest, in 1957 and 1958. With 90 years she is now the oldest living person who ever participated in the Eurovision Song Contest.

Margot Hielscher was born in Berlin in 1919. Her father owned a travel agency. From 1935 till 1939 she trained as a costume and fashion designer. Thus she met in Berlin the contemporary stars of the cinema and the music world. This stimulated her to study singing and acting, and she took classes with Albert Florath and Mary Koppenhöfer. Since 1939, she worked as a costume designer for the Ufa. One of the first films on which she worked was the comedy Hurra, ich bin Papa!/Hurrah! I'm a Papa (1939, Kurt Hoffmann) starring Heinz Rühmann. Rühmann later asked her to marry him, which she refused. Soon she also was discovered as an actress. In 1940 she made her first film appearance in Das Herz der Königin/The Heart of the Queen (1940, Carl Froelich) alongside the famous Zarah Leander. For the Terra studio she appeared in the romance Auf Wiedersehn, Franziska!/Goodbye, Franziska! (1941, Helmut Käutner) starring Marianne Hoppe. From 1942 on she worked for the Bavaria Studio in Munich. She played roles in several romantic comedies in which she also performed as a singer and she soon became one of the most popular actresses of the German cinema during the Second World War. In 1943 she sang the song Frauen sind keine Engel (Women are No Angels) in the film with the same title by Willy Forst. It would become her best known song. During the war, Hielscher undertook several tours for the troops as a singer with the Big Band of Gene Hammers. According to IMDb, Josef Goebbels thought her singing was too ‘American’. He insisted that she shouldn't play opposite Ferdinand Marian in the film Dreimal Komödie/3 x Comedy (1944-1949, Victor Tourjansky) because she wasn't ‘German’ enough. At that time, all the film castings had to be agreed on by Goebbels. However, after another screen-test with some more ‘German’ make-up, Goebbels finally agreed on her casting.

After the war, Margot Hielscher had her career high, when she appeared in front of enthusiastic GI’s with her show Margot´s Revue. She contributed as a co-screenwriter to the film Hallo Fräulein/Hello Fraulein (1949, Rudolf Jugert), which was partially based on her experiences of the immediate post-war period. While shooting this film, she also met her future husband, film composer Friedrich Meyer. 10 years later followed their wedding. IMDb writes that she decided to obtain a pilot's licence in Switzerland in 1952 because her friend Herbert von Karajan cynically told her that it was a good thing that there still were certain things that were only for men. Hielscher proved him wrong and passed her test with one less lesson. In the 1950’s she focussed on her singing career and many of her film appearances were only vocal numbers, such as in the noir Nachts auf den Straßen/Detour (1952) starring Hans Albers and Hildegard Kneff . She incidentally appeared in international films such as The Devil Makes Three (1952, Andrew Marton) starring Gene Kelly, and Nel gorgo del peccato (1954, Vittorio Cottafavi) with Franco Fabrizi. Her voice was a mix of jazz vocals and operetta soprano. In 1957, Hielscher was chosen to represent Germany at the Eurovision Song Contest with the song Telefon, Telefon (Telephone, Telephone). The song finished 4th out of 10 songs, and gained a total of 8 points. Hielscher was chosen again to represent Germany at the Eurovision Song Contest 1958 with the song Für Zwei Groschen Musik (Music For Two Pennies). The song finished 7th out of 10 songs, and gained a total of 5 points.

Margot Hielscher went on to appear in countless TV shows and series till the late 1980’s. Among her series were Salto mortale (1969) with Gustav Knuth, and the comedy series Suchen Sie Dr. Suk! (1972) with Ferdy Maine. For the Bayerischen Fernsehen (Bavaria TV), she was the host of the 1960’s TV show Zu Gast bei Margot Hielscher (Hosted by Margot Hielscher), in which she received some 700 guests including Maurice Chevalier and Romy Schneider. She incidentally played in films, including the period sex comedy Frau Wirtins tolle Töchterlein/The Countess Died of Laughter (1973, Franz Antel) and the Thomas Mann adaptation Der Zauberberg/The Magic Mountain (1982, Hans W. Geissendörfer) with Rod Steiger. In 1991 and 1992 she performed in the Stephen Sondheim musical Follies alongside Eartha Kitt in the Theater des Westens (Theater of the West) in Berlin. After final roles in the TV series Rivalen der Rennbahn/Rivals at the Race Track (1989) and Der Nelkenkönig/The Carnation King (1994, Franz Josef Gottlieb) she finally pulled back from the film business, but kept appearing regularly in the theater. Recently she performed in the Philharmonie München (Munich Philharmonic) in 2006, in the Philharmonie Berlin (Berlin Philharmonic) in 2007 and in the Komödie im Bayerischen Hof München (Comedy in the Bayerischer Hof Munich) in 2008, with Christian Ude . In 1978 she received the Bundesverdienstkreuz (Germany’s Order of Merit) and in 1985 she was awarded with the Filmband in Gold for long and outstanding achievements in German film. Since 1942 Margot Hielscher lives in the Munich district of Bogenhausen (Duke Park).

Sources: Alexander Darda (Margot-Hielscher.de), Thomas Staedeli (Cyranos), StepahnieD’heil (Steffi-Line), Wikipedia and IMDb.

Hedy Lamarr the most beautiful woman in films

Glamorous and seductive film star Hedy Lamarr (1913–2000) was born in Austria. The notorious Czechoslovak film Ecstasy made her an international sensation, and Louis Mayer invited her to Hollywood where she became ‘the most beautiful woman in films’.

Gallery for vintage actress Hedy Lamarr

Gracie Fields

Gracie Fields, originally uploaded by Truus, Bob & Jan too!.

Gracie Fields (1898-1979), born Grace Stansfield, was a British singer, comedienne and stage and film actress. In the 1930s she was a top box office draw and the best paid actress in Britain.

Born over a chip shop in Rochdale, Lancashire, Gracie Fields started as child actor in 1905. Her two sisters and brother went to stage too, but Gracie proved to be more successful. In 1910 she had her professional debut in variety in Rochdale. Fields met comedian Archie Pitt and joined forces. Pitt became her manager, and the two married in 1923. Between 1915 and 1924 they toured the UK with their revues; with the last revue Mr Tower of London Fields reached West End, started a dramatic career and the recording of her songs too. Fields became a wildly popular music-hall singer with her particular style of “a mixture of self-deprecating jokes, comic songs and monologues, as well as cheerful "depression-era" songs all presented in a "no-airs-and-graces" Northern, working class style”, as Wikipedia writes. Because of her strong interaction with her audiences, Fields caused sold out theatres all over Britain and became one of the highest paid performers.

In the 1930s Fields reached the peak of her career and was awarded various honours. After her marriage with Pitt fell down, she donated her London house to a maternal hospital. When she fell ill with cancer in 1939 and retired to her villa in Capri, she was covered in goodwill messages, and after recovery recorded the song ‘Gracie’s Thanks’ to thank all her fans for sending al the mail. In 1940 she married Italian-born film director Monty Banks, and would have been interned in Britain because of the war, so she left for the US and entertained the Allied troops all over the world, but thus disappointed her British fans. After the war she returned to Britain in 1948 to perform, returning to her old popularity though never regaining the heights of the 1930s. Though Fields stopped playing in films, she continued making records. She had lost her British nationality after her marriage but regained it at the end of her life when made a DBE, becoming Dame Gracie Fields.

Fields’ most famous song was ‘Sally’, the title song of her first sound film, the First World War drama Sally in Our Alley (Maurice Elvey 1931), which was an enormous success. Fields continued to make various films in the UK and the US, though she always preferred to perform in front of a live audience. After Sally in Our Alley, she continued to make films for the Ealing studios directed by Elvey such as This Week of Grace (1933) but also comedies and musicals directed by Basil Dean, such as Look Up and Laugh (1935), and by Monty Banks (Queen of Hearts, 1936). In 1938 she played in Monty Banks’ musical comedy set in Australia in the 1880s: We’re Going to Be Rich, with Victor McLaglen as Fields’ partner. Next came to other Banks films, the first still made in the UK and the second in the US: Keep Smiling (1938) and Shipyard Sally (1939). During the war Fields played in two American musical comedies with Monty Woolley (Holy Matrimony, 1943; Molly and Me, 1945) and one war drama with Constance Bennett (Paris Underground, 1945). After the war she played in television, between 1956 and 1963, including a role of Miss Marple in the Agatha Christie tv-film A Murder is Announced (1956), part of the Goodyear Playhouse Television series. Fields was also a regular guest in tv shows, including the religiously themed variety show Stars on Sunday (1971).

See and hear 'Sally': www.youtube.com/watch?v=K93nPStUfW0

Dorrit Weixler

Dorrit Weixler, originally uploaded by Truus, Bob & Jan too!.

German postcard by Verl. Hermann Leiser, Berlin, nr. 7325.

German silent film actress Dorrit Weixler (1892-1916) anticipated such better known comedy stars of the German cinema as Ossi Oswalda and Anny Ondra. The career of the bright and light comedienne was like a candle burning on both sides.

Gretl Theimer had an impressive career in the 1930s

Blonde Austrian actress and singer Gretl Theimer (1911-1972) arrived in the German cinema with the sound film and had an impressive career in the 1930’s.

Gallery for vintage actress Gretl Theimer