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Vintage original 3.5 x 5.25 in. German postcard depicting the beautiful Austrian-born silent film actress, dancer, and singer, LIANE HAID, often referred to as Austria's first movie star. She is depicted in a sensually playful publicity pose seated sideways in a club-style chair as the smoke from her cigarette billows upwards. This postcard was signed boldly in black ink by Liane Haid in, we believe, 1926 (see additional details below), the year in which she appeared in five films. Printed by the renowned Ross-Verlag company of Berlin, Germany, this vintage original "country of origin" postcard is unused in very fine+ condition with only very light diagonal indentations on each corner from where it was inserted in a vintage postcard album.
Provenance: Approximately 8 years ago, we purchased a collection of two albums of vintage original German postcards from a rare book dealer at an antiquarian book fair in Pasadena, California (see photos). Approximately half of the postcards were signed by the respective personalities and the ones that were dated by the actors are all dated "1926." We were informed by the dealer that these photographs came from a film collector in Germany who acquired the postcards at the time they were issued and then had them signed by the respective actors when he met them in person. We are now pleased to make these vintage original postcards available to other collectors.
Juliane "Liane" Haid (August 16, 1895 – November 28, 2000) was an Austrian actress who has often been referred to as Austria's first movie star. Born in Vienna, Haid trained both as a dancer and singer and became the epitome of the Süßes Wiener Mädel ("Sweet Viennese Girl") and a popular pin-up throughout the 1920s and 1930s. Her first motion picture was a propaganda film made during the First World War, Mit Herz und Hand fürs Vaterland (1916). She worked for the renowned UFA studio and, as a trained singer, easily made the transition to the sound era, appearing in comedy films alongside German stars such as Willi Forst, Bruno Kastner, Georg Alexander, Theo Lingen, and Heinz Rühmann. Having refused several offers from Hollywood, she left Germany for Switzerland in 1942 "because of the regime, because everything was bombed, and because all the good directors had left." She married with Carl Spycher and also ended her film career. Her notable films include Lady Hamilton (1921; her breakthrough role); Lucrezia Borgia (1922); The Csardas Princess (1927, based on the operetta by Emmerich Kálmán); and the talkies The Song Is Ended (1930) and Ungeküsst soll man nicht schlafen gehn (1936). She made her last film appearance in 1953. She lived with her family near Bern, Switzerland, where she died at the age of 105 years young. Ross-Verlag in Berlin was a German publishing house specialized in photographs and photo postcards of artists. The owner of the company was Heinrich Ross (b. 10 August 1870; d. after 1954 as emigrant in the USA). |