Item description for HILDE JENNINGS (1926) Orig German Silent Film Postcard SIGNED BY HILDE JENNINGS

Vintage original 3.5 x 5.25 in. German postcard depicting the German silent film actress, HILDE JENNINGS. She is depicted in a close publicity shot in a dramatic pose in front of a dark backdrop. This postcard was signed in black ink by Hilde Jennings in, we believe, 1926 (see additional details below). Printed in Berlin, Germany, this vintage original "country of origin" postcard is unused in fine condition with a curved crease in the top right corner in the background area and border and a light diagonal mark (not a crease) on the corners from where it was inserted in the albums described below. There are no tears, stains, or other flaws.

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/she met them in person. We are now pleased to make these vintage original postcards available to other collectors.

Hilde Jennings was born on December 21, 1906 in Bad Freienwalde, Brandenburg, Germany. She is an actress, known for Der Geisterzug (1927), Wenn Menschen irren, Frauen auf Irrwegen (1926), and Zwei Brüder (1929). She took ballet lessons as a young girl and in later years she joined a Russian ballet group. It followed tours through Europe and North Africa. Finally she was engaged at the Staatsoper Berlin. In the last years of the silent film era, before the sound film produced a technical and artistic revolution, she took part in Moral (1928). With her only German sound film, Sei gegrüsst, du mein schönes Sorrent (1930), she left Germany and went to the Soviet Union together with her husband and director, Mikhail Dubson. There, she took part in two more films, Vesenniye dni (1934) and Bolshie krylya (1937). According to a Russian Wikipedia entry, she was arrested by the NKVD on June 25, 1941 on charges of espionage and was subsequently deported to Kazakhstan. Following her release in 1955, she spent her remaining years in Karakol (Kyrgyzstan), where she died in the late 1970's.