Vintage original 3.5 x 5.5 in. postcard featuring the famous German singer, actor, and songwriter, FRANZ BAUMANN. He is depicted in a period costume with a white wig in a production of Die Kaiserin. Printed with beautiful serrated borders, this vintage original postcard was inscribed and signed in black ink by Franz Baumann in, we believe, 1926 (see "Provenance" below). It is unused in fine- condition with a small green stain on the tip of the top left corner and six non-contiguous vertical lines down the right side of the postcard to the right of his face that do not appear to be creases but some type of impressions which go through small portions of his inscription and signature. 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. Franz Baumann (born December 7, 1890 in Szczecin , † December 23, 1965 in Berlin) was a German singer, actor, and songwriter. He first studied German literature in Berlin, Jena, and Heidelberg and later completed his vocal training in Wiesbaden, Milan, and Naples. His artistic career began as a concert singer, where he devoted himself to songs by Franz Schubert, but folk songs and operetta were in his repertoire. Many recordings underscored his success, which finally came in the international context. He also gave many concerts in Holland and Switzerland. Baumann often took over feature films until 1933. The increasing popularity of broadcasting brought Baumann another career push as a singer. His voice was well suited for the new medium and, during a longer stay in New York, he also stood for local channels in front of the microphone. Likewise, his voice was heard on the radio from Paris and the BBC. The radio technical journal Der Funkspruch was proud of this success in its issue of July 22, 1928: "As the first and only German singer, Franz Baumann has recently sung for a week on London's radio station with unprecedented success and not only booked a huge success for himself, but also opened up a new international circle of friends for the German song. Baumann sang German folk songs in London in German and English. It is interesting that the London daily press, inter alia, writes the following: "Franz Baumann sings in four languages, and he masters the English so completely that he has sung without even the suspicion of a foreign accent." He was generally referred to in the press as the German radio and "gramophone" star." In 1937, finally returned to Germany and was considered the "most popular radio Tenor" there, whose career continued unabated. Most of the other texts written by Baumann were apolitical and fit into the entertainment mainstream of the 1930s. He wrote the German texts for the songs “Ramona,” “Altes Spinnrad,” “Homesick to Virginia,” “Donkey-Serenade,” and “Moonlight-Serenade.” He also wrote many lyrics for feature films, including the anti-English propaganda film My Life for Ireland (songs: “Now your sticks boys” and “We are from St. Edwards”) and for the Paul-Hörbiger film, Three Mäderl to Schubert (song: The Nightingale Sings Softly”). He died in 1965, 75 years old, as a result of two traffic accidents in Berlin.