Claire Lotto

Claire Lotto (1893-1952) was a German dancer and silent film actress. Between 1916 and 1933, she appeared in 41 films. Lotto married German film actor Carl de Vogt, with whom she had a son, Karl Franz de Vogt.


German postcard by Photochemie, no. K. 1449. Photo: Ernst Schneider, Berlin.


German postcard by NPG, no. 978. Photo: Anny Eberth, Berlin.

Hungarian films with Béla Lugosi

Claire Lotto was born Klara Elsbeth Alma Harnisch in 1893 in Kasekow, Pomerania, Germany (now Casekow, Brandenburg, Germany). She was also known as Cläre Lotto and Kläry Lotto.

As a dancer at the Hofburg in Vienna, she performed also in Budapest, Moscow and Berlin. In the 1910s, she made her film debut in Hungary.

She appeared in several film dramas directed by the young Michael Curtiz, including Az utolsó hajna/The Last Dawn (Mihaly Kertesz, 1917), Lulu (Mihaly Kertesz, 1917) opposite Béla Lugosi and 99-es számú bérkocsi/Rental Car Number 99 (Mihaly Kertesz, 1918) with Victor Varconi.

From 1920, she acted in German silent cinema. She often co-starred with Carl de Vogt, whom she married in 1922. Together they played in Karl May adaptations like Die Todeskarawane/Caravan of Death (Josef Stein, 1920) and Auf den Trümmern des Paradieses/On the Brink of Paradise (Josef Stein, 1920), starring De Vogt as Kara Ben Nemsi.

These films were followed by many dramas, adventure films and comedies till 1925.


Austrian postcard by Iris-Verlag, no. 659/2. Photo: Residenz-Atelier, Wien (Vienna).


German postcard by Rotophot in the Film Sterne series, no. 93/1. Photo: Karl Schenker, Berlin / Leo.

The Sister of Henny Porten

Claire Lotto played the sister of Henny Porten in In Prater (Peter Paul Felner, 1924). While Porten marries a count, Claire marries a train driver. Yet, both women are pursued by a lustful immoral baron (Angelo Ferrari), which creates tensions between the sisters and between husbands and wives. Things become worse when the baron is found dead...

In 1925 Lotto had female leads in e.g. the military farce Zapfenstreich/Taps (Conrad Wiene, 1925) and Am besten gefällt mir die Lore/I like Lore best (Josef Stein, 1925).

By the late 1920s, Lotto's parts became smaller, though she still had the lead in a minor production, Gestrandete Menschen/Stranded People (Kurt Nehrke, 1927), with Erich Kaiser-Titz.

After two German early sound films, Claire Lotto quit the film sets for good.

She died in Berlin, Germany in 1952, aged 58, from undisclosed causes. With Carl de Vogt, she had a son, Karl Franz de Vogt (1917).


Austrian postcard by Iris-Verlag, no. 703. Photo: Engel & Walter.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 694/3. Photo: Atlantic Film / Westi Film. Henny Porten and Claire Lotto in Pratertraum/Prater. Die Erlebnisse zweier Nähmädchen (Peter Paul Felner, 1924).


German postcard by Verlag Hermann Leiser, no. 3843. Photo: Westi.

Sources: Wikipedia (German and English) and IMDb.

Karen Morley

Karen Morley (1909-2003) was an American film actress who appeared in such MGM films as Scarface (1932) and Dinner at Eight (1932). Her career was broken in 1947 by the House Committee on Un-American Activities.


French postcard by A.N., Paris, no. 849. Photo: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.


British postcard by Foto-Roff in the Black & Whites Gallery, London, no. 1198. Photo: Kobal Collection. Karen Morley and boyfriend Robert Young, 1932.


British postcard by Film Weekly. Photo: M.G.M. Franchot Tone and Karen Morley in Gabriel over the White House (Gregory La Cava, 1933).


British Art Photo postcard, no. 127. Photo: Paramount Pictures.

Rehearsal replacements for Greta Garbo

Karen Morley was born Mildred Linton in Ottumwa, Iowa in 1909. As a child, she was adopted by a well-to-do family who moved to California during the 1920s. She attended Hollywood High School and studied for a career in medicine at UCLA, but a class in theatre changed her career ambitions. Karen dropped out of college to join the Los Angeles Civic Repertory Theatre and the Pasadena Playhouse.

At the Pasadena Playhouse, she was discovered by director Clarence Brown when he was looking for rehearsal replacements for Greta Garbo. He cast her alongside Garbo and Robert Montgomery in the drama Inspiration (Clarence Brown, 1931).

Howard Hughes chose her for the role of blond moll Poppy in Scarface (Howard Hawks, Richard Rosson, 1932) starring Paul Muni. She received a contract with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and was selected as one of the WAMPAS Baby Stars in 1931. That year, she married director Charles Vidor and had a son with him, Michael Karoly.

Her other films included The Mask of Fu Manchu (Charles Brabin, 1932) with Boris Karloff, the mystery Arsene Lupin (Jack Conway, 1933) starring John Barrymore, the political fantasy Gabriel Over the White House (Gregory La Cava, 1933), and the all-star comedy drama Dinner at Eight (George Cukor, 1933).

In 1934, Morley left MGM after arguments about her roles and private life, including her intention to start a family. King Vidor entrusted her with the leading role in his New Deal propaganda film Our Daily Bread (1934). She continued to work as a freelance performer and appeared in Michael Curtiz's Black Fury (1935) with Paul Muni and The Littlest Rebel (David Butler, 1935) with Shirley Temple. She only appeared in a few films from this time onwards, as it was difficult to make a film career at that time without the backing of a major film studio.


Dutch postcard, no. 472. Photo: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Karen Morley and Charles Starrett in The Mask of Fu Manchu (Charles Brabin, 1932).


Dutch postcard, no. 510. Photo: Metro Goldwyn Mayer. Nils Asther and Karen Morley in Washington Masquerade (Charles Brabin, 1932). The card holds the stamp of the Dutch National Board of Censors. The Dutch title of the film was Hoog Spel (High Stakes).


British postcard by Film Weekly. Photo: M.G.M. Walter Huston, Karen Morley and Franchot Tone in Gabriel over the White House (Gregory La Cava, 1933).


Dutch postcard by Loet C. Barnstijn. Photo: United Artists. Barbara Pepper, Tom Keene and Karen Morley in Our Daily Bread (King Vidor, 1934).

Blacklisted by Hollywood

Karen Morley played Charlotte Lucas, Mr. Collins' wife, in Pride and Prejudice (Robert Z. Leonard, 1940). The film was critically well-received, but it did not advance her career. Morley turned her attention to the stage and acted in three plays on Broadway in 1941 and 1942. In 1943, she divorced Charles Vidor to marry actor Lloyd Gough. The couple remained married to him until he died in 1984.

In 1947, she was called to the HUAC (House Committee on Un-American Activities) because she was suspected to be a member of the Communist Party of the United States. She refused to answer questions and, as a result, ended up blacklisted by Hollywood. Her final films were the Film Noir M (1951) directed by Joseph Losey, who was also blacklisted, and the Western Born to the Saddle (William Beaudine, 1953).

Later, she made brief appearances in the TV series Kung Fu (1973), Kojak (1973) and Police Woman (1975). Morley did not manage to get any more film roles, but she remained active in politics. In 1954, she ran for lieutenant governor of New York for the American Labor Party but was unsuccessful.

In 1993, she appeared in The Great Depression, a documentary TV series. In the series, she talked about how helpless she felt as a privileged Hollywood actress in the face of all the poverty and suffering that surrounded her. She also spoke of her experience making Our Daily Bread and working for King Vidor, whom she described as a conservative who thought that people should willingly help each other without government interference.

In December 1999, at the age of 90, she appeared in Vanity Fair in an article about blacklist survivors, and she was honoured at the San Francisco Film Festival. In 2003, Morley seemed to make a comeback when she was offered a role in the black comedy Duplex (Danny DeVito, 2003) starring Drew Barrymore. However, Karen Morley died of pneumonia at the Motion Picture Country House in Woodland Hills, Los Angeles, at 93.


British postcard. Photo: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures.


British postcard in the Film-Kurier Series, London, no. 10, Photo: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, no. 56.


Dutch postcard, no. 247. Photo: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.


Belgian postcard by P.I.A. Belga Phot., Bruxelles, no. 76. Photo: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.

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

Photo by Freiherr Wolff von Gudenberg

Freiherr (Baron) Wolff von Gudenberg (1890-1961 or 1964) was a photographer who was noted and fashionable in the 1920s and 1930s in Berlin. Wolff von Gudenberg is the name of an old Hessian noble family that was raised to the rank of baron in 1873. He photographed actors like Marlene Dietrich and Fritzi Massary, dancers like Marianne Winkelstern and La Jana, and international celebrities such as Josephine Baker and Anna May Wong. His photos appeared in magazines such as Die Dame, newspapers like Berliner Illustrirte Zeitung (BIZ), and on countless postcards by Ross Verlag and other publishers. To commemorate this forgotten photographer, we selected 20 postcards with his portraits. Marlene Pilaete added three special cigarette cards of Marlene Dietrich to the post.


Dutch postcard by JSA, no. 230. Photo: Frhr. W. von Gudenberg. Collection: Marlene Pilaete.

Marlene Dietrich (1901-1992) was the first German actress who succeeded in Hollywood. Throughout her long career, she constantly reinvented herself. In 1920s Berlin, she started as a cabaret singer, chorus girl, and film actress. In the 1930s, she became a Hollywood star, then a World War II frontline entertainer, and finally, she was an international stage show performer from the 1950s till the 1970s. Now we remember her as one of the icons of the 20th century.


Dutch postcard by JSA, no. 232. Photo: Freiherr Wolff von Gudenberg.

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.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 3977/1, 1928-1929. Photo: Frhr. v. Gudenberg, Berlin.

German actress Käthe Dorsch (1890-1957) was a famous stage actress in Vienna and Berlin. She also made several silent and sound films.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 4869/2, 1929-1930. Photo: Atelier Gudenberg, Berlin.

Hungarian film actress (Gräfin) Agnes Esterhazy (1891-1956) worked mainly in the silent cinema of Austria and Germany. The countess appeared in more than 30 films between 1920 and 1943.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 5167/1, 1930-1931. Photo: Atelier Gudenberg, Berlin.

Anna May Wong (1905-1961) was the first Chinese American movie star and the first Asian American actress to gain international recognition. Frustrated by the stereotypical supporting roles she reluctantly played in Hollywood, Wong left for Europe, where she starred in such classics as Piccadilly (1929).


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 5230/1, 1930-1931. Photo: Frhr. von Gudenberg, Berlin. Elisabeth Bergner in Der Geiger von Florenz (Paul Czinner, 1926).

The profoundly sensitive acting of Austrian-British actress Elisabeth Bergner (1897-1986) influenced the German cinema of the 1920s and 1930s. She specialised in the bisexual type that she portrayed in Der Geiger von Florenz and other film and stage roles. Nazism forced her to go into exile, but she worked successfully in the West End and on Broadway.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 5304/1, 1930-1931. Photo: Frhr. von Gudenberg, Berlin.

French actor and singer Albert Préjean (1894-1979) was a former WWI flying ace. He is best known for playing heroes in the silent films of René Clair, and for playing George Simenon's detective Maigret.


German postcard by Verlag Piek, Postdam, no. 855. Photo: Frhr. von Gudenberg. Max Hansen, Alfred Jerger and Siegfried Arno in the play 'Die drei Musketiere' (The Three Musketeers, 1929) at the Grosse Schauspielhaus.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 5555/1, 1930-1931. Photo: Freiherr von Gudenberg, Berlin.

Danish cabaret artist, actor, comedian, and singer Max Hansen (1897-1961) was known as 'The Little Caruso'. During the 1920s, he was one of the most popular stars in Berlin.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 5844/1, 1930-1931. Photo: Frhr. von Gudenberg, Berlin.

German singer/actress Charlotte Ander (1902-1969) was a star in the silent era before making the transition to sound. The Nazis broke her successful career because she was not of 'pure blood'.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 6760/1, 1931-1932. Photo: Ufa / Frhr. von Gudenberg. Trude Marlen in Spiel mit dem Feuer/Playing with Fire (Ralph Arthur Roberts, 1934).

Trude Marlen (1912-2005), was a curly-locked Austrian leading lady of the 1930s. From 1933 until the 1940s, she made mostly light entertainment films as a Ufa star, in which Willi Forst was often her partner. The Ufa traded her as the German answer to Jean Harlow, but for the most part, she was the Viennese equivalent of the 'girl next door', engaging and uncomplicated.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 6799/1, 1931-1932. Photo: Freiherr v. Gudenberg.

Hungarian-born singer and actress Márta Eggerth or Martha Eggerth (1912-2013) maintained a global career for over 70 years. She was the popular and talented star of 30 German and Austrian films of the 1930s.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 7049/1, 1932-1933. Photo: Frhr. von Gudenberg Phot.

Hungarian-born Gitta Alpár (1903-1991) was a Jewish actress, opera and operetta singer, and dancer, whose successful career in Germany was broken by the Nazis.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 7762/2, 1932-1933. Photo: Frhr. von Gudenberg.

Smart German actor Gustav Fröhlich (1902-1987) played Freder Fredersen in the classic Metropolis (1927) and became a popular star in light comedies. After the war, he tried to escape from the standard role of a charming gentleman with the part of a doomed painter in Die Sünderin (1951), but the effort went down into a scandal.


German Postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 8294/12, 1933-1934. Photo: Frhr. von Gudenberg / Ufa.

Jovial, pleasantly plump Hans Albers (1891-1960) was a superstar of German cinema between 1930 and 1945. He was also one of the most popular German singers of the twentieth century. His song Auf der Reeperbahn nachts um halb eins (On the Reeperbahn at half past midnight) is the unofficial anthem of Hamburg’s neighbourhood of St. Pauli, famous for its brothels, music and nightclubs.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 8419/1, 1933-1934. Photo: Ufa / Frhr. von Gudenberg.

The Austrian-German actor Wolf Albach-Retty (1906-1967) is nowadays best known as the father of Romy Schneider, but during the 1930s he was a popular leading man of German cinema.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 8469/1, 1933-1934. Photo: Ufa / Frhr. von Gudenberg.

Willy Fritsch (1901-1973) was the immensely popular ‘Sunny Boy’ of the Ufa operettas of the 1930s and 1940s.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 8611/2, 1933-1934. Photo: Freiherr von Gudenberg / Ufa.

German actress Brigitte Helm (1908-1996) is still famous for her dual role as Maria and her double the evil Maria, the Maschinenmensch, in the silent SF classic Metropolis (Fritz Lang, 1927). After Metropolis she made over 30 films in which she almost always had the starring role. She easily made the transition to sound films, before she abruptly retired in 1935.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 8638/1, 1933-1934. Photo: Frhr. von Gudenberg / Ufa.

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 1930s.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 8806/1, 1933-1934. Photo: Ufa / Frhr. von Gudenberg. Collection: Marlene Pilaete.

Hungarian actress Käthe von Nagy (1904-1973) started as the ‘Backfish’ of German films of the late 1920s. In the early 1930s, she became a fashionable and charming star of German and French cinema.


Borg Cigarette card in the Film-u. Bühnen-Lieblinge series, Serie B, Bild 86. Photo: Freiherr Wolff von Gudenberg. Collection: Marlene Pilaete.


Borg Cigarette card in the Film-u. Bühnen-Lieblinge series, Serie B, Bild 112. Photo: Freiherr Wolff von Gudenberg. Collection: Marlene Pilaete.


Borg Cigarette card in the Film-u. Bühnen-Lieblinge series, Serie B, Bild 89. Photo: Freiherr Wolff von Gudenberg. Collection: Marlene Pilaete.

Sources: Un regard oblique, ArtNet and RKD (Dutch).