Austrian postcard by Kellner Postkarten, Wien (Vienna), no. 422. Photo: Jupiter-Film Ges.M.B.H. Bruce Low in Geld aus der Luft/Money from the air (Géza von Cziffra, 1954).
Bruce Low (1913-1990) was a Dutch schlager and gospel singer and actor who had an impressive career in West Germany and Austria.
Bruce Low was born Ernst Gottfried Bielke on a coffee plantation in Paramaribo, Surinam - then part of The Netherlands in 1913. He spent his childhood in Surinam together with his three sisters and brother. Their father, Hermann Moritz Bielke, worked as a missionary with the Herrnhuter Brüdergemeine. Their mother Lydia née Reusch was born in Hong Kong, her father came from Württemberg and was also a missionary. From 1921, Bruce attended grammar school in Zeist, the Netherlands, played tenor saxophone in the school jazz band and was a member of the local church choir. After his final exams in 1932, he studied sports at the Deutsche Hochschule für Leibesübungen (DHfL) in Berlin. But a serious injury while trampolining put an end to his studies as a sports teacher. Instead, he took singing lessons from the singing teacher Jacques Stückgold at the Hochschule für Musik. Low continued his studies in the Netherlands and also sang in a chamber choir. His performing career only took shape after the war. He organised shows for the Americans in the Netherlands, contracted music groups, was an emcee and sang spiritual songs, also for the radio. As a result, he was hired in 1949 for a show with African folk songs in Vienna. He appeared in front of the audience dressed as a black man with blackface in the Al Johnson manner and received an offer for a recording contract. His first records contained Western-style cowboy songs, such as '(Ghost) Riders in the Sky' and 'Heimweh nach Virginia'. In 1950, the man with the sonorous bass voice had his first success in Germany with 'Leise rauscht es am Missouri''. In 1953, more hits followed, such as 'So viel Wind und keine Sege'(So Much Wind and No Sail)" and his legendary 'Tabak und Rum' (Tobacco and Rum). Two years later, 'Das alte Haus von Rocky Docky', the cover version of 'This Ole House' became a box office hit. In 1956 he took third place in the newly created German Hit Parade with "Wenn die Sonne scheint in Texas" and climbed to second place with "Und es weht der Wind". His interpretation of the legendary hit "Es hängt ein Pferdehalfter an der Wand", a cover version of Carson Robison's song 'There's a Bridle Hangin' on the Wall', with which the Dutch band Kilima Hawaiians had already caused a furore in Germany in 1953, became his greatest success.
In 1958 Bruce Low took part in the preliminaries for the Eurovision Song Contest in the Netherlands, with 'Neem Dat Maar Aan Van Mij' but came in 10th. Bruce Low also made several guest appearances as a singer in the popular German-language musical entertainment films of the 1950s and 1960s, for example in Königin der Arena/Queen of the Arena (Rolf Meyer, 1952) with Maria Litto and Hans Söhnker, Wenn am Sonntagabend die Dorfmusik spielt/When The Village Music Plays on Sunday Nights (Rudolf Schündler, 1953) starring Rudolf Prack, or the operetta adaptation Blume von Hawaii/The Flower of Hawaii (Géza von Cziffra, 1953) starring Maria Litto. He also performed his hit songs in several Schlager films. As an actor he appeared in the successful drama Die endlose Nacht/The Endless Night (Will Tremper, 1963) a wounderful one-night-at-the-airport film with Karin Hübner and Harald Leipnitz. He later also appeared in two other films by Tremper, the comedy Sperrbezirk/Sperrbezirk, the business of immorality (Will Tremper, 1966) with Harald Leipnitz and Mir hat es immer Spaß gemacht/How Did a Nice Girl Like You Get Into This Business? (Will Tremper, 1970) starring Playboy bunny Barbi Benton and Broderick Crawford. After the stage musical 'Kiss me Kate' in the German translation by Marcel Prawy became an extraordinary success in the Wiener Volksoper, Prawy went to work on the Leonard Bernstein musical 'Wonderful Town' (1956), also in the Wiener Volksoper. Bruce Low played the lead role of Bob Baker as Olive Moorefield's partner.
The advancing rock and roll wave seemed to end his career, so Bruce Low started writing articles for the Munich magazine Jasmin under the pseudonym Thomas Gallauner. At the "Karl May Festival in Berlin he portrayed Old Shatterhand in 'Winnetou' (1966) and 'Der Schatz im Silbersee' (1968), alongside Gustavo Rojo as Winnetou. At the beginning of the 1970s, his voice was in demand again and he performed mainly new, partly traditional gospels. With songs such as 'Noah' (1971), 'Das Kartenspiel' (1974) and 'Die Legende von Babylon' (1978), he hit the charts once more. He appeared as a guest in several television broadcasts and was asked as a presenter for circus broadcasts. He also had several appearances in the ZDF quiz show Der große Preis. He returned to the cinemas in several films by Rainer Werner Fassbinder. First, he played in the TV two-parter Welt am Draht/World on a Wire (Rainer Werner Fassbinder, 1973) and later in the films Faustrecht der Freiheit/Fox and His Friends (Rainer Werner Fassbinder, 1975) and Die Ehe der Maria Braun/The Wedding of Maria Braun (Rainer Werner Fassbinder, 1979) starring Hanna Schygulla. In 1976 he participated again in the preliminaries of the Eurovision Song Contest, now in West Germany, with the song 'Der Jahrmarkt unserer Eitelkeit' (The Fair of Our Vanity). However, he only reached 9th place among twelve participants and the Les Humphries Singers participated for Germany with "Sing Sang Song and reached 12th place. In the 1980s it became quieter again around the singer. Two years before his death, he published his memoirs under the title: 'Es hängt ein Pferdehalfter an der Wand - das Lied meines Lebens'. In 1990, Bruce Lowe died after a long illness at the age of 76 in a Munich hospital. At his own request, the artist, who was married to his wife Marion, had his body cremated and scattered in a meadow in the Netherlands.
Sources: Stephanie D'Heil (Steffi-Line - German), Wikipedia (Dutch and German), and IMDb.
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Austrian postcard by Kellner Fotokarten, Wien, no. 1030. Photo: Titanus / Union. Martine Carol in Difendo il mio amore/Defend My Love (Giulio Macchi, 1957).
Sex symbol Martine Carol (1920–1967) was one of the most beautiful women of French cinema. During the early 1950s, she was a top box office draw as an elegant blonde seductress. Her private life was filled with turmoil including a suicide attempt, drug abuse, a kidnapping, and a mysterious death.
Martine Carol was born in 1920 as Maryse Louise Mourer in Saint-Mandé, Val-de-Marne, France. A chance meeting with comedian André Luguet steered her toward a career in the theatre. Trained by René Simon, she made her 1940 stage debut with Phèdre, billed as Maryse Arley. She subsequently caught the eye of film director Henri-Georges Clouzot who hired her for his film Le Chat/The Cat, based on the novel by Colette, but the project was scrapped. She made her first film appearance in the anti-Semitic propaganda film Les Corrupteurs (Pierre Ramelot, 1941), but she first attracted attention in La ferme aux loups/Wolf Farm (Richard Pottier, 1943), which takes advantage of her photogenic beauty and ease in front of the camera despite a limited acting ability. Throughout the 1940s she was a pin-up goddess and support actress in films like the comedy Voyage surprise (Pierre Prévert, 1947) and Les amants de Vérone/The Lovers of Verona (André Cayatte, 1949). She also appeared on the stage of the Theatre of the Renaissance. In 1947 a torrid affair with actor Georges Marchal, who was married to actress Dany Robin at the time, ended disastrously and she attempted suicide by taking an alcohol/drug overdose and throwing herself off a bridge into the Seine River. She was saved by a taxi driver who accompanied her there. Ironically, the unhappy details surrounding her suicide attempt renewed the fascination audiences had with Martine up until that time. She was also kidnapped by gangster Pierre Loutrel (aka ‘Crazy Pete’), albeit briefly, and received roses the next day as an apology.
In 1950 Martine Carol scored her first huge film success with the French Revolution epic Caroline Cherie/Dear Caroline (Richard Pottier, 1950) - no doubt prompted by her semi-nude scenes and taunting, kittenish sexuality - and she was off and running at the box office. Her film romps were typically done tastefully with an erotic twinge of innocence and gentle sexuality plus an occasional bubble bath thrown in as male bait. She continued spectacularly with an array of costumed teasers such as Adorables créatures/Adorable Creatures (1952), Lucrèce Borgia/Sins of the Borgias (1953), Madame du Barry (1954), and Nana (1954), all guided and directed by second husband Christian-Jacque, whom she married in 1954. Martine later divorced the director due to professional conflicts and long separations. She also starred in Belles de Nuit/ Beauties of the Night (René Clair, 1952) opposite Gérard Philipe, and in the last comedy directed by Preston Sturges, Les Carnets du Major Thompson/The Diary of Major Thompson (1955), based on the best-seller by Pierre Daninos. One of her last major roles was as the title character in Lola Montés (Max Ophüls, 1955), the tragic and true story of the great adventurer, circus attraction, and lover of various important men.
By the mid-1950s, Brigitte Bardot had replaced Martine Carol as the national Sex Siren, and the voluptuous blonde's career went into a severe decline. Although such mature roles as Empress Josephine in Austerlitz/The Battle of Austerlitz (Abel Gance, 1960) and Contessa Vitelleschi in Vanina Vanini (Roberto Rossellini, 1961) followed, nothing revived audience interest. Depressed, she turned alarmingly reclusive while a third marriage to French doctor Andre Rouveix also soured by 1962. Problems with substance abuse and a severe accident in the 1960s also curtailed her career dramatically. Her last film was Hell Is Empty (John Ainsworth, Bernard Knowles, 1963). Production was briefly halted due to her illness. This is why the film has two directors. Although filmed in 1963 it was not released until 1967. (By the time of the release of the film, two of the leading ladies, Patricia Viterbo and Martine, were already dead.) Martine Carol’s last marriage to fourth husband Mike Eland, an English businessman and friend of first husband Steve Crane, seemed hopeful, but in 1967, she died of cardiac arrest at age 46 in the bathroom of a hotel in Monaco. Her husband discovered her. Newspapers hinted at a possible drug overdose but nothing was ever proven. She was initially buried in the Père Lachaise Cemetery of Paris. But her grave was violated (some media reported that she had been interred with her jewels). Martine Carol was then buried in the Grand Jas Cemetery of Cannes.
Sources: Gary Brumburgh (IMDb), Wikipedia, and IMDb.
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Austrian postcard by Kellner-Fotokarten, Wien, no. 81066.
Beautiful blonde Gudula Blau (1940) was a German actress who briefly appeared in German and Austrian entertainment films of the late 1950s. Later, she worked as an author, singer, and politician and incidentally played guest roles on television.
Gudula Blau (sometimes written as Gundula Blau) was born in 1940 in Posen, Germany (now Poznan, Poland). During the late 1950s, Blau starred in four films. She made her film debut in the Austrian comedy Scherben bringen Glück/The Shards Bringing Luck (Ernst Marischka, 1957) with Adrian Hoven. Her other films were Einmal eine große Dame sein/Once Becoming a Great Lady (Erik Ode, 1957), the Austrian drama Die Heilige und ihr Narr/The Holy and Her Fool (Gustav Ucicky, 1957) with Gerhard Riedmann, and Das fliegende Klassenzimmer/The Flying Classroom (Werner Jacobs, 1957), based on the childrens novel by Erich Kästner. In 1958, she married actor Karlheinz Böhm, and retired from acting. She became the mother of three children: former actress Kristina Böhm (1959), Michael (1960) and Daniela (1961). The couple divorced in 1962.
In the 1970s Gudula Blau started to sing her own chansons and appeared in 1974 with her first song Das hat uns keiner gesagt (No one told us about it) in the TV show 'Dalli Dalli'. She also appeared in the Austrian comedy series Die liebe Familie/The sweet family (1983). In 1985 she finished her vocal career and worked as a customer advisor and works council chairman at Böhmler in the valley in Munich and then as a lecturer and PR lady for the Langen Müller Verlag. Incidentally, she did guest appearances in such TV series as Ein Heim für Tiere/A Home for Animals (1990). After that she worked until December 1998 as administrative manager of the Ayurveda clinic in Kassel. Her last TV role was in the series Das Verkehrsgericht/Traffic court (Ruprecht Essberger, 2001). In 2005 she founded the spiritual political party Die Violetten (the Violets), which she led for three years as state chair. Gudula Blau then became Federal President of the Violets. In the state election in Bavaria in 2008, she ran for the first time as a direct candidate of the Munich-Giesing constituency (Upper Bavaria constituency). In the 2009 European elections, she was still listed as a candidate, but resigned from the chair in June 2009 and left the party. Gudula Blau founded the Annapurna seminar organisation based in Mittenwald, which is esoterically oriented.
Sources: Wikipedia and IMDb.
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Austrian postcard by Kellner-Fotokarten, Wien, no. 611.
Luxembourg actress and dancer Germaine Damar (1929) started her career as an acrobat. She played in nearly 30 German films, including three films in which she was the partner of Peter Alexander.
Germaine Damar was born as Germaine Haeck in Petingen in Luxembourg in 1929. She sometimes used the stage name Ria Poncelet. She was the third of four daughters of metallurgical worker Dominique Haeck and his wife Barbara Poncelet. At the gymnastics club of Nidderkuer (Niederkorn) in Luxembourg, the 5-year-old Germaine Damar laid the foundations for her future career. With her sister Geny and two gym teachers, she formed the acrobatic quartet Los Habaneros. On 10 May 1940, after the invasion of Luxembourg by the German troops, she fled with her parents and siblings to Paris. There, the 12-year-old continued to develop her talents and she performed with her sister Geny and her former gym teacher Atilio Bariviera as Trio Deluxe at the Alhambra and the Bobino. She also took dance classes and was trained in acting and ballet. After the Second World War, she started a solo career and toured through Europe. She travelled to North Africa and the Orient to perform there with her sister Sylvie and Sylvie’s husband as Trio Vialine. In Cairo, they even performed for King Farouk. She used as her stage name Ria Poncelet. In Cairo, she also met the actress Zarah Leander, who mediated a screen-test for her in Hamburg in 1952 at Herzog Filmverleih. Although producer Herbert Tischendorf and director Robert A. Stemmle were not satisfied with the test, she soon landed her first film role. Director Géza von Cziffra sought a talented dancer to replace the ill Maria Litto in his Revuefilm Tanzende Sterne/Dancing Stars (1952). He watched the screen-test and gave her the lead part opposite Georg Thomalla. She changed her name from Germaine Haeck to Germaine Damar and the press concluded for some time that she was a French dancer.
Tanzende Sterne/Dancing Stars (1952) became Germaine Damar’s breakthrough. Herzog offered her a 5-year contract and she went on to play in a total of 28 films. She appeared in such light entertainment fare as Südliche Nächte/Southern Nights (1953, Robert A. Stemmle), Die Drei von der Tankstelle/The Three of the Gas Station (1955, Hans Wolff) with Adrian Hoven, and Symphonie in Gold/Symphony in Gold (1956, Franz Antel) opposite Joachim Fuchsberger. Her best known musical was Die Beine von Dolores/The legs of Dolores (1957, Géza von Cziffra) with Claus Biederstaedt. In France, she made the western musical Sérénade au Texas/Serenade of Texas (1958, Richard Pottier) with Bourvil and Luis Mariano. In three films she was the partner of Peter Alexander. These were the comedies So ein Millionär hat's schwer/It’s so hard to be a millionaire (1958, Géza von Cziffra), Peter schießt den Vogel ab/Peter shoots the bird (1959, Géza von Cziffra) and Salem Aleikum (1959, Géza von Cziffra). In the early 1960s Damar made two films in Spain, the comedies Cariño mío/Little Darling (1961, Rafael Gil) and Escala en hi-fi/Scale in Hi-Fi (1963, Isidoro M. Ferry). Her film Die Beine von Dolores/The legs of Dolores was such a big hit in Argentina, that Damar moved for three years to South America. There she became a popular star with her own TV show. In Germany, Damar had dated actor Georg Thomalla and producer Andreas C. Schuller, who had ruined her with his flop Glück und Liebe in Monaco/Love and Happiness in Monaco (1959, Hermann Leitner). In Argentina, she met the American Roman G. Toporow and married him. In 1964 she retired and two years later her son Roman Martin Toporow was born. Her husband died in 1993 and Germaine Damar has since then lived with her son in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. In 1997 she appeared in one more film, the science fiction thriller Nirvana (1997, Gabriele Salvatores) starring Christopher Lambert. Her role was a small supporting part. In 2011 the documentary Germaine Damar – Der tanzende Stern/Germaine Damar, the dancing star (2011, Michael Wenk) was presented in the Luxembourg cinema Ciné Utopia. The former dancing star herself was present and even sang one of her old songs. The audience gave her a standing ovation.
Sources: Stephanie D’heil (Steffi-line) (German), Peter Hoffmann (Biografie.de) (German), Wikipedia (German), and IMDb.
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Austrian postcard by Kellner Fotokarten, Wien, no. 81065. Photo: Paula Wessely Film / Hämmerer. Renate Holm in Wo die Lerche singt/Where the Lark Sings (Hans Wolff, 1956).
Renate Holm (1931-2022) is a German-Austrian film actress and operatic soprano. During the 1950s she was a popular star of Schlager films and operettas. In the 1960s, she became a star at the Vienna State Opera under the direction of Herbert von Karajan.
Renate Holm was born as Renate Franke in 1931 in Berlin, Germany. During her youth, she was a member of the local school and church choirs. She decided to become an opera singer when after being inspired by Il sogno di Butterfly/Premiere der Butterfly/Dream of Butterfly (Carmine Gallone, 1939), a film version of Madama Butterfly with Maria Cebotari in the lead role. In 1943 her parents separated, and the Frankes were evacuated from the bombed-out centre of Berlin to the Spreewald region. She lived out the rest of her childhood in and around the village of Ragow where her mother at one stage served as local mayor and registrar. In 1950 her mother arranged a meeting with Waltraud Waldeck, a local singer and singing teacher who declared that Renate had a natural singing voice and should take singing lessons. Renate worked hard to pay for singing lessons to make her dream come true. In 1953 her mother entered her in a local talent competition. She sang 'Lied der Nachtigall' (Song of the Nightingale) by Franz Grothe. Winning the contest, she was discovered by the RIAS, an American sponsored radio station in West Berlin. She quickly established a singing career as a Schlager singer and soon also in such films as Schlagerparade/Hit Parade (Erik Ode, 1953), Die große Starparade/The Big Star Parade (Paul Martin, 1954) with Adrian Hoven, and Wunschkonzert/Request Concert (Erik Ode, 1955). She changed her professional name from Renate Franke to Renate Holm, in order the avoid confusion with singer Renée Franke. During the mid-1950s Holm became a popular star of operettas and Heimatfilms in the German-speaking parts of Europe. Notable films are Wo die Lerche singt/Where the Lark Sings (Hans Wolff, 1956) with Doris Kirchner and Der Graf von Luxemburg/The Count of Luxemburg (Werner Jacobs, 1957) opposite Gerhard Riedmann.
In 1957 Renate Holm moved to Vienna in Austria. She was engaged by Hubert Marischka to work at the Vienna Volksoper. She had also received an invitation to star as Eliza Doolittle in the German-language premiere of 'My Fair Lady' at the Theater des Westens in Berlin, but her sights were firmly set on a career as an opera singer. She made her Volksoper debut with the lead soprano part as Princess Helene in 'Walzertraum' by Oscar Straus. Incidentally, she appeared in such Schlager films as the Austrian production Liebe, Mädchen und Soldaten/Love, Girls and Soldiers (Franz Antel, 1958) co-starring Willy Hagara and Marina (Paul Martin, 1960) with Rocco Granata. Her big breakthrough came when she switched to the Vienna State Opera. There she made her debut performance as the fiancée Gretchen in 'Wildschütz' (1960). The Vienna State Opera is one of the world's foremost opera houses, where she regularly performed under the great Herbert von Karajan. Under his direction, she enjoyed a stream of successes and Holm appeared in many of the world's great opera houses, performing alongside the great stars of her generation. Besides her opera performances, she also appeared in many concerts, at numerous festivals, and on TV. Holm has continued to give concerts during the present century. She also remains in demand as a teacher of singing and as a jury member in international competitions. In 1965, she married Horst-Wolfgang Haase. The marriage lasted seven years. Renate Holm lives in Austria.
Sources: Wikipedia and IMDb.
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