Sepia Saturday 736 - Postcard Memories

These days it is sporadic that I see a postcard when I open my letterbox. But there was a time, some of you may remember, when it was quite common to communicate with family and friends, by sending an illustrated postcard. When on holidays or on the occasion of a birthday, a postcard was carefully selected. The postage was less than required for a letter. So all space available was used to the very last millimeter to convey the news that the weather was fine, the food delicious, and the birthday happy. That was the pre-digital era my mother lived in. Her name was Ann de Langen. She was born on Oct. 31, 1917, and she closed her eyes precisely 99 years later in the early morning of Nov. 1, 2016. She liked to send and receive handwritten letters and postcards. And I consider myself lucky that she kept many of them in a shoebox which I found after the funeral. Altogether over 400 items including a collection of pre-WWII movie star postcards. Based on the postmarks she collected those when she was between 15 and 18 years old. Below are a few examples of cards showing the stars of the past. Some names still ring a bell. 

As you will see I have taken the liberty to imitate Alan's SepSat-lay out.

Marie Magdalene Dietrich (1901-1992)
Mail stamp The Hague, August 9, 1933
Postcard written by best friend Ineke Weststeijn (1918-before 2011)

Maurice Auguste Chevalier (r) (1888-1972) and junior?
Mail stamp The Hague, July 25, 1933
Postcard written by Ann's mother Antje de Langen-Doelman (1892-1984)

William Clark Gable (1901-1960)
Lucille Fay LeSueur Crawford (1908?-1977)
Mail stamp The Hague July 25, 1935
Postcard written by friend Lenny (Maarleveld?)

Lilian Helen Muriel Pape (1906-1968)
John Boles (1895-1969)
Mail stamp The Hague April 21, 1934
Postcard written by little sister Thea de Langen (1921-1996)

The stamps on all these postcards have a value of 5 Dutch guilder cents. At the time that was the rate for domestic delivery. In euro, that equals something like 2.7 euro cents. To illustrate the word 'inflation', today's domestic rate is € 1.14 ...

On the Lilian Harvey postcard above, you see a second stamp. That is additional postage because the sender forgot that the address was in Belgium. The extra expense came to the impressive amount of 70 Belgian franc centimes equalling approx. 3.5 Dutch guilder cents.

The last postcard is an uncirculated one. It shows the film song title of a 1929 composition by John Frederick Coots. So I don't expect there are Sepians around with a vivid memory of this blockbuster starring the famous (but murdered) Ramon Novarro (1899-1968). His co-star Anita Page (1910-2008) was at least equally renowned. She earned her credits during the silent movie era. 

Ramón Gil Samanlego and Anita Pomares

Since I am fond of making lists, most of them useless, I'll list the names, other than the ones mentioned above, of all the movie stars in my mother's collection. In case you are a fan of a particular star, I can mail you a scan of the relevant card(s). And if you don't recognize some of these names, it just means you are young of age.

Truus van Aalten (one of two postcards in my mother's collection displaying a Dutch movie star)

Hans Albers

Georg Alexander

Gitta Alpar

Tala Birell

Maurice Chevalier and Sylvia Sidney

Maurice Chevalier and Jeannette Mac Donald

Gary Cooper

Jackie Cooper

Lil Dagover

Marion Davies

Lien Deyers (Dutch)

Martha Eggerth

Charles Farrell

Willi Forst

Willy Fritsch

Willy Fritsch and Lilian Harvey

Willy Fritsch, Lilian Harvey, and Willy Forst

Willy Fritsch and Camilla Horn

Willy Fritsch and Renate Müller

Gustav Fröhlich

Greta Garbo

Greta Garbo and John Gilbert

Janet Gaynor

Gold diggers (group)

Dolly Haas

Dolly Haas and Heinz Rühmann

Liane Haid

Liane Haid and Georg Alexander

Lilian Harvey and Willi Forst

Brigitte Helm

Trader Horn

Jan Kiepura and Marta Eggerth

Jeannette Mac Donald

Renate Müller

Renate Müller and Hermann Thimig

Käthe von Nagy

Käthe von Nagy and Hans Albers

Ramon Novarro

Anny Ondra

Henny Porten

Heinz Rühmann

Anna Sten

Tarzan (Johnny Weissmüller?)

Hermann Thimig

Rudolph Valentino and Alice Terry

Otto Wallburg and Mady Christians

There are 85 movie star postcards in the collection. Not an impressive number but the cards must have had a certain value to my mother. Otherwise, she would not have kept them in a box for more than 80 years. During that period she moved 15 times! So it is a small miracle that these cards survived all the packing and unpacking. And now they have become part of my family archive. Hopefully, that will survive the next 80 years as well...

For more postcard memories please send yourself to Sepia Saturday.