This vintage real photo postcard features Hungarian actress and singer, Marta Eggerth (1912-2013). She was a popular operetta star and many of the most famous composers of operettas, composed operetta works specifically for her. She was born in Budapest. Her mother was a dramatic operatic soprano. Eggerth began singing as a child and her mother devoted herself to developing Eggerth’s acting and singing talent. She made her theatrical debut at age eleven and while a teenager, toured internationally performing operatic works. By the early 1930’s, Eggerth achieved international fame acting in film. She made films in five languages. While making a film she met Polish tenor, Jan Kiepura and they married in 1936. The pair were an international sensation. Eggerth appeared in a Richard Rodgers production on Broadway. Eggerth and her husband starred in the Broadway production of “The Merry Widow”. She was in three different Broadway plays, all of them between 1940 and 1945. In addition, Eggerth signed with MGM made two films with Judy Garland. Throughout her career, Eggerth continued to perform operettas internationally. Her last stage appearance occurred when she was 99 years old. The IMDb gives Eggerth 39 acting credits between 1930 and 1999. This postcard was published by Ross Verlag as part of a series (No.7648/1). Eggerth’s portrait was taken by the Yva studio in Berlin, Germany. The name Yva is a pseudonym. The photographer was actually a woman named Else Ernestine Neulander-Simon (1900-1944). She was a German Jewish photographer and was well known for her “dreamlike, multiple exposed images”. She was a leading Berlin photographer during the Weimar Republic years of Germany. She specialized in fashion, nudes, and portraiture. Later, she became involved in the early days of producing photographs for advertising. Many of her photographs were published in magazines or were shown in international exhibitions. After the Nazis took power, she was forced to work as a radioagrapher (ie x-ray technician). In 1936 she was offered a job by Life Magazine, but her husband convinced her that life for German Jews would improve over time. He did not want to move and start a new life in a country where he did not speak the language. Unfortunately, she complied with his wishes. In 1938, Nazi regulations prohibited her from working as a photographer. In 1942, the Gestapo deported her and her husband to a death camp (probably Majdanek) where they were murdered. (SOLD)
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