Ruth Bayton

Ruth Bayton, originally uploaded by punalippu.

Photo: d'Ora, Vienna. From the cover of Swedish photoplay magazine Filmnyheter, 1928:1.

Ruth Bayton is practically unknown on the great internet, but my guess is that she was a British black dancer. There's an interesting article about black artists in 1920's Britain that mentions her, available on Jstor (if you have access to this database).

I'd really like to know more about her, so if you can help, I'd be happy...

Alfred Abel

I first encountered him in Metropolis (1926, good article at cyranos.ch). Abel played the future industrialist Joh. Fredersen, father of the young hero, who orders the creation of an artificial woman in order to provoke the oppressed workers into a fatal uprising. (I've always wondered why the robot woman is supposed to subvert the peaceful preaching of Maria, although the real Maria keeps the workers lulled in a state of passive hope, most useful to the rulers.)
Abel's gaunt look was very impressive, and his acting was wonderfully tactful (compared to the rest of the cast). Turns out that he was rather cute in real life, although the eyebrows were part of the mask. Behold:

What a striking difference!

Abel (1879–1937) was not only a successful and well liked actor in film and theatre (as early as 1914, he had performed in every theatre in Berlin), he was also a director and producer. His first film part was under the direction of theatre wizard Max Reinhardt (I found a book about him in Berlin last December). Besides Fritz Lang (Dr. Mabuse, Metropolis) he also worked with F. W. Murnau and Ernst Lubitsch - names that really should make your modern little hearts beat faster. Interestingly, he began his career by studying gardening and artistic drawing... and his own production company was called Artifex Film (something interesting for my mother!). He also had a well-kept wardrobe:
As usual in this blog, he died far too young, after a longer illness in 1937. He just escaped the claws of the Third Reich; his daughter Ursula, who was also pursuing a career in acting, could not produce proof that he was "Aryan", and she had to give up her dream. Without the proper pedigree, an actor was not accepted. Abel's father was a peddler, Louis Abel, married to Anna Maria Selma in Leipzig. Their names and trades would make them suspicious in the eyes of later generations. All clues pointed to a Jewish origin.



Sources: Wikipedia
Filmportal.de
film.virtual-history.com

I suppose that accusation was a sign of posthumous anti-Chirayliqism (as experienced by certain Russian actors, who, being too handsome, were accused of belonging to various politically incorrect ethnicities).

Zu Tee und Tanz

Zu Tee und Tanz - Band 11
Originally uploaded by punalippu

I found this amazing Weimar era music album in a local second hand book store. It's a potpourri of fox trots, tangos, schlagers and operetta hits.

"Wann kommst Du zu mir?"

Text von Karl Farkas; Melodie von Franz Steininger. 1927

Wo ist die Frau, die heutzutag'
dem Andrang wehren kann?
Sieht sie nur halbwegs aus,
sieht sie ein jeder an.
Der Smoking-Dandy wandelt sich
zum Liebesseladon
und macht ihr gleich die Proposition:

Wann kommst Du zu mir?
Wann kommt die Stunde, die uns vereint?
Ich sehn' mich nach Dir,
wenn Nachts der Mond in mein Zimmer scheint!
Die wahre Licht, die uns selig macht,
wird durch die Nacht erst an den Tag gebracht.
Kommst heut Du zu mir,
dann bleibst Du sicher bis morgen hier!
Wann ...

Man denkt natürlich nicht daran, daran zu denken je,
und sagt dem Rendezvous im vorhinein ade.
Doch andern Tages kommt ein Briefchen rosa oder blau,
und drin steht: "Hochverehrte, gnäd'ge Frau!

Wann ...

Puppy & Girl

Washington, D.C., 1920. "Miss Marie Smith." National Photo Company Collection glass negative. Found on Shorpy: The 100-year old photo blog.

La Campana di San Giusto

The Italian bersagliere is flirting with Valona (Vlorë in Albania) and makes Trieste jealous. A cartoon from the First World War.

1915. Seductive Trieste is tempting the bersagliere, whose hands are tied by Italy's neutrality. But not for long...

To understand a bit about the world of Goldenbird, one needs to know a little bit (or a lot?) about Italy's adventures around the Adriatic Sea in the 1910's and 1920's. Italy was originally neutral, due to its agreements with Austria-Hungary and Germany, but joined the war on the side of France and Britain in 1915 in the hope of gaining some so-called irredenta - external territories inhabited by Italian-speakers and claimed by the nation. In the world of Goldenbird, Ginestra is one such town, situated somewhere between Trieste and the Istrian peninsula, a multi-ethnic relic of the former Empire with a mixed population of Italian- and Slavic-speakers (perhaps also some unevacuated Austrians and Hungarians, as well as Romanian workers, thrown in for good measure).
Sung by the immortal Caruso, this is the liberation song of the former Austro-Hungarian Free Imperial City of Trieste, annexed by Italy in 1920.

La Campana di San Giusto

Per le spiaggie, per le rive di Trieste
suona e chiama di San Giusto la Campana:
l'ora suona, l'ora suona non lontana
che più schiava non sarà.

Le ragazze di Trieste
cantan tutte con ardore:
O Italia, o Italia del mio cuore,
tu ci vieni a liberar!

Avrà baci, fiori e rose la marina,
la campana perderà la nota mesta;
su San Giusto sventolar vedremo a festa
il vessillo tricolor.

Le ragazze di Trieste...