Vintage original 3.5 x 5.25 in. German postcard depicting the attractive Austrian silent era and sound film actress, JENNY JUGO. She is depicted in a close publicity shot wearing a shimmering dress as he looks over her shoulder at the viewer. This postcard was signed in black ink by Jenny Jugo in, we believe, 1926 (see additional details below), the year in which she appeared in three silent films. Printed by the renowned Ross-Verlag company of Berlin, Germany, it is unused in very fine condition.
Provenance: Approximately 8 years ago, we purchased a collection of two albums of vintage original German postcards from a rare book dealer at an antiquarian book fair in Pasadena, California (see photos). Approximately half of the postcards were signed by the respective personalities and the ones that were dated by the actors are all dated "1926." We were informed by the dealer that these photographs came from a film collector in Germany who acquired the postcards at the time they were issued and then had them signed by the respective actors when he met them in person.
Jenny Jugo (née Eugenie Walter; June 14,1904 – September 30, 2001) was an Austrian actress who appeared inmore than fifty films between 1925 and 1950. A lively brunette, dimple-cheekedactress with a tom-boyish, unaffected manner who briefly flirted with stardomin a string of romantic comedies during the mid-1930's. The daughter of afactory owner, Jenny was educated at a convent school in Austria. A short-livedmarriage to the Italian actor Emo Jugo brought her to Berlin, whereshe was spotted by the distinguished film producer, Erich Pommer, andsubsequently signed to a contract with Ufa. Her comedic talents were not fully recognizeduntil the first of her eleven films (Wernimmt die Liebe ernst...?) (1931), under the direction of ErichEngel, who henceforth became her mentor. Jenny's forte was playing feisty,determined characters who tended to excel at oneupmanship. Her performance asEliza Doolittle in Engel's adaptation of Pygmalion (1935) so enthused the author George BernardShaw that he offered her the opportunity to act in all of his plays on thestage in England.
Jenny remained in Germany, nonetheless, and made several more hugely popularfilms with Engel, including Mädchenjahreeiner Königin (1936), as a young Queen Victoria; The Night with the Emperor (1936)(several years later marrying her co-star, the actor Friedrich Benfer),and the musical comedy, Nanette (1940).Though flourishing briefly as one of Ufa's top box office attractions, her stardeclined as the Third Reich began to favor Germanic-looking blondes. Jenny madeonly a couple of films after the war before retiring to her farm in Schönrainin Upper Bavaria. She was eventually honored by the prestigious Filmband inGold in 1971 for her contributions to German cinema. Confined to a wheelchairfor the last two decades of her life, Jenny Jugo died in September 2001 at therespectable age of 97.
Ross-Verlag in Berlin was a Germanpublishing house specialized in photographs and photo postcards of artists. Theowner of the company was Heinrich Ross (b. 10 August 1870; d. after 1954 asemigrant in the USA).