HARRY HALM (1926) German Silent Film and 50 similar items

Vintage original 3.25 x 5.5 in. "country of origin" German postcard featuring the German-born silent film and sound era actor and writer, HARRY HALM. Issued for publicity purposes during his career in the silent era, the handsome actor is depicted in an interior medium publicity shot wearing a white shirt and a dark tie while posing in front of a light studio backdrop. Printed by the renowned Ross-Verlag publishing house of Berlin, this vintage original silent film postcard is unused in very fine condition with a very light diagonal impression on each corner from where it was inserted into an album during the 1920's. 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 postcards came from a film collector in Germany who acquired them at the time they were issued and then had them signed by the respective actors when he met them in person. We are now pleased to make these vintage original postcards available to other collectors. Harry Halm (1901–1980) was a German film actor and was the son of theater manager and film director. He was an actor and writer, known for Die verschwundene Frau (1929), Sein Scheidungsgrund (1931), and Im Weissen Rössl (1952). He took acting lessons with Eduard von Winterstein and Hermann Vallentin and began his stage career in 1919 at the Schauspielhaus in in Potsdam. Because of his hereditary influences, he launched an acting career in the film industry in the 1920's, playing romantic leading roles in films often opposite Lillian Harvey. At the beginning of the 1930's, he appeared in sound films such as Hokuspokus (1930), Der wahre Jakob (1931), and Ein toller Fall (1932), after which he disappeared completely from the screen and only surfaced again in 1948 for the film Hin und her. He found roles hard to come by during the national socialist era, ostensibly for reasons “pertaining to race.” He then moved to Austria, where he operated a bar called the “Top Hat” (in deference to the 1935 Astaire/Rogers musical) and later became a tobacconist. Harry Halm died on November 22, 1980 in Munich, Bavaria, West Germany. Ross-Verlag in Berlin was a German publishing house specialized in photographs and photo postcards of artists. The owner of the company was Heinrich Ross (b. 10 August 1870; d. after 1954 as emigrant in the USA).