August Vacation

 

Written on the back, "Commenc Aout 34."  French for begins in August.  Or at least, that's what Google Translate says.  From what I understand, the French take off almost all of August for a national vacation.  Did they do that in 1934?  I know a few French people who live here in California, and they love dogs.  Were the French dog crazy in 1934?  

A Century of Progress 2

  

I have four of these postcards from the 1933 Chicago World's fair, The Century of Progress. I wasn't going to publish them back-to-back, but I have to confess I also wasn't going to have such a large gap between the first and second from this series. So, the caption on the back of the card, "Official Post Card of A CENTURY OF PROGRESS 225. General Motors Building at Night." The publishers and copyright are the same as the first card which can be found by clicking on The Century of Progress Collection in labels at the bottom of the post. The GM building was designed by architect Albert Kahn and housed an assembly line, not as large as one found in an actual GM plant, but one that made actual Chevrolet cars that would be sold at the fair. Once again, I don't know why, but blogger cuts a minuscule amount of the image on horizontal images, so click on the card to bring it up in a larger window to see it edge to edge. 

A Century of Progress 1

 

I've written before about my fascination with World's Fairs and my disappointment that I've never had the chance to visit one.  This is one of four postcards I own from this series from The Chicago Word's Fair that ran from 1933- 1934.  This one is numbered 223, the lowest number of the four I have in my collection.  The highest, 235.  The caption, "Official post card of A CENTURY OF PROGRESS, 223. Northerly Isle from the Lagoon."  Published by the Ruben H. Donnely Corporation, Chicago.  I won't be posting the four cards I have in a row, so click on The Century of Progress Collection in labels at the bottom of the post.  I don't know why, but it's fairly common for Blogger to slice just a hair off the right side of horizontal images, so just click on the postcard to bring it up into a window. 

My Heart Calls You

Written on the back, "Mein herz ruft nach dir."  A quick trip to Google translate gave me my heart calls you.  It sure looks like a theatrical photo so a quick trip to IMDB gave me Mein Herz Ruft Nach Dir, My Heart Calls You, 1934, starring Jan Kiepura as Mario Delmonte, and Marta Eggerth as Clara.  And what do you know, this happy couple are Jan and Marta themselves.  Really happy since they met on the movie, and married in real life.  They stayed married until Jan's death in 1966.

Anyway, both Jan and Marta were pretty famous in the world of opera, and starred in a number of pre-war German musicals.  Jan Kiepura, a tenor, was born in 1902, in a small town in  Poland, back when Poland was still part of the Russian Empire.  Marta Eggerth, a lyric soprano, was born in 1912, in Budapest, back when it was still part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. 

After their marriage, Jan and Marta called Vienna home, but after the Anschluss, the annexation of Austria by Nazi Germany, they fled, first to Paris, and then the United States.  Back to IMDB, and I found a 1942 credit for Marta in For Me and My Gal, starring Judy Garland and Gene Kelly, directed by Busby Berkeley.  IBDB, the Broadway theater version of IMDB, listed three war time credits for Jan and Marta together.  They played supporting roles in two separate productions of The Merry Widow, and lead roles in Polonaise.  Marta also had a credit, without Jan, in Higher and Higher.  They also became American citizens and bought a home in Rye, New York.

After the war, they often returned to Europe to perform in operas, operettas, and concerts, though their pre-war film career was lost to them.  As already noted, Jan Kiepura died in 1966.  He was buried in Warsaw, Poland.  Marta lived to 2013, aged 101.  I went to YouTube and found some of their work, including a concert by Marta, aged 82, singing songs by Robert Stolz, composer of light operas and music for cabaret.   At that point, I realized I could spend the whole day researching Austrian operettas and Berlin cabaret.  I have eclectic musical tastes, have actually been to a grand total of two operas and have several  Kurt Weill/Ute Lemper CDs, (In German, I can't understand a word.) so it might have been a day well spent, but I've other things to do, so don't be lazy, do your own computer surfing.