Larry Parks

The career of American stage and film actor Larry Parks (1914-1975) arced from bit player and supporting roles to top billing. His best-known role was Al Jolson, whom he portrayed in two films, The Jolson Story (1946) and Jolson Sings Again (1949). His Hollywood career virtually ended when he admitted to having been a member of a Communist Party cell, which led to his blacklisting. In 1962, the ban was lifted on Larry Parks, and he made his comeback in John Huston's Freud. It proved to be his last film.


Dutch postcard, no. AX 279. Photo: Europa-Columbia.


Belgian postcard by Nieuwe Merksemsche Chocolaterie S.P.R.L., Merksem (Anvers), no. C 18. Photo: Columbia. Larry Parks and Barbara Hale in Jolson sings again (Henry Levin, 1949).

Mild-mannered comedies, swashbuckling adventures and Al Jolson

Samuel Lawrence Klusman Parks was born in Olathe, Kansas, in 1914. He was the son of Nellie (Klusman) and Frank H. Parks. He was raised in his mother's religion Judaism. As a child growing up in Joliet, Illinois, he was plagued by a variety of illnesses, including rheumatic fever, but persevered with physical exercise and sheer strength of will. In 1932, he graduated from Joliet Township High School. He attended the University of Illinois as a pre-med student.

His plans to become a doctor dissolved when, to the dismay of his parents, he found a passionate sideline in college dramatics. Parks played in stock companies for some years. He made an inauspicious 1937 Broadway debut with a minor role in the Group Theatre's presentation of 'Golden Boy'. He travelled to Hollywood at John Garfield's suggestion, for a role in a Warner Bros. production of 'Mama Ravioli'. Although the film was cancelled, Parks did sign a contract with Columbia Pictures in 1941.

His buildup was slow-moving. He took his first small step with a minor role in Mystery Ship (Lew Landers, 1941). He was oddly cast as an Indian (Jingo-Good) opposite exotic Yvonne De Carlo (Princess Wah-Tah) in The Deerslayer (Lew Landers, 1943). As with most Columbia contract players, Parks received supporting roles in high-budget films and more substantial roles in B pictures. Parks married actress Betty Garrett in 1944.

When Columbia was preparing a biopic of Al Jolson, many big-name stars were considered for the title role, including James Cagney and Danny Thomas, but both turned it down. Resident contractee Larry Parks was reportedly the first actor to be interviewed. Parks impressed the producers and won the role. Parks was coached in the role by Al Jolson himself, whose singing voice was heard throughout the film. Reportedly, this association was a pleasant one until Jolson incensed that Columbia had not asked him to star in his own biopic, viciously turned on Parks and treated him atrociously.

At the age of 31, his performance in The Jolson Story (Alfred E. Green, 1946) earned Parks an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor. Now that he was a fully-fledged star, Columbia kept him busy in elaborate productions. He appeared opposite the studio's biggest star, Rita Hayworth, in Down to Earth (Alexander Hall, 1947). That year, exhibitors voted him the 15th-biggest star in the US. Gary Brumburgh at IMDb: "Larry hoped for equally challenging roles. His hopes were dashed as the studio instead continued casting him haphazardly in mild-mannered comedies and swashbuckling adventures. Other than the box-office sequel Jolson Sings Again (1949), most of Larry's films were hardly worthy of his obvious talent." Parks tried to break his contract with Columbia in 1948 but was unsuccessful. That year he criticised the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC). Jolson Sings Again (Henry Levin, 1949) was another huge box-office hit. His co-star in the film, Barbara Hale, teamed with him again in the comedy feature Emergency Wedding (Edward Buzzell, 1950). In 1950 he and his wife announced plans to make their own film, Stakeout. British exhibitors voted him the 9th-most popular star in the UK.


West German postcard by Kolibri-Verlag, no. 440. Photo: Columbia. Larry Parks in The Swordsman (Joseph H. Lewis, 1948).


West German postcard by Kunst und Bild, Berlin, no. A 451. Photo: Columbia. Larry Parks in The Gallant Blade (Joseph H. Lewis, 1948).

Blacklisted in the movie industry

In 1951, Larry Parks was summoned to appear before the HUAC under threat of being blacklisted in the movie industry, but he begged not to be forced to testify. He eventually did so in tears, only to be blacklisted anyway. Parks eventually gave up the names of his former colleagues to the committee.

Following his admission before the committee, Columbia Pictures dropped him from his contract, although it had four years to run. Parks had been set to star in the film Small Wonder, which later became The First Time. At the time, Parks' fee was $75,000 a film.

A romantic comedy he made for MGM, Love Is Better Than Ever (Stanley Donen, 1952) with Elizabeth Taylor, was shelved for a year. He made a TV film for The Ford Television Theatre in 1953 and starred in the British film Tiger by the Tail (John Gilling, 1954) in England. Betty Garrett's career also faced turmoil as a result of her marriage to Parks, and the two spent much of the 1950s doing theatre and musical variety shows.

Parks continued to squeeze out a living acting on the stage and doing occasional television programs. His last appearance in a major role was in the John Huston film, Freud (1962) starring Montgomery Clift. Parks eventually left the film industry and formed a successful construction business. Eventually, he and his wife, Betty Garrett, owned many apartment buildings scattered throughout the Los Angeles metropolitan area. Rather than sell them upon completion, Parks decided to retain ownership and collect rents as a landlord, a decision that proved to be extremely profitable.

During that period, the couple occasionally performed in Las Vegas showrooms, summer stock productions, and touring companies of Broadway shows. Parks died of a heart attack in 1975 at the age of 60. He and Betty Garrett had two sons, actor Andrew Parks and composer Garrett Parks. Larry Parks was also godfather to actor Jeff Bridges.


Dutch postcard, no. A.X. 740. Photo: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Larry Parks, Elizabeth Taylor and Elinor Donahue in Love Is Better Than Ever (Stanley Donen, 1952). Doreen Davis is a mistake.


Dutch postcard by Takken / 't Sticht, no. ax. 260. Photo: Columbia.


Vintage postcard. Photo: Columbia.

Sources: Gary Brumburgh (IMDb), AllMovie, Wikipedia and IMDb.

Errol Flynn

Australian-born actor Errol Flynn (1909-1959) achieved fame in Hollywood with his suave, debonair, devil-may-care attitude. He was known for his romantic Swashbuckler roles in films like Captain Blood (1935) and The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938), often co-starring with Olivia de Havilland. In 1942, the tall, athletic and exceptionally handsome, Flynn became an American citizen. He developed a reputation for womanising, hard-drinking and for a time in the 1940s, narcotics abuse. He was linked romantically with Lupe Vélez, Marlene Dietrich, and Dolores del Río, among many others.


British postcard in the Picturegoer Series, no. 1301. Photo: Warner Bros.


Vintage postcard. Errol Flynn in Captain Blood (Michael Curtiz, 1935).


Dutch postcard by Takken / 't Sticht, no. a.x. 399. Photo: Warner Bros. Errol Flynn in The Charge of the Light Brigade (Michael Curtiz, 1936).


Dutch card. Photo: Warner Bros. Errol Flynn in The Adventures of Robin Hood (Michael Curtiz, William Keighley, 1938).


West-German postcard by Kolibri-Verlag, no. 514. Photo: Warner Bros. Errol Flynn in San Antonio (David Butler, Robert Florey, Raoul Walsh, 1945).


Spanish postcard by SOBE, no. 394, mailed in 1950.

Pilfering petty cash

Errol Leslie Thomson Flynn was born in a suburb of Hobart, Tasmania, in 1909. His father, Theodore Flynn, was a lecturer and later professor of biology at the University of Tasmania. His mother was Lily Mary Young. After early schooling in Hobart, from 1923 to 1925 Flynn was educated at the South West London College, a private boarding school in Barnes, London.

In 1926 he returned to Australia to attend Sydney Church of England Grammar School (Shore School) where he was the classmate of a future Australian prime minister, John Gorton. His formal education ended with his expulsion from Shore for theft. After being dismissed from a job as a junior clerk with a Sydney shipping company for pilfering petty cash, he went to Papua New Guinea at the age of eighteen, seeking his fortune in tobacco planting and metals mining.

Flynn spent the next five years oscillating between the New Guinea frontier territory and Sydney. In early 1933, Flynn appeared as an amateur actor in the low-budget Australian film In the Wake of the Bounty (Charles Chauvel, 1933), in the lead role of Fletcher Christian.

Later that year he returned to Britain to pursue a career in acting and soon secured a job with the Northampton Repertory Company at the town's Royal Theatre, where he worked and received his training as a professional actor for seven months. In 1934 Flynn was dismissed from Northampton Rep. reportedly after he threw a female stage manager down a stairwell.

He returned to Warner Brothers' Teddington Studios in Middlesex where he had worked as an extra in the film I Adore You (George King, 1933) before going to Northampton. With his new-found acting skills, he was cast as the lead in Murder at Monte Carlo (Ralph Ince, 1935), now considered a lost film. During its filming, he was spotted by a talent scout for Warner Bros. and Flynn emigrated to the U.S. as a contract actor.


Belgian collectors card by Chocolaterie Clovis, Pepinster. Photo: publicity still for Captain Blood (Michael Curtiz, 1935). Collection: Amit Benyovits.


French postcard by Editions Chantal, Rueil-Malmaison, no. 8. Photo: Warner Bros. Publicity still for Another Dawn (William Dieterle, 1937).


American postcard by K Ltd. Joan Blondell and Errol Flynn in The Perfect Specimen (Michael Curtiz, 1937).


Small German collectors card in the 'Film Stars der Welt ' series by Greiling-Sammelbilder, series E, no. ?25. Photo: Warner Bros. Errol Flynn in Dodge City (Michael Curtiz, 1939).


French postcard by Erpé, no. 546. Photo: Warner Bros.

Striking good looks

In Hollywood, Errol Flynn was first cast in two insignificant films, but then he got his great chance. He could replace Robert Donat in the title role of Captain Blood (Michael Curtiz, 1935). Flynn's natural athletic talent and good looks rocketed him overnight to international stardom.

Over the next six years, he was typecast as a dashing adventurer in The Charge of the Light Brigade (Michael Curtiz, 1936), The Prince and the Pauper (William Keighley, 1937), The Adventures of Robin Hood (Michael Curtiz, William Keighley, 1938; his first Technicolor film), The Dawn Patrol (Edmund Goulding, 1938) with David Niven, Dodge City (Michael Curtiz, 1939), The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex (Michael Curtiz, 1939) and The Sea Hawk (Michael Curtiz, 1940).

His striking good looks and screen charisma won him millions of fans. Flynn played an integral role in the re-invention of the action-adventure genre. In collaboration with Hollywood's best fight arrangers, Flynn became noted for fast-paced sword fights. He demonstrated an acting range beyond action-adventure roles in light contemporary social comedies, such as The Perfect Specimen (Michael Curtiz, 1937) and Four's a Crowd (Michael Curtiz, 1938), and the melodrama The Sisters (Anatole Litvak, 1938).

During this period Flynn published his first book, 'Beam Ends' (1937), an autobiographical account of his sailing experiences around Australia as a youth. He also travelled to Spain, in 1937, as a war correspondent during the Spanish Civil War.

Flynn co-starred with Olivia de Havilland a total of eight times, and together they made the most successful on-screen romantic partnership in Hollywood in the late 1930s-early 1940s in eight films. Flynn's relationship with Bette Davis, his co-star in The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex (Michael Curtiz, 1939), was quarrelsome. Davis allegedly slapped him across the face far harder than necessary during one scene.


French postcard by Editions P.I., Paris, no. 213. Photo: Warner Bros.


Dutch postcard by M.B.&Z., no. 1050. Photo: Warner Bros.


German postcard by Edition Cicero, Hamburg, no. 150/10. Photo: Elmer Fryer, 1936 / The Kobal Collection.


British postcard in the Picturegoer Series, London, no. W 65. Photo: Warner Bros.


British postcard by Milton, no. 152. Photo: First National Films.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. A 2332/2, 1939-1940. Photo: Schostal.

Paragon of male physical prowess

In 1940, at the zenith of his career, Erroll Flynn was voted the fourth most popular star in the US. Flynn became a naturalised American citizen in 1942. As the United States had by then entered the Second World War, he attempted to enlist in the armed services but failed the physical exam due to multiple heart problems and other diseases.

This created an image problem for both Flynn, the supposed paragon of male physical prowess, and for Warner Brothers, which continued to cast him in athletic roles, including such patriotic productions as Dive Bomber (Michael Curtiz, 1941), Desperate Journey (Raoul Walsh, 1942) and Objective, Burma! (Raoul Walsh, 1945).

His womanising lifestyle caught up with him in 1942 when two underage girls, Betty Hansen and Peggy Satterlee, accused him of statutory rape at the Bel Air home of Flynn's friend Frederick McEvoy, and on board Flynn's yacht, respectively. The scandal received immense press attention. Many of Flynn's fans, assuming that his screen persona was a reflection of his actual personality, refused to accept that the charges were true. Flynn was acquitted, but the trial's widespread coverage and lurid overtones permanently damaged his carefully cultivated screen image as an idealised romantic leading player.

In 1946, Flynn published an adventure novel, Showdown, and earned a reported $184,000. In 1947 he signed a 15-year contract with Warner Bros. for $225,000 per film. After the Second World War, the taste of the American film-going audience changed from European-themed material and the English history-based escapist epics in which Flynn excelled to more gritty, urban realism and Film Noir, reflecting modern American life.

Flynn tried unsuccessfully to make the transition in Uncertain Glory (Raoul Walsh, 1944) with Paul Lukas, Cry Wolf (Peter Godfrey, 1947) with Barbara Stanwyck, and then increasingly passé Westerns such as Silver River (Raoul Walsh, 1948) and Montana (Ray Enright, 1950). Flynn's behaviour became increasingly disruptive during filming; he was released from his contract in 1950 by Jack L. Warner as part of a stable-clearing of 1930s glamour-generation stars. His Hollywood career over at the age of 41, Flynn entered a steep financial and physical decline.


French postcard, no. 764. Photo: Warner Bros. Errol Flynn in The Adventures of Robin Hood (Michael Curtiz, William Keighley, 1938).


French postcard by Éditions P.I., Paris, no. 213. Photo: Warner Bros.


British postcard by Art Photo, no. 92.


French postcard, no. 731.


French postcard by Viny, no. 49. Photo: Warner Bros.

A parody of himself

In the 1950s, Errol Flynn became a parody of himself. He lost his savings from the Hollywood years in a series of financial disasters, including The Story of William Tell (Jack Cardiff, 1954) with Waltraut Haas. Aimlessly he sailed around the Western Mediterranean aboard his yacht Zaca. Heavy alcohol abuse left him prematurely aged and overweight.

He staved off financial ruin with roles in forgettable productions such as Hello God (William Marshall, 1951), Il maestro di Don Giovanni/Crossed Swords (Milton Krims, 1954) opposite Gina Lollobrigida and King's Rhapsody (Herbert Wilcox, 1955) with Anna Neagle.

He performed in such also-ran Hollywood films as Mara Maru (Gordon Douglas, 1952) and Istanbul (Joseph Pevney, 1957) with Cornell Borchers, and made occasional television appearances. As early as 1952 he had been seriously ill with hepatitis resulting in liver damage. In 1956 he presented and sometimes performed in the television anthology series The Errol Flynn Theatre which was filmed in Britain.

He enjoyed a brief revival of popularity with The Sun Also Rises (Henry King, 1957), The Big Boodle (Richard Wilson, 1957), filmed in Cuba; Too Much, Too Soon (Art Napoleon, 1958), and The Roots of Heaven (John Huston, 1958) with Juliette Gréco. In these films, he played drunks and washed-out bums and brought a poignancy to his performances that had not been there during his glamorous heydays.

He met with Stanley Kubrick to discuss a role in Lolita, but nothing came of it. Flynn went to Cuba in late 1958 to film the self-produced B film Cuban Rebel Girls (Barry Mahon, 1959), where he met Fidel Castro and was initially an enthusiastic supporter of the Cuban Revolution. He wrote a series of newspaper and magazine articles for the New York Journal American and other publications documenting his time in Cuba with Castro. Many of these pieces were lost until 2009 when they were rediscovered in a collection at the University of Texas at Austin's Center for American History. He narrated a short film titled Cuban Story: The Truth About Fidel Castro Revolution (1959), his last known work as an actor.

He published his autobiography, 'My Wicked Wicked Ways'. In 1959, Errol Flynn died of a heart attack in Vancouver, Canada. He was married three times. His first wife was actress Lily Damita (1935-1942). They had one son, actor and war correspondent Sean Flynn (1941-1971). Sean and his colleague Dana Stone disappeared in Cambodia in 1970, during the Vietnam War, while both were working as freelance photojournalists for Time magazine. It is generally assumed that they were killed by Khmer Rouge guerrillas.

Errol was married a second time to Nora Eddington from 1943 to 1949. They had two daughters, Deirdre (1945) and Rory (1947). His third wife was actress Patrice Wymore from 1950 until his death. They had one daughter, Arnella Roma (1953–1998). In 1980, author Charles Higham published a controversial biography, Errol Flynn: The Untold Story, in which he alleged that Flynn was a fascist sympathiser who spied for the Nazis before and during the Second World War and that he was bisexual and had multiple gay affairs. Later Flynn biographers were critical of Higham's allegations and found no evidence to corroborate them.


Italian promotional postcard for Canapa, 1950s. The card refers to hemp fibre, of which Italy used to be an active producer. Hemp was used for all kinds of textile products like towels and sheets but also furniture covers. Caption: Besides being very useful, Italian hemp embellishes the house. The Canapa cards were addressed to a female audience.


French postcard by Edition P.I., offered by Les Carbones Korès, no. 353. Photo: Warner Bros, 1953. Errol Flynn in Adventures of Don Juan (Vincent Sherman, 1948).


French postcard in the Entr'acte series by Éditions Asphodèle, Mâcon, no. 003/5. Collection: B. Courtel / D.R. Errol Flynn on the set of Montana (Ray Enright, 1949). Caption: A solution to refresh yourself without getting wet! Errol Flynn, in between takes, can't stand the heat of the Hollywood summer.


Vintage postcard. Photo: Warner Bros. Errol Flynn on his sailing boat the "Zacca".


West German postcard by F.J. Rüdel, Filmpostkartenverlag, Hamburg-Bergedorf, no. 295. Photo: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Errol Flynn in Kim (Victor Saville, 1950).


Belgian postcard, no. 731. Photo: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Errol Flynn and Laurette Luez in Kim (Victor Saville, 1950).


Vintage card. Photo: Warner Bros. Errol Flynn in Against All Flags (George Sherman, 1952).


German postcard by Kunst und Bild, Berlin, no. A 454. Photo: Universal International. Publicity still for Against All Flags (George Sherman, 1952).


Dutch postcard by 't Sticht, Utrecht, no. 3059. Photo: Warner Bros. Sent by mail in the former Dutch Indies in 1949.

Sources: Charles Culbertson (IMDb), Wikipedia and IMDb.

Maharadjahens Yndlingshustru (1917) and Maharadjahens Yndlingshustru II (1919)

Maharadjahens Yndlingshustru/The Maharaja’s Favourite Wife (Robert Dinesen, 1917) was a Danish orientalist melodrama produced by the Nordisk Film Kompagni. The stars were Gunnar Tolnaes as an Indian prince, and Lilly Jacobson as his love interest, the Danish Elly von Langen. The film was so popular that Nordisk produced a sequel. In Maharadjahens Yndlingshustru II/The Maharaja's Favourite Wife II (August Blom, 1919), Tolnaes and Jacobson returned. Photochemie in Berlin published postcards for both films. A German sequel followed in 1921 and a Danish remake in 1926, both with Tolnaes but without Jacobson who had left the film industry.


German postcard by Photochemie, Berlin, no. K. 1475. Photo: Nordisk. Lilly Jacobson in Maharadjahens Yndlingshustru/The Maharaja's Favourite Wife (Robert Dinesen, 1917).


German postcard by Photochemie, Berlin, no. K. 1917. Photo: Nordisk. Gunnar Tolnaes in Maharadjahens Yndlingshustru/The Maharaja's Favourite Wife (Robert Dinesen, 1917).


German postcard by Photochemie, Berlin, no. K. 1919. Photo: Nordisk. Gunnar Tolnaes and Lilly Jacobson in Maharadjahens Yndlingshustru/The Maharaja's Favourite Wife (Robert Dinesen, 1917).


German postcard by Photochemie, Berlin, no. K. 1976. Photo: Nordisk. Gunnar Tolnaes and Lilly Jacobson in Maharadjahens Yndlingshustru/The Maharaja's Favourite Wife (Robert Dinesen, 1917).

Gunnar Tolnaes

Maharadjahens Yndlingshustru/The Maharaja’s Favourite Wife (Robert Dinesen, 1917) was based on a script by Sven Gade. The film begins at a European seaside resort. Beautiful officer's daughter Elly von Langen (Lilly Jacobson) meets and falls in love with an elegant Indian maharajah (Gunnar Tolnaes). She has just turned down a marriage proposal from her cousin, Lieutenant Kuno von Falkenberg (Carlo Wieth). She secretly flees with the Maharajah to India.

There, to her regret, Elly is incorporated into his harem, and although she is given the status of favourite wife, she does not have her freedom. Some time later, von Falkenberg's ship arrives in India and the naval officers are invited to the maharajah's palace. When Elly recognizes her cousin, she first begs him to be freed. However, when the Maharajah allows her to choose and indirectly gives her proof of his great love, she decides at the last minute to stay with him.

In the 1910s, the Danish film industry was an international superpower and the productions of the Nordisk Film Kompagni were the most successful - especially in Germany. The studio heads at Nordisk hoped that Norwegian-born actor silent film star Gunnar Tolnaes would become as popular as their biggest star, Valdemar Psilander.

In 1913, Tolnaes started his film career for the Swedish company Svenska Biografteatern AB in Stockholm and worked there with legendary director Victor Sjöström. They made the silent dramas Halvblod/Half Breed (Victor Sjöström, 1913) with Karin Molander, Gatans barn/Children of the Streets (Victor Sjöström, 1914) starring Lili Beck, and En av de många/One of the Many (Victor Sjöström, 1915). He also worked with the other great director of the silent Swedish cinema, Mauritz Stiller.

Then Tolnaes moved to Copenhagen, where he was offered a contract at the Nordisk studio. He had an impressive career in Denmark. Immediately, Tolnaes was successful with Doktor X/Doctor X (1915) directed by Robert Dinesen. Tolnaes had his most famous performance for Nordisk in Maharadjahens Yndlingshustru/The Maharaja’s Favourite Wife (Robert Dinesen, 1917). Bedecked with jewels and military decorations in his Maharajah attire, gained immense popularity and the tale-telling nickname ‘The Women’s Favorite Maharajah’.

Tolnaes continued in such Nordisk productions as the Science-Fiction film Himmelskibet/400 Million Miles From Earth (Holger-Madsen, 1918). Another major success was the sequel of Maharadjahens Yndlingshustru/The Maharaja’s Favourite Wife (Robert Dinesen, Svend Gade, 1917), Maharadjahens Yndlingshustru II/The Maharaja's Favourite Wife II (August Blom, 1919), in which he reunited with Lilly Jacobson.


German postcard by Photochemie, Berlin, no. K. 2992. Photo: Nordisk. Gunnar Tolnaes and Lilly Jacobson in Maharadjahens Yndlingshustru II/The Maharaja's Favourite Wife II (August Blom, 1919).


German postcard by Photochemie, Berlin, no. K. 2993. Photo: Nordisk. Gunnar Tolnaes in Maharadjahens Yndlingshustru II/The Maharaja's Favourite Wife II (August Blom, 1919).


German postcard by Photochemie, Berlin, no. K. 2994. Photo: Nordisk. Gunnar Tolnaes in Maharadjahens Yndlingshustru II/The Maharaja's Favourite Wife II (August Blom, 1919).


German postcard by Photochemie, Berlin, no. K. 2995. Photo: Nordisk. Gunnar Tolnaes in Maharadjahens Yndlingshustru II/The Maharaja's Favourite Wife II (August Blom, 1919).

Lilly Jacobson

In 1916 Nordisk was looking for a new female star. Swedish actress Lilly Jacobson (also written as Lilly Jacobsson) was chosen from hundreds of competitors and became the leading actress in Maharadjahens Yndlingshustru/The Maharaja’s Favourite Wife (Robert Dinesen, Svend Gade, 1917). Jacobson had already starred in Swedish and Danish silent films by such directors as Eric Malmberg, Mauritz Stiller and Holger-Madsen.

In Maharadjahens Yndlingshustru, she played Elly von Langen who enters the harem of an Indian Maharaja. The film was a box office success in many countries. In Austria, Paimann’s Filmlisten warmly recommended cinema owners to book the film: "The story is gripping and highly dramatic; the acting and photography are excellent, the sets lavish and the harem scenes first-rate."

Jacobsson played in various Danish films, mostly directed by Holger-Madsen. These films include the Science-Fiction-film Himmelskibet/400 Million Miles From Earth (Holger-Madsen, 1918), Folkets ven/Friend of the People (Holger-Madsen, 1918), and Mod Lyset/Towards the Light (Holger-Madsen, 1918) starring Asta Nielsen.

Nielsen plays a cold, partying woman who neglects religion, but later on repents and becomes the wife of a preacher (Alf Blütecher) who cares for the poor. The film eventually resulted in Jacobson playing Ophelia in Asta Nielsen’s famous production of Hamlet (Svend Gade, Heinz Schall, 1921), in which Nielsen played the title role herself.

Hamlet was Lilly Jacobson's final film. She married Corbett Edwards, the manager of Odense Gasværk and director of Danske Gaskompagni and retired from acting. Jacobson then withdrew from the public eye and lived with her husband in Odense, Denmark, until his death in 1977.


German postcard by Photochemie, Berlin, no. K. 2996. Photo: Nordisk. Lilly Jacobson in Maharadjahens Yndlingshustru II/The Maharaja's Favourite Wife II (August Blom, 1919).


German postcard by Photochemie, Berlin, no. K. 3002. Photo: Nordisk. Gunnar Tolnaes in Maharadjahens Yndlingshustru II/The Maharaja's Favourite Wife II (August Blom, 1919)..


German postcard by Photochemie, Berlin, no. K. 3003. Photo: Nordisk. Gunnar Tolnaes in Maharadjahens Yndlingshustru II/The Maharaja's Favourite Wife II (August Blom, 1919).


German postcard by Photochemie, Berlin, no. K. 3004. Photo: Nordisk. Gunnar Tolnaes in Maharadjahens Yndlingshustru II/The Maharaja's Favourite Wife II (August Blom, 1919).

Part 3 and another part 3

Maharadjahens Yndlingshustru/The Maharaja’s Favourite Wife was such a success that Nordisk made a sequel, Maharadjahens Yndlingshustru II/The Maharaja's Favourite Wife II (August Blom, 1919), again starring Gunnar Tolnaes and Lilly Jacobson.

It featured a different set of characters. In part II, the Maharaja of Baghalpur (Gunnar Tolnaes) has conquered a European woman, Gul (Lilly Jacobson), who has become his very dear sweetheart. The young finance advisor Armine Robert (Carl Worm) is anxious to know all about the romance and Gul.

In 1921 the German studio PAGU produced another sequel Die Lieblingsfrau des Maharadschas - 3. Teil/The Maharajah's Favourite Wife III (Max Mack, 1921) in which Aud Egede Nissen replaced Jacobson. Die Lieblingsfrau des Maharadscha was Tolnaes' first German film.

Gunnar Tolnaes then alternated acting in German films with Danish productions, until the end of the silent era. Most of his Danish films in the 1920s were directed by A.W. Sandberg.

Finally, Nordisk Film released a new film in the series, Maharadjahens yndlingshustru III//The Maharajah's Favourite Wife III (A.W. Sandberg, 1926). Sandberg's film was a slightly modified remake of Dinesen's original version. The film was made to mark the 20th anniversary of the founding of Nordisk. Tolnaes returned as the Maharajah and now Karina Bell played his love Elly.


German postcard by Photochemie, Berlin, no. K. 3006. Photo: Nordisk. Gunnar Tolnaes in Maharadjahens Yndlingshustru II/The Maharaja's Favourite Wife II (August Blom, 1919).


German postcard by Photochemie, Berlin, no. K. 3008. Photo: Nordisk. Lilly Jacobson in Maharadjahens Yndlingshustru II/The Maharaja's Favourite Wife II (August Blom, 1919).


German postcard by Photochemie, Berlin, no. K. 3009. Photo: Nordisk.Lilly Jacobson in Maharadjahens Yndlingshustru II/The Maharaja's Favourite Wife II (August Blom, 1919).


German postcard by Photochemie, Berlin, no. K. 3010. Photo: Nordisk. Lilly Jacobson in Maharadjahens Yndlingshustru II/The Maharaja's Favourite Wife II (August Blom, 1919).

Sources: Mariann Lewinsky (Il Cinema Ritrovato), Det Danske Filminstitut (Danish) TMDB, Wikipedia (German) and IMDb.