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William Dieterle (born Wilhelm Dieterle) was a German director from the 1920s to the 1960s who also acted in German movies from the 1920s to the early 1930s, including for the greatest German expressionist directors of the 1920s. He went to America in the early 1930s and he went to work for Warner Bros, mostly making mainstream movies, including several of their prestige movies. In 1941, he made the very surreal "All That Money Can Buy" for RKO, and that showed that he hadn't forgotten what he learned from working with those great German directors. Some of his other movies include: The Story of Louis Pasteur, The Life of Emile Zola (nominated for the Best Director Academy Award for this film), Juarez, The Hunchback of Notre Dame (the 1939 version), and many, many more! He passed away in 1972 at the age of 79.

Important Added Info: Note that this German Ross Postcard has been personally autographed (signed) by William Dieterle! Our consignor is a longtime collector who purchased this signed item from a reputable dealer. He does not have a certificate of authenticity, but we believe the signature to likely be authentic.

Also note that this German Ross Postcard measures 3 1/2" x 5 1/2" [9 x 14 cm]. Finally, note that in the 1920s and 1930s in Germany, it became a common practice to pass out 3 1/2" x 5 1/2" "Ross postcards" to the people who attended a movie. These were postcards that people could send through the mail (each had a picture of one of the movie's stars on it, and standard postcard markings on the other side). But these were also sent to theaters where the stars would make personal appearances, and members of the audience would get the stars to autograph them if they could, but of course, the cards themselves did not come autographed! Sometimes the theaters would use a special "Das Programm Von Heute" that had a blank area on the cover, where they would cut four slits in the upper left and have the "Ross postcards" inserted into that area, so that the audience members would get the program and the card together! We imagine that theaters hoped that audience members would mail the postcards after they saw the movie to friends, telling them how much they enjoyed it, thus creating advertising for the movie. These are often called "Ross autograph cards" by collectors, because moviegoers sometimes obtained autographs on them. Ross postcards are quite collectible, signed or unsigned, but of course, they are worth far more signed. They are often quite rare, because most German paper of all kinds from before World War II was destroyed during the war, due to the massive paper shortages there at that time.

As is true of all the signed items we are currently auctioning, we give every buyer 30 days in which to review what they purchased (although we prefer they do any "authenticating" while the auction is "live" and before they place a bid) and they can return any item as long as it is within 30 days of the end of the auction. On non-signed items, we give a "lifetime guarantee" on everything we auction, but on signed items, we give the above modified guarantee of 30 days after the auction closes.

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