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Lilian Harvey (also known as Lillian Harvey; she was born Helene Lilian Muriel Pape) was born in 1906 in London to an English mother and a German father, and she spent much of her childhood in Switzerland, but then lived in Germany, where she acted in movies starting in the 1920s. She became UFA's biggest female star in the 1930s, and when the Nazis came to power, she helped many of her actor friends escape Germany, and then she too had to escape. She went to Hollywood, where she signed a contract with Fox, but she did not have much success, partly because of her strong connection to movies made during the Nazi period. After the war, she moved to Europe and worked on the stage there, and eventually retired to the Riviera. Some of her movies include: The Empress and I, Congress Dances, Three Good Friends, Quick, and Temporary Widow. Harvey passed away in 1968 at the age of 62.

Important Added Info: Note that this German Ross Postcard has been personally autographed (signed) by Lilian Harvey! Also 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.

Note that this is from a remarkable collection of 26 items (mostly postcards and German Ross postcards) we were consigned from the estate of the late Jan Wahl. Mr. Wahl wrote over 100 children's books and received many awards, including the Coretta Scott King Prize. Throughout his career, he had a great love of silent film, and he collected many items from silent films, including the 26 items we are currently auctioning. Some of them are framed, because they were on the walls of Mr. Wahl's house! Finally, note that this does not come with a certificate of authenticity, but given the fact that Mr. Wahl purchased this item decades ago, and given that he was an expert in such items, we think it is incredibly likely the signature is authentic. This is a rare opportunity to purchase autographed items from great silent film stars that have a wonderful provenance!

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 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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