Vintage original 3.5 x 5.25 in. German postcard depicting the popular Hungarian-born star of German and American films, ERNST VEREBES. He is depicted in a close publicity shot wearing a shirt and tie while posing in front of a white backdrop. It was signed in blue ink by Ernst Verebes in, we believe, 1926 (see additional details below). Printed by the renowned Ross-Verlag company of Berlin, Germany, this vintage original "country of origin" postcard is unused in very fine+ condition with only very light diagonal indentations on each corner from where it was inserted in a vintage postcard album.

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 photographs came from a film collector in Germany who acquired the postcards 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.

Ern? Verebes (December 6, 1902 – June 13, 1971) was a Hungarian-born American actor who began his career in German silent films. First a star in Hungary, Ernö Verebes, born in 1902, achieved the same status in Germany between 1925 and 1936. Now renamed "Ernst" Verebes, he was one of those manly actors, both well-built and charming, at ease as well in a military uniform as in a tuxedo and top hat, that German ladies loved to see on a big screen. They acclaimed him, among many other roles, as a count in Frederic Zelnik's The Gypsy Baron (1927) or as a dashing hussar lieutenant in Der Tanzhusar (1931). Unfortunately, the Nazis liked him much less and, in 1936, Verebes decided he had better flee and take refuge in the United States. His career resumed there two years later but his matinée idol years were past. Verebes, now named Ernö again, first found a few acceptable supporting roles, mainly the German or SS officer in office. He is particularly memorable in a non-military part as the stage manager in Ernst Lubitsch's immortal To Be or Not to Be (1942). After WWII was over, he was only given bits to play, a far cry from the star status he benefited from only one or two decades earlier. The strange thing is that, whatever the type a film he was in, he was most of the time cast as a waiter! For years on, in at least fifteen movies, he would serve drinks to actors and actresses lucky enough to have something interesting to play. Sure there were variants, Ernö Verebes could be a bartender, a head waiter, a wine steward, or the captain of waiters, but the former popular and elegant star understandably tired of unceasingly repeating the same ancillary gestures (he who had been a count, a hussar, and a Don Juan). This is the reason why he decided to retire in 1953, whereas he was only 51. Sadly, he died in oblivion in Los Angeles, aged 68.

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).