Elisabeth Pinajeff 1926 German Silent Film and 50 similar items

Vintage original 3.5 x 5.25 in. German postcard depicting the beautiful German silent film actress, ELISABETH PINAJEFF. She is depicted in a full-length publicity shot wearing a simple dress in a casual pose. It was signed in black ink by Elisabeth Pinajeff in, we believe, 1926 (see additional details below), the year in which she appeared in six silent films. Printed by the renowned Ross-Verlag company of Berlin, Germany, this vintage original "country of origin" postcard is unused in very fine- condition with three very light thin vertical creases along the left border and just inside the background area. There are no tears, stains, or other flaws. 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. Elisabeth Pinajeff was born on April 17, 1900 in Germany as Elisabeth von Pinajeff. She was an actress, known for Die Sünderin (1928), Der Mitternachtswalzer (1929), and Madame hat Ausgang (1931). In the 1910’s, she did her studies in Kharkiv (Charkow), in Ukraine, and attended dramatic classes too. Her film career chance came in 1921 when Danish director Carl Theodor Dreyer advertised in a newspaper that he was looking for authentic Russians to play in his first German film, Die Gezeichneten (Love One Another) (1921). Elisabeth Pinajeff got a small part in the film and not the female lead. The leading lady was countess Polina Piechovska, while the male lead was played by Vladimir Gajdarov. In the mid-1920’s, she often was the second actress after the female star, and so she was destined to play the rival, as in Die Brigantin von New York (Hans Werckmeister, 1924), with Lotte Neumann, and in Herrn Philip Collins Abenteuer (Mr. Philip Collins’ Adventure) (Johannes Guter, 1925) with Georg Alexander and Ossi Oswalda. She appeared in many silent German films, often as a classy seductress. According to Ciné-Artistes and other sources, Pinajeff had met Austrian photographer Alex Binder in 1929, who had the biggest photo studio in Europe in the 1920’s. By 1929, he lived in Paris and Pinajeff became first his model, then his wife. She later appeared in the film La tragedie imperiale (1937) with her pseudonym, Lily Dorell. She died on December 31, 1995 in Villemoisson-sur-Orge, Essonne, France. 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).