There’s a German actress I’d love to do a magazine article on, but I cannot find any information on her! Renate Müller was the Claudette Colbert of Germany: a wonderful light comedienne in the late silent and early talkie years. She was dating a Jewish actor (who, happily, escaped to France) and was forced into doing one propaganda film. She had a nervous breakdown and, in 1937, either jumped or was pushed from her hospital window.
I recently got a black-market video of her “Viktor und Viktoria” (1933) from a friend, and she was delightful! But the only biographical info on her I can find is a chapter in the book “Tainted Goddesses—Female Film Stars of the Third Reich,” by Inzi Romani. I can’t write an article based on just that, and my usual sources (Lincoln Center, especially) have nuthin’.
Any German, Brit or L.A. Dopers know any possible sources of information on her? I’ve done name-searches online, and there’s nothing useful. If my damn “google” was working, I could post a link to her photo, though . . .
I vaguely remember the name from studying Marlene Deitrich. I think they were friends. You could maybe find some stuff in Biographies of Marlene. Good luck.
BTW, I’m from Baltimore, MD, and live in St. Paul, MN, and I almost didn’t answer since you seemed to only want answers from “German, Brit or L.A. Dopers”.
Nope, Vile, but good thought—I’ve read everything on Marlene, and at most, Renate is mentioned in passing. She’s in a few books on Hitler—but nothing useful.
Oh, the REASON I specified “German, Brit or L.A. Dopers” is because that’s where pertinent film archives are that I have no access to . . .
Oh, you mean THAT Renate Muller. I thought you meant the Renate Muller who lived across the street from me as a kid.
All Hail, Eve, Queen of the Ultra-Obscure.
PS Wan’t it you who posted about the photo of the gal who took a header off the Empire State Building? No offense, but you seem to be drawn to women who, for whatever reason, want to do themselves in by jumping from tall buildings.
Dowager Empress? I’ve seen your picture, lady, and you are much too fetching to be considered a dowager (which I am defining as a dignified, elderly lady). The Princess Dragamearov (sp?) in “Murder on the Orient Express” (loved Ingrid Bergman and her “little brown babies” stuff), now that’s a dowager.
Who, praytell, was Peg Entwisle (besides Mr. and Mrs. Entwistle’s daughter)?
Let’s see, you could expand your horizons to include:
Sylvia (Honey, Do You Smell Gas?) Plath
Virginia (I’m Sure I Can Swim With These Cinderblocks in My Pockets) Wolff
Beulah (I’m Going to Go Downstairs and Drink Lysol in Front of My Entire Family While Sitting at the Dinner Table) Cooper (my great aunt, who was nothing if not a barrell of laughs)
I think that concludes my knowledge of women who have done themselves in.
Aren’t you sweet, plnnr—may I call you pln?—but if you saw the flipside of that photo, you’d notice the imprint “Mathew Brady Studios.”
I thought we were just doing jumpers: Peg Entwistle was the promising Broadway starlet who—after one film role—leaped from the “H” in the “HOLLYWOODLAND” sign in 1932.
How about Capucine? Andrea “Whips” Feldman? Diane Linkletter? Any others in the “I’ve Got a Feeling I’m Falling” brigade?