16.00 USD
Here at Red Poulaine, we have a special place in our hearts for the Italian actress images of the early 1900s and into the 1920s. The quality of the portrait photography and subsequent postcard publication was particularly rich, with a flair for the dramatic and mysterious. Many of our favorites, like Anna Fougez and Nella Regini, began their careers as sciantose, a variation on the French term chanteuse, meaning female singer, but bringing to it other meanings, and implying a dark, mysterious, exotic quality that appealed to the theater going public at the time, and certainly appeals to us :) Naturally we love all of our images or we probably wouldn't purchase them for our shop, and feel an almost filial affection for the performers onto whom we project imagined personalities and traits (is that weird? :), but there is something about what seems to have been at the time a very Italian penchant for carrying the illusion of the stage and screen out into the public venue, a tendency to make even larger, the already "larger than life" persona of the theatrical personality, that we really love. So we have decided to open a new section devoted exclusively to these Italian artistes. We call it "La Bella Donna," and yes it is a bit of a play on words, given the tendency in many of these cards to focus on qualities of a "femme Fatale" type. We hope you will enjoy these images as much as we do.
Vera Vergani was born in Milan in 1896. Granddaughter of Victor Podrecca, one of Italy's most famous puppeteers, she began acting at age ten, and would become one of Italy's most beloved actresses. She spent 20 years in the company of Ruggero Ruggeri, considered by many to be the father of modern Italian theater, was a favorite of Gabriele D'Annunzio and Luigi Pirandello. In fact, legend has it that following a performance of Pirandello's "Six Characters in Search of an Author," Signorina Vergani faced down a mob of angry audience members bent on doing harm to Pirandello (apparently in those days one had more to worry about than a bad review in the newspaper :).
She made a number of silent films, in the 1920s toured America, and it was on the transatlantic liner that carried her to America for this tour that she met the ship's captain, Leonardo Pescarolo, with whom she would exchange love letters for the next decade.
And so it was, that in 1930, at the very pinnacle of her success as an actress, Vera Vergani quietly left the stage behind, and went off to the tiny island of Procida, in the Bay of Naples, as the wife of Captain Pescarolo. Few there knew she was the famous actress whose face had graced the covers of European magazines, as she raised two children, who would not know, for many years, their mother's history. Both of those children, named after their parents, Leonardo and Vera, later became involved in the film industry as producer and director.
Signorina Vergani passed away in 1989. We're grateful to ilprocidano.it for most of our very romantic biographical material.
A wonderful A. Traldi card with a sawtooth edge in unusually good condition! So often, the sawtooth edges lose a few teeth over the years. And, of course, there is the added benefit of the beautiful Art Nouveau/Deco publisher's logo on the reverse of most A. Traldi cards. Perfetto :)
Please examine our high res scans for detail
Postage is for first class shipping in a secure photo mailer, and we happily combine shipping on all paper goods. If you purchase two cards, we will refund the postage on the second card, and when you purchase three or more cards from us at the same time, your shipping will be entirely free, except for international orders which, because of sudden increases in international shipping rates will still be charged one card's shipping fees on orders of three or more.
And please come visit our blog at:
redpoulaine.blogspot.com
where we post biographical and historical tidbits, images of cards and photographs for sale, some already sold but remembered fondly, related images of historical interest and sometimes even images of items that have not yet arrived in the shop, but that are expected to arrive soon, as well as coupon codes, links to other related sites, and more!