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Trude Berliner, Cabaret Performer and Film Actress, circa 1930
What a wonderfully bizarre image!
Trude Berliner (born Gertrude Berliner in Berlin, Germany, 1903, was a popular cabaret performer during the Weimar era who went on in the late twenties and early '30s to star in a number of films. Please don't ask us why she's wearing custard cups, we have no idea, haha, but we love it :)
Below, we have a Youtube link to a short film from 1931 showing a "Kabarett" act in which Trude Berliner performs onstage with Siegfried Arno, the popular cabaret performer and film actor (he appeared in Pabst's "Pandora's Box" with Louise Brooks).
This short reminds us that although Weimar Berlin had a wild reputation, cabaret acts in the Weimar era were not all about doom, gloom, illicit substances and sex, but also offered light-hearted, vaudeville style entertainment (probably more often than not). People usually go out on the town to be cheered up, after all, not brought down, particularly during an economic depression.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fPvU2cQZM74
In '33, when Hitler came to power in Germany, Fraulein Berliner, like so many other Jewish performers, left the country. She emigrated to France where she lived until 1939 when she moved again to the USA. Wikipedia remembers the tiny role she played in Casablanca.
"In 1942, Berliner received her first part in an American movie, Casablanca. She portrayed a woman playing baccarat with a Dutch banker (played by Torben Meyer). In her one line in (the) movie, she says to the waiter Carl (played S.Z. Sakall), "Will you ask Rick if he will have a drink with us?", to which Carl responds, "Madame, he never drinks with customers. Never. I have never seen it."
Though appearing in a few films after arriving in Hollywood, she was never able to get a Hollywood film career off the ground, but remained in California until her death in 1977.
Herr Arno, who appears in the short film we link to above was more fortunate in his career. Both performers followed the same refugee path, to Europe in '33, to America in '39, but Siegfried Arno played countless small roles in Hollywood films and was a greatly loved Hollywood bit player.