Gussy Holl

Auguste Marie "Gussy" Holl (22 February 1888 – 16 July 1966)[1][2][3] was a German actress and singer. Holl was briefly a silent film star during the early Weimar Republic, appearing in productions such as F. W. Murnau's Desire (1921).[4] As of 2021, only one of her films survives.[5]

Gussy Holl
Holl in Desire, 1921
Born22 February 1888
Frankfurt am Main, German Empire
Died16 July 1966 (aged 78)
Salzburg, Austria
Years active1913–1921 (film)
Spouse(s)
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(m. 1918; div. 1922)​

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(m. 1923; died 1950)​
Children1

Biography

Auguste Marie Holl was born on 22 February 1888 in Frankfurt am Main. She had a brother, Georg Holl.[6]

Holl was a performer at Schall und Rauch, a cabaret in Berlin that had been founded by Max Reinhardt in 1901. Nicknamed the silver-blonde elegant witch,[7] she sang and acted. She inspired multiple songs by Walter Mehring and Kurt Tucholsky,[2] including "The Blonde Lady Sings" and "Petronella", a parody of the Berlin trend for nudity on stage, and a dig at strip clubs. Tucholsky wrote of Holl, "Frankfurt has produced two great men: Goethe and Gussy Holl ... She can do anything: hate and love, stroke and beat, sing and speak – there is no tone that is not part of her lyre."[8] and, "Unlike any other German artist, this rare and glorious woman is qualified and destined to be the great political singer. I won't even mention her tremendous art of parody and her ability to flit over the most daring things with a gracious leap – we are only interested in the artist who has more to say to a hall full of politically thinking people than ten journalists could."[9] In addition to being the number one cabaret star in the Weimar Republic,[10] she was also a successful impersonator in New York.[11]

Portrait of Gussy Holl by Paul Rieth, c. 1918

Holl made her film debut in the 1913 short The Sky Monster, also called America to Europe in an Airship or Kidnapped in Midair.[12][13] The film was released in America by Universal in 1914. She did not appear in another film until 1919, when she starred in Richard Oswald's enlightenment film Prostitution alongside her husband, Conrad Veidt, and Reinhold Schünzel.[14] She next appeared in Madness (1919), followed by The Night at Goldenhall (1920), both of which were directed by and starred Veidt. Film-Kurier wrote of Holl's performance in Madness, "Gussy Holl should give up [film] acting. It is pitiful to watch this artist – who is peerless in her own sphere – at a task which she cannot master despite her best efforts." Holl said to Lotte Eisner of the film, "The film was not only called Madness, but it was madness as well, and I can't remember anything about the story."[15]

Holl's final screen appearance was in Desire (1921).

Holl was married twice; her first marriage was to actor Conrad Veidt. Their large wedding took place on 18 June 1918.[3] They separated in 1919, but attempted to reconcile multiple times.[16] The two divorced in 1922, and Holl later told Françoise Rosay, "I excused a lot of his failings and whims because I loved him. But one day he did something to me that I couldn’t forgive. I was singing that evening at the cabaret. I left him home and he told me: 'I invited a few friends; we'll dine while we wait for you.' And it just so happened I had received a new dress from Paris. That evening, after work, I arrived home and what do I see? All these gentlemen dressed as women. And Conrad had put on my Paris dress. At this point, I divorced!"[17]

Holl married Emil Jannings in 1923, and remained with him until his death in 1950. Neither marriage produced children, although Holl was stepmother to Jannings' daughter Ruth-Maria.[18] Holl had a daughter of her own called "Boubie"; the father was allegedly a close relative of Wilhelm II.[19]

Holl died on 16 July 1966 in Salzburg.

Filmography

References
  1. Fallada, Hans (6 January 2011). In meinem fremden Land: Gefängnistagebuch 1944. Aufbau Digital. ISBN 9783841202581 – via Google Books.
  2. Fallada, Hans (20 January 2015). A Stranger in My Own Country: The 1944 Prison Diary. John Wiley & Sons. ISBN 9780745681542 – via Google Books.
  3. Allen, Jerry C. (1 January 1987). Conrad Veidt: from Caligari to Casablanca. Boxwood Press. ISBN 9780940168046 – via Google Books.
  4. Eisner p. 130
  5. https://www.lost-films.eu/films/show/id/44
  6. "Bio". www.myheritage.com. Retrieved 15 April 2020.
  7. Gray, Jeremy (15 April 2000). Munich. Lonely Planet. ISBN 9781864500554 – via Google Books.
  8. Appignanesi, Lisa (15 April 2004). The Cabaret. Yale University Press. ISBN 0300105800 – via Google Books.
  9. Finnan, Carmel (15 April 2006). Practicing Modernity: Female Creativity in the Weimar Republic. Königshausen & Neumann. ISBN 9783826032417 – via Google Books.
  10. Berlin and Potsdam. Michelin Travel. 15 January 2001. ISBN 9782060000916 – via Google Books.
  11. "Cosmopolitan". Hearst Corporation. 15 April 1910 – via Google Books.
  12. https://www.nitrateville.com/viewtopic.php?t=19739
  13. https://m.imdb.com/title/tt2662610/?ref_=m_ttmi_tt
  14. Smith, Jill Suzanne (15 May 2014). Berlin Coquette: Prostitution and the New German Woman, 1890–1933. Cornell University Press. ISBN 9780801469695 – via Google Books.
  15. Soister, John T. (2 September 2015). Conrad Veidt on Screen: A Comprehensive Illustrated Filmography. McFarland. ISBN 9781476611228 – via Google Books.
  16. http://thethunderchild.com/ConradVeidt/page95.html
  17. https://books.google.com/books?id=mRoOAQAAIAAJ&q=Fran%C3%A7oise+Rosay:+La+Travers%C3%A9e+d%E2%80%99une+vie&dq=Fran%C3%A7oise+Rosay:+La+Travers%C3%A9e+d%E2%80%99une+vie&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjIja-JqY7tAhUrrFkKHYLPBrUQ6AEwAHoECAAQAg
  18. Inc, Nielsen Business Media (14 January 1950). "Billboard". Nielsen Business Media, Inc. – via Google Books.
  19. Rosay, Françoise, La Traversée d'une vie (ed. Robert Laffont, 1974) "Gussy Holl was an intelligent, decided and elegant woman who had been very successful in German cabarets. She sang wonderful songs apparently, but unfortunately I never heard her perform. She also had a daughter from a close relative of the Kaiser. It gave her some kind of aristocratic veneer. Her daughter, who was around 18 at that time, was called 'Boubie'. Anyway, everybody called her that way. It was a tall girl, pretty large; she looked like a police constable. It was a mistake to call her 'boubie', baby…"

Bibliography
  • Eisner, Lotte H. F. W. Murnau. University of California Press, 1973.
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