Just shy

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Just Scheu (born February 22, 1903 in Mainz , † August 8, 1956 in Bad Mergentheim ) was a German actor , screenwriter , composer , librettist , chanson and hit writer , director and set designer . After 1945 he was a well-known author and spokesman for the Nordwestdeutscher Rundfunk in Who Heard Wins and the playwright of The Hour Handler 1948.

Life

After graduating from high school, Just Scheu first studied philosophy in Frankfurt am Main; but soon he realized that he was a man for the theater. That's why he trained as an actor. At the same time he wrote chanson and hit lyrics, among others for Willy Berking and Michael Jary . Sometimes he composed the music with them.

Just Scheu got his first engagement as an actor at the Kurtheater in Bad Orb. His next stops were theaters in Eisenach, Halle, Cottbus, Bremerhaven and Kiel. The culmination of his career as an actor was an engagement at the Prussian State Theater in Berlin, of which he was a member until 1945. He was also offered numerous roles in feature films. He emerged as an author in 1940 with the book The Hour X - With tanks in Poland and Flanders . In 1943 he took part in the anti-British film Titanic , which Joseph Goebbels banned because of the war situation. In the final phase of the Second World War , Goebbels took him on in August 1944 in the God-gifted list of actors he needed for his propaganda films . For Scheu this meant exemption from war deployment, including on the home front .

After the end of the Second World War, Scheus' writings (both published by “Die Wehrmacht”, Berlin) were published. A man breaks the blockade. Escape of first lieutenant of the Luftwaffe X ... through enemy barriers (1940) and The Hour X. With tanks in Poland and Flanders. A factual report (1941) in the Soviet zone of occupation placed on the list of literature to be segregated.

Scheu started a new career at Radio Frankfurt, the forerunner of the Hessischer Rundfunk . It was there in 1947 that the first German quiz program was launched: “Double or nothing”. Not only did Scheu come up with the idea, he also moderated. The success was so great that other broadcasters became aware of it. When the Reichsmark had been replaced by the D-Mark, he created the first German "radio lottery" on the Northwest German Broadcasting Corporation. This was so successful that it served as a model for other broadcasters. For six years he hosted the show with a lot of wit and humor. The proceeds went to charity.

The collaboration with the writer Ernst Nebhut turned out to be very fruitful . This had already started while he was working for the radio. Together they created several musical comedies as a special form of operetta. Scheu was not only a co-author, but also a composer. The Man in the Top Hat , An Angel Called Schmitt , Paris Stories and The Beautiful Liar , which was filmed in 1959 with Romy Schneider in the lead role, were particularly successful . The three-act act is characterized by the fact that they do not require trained voices. All the songs are set in a medium range of voice so that they can be easily mastered by musically gifted actors and actresses. In terms of the number of people, a small cast is always sufficient, also when it comes to the orchestra. The big theaters are therefore not considered suitable venues, but chamber theaters.

Just Scheu was just 53 years old when he died unexpectedly in Bad Mergentheim as a result of an appendix operation.

criticism

The low level of quiz questions owed to the popularity was satirized by the "Zeit" 1951 to the effect that " even the coat baboons from Hagenbeck sent in correct answers. “Also the taste in music, which could lead to profit, was presented as low.

Works (selection)

Filmography as an actor (selection)

Scripts

Stage works with their own music

Libretti for other composers

Songs, chansons, hits

  • We were off Madagascar
  • A carriage full of girls
  • Do you know that you are beautiful
  • Vagabond song
  • The magic of Paris
  • I just missed you for my happiness
  • The fisherman

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Ernst Klee : The culture lexicon for the Third Reich. Who was what before and after 1945. S. Fischer, Frankfurt am Main 2007, ISBN 978-3-10-039326-5 , p. 520.
  2. ↑ www.polunbi.de
  3. ↑ Just is not afraid. In: zeit.de. April 12, 1951, accessed December 9, 2014 .
personal data
SURNAME Shy, Just
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German composer, film actor, presenter and playwright
DATE OF BIRTH February 22, 1903
PLACE OF BIRTH Mainz
DATE OF DEATH August 8, 1956
Place of death Bad Mergentheim