Maria Collm

Maria Johanna Collm , also Gerda Gerold as a pseudonym, (born July 2, 1901 in Vienna ; † January 24, 1988 in Victoria , British Columbia ) was an Austrian actress , singer and diseuse .

Life

After attending the lyceum , she began studying at the university, but then switched to the Elevenschule at the Deutsches Theater and trained as a singer and actress at the Vienna State Academy . She got her first role in 1921 as a page in Shakespeare's “Winter's Tale” at the Deutsches Volkstheater Vienna . Then she was hired in Vienna, Breslau and Berlin.

In Berlin , Maria Collm switched to cabaret at the end of the 1920s. As the youngest diseuse she had success with cheerful and sentimental chansons by Friedrich Hollaender , Franz Wachsmann and Oscar Straus . Between 1930 and 1933 she made guest appearances in the “ Kabarett der Komiker ”, performed with Willi Schaffers in “Kabarett für Alle” and “Café Berlin”. On the radio she was accompanied by the Sam Baskini and Gerhard Hoffmann orchestras .

After the seizure of power by the Nazis in 1933 Maria Collm could as Diseuse work only limited Jewish descent, but was allowed to record 1,935 records until March. Then she went to Paris, where she had an engagement at the “chez tou-tou” until the occupation of France . In 1940 she was interned. She owed her release from the Gurs camp to the intervention of the Rothschild banking family . It reached New York via Marseille and Lisbon. There she initially worked as a hostess, but was then able to work on cabaret again with Oskar Karlweis, Hermann Leopoldi , Helli Moeslein and other Viennese artists who had also emigrated, for example in the “Café Grinzing” and “Café Vienna”; For a while she also appeared in Valeska Gert's “Beggar Bar”.

In 1953 she returned to Germany. She did not make a comeback. She performed a few more times in Bremen, Hamburg and on the radio at the Baden-Baden broadcaster, but then withdrew from her concert and lecturing activities. In 1954 she went to South America and from there to Canada. Her last residence was Victoria on Vancouver Island .

Works

Maria Collm left recordings with the companies Electrola , Odeon and Ultraphon . She worked with the orchestras of Lewis Ruth (recte Ludwig Rüth), Hans Bund and Oskar Joost . As a record label (Odeon O-11 640, Be 9830 and 9831, Berlin 1932) shows, Maria Collm has also performed under the artist name 'Gerda Gerold'.

Recordings (selection)

• Jonny, when it's your birthday . Song (music and text by Friedrich Hollaender): Gerda Gerold (d. I. Maria Collm), with Odeon, cabaret orchestra under the direction of Hans Bund. Odeon O-11 640 a (Be 9830), Berlin 1932.
• Peter, Peter . Song (music: Rudolph Nelson, text by Friedrich Hollaender): Gerda Gerold (d. I. Maria Collm), with Odeon cabaret orchestra under the direction of Hans Bund., Odeon O-11 640 b (Be 9831), Berlin 1932.

literature

• “Aufbau”, keyword catalog for the magazine: 6 references to appearances in American exile.
• Iris Fink , Hans Veigl : suppressed years. Entertainment culture in the shadow of crises. An exhibition by the Austrian Cabaret Archive. Straden 2008, DNB 990792277 .
• Funkstunde = A photo showing Diseuse Maria Collm and Kapellmeister Sam Baskini with his violin in front of the Reisz microphone of the Berlin transmitter appeared in the “Funk-Hour” on April 29, 1931.
• Klaus Krüger, Rainer E. Lotz: German National Discography. Volume 5, Bonn 1998, ISBN 3-9805808-1-4 .
• Berthold Leimbach (Ed.): Sound documents of cabaret and their interpreters 1898–1945. Self-published, Göttingen 1991, DNB 911350551 .
• Hans Veigl (ed.): Banished, burned, forgotten and misunderstood. Short biographies on the persecution and expulsion of Austrian cabaret and small stage artists 1933–1945. Graz 2012, ISBN 978-3-9501427-1-6 .

Web links

• Photo May 15, 1942
• Entertainment evening in Café Vienna November 13, 1942
• www.kabarettarchiv.at

Individual evidence

1. ↑ deposit.dnb.de
2. ↑ deposit.dnb.de
3. ↑ deposit.dnb.de
4. ↑ deposit.dnb.de