Vera Kálmán

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Vera Kálmán (* August 22, 1907 , also indicated in 1910, in Perm , also indicated in Saint Petersburg ; † November 25, 1999 in Zurich ) was a film actress and author.

Life

Vera Kálmán was born Marie (also Marya or Marietta ) Mendelsohn (also Mendelsohns ) and was of Jewish faith . From 1929 she was married twice to the operetta composer Emmerich Kálmán . To him, Mendelsohn posed as the impoverished Russian noblewoman Vera Makinskaja . She withheld her true identity until her death. She also took her true date of birth with her to the grave, which she had never revealed.

Vera Kálmán can be seen as an extra in Fritz Lang's world-famous silent film classic Metropolis , produced between 1925 and 1926.

Vera Kálmán became a member of international high society through her marriage to Kálmán. During their joint exile in Paris and New York , she gave lavish parties that were attended by personalities such as Marlene Dietrich and Greta Garbo . Although she left Kálmán because of another man, the composer took her back after the breakdown of this relationship and married her again. Until her death she lived alternately in Paris, Monte Carlo , Munich , Zurich and Vienna . In addition to her face, which has frozen into a mask due to numerous liftings, her optical trademarks have always included precious jewels and fancy fur coats . A tangible scandal occurred when she appeared in a leopard coat for a panther baptism in Vienna's Schönbrunn Zoo .

Works

  • Say hello to the sweet, charming women. My life with Emmerich Kálmán . Hestia-Verlag, Bayreuth 1966.
  • The world is my home. Memories . Langen-Müller, Munich 1980, ISBN 3-8004-0891-0 .
  • Csárdás . The dance of my life . Ullstein, Frankfurt / M. 1988, ISBN 3-548-20863-0 .

literature

  • Topsy Küppers : All dreams lead to Vienna. A factual novel . Ibera-Verlag, Vienna 2001, ISBN 3-85052-105-2 (a Vera Kálmán biography).
  • Kevin Clarke : "The jazz band already plays in heaven". Emmerich Kálmán and the transatlantic operetta 1928-1932 . Verlag von Bockel, Hamburg 2007, ISBN 978-3-932696-70-1 (contains several chapters on Vera Kálmán's past and the background to the meeting with Emmerich Kálmán in 1928).
  • Kevin Clarke: Vera Kálmán. In: MUGI. Music education and gender research: Lexicon and multimedia presentations. Beatrix Borchard, Nina Noeske, October 27, 2014, accessed on September 5, 2019 .

Web links

References and comments

  1. ^ Registration form in the City and State Archives Vienna
personal data
SURNAME Kálmán, Vera
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Russian film actress and author
DATE OF BIRTH August 22, 1907 or August 22, 1910
PLACE OF BIRTH Perm (city) or Saint Petersburg
DATE OF DEATH November 25, 1999
Place of death Zurich