Photographers' Studios Ross Verlag printed and distributed some of the most beautiful movie star photographs around the world.   On some of these cards, especially of the German stars, the photographers' studio ("Atelier" in German) or a particular photographer ("Aufnahme"), or both, were given a credit.   I really don't know how those studios worked, but there were probably multiple photographers at each studio.   Many of the photographers apprenticed at one studio and went on to create their own.   So it is possible, for instance, that a Binder studio credit may not have actually been photographed by Alex Binder.   There were credits sometimes given to both a studio and an individual photographer. For the most part, the photographs of actors from the American movie studios did not have individual photography credits (with some exceptions).   The usual credit given was just to the movie studio, such as MGM or Fox.   Someone with more experience may be able to tell if a particular portrait was by a Hurrell or Bull or some of the other famous Hollywood photographers.

I went through my cards and made a list of all the photography studios and individual photographers that were credited.   Since I do not have all the cards, the list is probably not complete.   I checked only the regular Ross series cards.   I did not include the Film Sterne cards, or any of the other series, such as Das Program von Heute.   Although some biographical information is available online for certain photography studios, most of them are unknown.   It is possible some of the names may be from foreign film studios or production companies, rather than photography studios.   However, most are definitely studio photographers.

AMERICAN GLAMOUR PHOTOGRAPHERS Rare American photographer credit on card:   Michael Gallo, New-York Photo: Clarence Sinclair Bull Witzel Hollywood credit in photo M.I. Boris N.Y. credit in photo Hal Phyfe credit in photo Melbourne Spurr Hollywood credit in photo Autrey signature in photo Freulich signature credit in photo

Most of the American Studio photographers did not receive a credit on the cards, however, some of them are recognizable became of their signatures in the photos, especially Autrey for Fox, and Freulich for Universal. (Max Munn) Autrey   (Worked for Fox) M.I. Boris, NY   (Real name:   Boris Majdrakoff) (Roman) Freulich (Worked for Universal) Elmer Fryer, Hollywood Michael Gallo, New York C. Heighton Monroe L.A. (Walter F.) Seely, LA Melbourne Spurr Hollywood Henry Waxman Witzel La (Albert) Hal Phyfe

GERMAN GLAMOUR PHOTOGRAPHERS Studio photography credit for the German photographers was much more common.   Although these were mainly for German and other European stars, credits did show up on some American stars photos by European photographers (probably when the actors were visiting Germany). Anyone who has collected the Ross Verlag postcards, will find one particular studio photographer's signature showing up with greater frequency than anyone else's.   That, of course, is "Binder," which was the studio of Alex Binder.   A search of the internet has yielded no biographical information on Mr. Binder, which seems strange considering how prolific his studio was (and considering how he gets the only studio photographer's credit on a Greta Garbo card.) Other German studio names that turned up with great frequency were "Becker & Maas," "Ernst Schneinder," "Karl Schenker," "Ernst Sandau," and many more. The following is a list of the Berlin studio photographers, and then other German city studios. (Martin) Badekow Bafag Baláza Rolf von Barm Ellen Baum-Salm Becker and Maass Bender and Jacobi von Bergen Berhardt Bieber Alex Binder Tita Binz Brahm M.v. Bucovich Suse Byk Elli Cahn Hans Casparius Rosemarie Clausen Alice Domker Draber Rudolph Dührkoop Anny Eberth C. Fernstädt René Fosshag Fulda H. Gärtner Gerstenberg Greinert-Serda Artur Grimm Freiherr V. Gudenberg (Karl Ludwig) Haenchen Harlip (produced their own line of postcards, which are hard to find) Hartung Henkel-Szymanski Jacobi Walther Jaeger H. Jeidels Kiesel L. Klaude König-Rohde Krabbe Kreutzberger Walter Lichtenstein R. Lippmann Emanuel Loewenthal Mahrenholz Elli Marcus Marion Curt Meyer Paul Moser Natge Oerter Nicola Perscheid Rembrandt Riess P. Rischke Rischke and Marby Werner Samson Ernst Sandau Ernst Schneinder Karl Schenker Schrecker Schloss Alex Schmoll (H. Schmoll also had a few credits, but I think this was a misprint) Hanni Schwarz Gerti Simon Stone Otto Kurt Vogelsang Wa-Kie Ruth Wilhelmi (Lazlo) Willinger Willott Foto Wog Yva (Real name was Elsa Ernestine Neuländer-Simon.   She died in a concentration camp) Zander and Labisch Arthur Ziehm Bern R. Liniger and Co. Frankfurt R. Grunemann Nuremberg Harren Wiesbaden Kurzrock Munich Lutteroth Anton Sahm E. Wasow Baumann Westerland J. Sonderegger Potsdam Wilhelm. Niederastroth Liedtke (This was a credit for a Harry Liedtke photo. I do not know if it signified a production company, or if a member of his family (or himself) took the photo)

Alex Binder photo Binder signature in photo Binder photo of Douglas Fairbanks Photo credited to M.v. Bucovich at K. Schenker studio Becker & Maass credit in photo Ernst Schneider studio Liedtke photo credit

OTHER EUROPEAN GLAMOUR PHOTOGRAPHERS Other European countries had some studio photographer credits.   Austria was the most common, with Manassé being the most prolific studio. Vienna, Austria Adéle Arenberg D'Ora (Dora Kallmus, who was an Austrian who had a Paris studio) Arthur Bendz Fayer Trude Geiringer and Dors Horovitz Kosel Rob. Loederer Manassé (Olga Spolarics and Adorjan Wlássics) Ring Paris France Abbe (James Abbe was an American portrait photographer, but I do not know if they are the same) G.L. Manuel Fréres Lorelle Prague, Czech Republic Balzar Richard Frolik Scholosser and Wenisch Ströminger Nordwyk, Netherlands (?) Gemizc London England E.O. Hoppé (Emil Otto) St. Moritz, Switzerland Loritz Budapest Hugary Vaida M. Pál Zagreb, Croatia G.J. Reputin Warsaw Poland Van-Dyck Bologna, Italy La Serenissima

Manassé, Vienna studio Balzar, Prague studio Camera Portrait by E.O. Hoppé, a London photographer

UKNOWN STUDIOS These are studios and photographers that did not name a location, and research turned up no information.   The majority were undoubtedly German. Aniel S.A. Bertazzini Besser Oscar Brockshus W.v. Debschitz-Kunowski Inkey Felvétele Frank Georgi Hameister Hämmerer Hänse-Hermann A. Holländer v. Harbou Jensen Lindner Lüdtke Karl Luther J. Niczky Parikus-Reval Reisner Schünemann O. Stein Vaselli Weidenbaum Weisse Wesel Carl Wolf

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