Gussy Holl

Auguste Marie Christine Holl (22 February 1888 – 16 July 1966) 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). As of 2021, only one of her films survives. Biography Auguste Marie Christine Holl was born on 22 February 1888 in Frankfurt am Main to Georg Holl and Marie Christine Holl. She had a brother named Georg. 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, she sang and acted. She inspired multiple songs by Walter Mehring and Kurt Tucholsky, 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." 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." In addition to being the number one cabaret star in the Weimar Republic, she was also a successful impersonator in New York. Holl made her film debut in the 1913 short The Sky Monster, also called America to Europe in an Airship or Kidnapped in Midair. 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. 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."