A rare photo of Berber at her most beautiful.

“She wore heavy dancer’s make-up, which on the black-and-white photos and films of the time came across as jet black lipstick painted across the heart-shaped part of her skinny lips, and charcoaled eyes.”

“Her performances broke boundaries with their androgyny and total nudity, but it was her public appearances that really challenged taboos. Berber’s overt drug addiction and bisexuality were matters of public chatter. She could often be seen in Berlin’s hotel lobbies, nightclubs and casinos; she would walk around naked except for a sable fur, carrying a pet monkey and a silver brooch full of cocaine, while flaunting her lesbian lovers—removing the barrier between performance and normal life. In addition to her addiction to cocaine, opium and morphine, one of Berber’s favourites was chloroform and ether mixed in a bowl. This would be stirred with a white rose, the petals of which she would then eat.”

One dances hunger and hysteria, fear and greed, panic and horror…Anita Berber—her face frozen into a garish mask under the frightening locks of the scarlet coiffure—dances the coitus.

— Klaus Mann

Anarchists of Style: Anita Berber, Part 2

 
Sebastian Droste (occasional husband and dance partner of Anita Berber), in 1923.

Her hair was cut fashionably into a short bob and was frequently bright red, as in 1925 when the German painter Otto Dix painted a portrait of her, titled “The Dancer Anita Berber”. Her dancer friend and sometime lover Sebastian Droste, who performed in the film Algol (1920), was skinny and had black hair with gelled up curls much like sideburns. Neither of them wore much more than lowslung loincloths and Anita occasionally a corsage worn well below her small breasts.

“By 1928, at age 29, diagnosed with tuberculosis and her body shot by years of drug use, her last days were spent in the hospital. “She had the mask of a mad old hag” recalled friend Leo Lania. She died on November 10, 1928 and was buried in a pauper’s grave.”

Berlin – Metropolis of Vice

Illamasqua Theatre of the Nameless inspired make-up

Directed by: Annie Sperling – Created & Written by: Michelle Carr

Want to know more about the life of Anita Berber? Read Mel Gordon’s book – The Seven Addictions and Five Professions of Anita Berber: Weimar Berlin’s Priestess of Debauchery

Goddess of the night – a fantastic article on Berber from Strange Flowers

“I have always wanted to be just a pair of eyes, walking through the world unseen, only to be able to see others. Unfortunately one was seen.” – Jeanne Mammen, Painter

Jeanne Mammen, She Represents, 1927

“For her pictures of social relationships, Mammen chose to work in the Expressionist style. Her empathy for women shows itself in her choice of subjects: women in clubs or at parties, with men or dancing with other women, smoking, drinking, walking alone at night – in short, testing the outer limits of emancipation. In 1930, the art publisher Fritz Gurlitt offered Mammen the chance to illustrate of new edition of Pierre Louys’ Les Chanson de Bilitis, a collection of erotic prose poems inspired by the ancient Greek courtesan Sappho. Lesbianism and other ‘degenerate’ themes made it impossible for Mammen to exhibit or sell her work after the National Socialists seized power in 1933.”
– The Blue Lantern, JANE LIBRIZZI

Carnival in Berlin

Frau mit Katze

Jeanne Mammen, Boring Dolls, 1920s

“The central motif, subject of her human and artistic concern and empathy, were women of all classes in the metropolis. She depicted them in their socially conflicting roles, also drawing attention to their ambivalence. The spirit of these portrayals originates from her own deep innermost experiences, which she expressed in the finest nuances, something that becomes accessible only when, after having experienced the greatest possible distance, one reaches the greatest possible closeness.”
– E. Roters

Hannah Höch: Collage artist
From Venetian Red: “Of all the practitioners of the photomontage medium, Hannah Höch (1889-1978) ranks as one of the most consistently innovative and clever. Yet, despite a prodigious career that spanned over half a century, for many years, if she was recognized at all, Höch was categorized simply as a minor Dadaist, an unfortunate legacy of her early association with the über-macho Berlin Dadaist group.”

Hannah Höch, Dompteuse (Tamer), 1930
Photomontage with collage elements, 14 x 10 1/4 inches
(Kunsthaus Zürich)

Lotte Reiniger: stop motion animator

“Among the great figures in animated film, Lotte Reiniger stands alone. No one else has taken a specific animation technique and made it so utterly her own. To date she has no rivals, and for all practical purposes the history of silhouette animation begins and ends with Reiniger. Taking the ancient art of shadow-plays, as perfected above all in China and Indonesia, she adapted it superbly for the cinema.”
– Philip Kemp

Otto Dix: painter

His famous portrait of Anita Berber in a crimson gown.

“Otto Dix was a German artist, painter, print maker and watercolorist. His depictions of mechanized warfare and post-war Berlin continue to shape our impressions of the Great War and Weimar society. Along with George Grosz, Dix was one of the more important figures in New Objectivity. While Grosz delved into the shadows of modern society, Dix stared into the abyss. Three themes dominate much of his art:

Modern War: Dix was a veteran of the First World War. He was haunted by the brutality of mechanized warfare long after the guns fell silent. Through his art, he returns to the desolated landscape of military trenches strewn with mutilated bodies. The dead are distorted by decomposition. Human characteristics are indistinguishable in gas masks and steel helmets.

Its Aftermath: His veterans are pitiful figures, disfigured by war and ignored by survivors. War profiteers live with abundance while the wounded toil in poverty. A blind veteran sells matches on the street as people ignore his plight, a uncomfortable reminder of humiliating defeat. Just one living thing acknowledges the veteran. It is a dachshund who urinates on the stumps that were once his legs.

and Femmes Fatales: The painting on the left is entitled Three Prostitutes but only two fit that description. The one on the left walks with her nose in the air and a toy dog in her arm. Each works the system to the best of their ability, some do better than others.His women prowl for money or stare narcissisticly at their own unshapely figures. They are ‘rotten witnesses of a system of unscrupulous exploitation.’”
- The Online Otto Dix Project

More Weimar-era artists we love:
George Grosz
Käthe Kollwitz
John Heartfield

Brigitte Helm was a German actress, and perhaps best known as the Maschinenmensch (machine-human) from Fritz Lang’s Metropolis (1927). At first, I wanted to concentrate on images of Helm just from the film, but I found so many incredible studio shots not to share!

I love these curls! She looks like a marble statue.

The Driskill Hotel was built in 1886 and is one of the most gorgeous places in Austin. Marble floors, elegant antique furniture, and a glass domed ceiling create a perfect backdrop for a vintage photoshoot.

The Driskill is rumored to be haunted, and a naughty ghost paid us a visit during the shoot. While we were posing at this window, a glass flew off an antique wooden hutch and loudly smashed into a million pieces on the floor. Spooky!

Come play with us… forever and ever and ever…

Ukulele Lady, 1925

ukulele sweeties in 1926!

Buster Keaton with uke & wooden statue

The Boswell Sisters

Johnny Marvin sings “Crazy Words, Crazy Tunes,” a song about how he hates his neighbor’s ukulele playing.

This is one of my most favorite songs, and favorite performances ever! Watch for the musical saw!

Shirley Temple and ukulele about to board the good ship lollipop!

Cliff Edwards, a.k.a. Ukulele Ike, a.k.a. the voice of Jiminy Cricket!

From ‘The Hollywood Revue of 1929′, This short clip features the talented musical stylings of Cliff Edwards, (Ukulele Ike) performing “Nobody But You.”

Cliff Edwards and Annette Hanshaw perform “Singing in the Rain,” 1929

Some more ukulele songs, just for fun.

You know this one, it’s from “The Jerk!”

Janet Klein shows us how to play “Tonight you Belong to me”

Portishead, “Deep Water,” 2008

Amanda Palmer covers Radiohead’s “Idioteque” on ukulele

Ukulele Orchestra playing “Ride of the Valkyries”

“Somewhere Over the Rainbow” as performed by Israel “IZ” Kamakawiwoʻole

Cab Calloway – Reefer Man

Fats Waller – Viper’s Drag

Harlem Hamfats – Weed Smoker’s Dream

White Ghost Shivers – Weed Smoker’s Dream

The other 99% of the population was so adversely affected by this horrid drug, that it sent good girls bad and stable boys mad.

This month we’re harkening back to a bygone era, when illicit substances flowed more freely –
the jazz clubs were hazy with smoke, and everyone was hopped up, or laid low.
Prepare to enter into a den of feverishly lush iniquity – the seamy underbelly of Vintage Vivant awaits you…
Do you dare? Here’s a mix of some of our favorite reefer-inspired tunes to get you going! If you’re a viper!

“Say anything about me, darling, as long as it isn’t boring.” “My father warned me about men and booze, but he never mentioned a word about women and cocaine.”

“Here’s a rule I recommend: Never practice two vices at once”

“”I’ve tried several varieties of sex. The conventional position makes me claustrophobic. And the others give me either stiff neck or lockjaw”"

“I read Shakespeare and the Bible, and I can shoot dice. That’s what I call a liberal education”

“Cocaine isn’t habit forming. I should know – I’ve been using it for years”

“It’s the good girls that keep diaries. Bad girls never have the time.”

One last tidbit about Ms. Bankhead: Her larger-than-life charismatic personality inspired voice actress Betty Lou Gerson’s work on the character Cruella De Vil in One Hundred and One Dalmatians.

Freaks from 1932, a preCode classic directed by Tod Browning.

Fan-made movie trailer for the film.

The limbless Prince Randian (aka “The Human Worm”) lights a cigarette.

This clip stars conjoined twins, Daisy and Violet Hilton