Foreign Ross Verlag Cards



Ross published a series of cards for England without the Ross Verlag name on the cards.   Instead, they had the word "Foreign" in one corner of the photo on the card.   These were all handtinted color cards with a gloss finish.   Although the Ross Verlag number was still visible on the front of these cards, they also usually had another number on the back in the stamp box.


Lily Damita Foreign card

Anna May Wong Foreign card



Foreign logo printed on front

Back of Foreign Ross Card
Number in stamp box



Foreign film scene card -- uncommon



Regular Ross and Foreign English Color Card


Richard Minns has created a list of these cards based upon the numbers in the stamp box.   The highest number that he has found is 156.     Interestingly enough, four of the cards get repeated on the list.   To see the list, click here.

Michele Auborn now has a page with scans of all the Foreign English cards here: http://ourcinemapostcards.weebly.com/ross-verlag-foreign.html


Non-tinted and tinted versions of these cards with the "Foreign" logo, and with the Ross Verlag name on them were also printed.   Perhaps this was a requirement in certain countries.   Or perhaps they were just printing errors.


Non-tinted and tinted cards with Ross name and Foreign logo.


Ross Verlag also published postcards for Italy and Sweden.   The name and numbers of Ross Verlag were on the card, but the Italian or Swedish distributor's names were printed on the back.   Ballerini & Fratini in Italy, and Nordisk Konst in Sweden also published their own line of postcards.


Front of an Italian distributed Ross card.
No different than German version.







Name of Italian distributer printed on back.   "Exclusive sale Publishing House Ballerini & Fratini, Florence"



Back side of Myrna Loy postcard with Nordisk Konst name printed on it.



There was also a Swedish weekly magazine called LIV, that in the mid 30's, gave away movie star photos to be pasted into a booklet called "Filmens Stjärnor" (The Film Stars).   The photos were similar in size to tobacco cards, and were mainly of American and International stars, although there were some Swedish actors featured.   The copyright notice inside the booklet said the photos were from Ross Verlag (although the Ross name was not on each individual photo).


Thanks to Rebecca Isacsson for the information and scans!






Ross Verlag published a F series of postcards for France, possibly just of French actors.   There were also regular Ross numbered cards published in a larger format, similar to the Luxus cards.   Some of these were Luxus numbers, some were regular card size numbers, and others had their own series numbers.   Some of these cards also had a E in front of the number.   The French series had "Edition Ross" printed on the card.   And instead of "Reproduction verboten," it had the French equivalent "Reproduction interdite."


Annie Vernay F series by Ross Verlag for France



Luxus Size French Version with Regular Card Number



French version on left and original German on right.



French Luxus card #2168
of Odette Florelle

Unknown how many of
these series were produced.

Thanks to Hans Schnepper for the above Odette scans.



French card with "E" in front of number



There was also another series of cards published for France.   In the early 30's, after the advent of sound in motion pictures, movie musicals were as popular in Germany as they were in America.   Some German films were shot, not only in German versions, but in French and English language versions with different casts (this also occured in America, most famously with a Spanish language version of "Dracula," and a German language version of Greta Garbo's "Anna Christie.")   Since some stars were multi-linqual, they could appear in more than one version.   This was true of Lilian Harvey, who could speak all three languages.   These French cards showed Lilian with her French co-star in the French language versions of a couple of these films.     These cards were the same size as the larger Luxasklasse cards, and have the sticker on the back.   This series also had cards of just the French actors.

Thanks to Klaus Wunderlich for supplying these photos and information.



Lilian Harvey and Henry Garat on two Ross Verlag postcards published for France



Odette Florelle French published Ross card






Perhaps the most unusual link to the Ross Verlag name comes from the Northern European country of Latvia, one of the three Baltic states.   The Ross names shows up on movie star postcards from a company named EmBR.   EmBR stands for "Emilie Benjamin, Riga."   Emilie Benjamin's husband was a wealthy newspaper publisher in Riga, the capital of Latvia.   Apparently Emilie was a big fan of movies, because she decided to start up her own postcard publishing business.   There must have been an agreement worked out with Ross Verlag to republish some of their movie star photos on EmBR's cards.   The cards had their own numbering separate from the Ross numbering, and the EmBR cards were slightly smaller than the Ross postcard.   The cards had "Reproducet aizliegts" printed on the cards, instead of "Reproduction verboten."   EmBR also published postcards with photos that were not found on Ross cards.   These cards did not have the Ross name on them, although it is possible she may have obtained the photos from Ross.   After the Russian invasion of the Baltic States, Mr. Benjamin was killed and Emilie was arrested and sent to a Russian prison camp, where she perished.

Special thanks to Hans Schnepper for the above reseach.


Carola Höhn Embr Ross card

Ross name with EmBR logo

Anta Klints Embr non Ross card



Joan Crawford EmBR card and original Ross Verlag card
Ross number is actually visible in bottom left corner of EmBR card.

Ross Number on EmBR card







This Nelson Eddy-Eleanor Powell card was apparently distributed in Turkey.   The Turkish equivalent of Reproduction Forbidden followed by "Ross" Berlin is printed on the back.




In the stamp box of this Douglas Fairbanks card is printed:   "Modern Book Stall, Book-Seller, camp, Karachi"   It was sold in Karachi, Pakistan (under British rule at the time.)   Thanks to Hans Schnepper again for both the Turkish and Pakistani cards.   Very unusual finds, that show just how far reaching Ross Verlag became.




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