Marta Eggerth ~ This card is from the 1936 series Bunte Filmbilder. It measures just over 1¼"x2¼" and has a great photo of Marta Eggerth! This is an original cigarette card issued as #71 of the series. Given that it is over 80 years old it is in excellent condition. Please study my scan!

Hungarian-born singer-actress Marta Eggerth, sometimes billed as Martha Eggerth, has maintained her performing career for over 70 years. She starred in over 40 films and performed a concert in New York in 2007, aged 95.

Born as Márta Eggerth on April 17, 1912 in Budapest, she began singing at an early age and at 10 was hailed as Hungary's "national idol." Very popular particularly in Hungary, Germany, and Austria, she and her husband Jan Kiepura (who both had Jewish mothers), fled Austria after its annexation by Hitler and settled first in the South of France and later in the United States. She appeared in MGM films, but never achieved the fame she enjoyed in Europe. After her contract was not renewed she and her husband, Polish actor-singer Jan Kiepura, moved to New York, where they raised two sons, Sharbek and Marjan. She became an American citizen in the fifties and currently lives in Rye, new York. She enjoyed a three-year run opposite her late husband in The Merry Widow on Broadway.

Eggerth is a whirlwind advocate for operetta, a lighter and more playful form of opera. "In opera, everybody dies. In operetta, everybody is flirtatious," says Eggerth of the art form that peaked in the 1940s, but which has always been her signature calling.

This lot consists of a genuine German cigarette premium issued between about 1930 and 1937. In general, German cigarette cards and premiums make an interesting and inexpensive addition to any collection. The Nazi government of Germany opposed smoking and eventually put an end to cigarette cards. As a result, the native German card collecting hobby never developed to the extent of that in Britain or the United States. As a result, most German premiums and cards cost only a fraction of what might be expected from their American and British cousins.

Large photos are shown smaller than actual size while small ones are generally enlarged to as much as twice their original size. Almost all photos and cards are scanned through protective sleeves or pages which tends to cut the clarity a bit. Enlarged defects tend to look worse than they actually are.