Girls Just Want to Have Fun

 

They called themselves “Die Nymphen vom Nordseestrand” ~ “The nymphs from the North Sea beach” Wearing shiny satin bathing costumes complete white tights, slippers, and royal crowns this ladies singing quartet was one of director Franz Appel's Variety and Burlesque Ensembles. 

The postcard was sent on 24 February 1911 from Mittweida, a small town in Saxony, Germany. It's a very long way (300 miles) from the cold North Sea shore.

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The Damen-Orchester “Monte-Carlo” dressed more sensibly for a visit to the seaside with matching sailor suits. But their small rowboat looks dangerously overloaded for a sextet. They do look a bit worried as one young lady waves a white handkerchief in hope of rescue.  Good thing they did not bring their instruments along.

The postmark is from 27 September 1911 from the port city of Bremerhaven, Germany where their costumes would certainly be familiar to most people. 

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The four young ladies of the Original Flora-Truppe, directed by Frau M. Hinsch, chose more fashionable dresses with matching parasols for a stroll along a seaside boardwalk (at least that's what I think it's supposed to be).  Their specialty is not included in the caption but the short hem length of their dresses suggest they were a song and dance troupe. 

The postmark is dated 16 July 1910 but the location is smudged. However the writer conveniently included a place name in their message of Neuhaus, a municipality in the district of Cuxhaven, in Lower Saxony, Germany at the mouth of the River Oste on the North Sea.  

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This next quartet of young women wear matching red costumes with short-shorts and rolled sleeves that hint of some recreational activity. Behind them is a gloomy backdrop that could be a boardwalk along a riverside but it's too vague to know for sure. They are “Die Feschen Original Lobersiana Mädels” ~ The attractive Lobersiana Lassies. Their act is not described but I think singing and dancing were part of it. Evidently they also promoted a beauty product as there is a 25 Pfennig advertising stamp affixed to the front of the postcard for Shampoon mit dem schwarzen-Kopf! mit Eigelb-Zusatz ~ Shampoo with the black head! With added egg yolk.

This  postcard was mailed by a German soldier during WW1 using the free military postal service on 5 May 1917. The postmark is possibly from Rodenberg, a town in Lower Saxony, Germany, just west of Hannover.  

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But for shear joie de vie or Lebensfreude as Germans would say, few female acts could compete with the 6 Original Thalias Akrobatische Tanzsängerinnen from Gäthgen's Hamburger Variété und Brilesken Ensemble. Posed in a three tier human pyramid these young ladies did it all. Singing, dancing, and acrobatic feats in costumes made out of heavy embroidered upholstery fabric. 

This card was sent from Cassel, now Kassel, a city almost in the center of Germany. The writer includes a date of 8 December 1913. 

Several years ago I began collecting postcards of groups of professional female entertainers who performed on the music hall circuits of the German and Austrian/Hungarian Empires. As I have discovered, there were hundreds, maybe thousands, of young ladies who were members of small orchestras, brass bands, vocal groups, dance troupes, and folk ensembles. Their postcards made the German postcard publishers very wealthy men as every group used postcards to promote their act at a theater, restaurant, or beerhall. By themselves some of the cards are less interesting, but when they are put together in subcategories by their acts, they present a rich and vibrant Germanic culture. I only wish I could describe their music. I guess we will have to use our imagination.

This is my contribution to Sepia Saturday

where some people are enjoying a day at the beach.