Auguste Marie "Gussy" Holl 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.
Biography
Auguste Marie Holl was born on 22 February 1888 in Frankfurt am Main. She had a brother, Georg Holl. Holl was a performer at Schallund 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 1913shortAmerica to Europe in an Airship. 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, followed by The Night at Goldenhall, both of which were directed by and starred Veidt. Film-Kurier wrote of Holl's performance in Madness, "...Gussy Holl should give up 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." Holl's final screen appearance was in Desire. Gussy Holl was married twice; her first marriage was to actor Conrad Veidt. Their large wedding took place on 18 June 1918. The two divorced in 1922, and, one year later, Holl married Emil Jannings, who she remained with until his death in 1950. Neither marriages produced children, although Holl was stepmother to Jannings' daughter Ruth-Maria. Other sources say Ruth-Maria was actually Jannings' stepdaughter, and that Conrad Veidt was her father. Gussy Holl died on 16 July 1966 in Salzburg.
