AIRPORT HOTELS WITH FREE PARKING

German postcard by Film-Foto-Verlag, nr. A 3825/1, 1941-1944. Photo: Hammerer/Wien-Film.

Olly Holzmann (1916-1995) was an Austrian ice skater, dancer and film actress. With her distinctive temper, her fizzy joy of life and Austrian charm, her dark hair and her ordinary but nice face she was the typical Wiener Madel in films of the 1930’s and 1940’s.

Olly Holzmann was born as Olga Holzmann in1916 (according to IMDb: 1915), in Vienna, Austria-Hungary, now Austria. She made her film debut in a small part in the spy film Hotel Sacher (1939, Erich Engel) next to Sybille Schmitz, Willy Birgel, and Wolf Albach-Retty. In her second film Frau im Strom/Woman in the Current (1939, Gerhard Lamprecht) she played the part of the girl of a motor mechanic (Attila Horbiger), who saves un unknown woman (Hertha Feiler)from the river, and falls in love with her. In the melodrama Mutterliebe/Mother Love (1939, Gustav Ucicky) she portrayed the daughter of a poor widow (Kathe Dorsch), who offers everything to make her spoiled and difficult children into useful citizens. Her first bigger role was a parlour maid in Tipp auf Amalia/Tip On Amalia (1940, Carl Heinz Wolff), who is suddenly connected to three other servants by an unexpected joint inheritance. Her most successful film commercially was the romance Wiener G’schichten/Vienna Tales (1940, Geza von Bolvary), in which she played a supporting role next to Marte Harell, Paul Horbiger and Hans Moser. In the same year she had her first leading part in the comedy Sieben Jahre Pech/Seven Years Hard Luck (1940, Hubert Marischka). At the side of Hans Moser and Theo Lingen she portrayed a young woman whose admirer (Wolf Albach-Retty) thinks he is pursued by misfortune, and therefore doesn’t dare to make her a proposal. In the crime film Funftausend Mark Belohnung/5000 Mark Reward (1942, Philipp Lothar Mayring) she played the wife af an amateur detective (Martin Urtel), who overambitiously drives her husband in all kind of troubles.

With her distinctive temper, her fizzy joy of life and Austrian charm, her dark hair and her ordinary but nice face Olly Holzmann was the typical Wiener Madel (Vienna Girl), impersonated by many actresses in the 1930’s and 1940’s. Olly is best remembered for her leading role in the lavishly produced ice spectacle Der wei?e Traum/The White Dream (1943, Geza von Cziffra). It was the first time that the former ice dancer could show sher skatings skills in a film. Her on screen lover was again Wolf Albach-Retty, but her partner in the ice scenes was world champion Karl Schafer. Athough her last three films were shot before the end of the war, they were only first shown after the war (Those films were nicknamed Uberlaufer (defectors)). In the romantic comedy Erzieherin gesucht/Governess Wanted (1945-1950, Ulrich Erfurth) she played a mannequin, who fills in for a friend as a governess for a five year old boy, and turns properly the heads of the kid’s three uncles (Ernst von Klipstein, Wolfgang Lukschy und Fritz Wagner). In the musical comedy Liebe nach Noten/Love After Notes (1945-1947, Geza von Cziffra) she learns a composer ladykiller (Rudolf Prack) that women can compose too. Her last film was the romantic comedy Mit meinen Augen/With My Eyes (1945-1948, Hans H. Zerlett) with Olga Tschechowa and Willy Birgel, in which she played a secondary part. Olly Holzmann was married twice. During the war she was married shortly to a cameraman. Her second husband was the American officer Alexander Orley, a racecar driver and export merchant, who she had met in 1945 in bombed Berlin. With her husband, her daughter and his son she went to live on a Caribbean island. After her husband’s death in 1975 she returned to her hometown, Vienna. Olly Holzmann died in 1995, in London, Great Britain.

Sources: Wikipedia and IMDb.

The King George Hotel and Hotel Grande Bretagne were the two top hotels in Athens in 1967. They were on the north side of Syntagma (Constitution) Square. I stayed at Hotel Amalia, a smaller and less elegant hotel, not far from there.

The King George Hotel (left) was built in 1936. Hotel Grande Bretagne (right) has a longer history. It was built as a mansion in 1842, when Athens was not much of a city. It was converted to a first-class hotel in 1874, when chickens still roamed the streets and utilities like running water were mostly dreams. The top floors were added in 1956. This photo is "geotagged."