Vicki Baum

Hedwig "Vicki" Baum (; January 24, 1888 – August 29, 1960) was an Austrian writer. She is known for the novel Menschen im Hotel ('People at a Hotel', 1929 — published in English as Grand Hotel), one of her first international successes. It was made into a 1932 film and a 1989 Broadway musical.

Education and personal life Baum was born in Vienna into a Jewish family. Her mother Mathilde (née Donath) suffered from mental illness, and died of breast cancer when Vicki was still a child. She later worked as a journalist for the magazine Berliner Illustrirte Zeitung, published by Ullstein-Verlag in Berlin.

Baum was married twice. Her first, short-lived marriage, in 1906, was to Max Prels, an Austrian journalist who introduced her to the Viennese cultural scene; some of her first short stories were published under his name. at his Studio for Boxing and Physical Culture in Berlin. Although the studio was open to men and women, Baum writes in her memoir, It Was All Quite Different (1964), that only a few women (including Marlene Dietrich and Carola Neher) trained there: "I don't know how the feminine element sneaked into those masculine realms, but in any case, only three or four of us were tough enough to go through with it." Her protagonists were often strong, independent women caught up in turbulent times. It was made into a stage play in Berlin in 1929, directed by Max Reinhardt,

Last years Baum's reputation went into a decline following World War II. In 2009, a street was named after her in Berlin.

Works 1919: Frühe Schatten: Die Geschichte einer Kindheit (Early Shadows: The Story of a Childhood) 1920: Der Eingang zur Bühne (Once In Vienna) 1921: Die Tänze der Ina Raffay (The Dances of Ina Raffay), republished as Kein Platz für Tränen in 1982 1922: Die anderen Tage (The Other Days) 1923: Die Welt ohne Sünde (The World Without Sin) 1924: Ulle der Zwerg (Ulle the Dwarf) 1926: Tanzpause (Pause in the Dance) 1927: Hell in Frauensee (Martin's Summer) 1927: Feme (Secret Sentence) 1928: Stud. chem. Helene Willfüer (Helene / Helene Willfüer, Student of Chemistry) 1929: Menschen im Hotel (Grand Hotel) 1930: Zwischenfall in Lohwinkel (Incident in Lohwinkel, Results of an Accident in the UK, and And Life Goes On in the US) 1930: Miniaturen (Miniatures) 1931: Pariser Platz 13 ("13 Paris Square") 1932: Leben ohne Geheimnis (Published in the UK and US as Falling Star, 1934) 1935: Das große Einmaleins / Rendezvous in Paris (Men Never Know / Rendezvous in Paris) 1936: Die Karriere der Doris Hart (Sing, Sister, Sing) 1937: Liebe und Tod auf Bali (Love and Death in Bali / A Tale from Bali / Tale of Bali) 1937: Hotel Shanghai (Shanghai '37. Also printed in the UK under the name Nanking Road) 1937: Der große Ausverkauf (Central Stores) Querido, Amsterdam. 1939: Die große Pause (Grand Opera) 1940: The Ship and the Shore / One Tropical Night (Es begann an Bord) 1941: The Christmas Carp (Der Weihnachtskarpfen) 1941: Marion Alive (Marion lebt / Marion) 1943: The Weeping Wood (Kautschuk / Cahuchu, Strom der Tränen) 1943: Hotel Berlin / Hotel Berlín 1943 / Berlin Hotel (Hotel Berlin / Hier stand ein Hotel), a sequel to Menschen im Hotel 1946: Mortgage on Life (Verpfändetes Leben) 1947: Flight of Fate (Schicksalsflug) 1948: Headless Angel (Clarinda) 1951: Danger from Deer (Vor Rehen wird gewarnt) 1953: The Mustard Seed (Kristall im Lehm) 1956: Written on Water (Flut und Flamme) 1957: Theme for Ballet (Die goldenen Schuhe) 1964: It Was All Quite Different (Es war alles ganz anders) -- memoir

Filmography Assassination, directed by Richard Oswald (Germany, 1927, based on the novel Feme) The Three Women of Urban Hell, directed by Jaap Speyer (Germany, 1928, based on the novel Hell in Frauensee) Stud. chem. Helene Willfüer, directed by Fred Sauer (Germany, 1930, based on the novel Stud. chem. Helene Willfüer) Grand Hotel, directed by Edmund Goulding (1932, based on the novel Grand Hotel) Lake of Ladies, directed by Marc Allégret (France, 1934, based on the novel Hell in Frauensee) Helene, directed by Jean Benoît-Lévy (France, 1936, based on the novel Stud. chem. Helene Willfüer) Return at Dawn, directed by Henri Decoin (France, 1938, based on the short story Between 6 and 6) The Great Flamarion, directed by Anthony Mann (1945, based on the short story Big Shot) Hotel Berlin, directed by Peter Godfrey (1945, based on the novel Hotel Berlin) Week-End at the Waldorf, directed by Robert Z. Leonard (1945, based on the novel Grand Hotel) A Woman's Secret, directed by Nicholas Ray (1949, based on the novel Mortgage on Life) La Belle que voilà, directed by Jean-Paul Le Chanois (France, 1950, based on the novel Die Karriere der Doris Hart) Le Château de verre, directed by René Clément (France, 1950, based on the novel Das große Einmaleins) The Red Needle, directed by Emil-Edwin Reinert (France, 1951, based on the short story Das Joch) Dreaming Days, directed by Emil-Edwin Reinert (West Germany, 1951, based on the short story Das Joch) School for Love, directed by Marc Allégret (France, 1955, based on the novel Der Eingang zur Bühne) , directed by Rudolf Jugert (West Germany, 1956, based on the novel Stud. chem. Helene Willfüer) Love, directed by Horst Hächler (West Germany, 1956, based on the novel Danger from Deer) Menschen im Hotel, directed by Gottfried Reinhardt (West Germany, 1959, based on the novel Grand Hotel) Haus der Schönheit, directed by Eugen York (West Germany, 1963, TV film, based on the play Pariser Platz 13) Rendezvous in Paris, directed by (France/West Germany, 1982, based on the novel Das große Einmaleins) Die goldenen Schuhe, directed by Dietrich Haugk (West Germany, 1983, TV miniseries, based on the novel Theme for Ballet) Hell in Frauensee, directed by (West Germany, 1983, TV film, based on the novel Hell in Frauensee) Shanghai 1937, directed by Peter Patzak (Germany, 1997, TV miniseries, based on the novel Hotel Shanghai)

Screenwriter 1934: I Give My Love (dir. Karl Freund) 1935: The Night Is Young (dir. Dudley Murphy) 1938: The Great Waltz (uncredited) (dir. Dudley Murphy) 1939: Idiot's Delight (uncredited) (dir. Clarence_Brown) 1940: Dance, Girl, Dance (dir. Dorothy Arzner) 1942: Powder Town (dir. Rowland V. Lee) 1942: Girl Trouble (dir. Harold D. Schuster) 1945: Behind City Lights (dir. John English) 1947: Honeymoon (dir. William Keighley)