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Old Posted Feb 12, 2011, 3:32 PM
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sopas ej sopas ej is offline
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I don't know why I just now noticed, but the marquee announcing "The Incomparable Hildegarde" at the Terrace Room... My first thought was the German actress/singer Hildegard Knef of "Für Mich Solls Rote Rosen Regnen" fame, but I Googled "Incomparable Hildegarde" and apparently she was another singer; not as cool as Hildegard Knef in my opinion, but that's just my opinion.

BTW Hildegard Knef has her hand and footprints at Graumann's Chinese Theatre:

Photo by me

That's my foot there. I'm blocking the date but it's "13 Dec. 51." Her name is spelled the way she was billed in English-language films. According to Wikipedia, David Selznick invited her to Hollywood, but she refused to agree to the conditions of the contract which reportedly included changing her name to Gilda Christian and pretending to be Austrian rather than German. I'm not familiar with her songs from the 1950s, only the 1960s.

Here she is singing "Mackie Messer," the German version of "Mack the Knife," which, originally is a German song.
Video Link


She also sang in English. I can't find it now, but on youtube there used to be a clip of her singing Burt Bacharach's "This Girl's in Love" live.

Video Link


Is this where SNL got the idea for "Now's the time on 'Sprockets' vhen vi dahnce"?
Video Link


Needless to say, there are also some German female impersonators of Hilde Knef.


Going back to the Statler, the Terrace Room and The Incomparable Hildegarde, here she is, I think:
Video Link


Bah. I'd have rather seen Frau Knef at the Terrace Room.
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