For those who don’t understand German, the subject line says “I don’t know who this beautiful woman is”… or such was my intent, anyway.
For those of you who do understand German, I apologize for any crimes against the German language I may commit during this post.
The lady in question apparently comes from a 1930’s German cigarette card, one that I had to do a fair amount of digging to get the most basic information about.
When I originally saw the below card, the “schönste Frau” in the photo spoke to me (“Spielst du Tennis mit mir?”), so I had to buy the card.
I’ll show you the back of the card, and then tell you what I’ve been able to cobble together about the set.
The name of the set is “Wer ist die schönste Frau?”, which translates to “Who is the most beautiful woman?” The name of the set makes it difficult to do any sort of Googling on it, because… well, you go and Google on “Who is the most beautiful woman?” and you’ll see what kind of results you get.
The red “1” on the back is the card number. Using my meager German skills and aided by Google Translate, the gist of the text on the back is that the set is made up of 312 photos, and a bound album can be obtained either from the local business or by sending a check to an address in Dresden.
The sales of these cards on the German version of eBay referred to them as “Zigarettenbilder” — Cigarette pictures. “Club 3-1/3 Privat” is apparently the brand of cigarettes.
I couldn’t find any checklists, so I don’t know who this woman is on my card. I did find references to this set containing actresses like Ida Lupino, Carole Lombard, Fay Wray and Barbara Stanwyck. I can’t tell if everybody is necessarily a movie star, but I do get the impression that everybody is famous… We don’t seem to be dealing with a 1930’s version of “Benchwarmers”. I don’t know if there’s any significance to the tennis racquet; She could be a famous tennis player of the day.
You’d think it would be easy to find out who’s on card #1 of a tobacco set, but I have failed. If anyone can point me towards a source of information about this set, I would be greatly appreciative.
The Shlabotnik Report 
I was only able to find the same as you, the five stars you mentioned. Can’t say I recognize your woman. I’d definitely collect the set, though. Great find.
I don’t know how far I would go with these, but I would certainly like to get more.
My search went around in circles, too.
Even on eBay.de, there are a couple of albums, a couple of generic lots, but not any single cards. It’s vexing, yet intriguing.
I did a Google search using the image on your card. I think this might be Claudette Colbert.
I think you might be right! Thank you! I didn’t know one could use an image to search with.