Postcard photograph with autograph signature of the German actor. Addressed to Walter Honig in Vienna

Studio of Becker & Maass in Berlin, with their stamp to lower right corner.

From the collection of the distinguished American mezzo-soprano Marilyn Horne (b. 1934).

Slightly worn. Harry Walden was a German stage and screen actor with a short but vibrant career. He appeared in many classical stage productions and was a noted interpreter of Oscar Wilde's plays. He also appeared in the films "The Mandarin" (1918), "Der Umweg zur Ehe," and "Zwei Welten" (both 1919). In 1921, at age 45 Walden was killed in a tragic incident that rocked Berlin society. A contemporary article in the New York Times reported that Walden's wife, the actress Frieda Wagen-Hohenthal, attacked Walden and his stepson with a razor while under the influence of morphine, then turned the knife on herself. All three of them died shortly after being admitted to the hospital.

The Honig family emigrated from Vienna to England in September of 1938 and then to the United States in 1939. The family papers are held at the Holocaust Museum in Washington, D.C.

"Horne had a voice of extraordinary range, rich and tangy in timbre, with a stentorian chest register and an exciting top... In concert she once achieved the feat of singing in a single programme Rossini arias and Brünnhilde's Immolation Scene, proof of her exceptional versatility. Throughout her lengthy career she was an admired recitalist, singing lieder, mélodies, and Spanish and American songs with equal aplomb." Alan Blyth in Grove Music Online.