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Netta, the Most Beautiful Girl in the World

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Netta‘ by Octave Grillaert published by Le Réveil artistique, Brussels in 1931.

The Netta of this song is a former Miss Belgium who became the first Belgian Miss Universe in 1931. Miss Universe titles had been awarded since 1926 during the International Pageant of Pulchritude held in Galveston, Texas. The Great Depression put an end to this yearly frivolous fuss in the United States, only to surface until after WWII.

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Second International Pageant of Pulchritude in Galveston, Texas, 1927

Annette (Netta) Duchâteau was a modern and daring girl who got herself a pilot license when she was only 19 years old. Even so, crossing the Atlantic in 1931 by boat to participate in the Pageant in Texas must have been quite an adventure for the young lady. The year before, Netta had been crowned Miss Belgium. Notable members of the 1930 Belgian jury were the Flemish writer Stijn Streuvels (Frank Lateur indeed) and the painter Albert Saverys.

Phtograph of Stijn Streuvels and Albert Saverys.
Miss Belgium jury members Stijn Streuvels and Albert Saverys, the two men in the middle of this drinking group (source: http://www.saverys2014.be/albert-saverys).

Here we see a short celebration of Netta having won her title, on the tune of the Brabançonne.

Thanks to an interesting short documentary about the 1929 Austrian Miss Universe, we can visualise the circumstances to which the contestants had to adapt. Like all other contenders, Netta had to be chaperoned (in her case by her mother). She needed a medical certificate to ensure that she could endure standing still on a cart pushed around between the masses for hours, four days on end during the street parades. The candidates could not go out alone without written permission of the committee. They had to swear that they were not artists, did not indulge in drinking nor smoking. They were not allowed to use any kind of make-up. Moreover for Netta the alienation must have been particularly hard: she didn’t speak English.

https://youtu.be/prFGpK4xy9o

After her victory, Netta turned down all American marriage proposals. She also refused offers to appear on stage or in commercials, and returned to her native Belgium. There she was welcomed like royalty and again received a lot of marriage proposals. Her success was enormous  compared to Anny Duny, our first Miss Belgium. She appeared in countless magazines and advertising campaigns before becoming a stage actress.

Netta Duchateau praising toothpaste and mouthwash in an advertisement for Bi-oxyne and Rubi-oxyne
Netta Duchateau praising toothpaste and mouthwash in an advertisement for Bi-oxyne and Rubi-oxyne.

Allegedly Netta inspired the American illustrator Lawrence Sterne Stevens when he created the emblem for Belga, a former Belgian cigarette brand that was launched in 1923. The brands name and national colours appealed to the patriotic feelings after the Great War. Sterne Stevens drew a typical modern girl, a flapper with bobbed hair and a cloche hat. In contrast to the earlier Belga Girl by Leo Marfurt, she looks more self-reliant. She is glamorous, accentuates her looks with make-up, and expresses a certain sensuality. And she smokes!

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Left: Poster for Belga cigarettes by Leo Marfurt. Middle: Poster for Belga cigarettes by Lawrence Sterne Stevens. Right: Netta Duchateau

Even René Magritte created designs for the Belga cigarettes. He didn’t need a beauty queen for a model though, he had his beautiful wife Georgette. He painted her looking straight at the viewer, holding a cigarette before his familiar blue sky with white clouds. Although Magritte referred to his work in publicity as ‘idiotic work’, this design blurs the boundary between painting and advertising. The second advertising image for Belga cigarettes is signed Studio Dongo. This was a small advertising company he owned together with his brother Paul who was also a composer. Both Magritte’s projects for Belga were rejected.

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Left: Advertising project for Belga cigarettes by René Magritte. RIght: Poster design for Belga cigarettes by Studio Dongo.

Thanks to Netta’s victory in Galveston the next Miss Universe pageant was held in Spa, Belgium. It was won by a Turkish beauty. At the end of the video, we get a glimpse of Maurice de Waleffe, the omnipresent gentleman when beauty contests had to be organised. He is recognisable by his telltale moustache.

Bittersweet Wistfulness

Sheet Music cover for Eventide - l'Heure Mauve', a fox-trot shimmy by L. Aga,
Eventide – l’Heure Mauve‘, fox-trot shimmy by L. Aga, illustrated by R. Marabout (Mantes-la-Jolie, 1923).

Eventide is a literary word that refers to that sometimes magical moment at the end of the day, between daylight and darkness. The time before dusk, the twilight with its diffused, dim and bluish atmosphere. It is known as ‘the blue hour’, in French l’heure bleue or l’heure mauve, in German die blaue Stunde. The hesitating moment of transition seems to be ideally suited for nostalgia. For the music cover above, the illustrator dithered between hazy violet, pink and fuchsia to best express the sentimental longing of the lonely woman on a garden path lined with cypresses. Even the skilful art-nouveau typography and floral patterns ooze with dreamy languor.

This cover reminds us of India Song, the 1975 film of Marguerite Duras, starring Delphine SeyrigMichael Lonsdale and Mathieu Carrière.  It tells the story of a failed love affair in a colonial setting. Plenty of regret, melancholy, desolation, sense of displacement, Sehnsucht and homesickness in this long slow film. It is the perfect opportunity to have a 2-minute look at the most impressive (some do not agree) ‘non-kiss scene’ in cinema history.

Anyway, nostalgia also can have a slightly comical twist. As in this disconcerting portrait of a ship’s commander.

Sheet Music cover for Heimweh by Karl Ujvari and Robert Figdor
Heimweh‘ by Karl Ujvari and Robert Figdor, s.d. (M. Bàrd, Wien).

Fortunes of War

sheet music Henk Fortuin
Het is zo heerlijk om te leven‘ (It’s so delightful to live), published by B.H. Smit in Amsterdam, unknown illustrator, s.d.

A few years back, we received this reaction on our Images Musicales website: “You have a cover of Henk Fortuin. He is my brother and this is the only known photo of him. He lived in Utrecht Holland and was killed in 1943 when a bomb struck the hospital he was performing at.
Thank you for letting us see this photo, it proves that he lived, and was loved.” The mail was signed by Mr. Efting from Canada.

Intrigued, we asked for more information and Arnold Efting told us the rest of the story. Henk Fortuin’s real name was Hendrik (Pieter Harrie) Van Grieken. His father, Arie van Grieken, sailed from Holland to Canada in 1923.

'Emigranten', Swedish Sheet Music by Arvid Brieand
Emigranten‘, by Arvid Briend. Unknown Swedish publisher, s.d.

His plan was to settle there first, and then his wife Enjetta with their son Henk would follow. “But they never did, and my Father grieved for his first son for the rest of his life. He got tears in his eyes just talking about him.
Someone sent my father copies of Henk’s records (no, there are no covers for them, they are just in a brown sleeve). Arie would play the records over and over, tears running down his cheeks. We didn’t have any photos, and the information we do have is so sketchy. We believe he was in his early twenties when he died, we think in 1943 or 1945.”

Sheet music for the 'Emigrantens Hemlängtan' (The immigrant's Homesickness'), by Ernst Rolf and Gösta Stevens, illustrated by Norelius
Emigrantens Hemlängtan‘ (The immigrant’s Homesickness), by Ernst Rolf and Gösta Stevens. Published by Rolf Musikförlags, Stockholm, 1929. Illustrated by Norelius.

“In the 1950’s Arie legally changed his name from Van Grieken to Efting, his mother’s maiden name. Arie died in 1983 at the age of 88. We don’t know what happened to his first wife Enjetta Jansen. Arie had two more sons in Canada, Anthony born in 1941 and myself Arnold born in 1947. The photo on the album cover shows that Henk was the spitting image of his (my) father! What a thrill to find it. Thank you again!

Only recently did we learn more on Henk Fortuin’s short life. For instance that he was born in 1919 in Assen (in the Dutch province of Drenthe), only ten days after the wedding between Arie and Enjetta. Henk was four when his dad left for Canada in 1923, for ever.
Henk’s stage name, Fortuin, wasn’t chosen arbitrarily. In 1925 his mother divorced Arie, and a year later she married Petrus Fortuin, a commercial manager living in Amsterdam.

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Page 642 from the 1926 registry of marriages of Groningen (source: online archives).

On the 10th of May 1940 the invasion by Nazi Germany shattered the neutrality of The Netherlands. The harsh military occupation and German civilian government started for five long years.

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It is in the Dutch ‘Cinema en Theater‘ magazine of november 1943 that we find the first trace of Henk Fortuin’s career as a radio singer. A complete column is devoted to our artist, with the chit-chat so typical to show business.

Henk Fortuin,
Henk Fortuin singing on the factory floor (Cinema en Theater, nov. 1943).

We learn that Henk is a merry radio singer, always wearing a sunny smile and tilted hat. He is serious about his career, works hard and takes singing lessons. Even though Henk is already successful, he remains the ‘simple boy from Groningen’. He tours with other artists and visits the workers in the factories to bring them happy songs. In the broadcasting studios he’s always bright, whistling happily.

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Henk Fortuin’s name (together with that of ‘De Melodisten‘) regularly appears in weekly program lists, newspaper adverts and on some posters for concerts between 1943 and 1944. During those grim war years it was not obvious for an artist to be allowed to perform in public nor to sing on national radio.

Bonte-avond poster, Henk Fortuin 1943
Poster for a ‘Bonte Avond’ concert in Tilburg, with ‘De Melodisten’ orchestra and singer Henk Fortuin; October 1943 (source: www.geheugenvannederland.nl).
Two ads in the newspapers for Henk Fortuin performances with his faithful De melodisten orchestra.
Two ads in the newspapers for Henk Fortuin performances with his faithful De melodisten orchestra. (Left: Haarlemsche Courant, May 26, 1944; right: Utrechts Nieuwsblad, June 22, 1944).

In 1944 Henk Fortuin was still very active touring all over the country. From an article in an Alkmaar newspaper we get the image of a popular singer, who fluently entertained the crowd with Dutch, German and French songs. The audience acclaimed him and happily sang along.

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And then calamity struck Hilversum, the Dutch town synonymous for Holland’s broadcasting centre. A large-scale razzia happened on October 23, 1944.

Arbeitseinsatz in Hilversum 1944
The call for ‘Arbeidseinsatz’ in 1944 in Hilversum, and the 1997 monument commemorating the dramatic events in the Sports park.

About 3500 men aged between 17 and 50 were forced by German soldiers to gather in the sports park in order to be registered for Arbeidseinsatz (forced labour). Broadcast employees weren’t exempted from duty. Later that day the men were put on several transports to Kamp Amersfoort.

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Forced labourers on their way to camp (source: Kamp Amersfoort).

Henk Fortuin probably ended up, together with fellow radio companion and jazz arranger Eddy Noordijk, in a small group that was dispatched to Leeden, a German village in Nordrhein-Westfalen. They were used as forced labourers for Organisation Todt doing construction work. In the end 600.000 Dutchmen shared a similar ordeal of forced labour in Germany. All in all it is estimated that 7,7 million non-German workers were thus used in the German war economy.

The damaged church of Leeden after the bombing on the night of the 7th of February 1945.
A damaged building of Leeden after the bombing on the night of the 7th of February 1945.

A few months later, on the night of February 7th, calamity struck again in Henk Fortuin’s life: the village was bombed by the Royal Air Force. The real target was probably a canal nearby. Fifty-two people perished. At least ten prisoners from Hilversum, sheltering in the school, were killed in the bombing. Henk Fortuin was buried in Leeden. His body was later moved to the cemetery of Apeldoorn-Loenen. Around 3600 victims are buried there, all graves almost inconspicuously dispersed on a 17 hectare large wood area. No straight lines of crosses but a winding path of uniformly white grave stones.

H.P.H.Fortuin

Henk’s mother Enjetta died in Groningen in 1974, followed by her second husband Petrus Fortuin two years later.

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