Max Hansen - Perlen der Kleinkunst

Max Hansen was born in Mannheim, Germany, but was raised by his step parents in Munich. His mother was a Danish Actress, Eva Haller, his father's name was von Waldheim.

In his school days, he already sang at the Opera House, so he earned the nickname "The Little Caruso" ("Der kleine Caruso"). Later he studied Music and Voice and got a job at the "Simplizissimus Cabaret" in Munich. From 1914 he played operettas in Vienna and became a good friend of Franz Lehár. After that he worked in Berlin at the Metropole Theater and became there a superstar of operettas, revues, cabaret and radio.

He began acting in five silent films, from 1926 to 1928. His first talkie was "Wien, du Stadt der Lieder" (1930) ("Vienna, City of Song") (1930). In 1932 he played opposite Gitta Alpar in "Die - oder keine" (1932) ("She, or Nobody").

His career was brought to an abrupt end because of his Jewish origin but this was only a pretext. He attracted anger of the Nazis above all since he ridiculed Adolf Hitler as homosexual in his hit "Warst Du schon mal in mich verliebt?" in 1932.

Hansen went to Vienna in 1933 and continued to play in theaters. Only before the affiliation of Austria with the Deutsche Reich Hansen moved to Copenhagen. From there he appeared in scandinavian theaters and found work in the Sweden film business. In addition he wrote several songs under the pseudonymous "Sylvester".
In 1951 Max Hansen returned to Germany for occasional stage engagements but he didn't shoot films any longer.
He died in Copenhagen, Denmark in 1961.

Here´s a fine compilation with 40 tunes by Max Hansen:

Max Hansen - Perlen der Kleinkunst CD 1 & 2
(192 kbps, cover art included)