Rolf Eden, owner of the Eden Saloon in West Berlin. Now a
businessman, but still a great playboy at age 76.
This photo, taken during a "Miss Eden Saloon" contest in the mid 60's, is a surprisingly good, accurate likeness of the man as his friends knew him back then. This expression is the real Rolf Eden, as I knew him in quieter moments. It is also, IMO, the reason for his
great successes. It shows a great inwardly calm, peaceful detachment
from even the wildest hubbub. That was his magic. He was always able
to stay out of it all and observe, with extreme discernment and
discrimination in the best sense of the word.
I was very fond of him and he was very good to me. In fact, it was
Eden who first recognized me as a photographer and essentially
launched my career by asking me to fill his nightclub with my photos
at his expense. All the best Berliner artist-photographers like
Herbert Tobias and Icka Vielander had been unsuccessfully after Rolf
to put their photos in his club for years. his asking me, out of the
blue started my career. And, as usual, he did it right, with full
photo-show opening complete with press and invited guests. And he let
me put up anything I wanted, even regularly make new shows, with
further new openings and press.
That was his success. He had a sense of doing things right and a fine
sense for publicity.
The Eden Saloon was called "probably the most interesting night spot
in the World" in the famous travel book "Europe on 5 dollars a day".
©2007 Mark B. Anstendig. All rights reserved.
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