Louise Martini # 2024

Gabriele Flossmann portrays the ORF legend Louise Martini in the ORF III new production. 

Together with Otto Schenk Louise Martini completed the entrance exam for the Reinhardt Seminar. She had a long-standing friendship with Helmut Qualtinger.

As a cover girl, “dream chef”, “Chesterfield Girl” and Elfi von Hernals, she was on stage with Qualtinger, Georg Kreisler, Peter Wehle and Gerhard Bronner. From 1956 to 1961, Louise Martini, whose real name was Maria Louise Chiba, was a sex bomb, the “quota woman among strong men”. She was only allowed to play in legendary cabaret programs such as “Blattl vorm Mund”, “Brettl vorm Piano” or “Glasl vorm Aug” which – as she stated with a wink in interviews – “a man absolutely could not perform.”

In “Dachl überm Kopf” she sang the famous chanson from the “Chesterfield” cigarettes. The song stuck with her. After her breakthrough in the title role of the musical “Irma la Douce” in Munich in 1962, she left Austria for 30 years. When she came back in 1995, everyone was still talking about it.

Martini became known to a wide audience primarily through TV appearances in series such as “Derrick”, “The Inspector” and “Tatort”. She never gave up the radio; it remained her friend and partner “in its incomparable intimacy in storytelling.” After RAVAG and the broadcaster Rot-Weiß-Rot, she moved from 1968 to 1985, among other things in Ö3 the “lunch martini” and “martini cocktail”.

Back on stage in Vienna she appeared in “Dangerous Liaisons” and in “Miss Daisy and Her Chauffeur” at the Theater in Josefstadt and as Mrs. Higgins in “My Fair Lady” at the Vienna Volksoper. She wrote her memories of the 1950s under the title “An O for Louise” – a reference to the frequent misspelling of her first name as “Luise”.

Those who have their say in this documentary include: Katharina Straßer, who appeared on stage with Louise Martini in “My Fair Lady”, Edith Leyrer, her direct successor in Bronner’s and Qualtinger’s cabaret programs, Hanno Pöschl, who made three films with her, including “Ilona and Kurti” and the “inventor” of the “Club 2” show, the historian Peter Huemer – he had hired Louise Martini as a presenter for the legendary talk show.