Anecdotes

Upon the rise of the Nazis in 1933, Mia May and Joe May emigrated to America via France.

Mother of actress Eva May.

Trained for acting and ballet while still at school. First on stage as a child actress at the Vienna Prater Theater under the name 'Herma Angelot'. On screen from 1912, promoted by her husband, the director Joe May. Usually acted in waif-like roles in melodramas on the silent screen.

May's final screen appearance was in The Love Letters of Baroness S (1924).

She continued her stage career as a teenager, taking on the stage name Herma Angelot, and appearing at the Apollo Theater as an actress and singer.

While attending high school, she began receiving ballet lessons from Louise Übermasser.

She retired in 1924 after her daughter Eva May committed suicide.

In 1902, she married Julius Otto Mandl, and seven weeks later gave birth to their daughter Eva Maria Mandl. Herma Angelot then became Mia May, and when her husband entered the film business, he took on the name Joe May.

May appeared in films such as Hilde Warren und der Tod (1917), which was written by Fritz Lang, Veritas Vincit (1919), and Tragedy of Love (1923) with Emil Jannings and a young Marlene Dietrich. May said of Dietrich, "I remember her as very funny and engaging, attractive and original. No man could resist her. She went everyone with a monocle and a boa of five red foxes. On other occasions, she would wear a wolf fur throw. People would follow her in the streets, they would laugh at her, but she fascinated them.

In 1912, the May family settled in Berlin, where her husband had been hired as a film director. She made her film debut in In der Tiefe des Schachtes (1912), which her husband directed, followed by the 1913 short Life's Temptations, and Die geheimnisvolle Villa (1914), which was also their daughter Eva May's film debut.

For a time, she was as popular as actresses Asta Nielsen, Henny Porten, and Pola Negri.

In 1949, Mia and Joe opened the Blue Danube restaurant in Los Angeles, but it was unsuccessful, and closed shortly after. Previously, Joe May had opened the Wiener Bar in Hollywood in 1937.

From 1919 to 1920, she starred in the 8 part film serial Mistress of the World.

She made her stage debut at Jantsch Theater at the age of 5, playing child roles until she was 14.

In 1915, Joe May founded the film company May-Film Gmb, which Mia May became managing director of.

She was married to the Austrian film producer and director Joe May and appeared in 44 films between 1912 and 1924.

In 1911, May traveled to Hamburg to Wilhelm Bendiner's Neues Operettentheater.

Her older sister, Maria (1879-1958), who acted under the stage name Mitzi Telmont, was the second wife of the comedian Heinrich Eisenbach.

To her other movies of the 10s belong "Ketten der Vergangenheit" (1914), "Stuart Webbs. Die geheimnisvolle Villa" (1914), "Veritas vincit" (1919) and especially the eightpart cinema serial "Die Herrin der Welt" (1919-1920). This production belongs to the first monumental movies which also spent a lot of money for the scenery, costumes et cetera.

During her active career Mia May was not only busy as an actress but was also responsible as managing director of the May-Film GmbH which was founded in 1915. Besides she was also active as cutter and screen writer for movies of Joe May. She was also active as cutter and screen writer for movies of Joe May.