Cigarette Cards: Intimate portraits of early movie star screen idols

Cigarette cards were first introduced in the 1880s as stiffeners for individual cigarette packs. The U.S. was first to produce cigarette cards, but Britain followed suit shortly afterward. The first two decades of the Twentieth Century are considered the 'golden age' of the card production, with literally hundreds of suppliers producing them. The cards usually had a nautical or military theme reflecting the interests of soldiers and sailors as the main consumers of tobacco.

The demand for cards decreased during the great war because of print supply shortages, and then resumed popularity again in the inter-war period, but now with a broader variety of pictorial subjects. Advances in printing technology in the 1920s also allowed for this new proliferation of card subjects, including sports, motor cars, and boating.

At MovieFanCollectibles, we became intensely interested in cigarette cards produced in the inter-war and post WWII era as movie memorabilia, because of our passion for lobby cards, movie stills, and other vintage movie promotional materials. We like the aesthetic experience of viewing cigarette cards, which is quite unlike that of looking at other forms of movie memorabilia.

The card's small size that allows them to fit into a cigarette pack also gives them a jewel-like cameo or locket quality, which is meant for one viewer at a time. The experience is one of intimacy with the subject matter. Some of the cards have surprisingly high resolution with much visual data available given their cigarette-pack size. Other cigarette cards, which may have a lower resolution in their printing process gain their charm from special die-cut shapes such as the oval lozenge-shaped cards pictured here with Clark Gable and Laurel & Hardy in all their glory.

Material shortages put an end to the cigarette card craze, although some printers and tobacco companies were considering bringing them back in the 1960s. But it was never to be.

Pictured: Clark Gable, Robert Young & Claudette Colbert, Laurel & Hardy, Ilona Massey

Thanks to Franklin Cards for cigarette card info

Rory Calhoun: A Rags to Riches Movie Star Story (The Hired Gun)

We recently had the chance to review the rags-to-riches career of western star of the 40s, 50s and 60s, Rory Calhoun. Calhoun's own life would have made a good subject for a grindhouse film: after teen years in a California reformatory, this good-looking youth graduated to armed robbery (including a jewel heist), which ended in a bid at the federal pen in Springfield, Missouri and the infamous San Quentin prison.

After doing some hard time, Calhoun was discovered by A-list actor Alan Ladd, whose wife cast him in a number of walk-on roles with notable stars like Laurel and Hardy. Calhoun was then picked up by agent Henry Willson, who handled a stable of actors that, including Rock Hudson and Troy Donahue, all sort of looked like each other. Willson, who found his actors in various stressed backgrounds, schooled them in manners and diction, à la Henry Higgins in 'My Fair Lady.' With Willson's representation, Calhoun worked with stars like Rhonda Fleming, Edward G. Robinson, and Shirley Temple.

An odd episode during this time was Willson leaking the story of Calhoun's tarnished past to the tabloid gossip press in order to distract them from early rumors of homosexuality floating around Hollywood about his other client, Rock Hudson. The jail stories only served to enhance Calhoun's tough-guy reputation in the biz. Willson seemed to have the knack for picking actors with “slumdog” backgrounds which gave them an almost mythically loaded backstory. He guaranteed that the gossips would have a story arc for Willson's clients when the hacks finally took notice of them. That's some PR genius.

Calhoun went on to form his own production company, Rorvic, which made a number of western shoot 'em ups like the one pictured here, 'The Hired Gun.' The Hired Gun is the story of Calhoun, a bounty hunter of sorts, being paid to bring Marilyn Monroe lookalike, Anne Francis (60s TV's gal private eye 'Honey West'), back to justice at the end of a rope in Texas. Francis is accused of killing her husband, but (gee wiz) Calhoun falls in love with her on the trip!

Fun factoid about Calhoun: he's in the 80s horror classic 'Motel Hell.'

(A shout out to Wiki's 'Rory Calhoun' entry for detail's of Calhoun's life)