Our set of the month for December
is one which is puzzling in many respects. The Godfrey Phillips
group of companies issued seven different series of cinema stars
cards between 1924 and 1934. Our set, known as "Set 6"
comprises thirty hand-coloured pictures issued with Cavanders
"Army Club" cigarettes in 1934, according to the
catalogue. We suspect it was issued slightly earlier. There are
clues - Vilma Banky is noted as having been voted most popular
actress in 1927. Early talkies such as "The Jazz Singer"
and "The Ghost Train" (1928) are mentioned. Dolores Del
Rio was born in 1904 and we are told she married for the second time
at the age of 26 - which takes us to 1930. (Incidentally, another
Dolores, Dolores Costello was married to John Barrymore). But there
the date clues run out, except by omission - for instance Bebe
Daniels' prominent role in "42nd Street" is not included
in her list, so we're going to stick our necks out and suggest this
set dates from around 1932, and certainly pre-October 1933 because
no review ever appeared in Card Collectors News, which began
publication that month. Strangely, Esther Ralston appears twice in
the set - at numbers 10 and 29 - both with exactly the same texts
but different portraits. Why? This set leaves many questions
unanswered and could provide film buffs with a lot of research
opportunities!
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