Lost Monsters and Foreign Monster Cards
Count Dracula, Frankenstein's Monster,
the Wolf Man and the Mummy may
have been smash hits on the nation's
movie screens during the 30's and 40's,
but how did these and other monsters
fare in the world of trading cards_
Forget it!
Fact is, though wildly popular with
filmgoers of the day, horror film monsters
were still considered much too
controversial by many American parents for card
companies to risk negative consumer
reaction by peddling these same monsters
to children.
Consequently,
during the "Golden Age" of monster movies, not one single
monster was ever placed on an American
trading card!
Not only are the actual monsters
absent from trading cards from this era, but
so are the actors who portrayed
them. Today, the faces of Boris Karloff, Bela
Lugosi, Lon Chaney Jr., Lionel
Atwill, George Zucco or John Carradine
cannot be found on a single American
trading card from the period. (1920's
film star Lon Chaney Sr. can be
found on numerous cards, however these
cards capture the elder Chaney's
many "faces" and ignore any "horror
connection.") |
Lon Chaney Sr.
1931 "Sulma Bilder" (DE)
|
It wouldn't be until 1959 that trading
cards featuring monsters of any kind
would be mass distributed in the
U.S. (But, we're jumping ahead a bit.)
The complete lack of any pre-1959
USA monster cards is rather depressing
news for those who may want to
collect them, but there are cards out there to
partially fill the void.
And to find them, one has to look
to Canada, England, Germany, Spain
and other card producing countries.
Boris Karloff
1934 "Film Stars"
John Sinclair Ltd. (UK)
|
While
American card companies cranked out sports heroes and
"legitimate" movie personalities,
several foreign card companies
featured classic horror film actors,
and occasionaly the monsters
they portrayed, in many of their
sets.
Boris Karloff, Bela Lugosi, Lon
Chaney Jr. and Colin Clive can
all be found "out of character"
on predominantly "Movie Star"
type cards distributed in other
countries. Many of these cards were
distributed with food products
or with cigarettes.
Secondary players such as Ernest
"Doctor Pretorious" Thesiger and
Helen "Mina" Chandler sometimes
appeared in these sets as well.
That being said, it is important
to note that even though foreign card
producers were willing to include
horror film
actors in their sets
(and, apparently, foreign card
consumers were comfortable with
collecting them) evidence shows
us that in these same countries,
there too must have existed some
amount of controversy regarding
the actual monsters and/or horror
themes. |
Fay Wray
1934 "Cinema Stars"
Cavenders (UK)
|
This evidence can be found by observing
the many more frequent appearances of horror film
actors "out of character" on trading
cards than their appearances on trading cards "in character."
There had to have been either less
interest by consumers with seeing monsters, or some
amount of hesitation to produce
them.
The latter option seems more likely
as all other genres are well represented with the actors
"in character." Movie star "Cowboys",
"Gangsters" and "Soldiers" can all be found on trading
cards as they were seen on the
big screen.
Below, as an ongoing project, we
will be developing a database of all foreign cards
featuring classic horror film monsters
as these cards are encountered.
A Foreign Trading Card History of
Monsters
Important note: Many foreign cards
(of all types), can be found with different backs and attributable
to many different producers. As
an example, the Boris Karloff card below was released by several
British as well as Canadian companies.
Lon Chaney Jr.
The Wolf Man
1953 "Historia del Cine" (SP)
|
Boris Karloff
The Mummy
1938 "Actors Natural & Character
Studies"
Hignett Bros. & Co. (UK)
|
Max Schreck
Nosferatu
1953 "Historia del Cine" (SP)
|
