Card of the Day - 2021-12-06

Ivy Duke was a leading British actress on stage and in the early days of the movies.

She was born on 9 June 1896. In 1922 she married the actor and director Guy [Patrick] Newall, ex-Royal Garrison Artillery, eleven years her senior, with whom she had co-starred several times. Reportedly they met during the War, at some kind of concert or party. You can find an excellent biography of him at ScreenOnline.

Sadly, they were divorced in 1929, and he married the twenty-eight year old actress Dorothy Batley, in 1930, with whom he had a daughter They stayed married until his death on February 25, 1937.

Ivy Duke died on 8 November 1937 (aged 41) and Dorothy Batley in December 8, 1983.

Ivy Duke appears on several cigarette card and many postcards, including Lilywhite “Cinema Stars” card 216, which shows her and Guy Newall, credited as being with George Clark Productions. The earliest cigarette card of her is cited to be the standard and large sized Edwards Ringer and Bigg “Cinema Stars” (E265-550 - 1923) – she is 15/50 in the standard size and 18/25 in the large. Guy Newall is there too, as card 25/50 and 16/25. She is also part of the Godfrey Phillips “Cinema Stars (Circular)” set of un-numbered cards (1924) which uses the same picture as our card; a popular picture, as it is also on Picturegoer main series Postcard number 40. Oddly this must have been a package deal, as Guy Newall is in this set too, and also has that same image as a Picturegoer main series card, number 55 - though I prefer the 40a with the dog, presumably a Samoyed? Then there is W.D. & H.O. Wills Four Aces Brand “Stage and Film Stars”, found numbered and unnumbered, (W675-442 : W/172 - October 1926) 4/50. This set was also issued by Thomas Bear (B203-350 - ), Murray Sons & Co (M970-570 - 1929), and by B.A.T. as an anonymous version.

Guy Newall also appears on several postcards, but I can only find one cigarette card, showing him top hatted and in hunting attire, after what looks like to have been a long day, hopefully the fox won. This is “Cinema Stars OMBI” second series 44/50, issued anonymously by Bucktrout in the Channel Islands, as well as by African Tobacco Manufacturers, branded “Officers Mess” (A210-120) and Indo-Egyptian Cigarette Company of the Dutch East Indies (I460-160), who also issued the set anonymously.

Dorothy Batley is so far still unavailable, but I am looking! And if anyone finds her carded, do let me know.