![Player Film Stars 1](/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/2024-05/Player%20Film%20Stars%201.jpg?itok=vkd-S2UG)
Card Two showed the lovely Katherine Hepburn. She was not the first actress to win an Academy Award, but she did win four, all for Best Actress, which is the most ever awarded to one person. She was also nominated twelve times in total, a number only just beaten by Meryl Streep. If that were not enough she has the longest award winning career of any star, for she won her first Academy Award in 1934 for "Morning Glory" and her last in 1982 for "On Golden Pond". And she also was one of the few people to come joint first place, in 1969, when she tied with Barbra Streisand. This in itself was a rarity as only six ties have ever occurred in the entire story of the Academy Awards - which you can read about at FarOut/Ties
By the way, the first ever actress to win an Academy Award was Janet Gaynor. She won for a body of work, three films, "Seventh Heaven", "Street Angel", and "Sunrise".
Now though there were three series of Film Stars issued by John Player this set was never called the “First Series”, or even “A” series – the top wording on the back simply says it is a “complete series of 50 cards.” It had adhesive backs, ready to be stuck in the special album, and it was not issued overseas. The second 50 subjects said “Second Series” and were also issued in Ireland, omitting the cost of the album; whilst the “Third Series” was also issued in the Channel Islands and in Ireland, where the cards were re-printed and specially entitled “Screen Celebrities”.
Our original John Player reference book and all our World Tobacco Issues Indexes group the three series together under “Film Stars. Sm. Nd.”.
That original John Player reference book catalogues our set as :
FILM STARS OR SCREEN CELEBRITIES. Small cards. Fronts in colour. Backs in grey, with descriptive text. Special albums issued.
90. 50. First 50 Subjects. Film Stars. Adhesive backs. Inscribed (in album clause) “Series of 50 cards”. Home issue, March, 1934”
In the World Tobacco Issues Indexes the text reads :
1. First 50 subjects. Home issue, inscribed “…series of 50 cards” in album wording
Strangely this set does not seem to have been issued in Ireland, unless, of course, it was done so with no change to the wording. However the second and third series were both issued in Ireland, the second having the album clause slightly altered to remove the wording “price one penny”, and the third being much altered, even being renamed “Screen Celebrities”.