That week really went fast ....
I hope you had sun, if you wanted that, or rain if you wanted that. Here it was sun and rain, but also a power cut, one afternoon, as always, quite unexpectedly, and just as the kettle was about to boil.
But we got through it, didn`t we......
This week sees us moving into Autumn for sure, and hitting September. The lights will start to darken earlier, and you will be in need of something to do, so we have a few plans.
Watch this space
Margy Reed was born today in 1916. But we know her better as Martha Raye, and she is mostly remembered as a comedy performer, with the nickname of "The Big Mouth" - something she played up to full effect, not only by often over exaggerating its size with extra lipstick and liner, but also when she decided she would step forward to advertise a denture cleaner.
However, as this card proves, she was also very glamorous. And she worked - stage, screen, television, even as a singer. She is one of the few people to have two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, one for the big screen and one for the small screen.
She also put her life on the front line, entertaining the troops during the Second World War and in Vietnam, for which she won a special Academy Award in 1969. The gratitude continued and she much enjoyed the status of honorary titles in both the U.S. Marines and the U.S. Army; in fact both of these asked that she be buried with full military honours at Arlington, but she chose to go to Fort Bragg, the home of the Special Forces, whose specially presented green beret she treasured more than anything.
She was married seven times, and had a daughter, born in 1944. She died on October 19th 1994
At one time the rather nifty bow tie was far more seen on the man in the street than today. Now it is reserved for top notch social events like film premieres. Even James Bond wore one. The down side is that they can be challenging to tie correctly. Some say the solution to this is the one with the elastic band, others say this is just not on. I think if it, or the wearer, looks interesting, it doesnt really matter what goes on behind.
As this card proves, it has always had its place at weddings, and probably always will. This one is white, but they come in all colours now, so why not sport one on this day, which just happens to be National Bow Tie Day!
I have to say I don`t know who issued this card, I thought it was United Tobacco Corporation, but it isn`t, a spot of research proves that their back is different. So I will hit the reference books again tomorrow.
Today we celebrate Ingrid Bergman, who was born in 1915 on this day in Sweden. She made many movies, both in Europe and America, over a fifty year career which saw her win a multitude of awards.
Ask filmgoers today for one of her films, and most will reply with the 1942 film "Casablanca", as we show here, on a card which is actually packaging - it originally came complete with Dinkie Hairgrips, designed to keep the 1940s wave style hair firmly in place. This was almost certainly her most famous part, with Humphrey Bogart as her leading man. But what brought her to Hollywood in 1936 was chance; one of her European films, "Intermezzo", was remade by David O Selznick, and she was asked if she would like to reprise her role. She thought it was a one off, but audiences loved her, and she stayed, leaving her husband and daughter at home in Sweden.
She also worked with Alfred Hitchcock, and an Italian director, Roberto Rossellini, with whom she fell in love and had three children. She divorced her husband and filed for the return of her first daughter. It almost destroyed her career, and certainly her status in the public eye, for it was discovered that she had made first contact, telling him how she admired his films, and wondering if they could work together, which they did, on a film called Stromboli.
Ingrid Bergman and Roberto Rossellini were married in May 1950. They separated a few years later and were divorced in 1957. She married again, a year later, to a wealthy Swedish theatrical manager They divorced in 1975, but remained close, and he was with her when she died in 1982, on her birthday. She was just 67.
Frankenstein Day takes place on August 30 every year, for it is the author`s birthday - or should that be authoress, as the book was written in 1818 by a lady, Mary Shelley. The full title was Frankenstein; or The Modern Prometheus.
Curiously Frankenstein was the doctor/scientist who made a monster. His forename was Victor, because he was at last victorious in creating an artificial life form. His creation, of various parts, was unnamed but referred to as Frankenstein`s Monster, much as Charles Addam`s "Family" would seemingly inherit his surname as theirs. And he was not green in the book, that was added later.
I cant do the justice that MonsterWax Trading Cards does in describing this set so I will just add the link!
Lets hope your National Eat Outside Day does not see you pestered by emus. Though to be honest the Emus were there before the group decided to start their picnic. Surely the wire fence was a giveaway that something was behind it that needed to stay there.
The most interesting thing here is the car, and the registration number comes from Wolverhampton, where it was in use between March 1931 and July 1936. That is quite a motor, for a car, today, doing that journey by using the M6, is quoted as taking two hours and fourteen minutes.
But the M6 was only opened on the fifth of December 1958. Before that, it was the open road, through towns and villages.
For today, Ginger Cat Appreciation Day, we did the best we could. It does mention Ginger Cats on the text too, but rather dispararagingly, saying that a ginger is a red that is too pale to count as red.
It seems to be presumed that Ginger cats are always males, or toms. This is not true, though in a single litter of mixed colours it is more likely that the ginger ones will be the males.
They do seem to be more attractive to authors though - look at Orlando the Marmalade Cat, and Garfield. .
Today in 1929 Unilever was formed, a blend of The Margarine Union and of Lever Brothers.
Many picture postcards were issued by and of Lever Brother`s "Port Sunlight", and The Birkenhead News website has a rather interesting selection of these which is well worth looking into
Lever Brothers also issued cards with Sunlight Soap, the early ones are mostly postcards, but they did issue a set of "British Birds and their Nests" in 1961 and that is still really inexpensive.
This week's Cards of the Day...
rambled off on a bit of a tangent again as America celebrated National Park Service Founders Day. This is annually on August 25 and it tries to raise awareness of the conservation that parks do and also to praise the foresight of those who saved that ground for the nation to enjoy.
We have National Parks too, fifteen of them, but I cant find a special day for celebrating ours? Anyone know one? Please tell us at webmaster@card-world.co.uk
So how did we get to this theme....? Well, on
Saturday, 20th August 2022
The clue here was the the team, which was not so easy to spot on the front of the card, but was revealed on the back to be Queen`s Park Rangers. This gave us the "Park" and the "Ranger" who looks after them, also the "Green" of the colour is the green of the forests and moors, though maybe not at the moment
Had a bit of a play with the code with this, putting the issuer first. How do you like it? This is slightly sneaky of me because working on the index has proven that if the codes come first it does not really work, first of all the trade ones are in the wrong place, as is any continental trade which does not have codes at all. I`m considering removing the codes from the title entirely as well, and making them the last part of the text. This will allow me to tell which book they are from and explain or even scan the handbook references. All opinions, pro or con, to webmaster@card-world.co.uk
The O2/101 code comes from our original Ogdens Reference Book, and simply describes the set. The H.316 code is from the handbook, and reads :
![list of badge cards in Ogdens Football Club [Colour] Badges](/sites/default/files/styles/content_full_width/public/2022-08/ogden%20club%20colours%20text.jpg?itok=DJJFY7xA)
As you will see they are not all association football clubs, some are rugby. One which I had to look up was Bradford P.A.A.F.C. but it turns out to be Bradford Park Avenue Association Football Club, which at first look was only founded in 1987. But it turns out that it was named after the original club of that name which was operational from 1908 until 1970, and was called such so as not to be confused with Bradford City. Park Avenue was the location of its ground.
Sunday, 21st August 2022
Again you had to wait for the back of this card, where the first brand was "Exmoor" Hunt. This card might be a surprising one for boxing fans as yes, it is Georges Benoit Carpentier, but in just one of his many guises, as an actor and cinema star.
He was born in France on January 12th, 1894, and his acting career came, as many sporting heroes, as a way to get his fans into movie theatres. Unusually he fought as a few weights, starting as a teenager in a low weight class, and growing as he aged, and eventually going up for the Heavyweight category against Jack Dempsey in 1921, who might have beaten him, but left the ring as a friend.
In the midst of his boxing fame Georges Carpentier had gone to war, become a pilot, and won both the Croix de Guerre and the Medaille Militaire. He retired from boxing in 1927, toured on the stage, and started as an actor. He passed his waiting time by writing several books, and cooking, and he would become a restaurant owner, opening Chez Georges Carpentier in Paris. Strangely, his friend Jack Dempsey also had a restaurant, right opposite Madison Square Garden.
Georges Carpentier died in Paris on October 28, 1975, aged eighty one. He had a wife, and a daughter.
Monday, 22nd August 2022
This is a "South Down" sheep, celebrating the South Downs.
This set is a very confusing one, as it comes in four various formats, as described in H.44. All appear in our original John Player reference book (RB.17) as RB.17/33 and in the various handbooks under H.344.
The earliest version, H.344A, is also coded P644-048a, or P72-19a, and it was issued in June 1915. This was of standard size and it had a brown back including Imperial Tobacco ITC wording.
The next printing, H344B, was issued in May 1916, once again it had a brown ITC back but it was in extra large size. This has the same codes as above but b suffixes (P644-048b, or P72-19b)
Once cards had reappeared after the end of the First World War, this set was reissued, twice.
The first of these, H344c, was issued in January 1923. The back was changed to a blue ITC back but again it was in extra large size. Because our World Tobacco Issues Indexes are split into sub sections by years, the codes on this fall into 1920-1940, so they are a bit different, namely P644-148 and P72-70.
The second of these, H344d, was issued in November 1924. The back was changed to a grey colour but there was no reference to Imperial Tobacco, because this version was issued overseas, in New Zealand, Malaya and Siam. It was also in a new size, medium. Being issued overseas the codes on this are again different, namely P644-618 and P72-189.
Tuesday, 23rd August 2022
A suitably Autumnal mountain range, for Snowdonia, full of browns and with the rather perilous track perched on top.
A close up view of the engine, pushing the carriages up the steep incline, appears on Gallaher "Trains Of The World" (1937) 23/48. The text on that tells us that "The Snowdon Mountain Railway is the only mountain railway in Great Britain and was modelled on the rack railways of Switzerland"
This National Park covers 823 square miles, and contains the highest mountain (Snowdon) and the largest natural lake (Llyn Tegid, or Bala Lake). And if you thought the Welsh language was dying out shame on you, for of the many hundreds of people who live and work within the boundaries of the National Park, over half speak Welsh.
There were actually five versions of this set, and we are using the earliest version of them as the home page, to which all the other versions will be connected through links. That was our Card of the Day for the 13th of September 2024.
Our version first appears in our original Churchman reference book, (RB.10, issued in 1948), as ;
69. June 1938. 48. HOLIDAYS IN BRITAIN. (titled series). Size 2 7/10" x 2 1/10" or 68 x 53 m/m. Numbered 1/48. Views, no maps. Fronts printed by 4-colour half tone process. Backs in dark green, with descriptions, album clause, and I.T.C. Clause. Printed by Mardon, Son & Hall.
Do note that there is another version of our set too, listed as "70. 48. HOLIDAYS IN BRITAIN. Identical to (69) but omitting album and I.T.C. Clause. Overseas issue".
Our original World Tobacco Issues Index splits these up - our version being in Section 2, "Issues with I.T.C. Clause" described as :
HOLIDAYS IN BRITAIN. Md. Views only. Coloured. Nd. (48) ... C82-52
whilst you have to go to Section 3 for the export issues, without the album or I.T.C. clauses, which were issued between 1937 and 1939 through B.A.T. in Channel Islands, Malta, and British Garrisons overseas. The listing there is identical to the above, save for a new code, of C82-95.
All this text is the same in our updated World Tobacco Issues Index, (though the codes have changed - to C504-510 for the Home Issues, and C504-750 for the export ones. Curiously there is no link to section 3 from section 2, or any mention of there being export issues in any of those books. Casual browsers may, therefore, miss these overseas versions entirely.
Wednesday, 24th August 2022
Here we have The Trossachs.
Originally just a simple and small area of woodland glen, The Trossachs have expanded to cover acres of glens and lochs to the eastern side of Ben Lomond in Stirling, Scotland, including Loch Lomond. It also includes a modern shopping centre and many opportunities for sporting activity on land and water. And despite this rural looking picture it is reasonably close to Glasgow.
The area was inhabited by prehistoric folk and their dwellings and fortifications remain. Another early visitor was Sir Walter Scott, drawn there in his mind by reading of the discovery of ancient human remains, and writing his epic poem "The Lady of The Lake" in 1810. He also set his book "Rob Roy" along the shores of the same Lake, Katrine.
Thursday, 25th August 2022
Here we have a memorial stone set in the heart of the New Forest which commemorates William II, King Rufus, who was killed on that spot, whilst hunting; perhaps by accident, or maybe even perhaps by his brother, who took his throne, or maybe by one of the disgruntled villagers mentioned on this card..
One thing is certain, when there are that many opponents, a simple accident seems more and more unlikely.
The New Forest is still rural and has the tradition of allowing grazing rights to those who live within its boundaries, hence the great amount of New Forest Ponies that roam freely throughout. Once a year they are rounded up and sold at auction. They make excellent riding ponies as they are sure footed and hardy, and not too timid - all of that coming through their early freedom.
Friday, 26th August 2022
Closing out our week we head to the Pembrokeshire National Park where the Park Authority are celebrating seventy years of stewardship.
This area may be a rather odd shape but its coastal walks are dramatic and atmospheric, and it covers pretty much every part of the coastline, all the islands you can see, and parts of great beauty within the interior. It is not as populated as the non coastal National Parks, because much of the area is either uninhabitable, like cliffs and beaches, or in the sea between the offshore islands.
But once more there is proof that early peoples lived here and might have had time to gaze over the landscape, for there was an Iron Age hill fort and settlement, which has been excavated and rebuilt.
And that, readers, is all - though it will be added to as I find any more information. I am now off to see why I cant get into my twitter account, though it is almost certainly because I am typing the password in wrong. A shorter password would be better. I wanted to upload a dog video as well, on International Dog Day. But the truth is that every day is dog day to me.... and mine will be more noticeable once all the crowds have dispersed.
best wishes and see you all next week..... and do keep in touch