And onwards we speed, into a week that says farewell to January and waves a jaunty hello to February. Bulbs are popping up, everywhere, and I saw my first daffodils in flower on Monday, which, hopefully, the cold and wind has not yet laid to waste.
This week I toyed with the idea of a big change, but time beat me, or rather lack of time caught me out. However I am investigating the idea, still. Watch this space.
So this week we have several new cards that do not appear in the reference books, which is always a sign of my being pushed for time. Maybe I should not reveal my secrets so openly... There are also a few rather tenuous links, which makes things all the more fun.
Anyway let us start our journey, with
Boys Cinema [trade : periodicals : UK] "Film Star Cut Outs" untitled - (1938) Un/??
forgot this day existed, but thankfully found something fun and fast and guess what it turns out to be a centenary!
We start with this man, or rather this boy, Sabu, who was born on the 27th of January, 1924 in Mysore, India. There is some confusion over his actual name, but Sabu was definitely either his first name or his surname, and he used it all his life for his stage name.
What we do know is that he was the son of a mahout, who was an elephant rider and trainer - which makes it all the more exciting that his first film role was Toomai, the Elephant Boy, which was released in 1937. Now this was made by the great Robert Flaherty, lover of authenticity, and it is not impossible that he either knew of his parentage or spotted the natural way he had with elephants.
In actual fact the story was not written by Mr. Flaherty, it was an adaptation of the story "Toomai of the Elephants" by Rudyard Kipling, which had first appeared in St. Nicholas Magazine in 1893, and was then formed into part of the "Jungle Book".
Someone else liked the look of Sabu, and that was Alexander Korda, known for his love of the exotic. He not only had "The Drum" written to star his new find, (which is where the picture on this card comes from) but he also cast him in the spectacular "Thief of Baghdad" - whilst his brother Zoltan Korda gave him the role of Mowgli in "The Jungle Book".
Between 1938 and 1959 he appeared on almost thirty cards. You can see some of these at the Trading Card Database/Sabu - though many are missing. Most are European cards, where he was very popular.
In 1944 he moved to America and took citizenship. He also joined the Army Air Force, as a gunner, and was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross. After the war he married, having a son, heavily into music, and a daughter, who became an animal trainer in Hollywood. However his film career was sporadic, some great films and then ages with nothing and he was disillusioned when a planned, and much wanted, move into Indian films was denied him because he could not get a work permit.
The 1950s were hard for him, he was involved in a paternity suit, and arrested on suspicion of arson, and his brother was killed in a robbery.
In 1963, just a few weeks before his fortieth birthday he died of a heart attack.
Now this card is rather a mystery. If you look in our original British Trade Index, Boys Cinema appears as BPC-1 to BPC-4, but none of those are our set. The header tells us that anonymous cards were also issued, "See sets ZB7-9, ZB7-39, ZJ4-16 and ZJ4-18."
These are at the back of the book, and our set turns out to be listed as ZJ4-16. That is split into three sections, and our section is ZJ4-16-2, which reads :
Size 133 x 82. Coloured half tones. Heads die cut to stand out (8) See D102-3.
That is the page which we reproduce below
The problem with this is that there is no card of Sabu on this list. I kept looking, and there are more, different, sets added, but there is never another name added to this list. Even in our updated British Trade Index the list is still these eight cards. So is this from another set? Or are there even more cards out there waiting to be added, perhaps in a collection of film star postcards?
Lambert & Butler [tobacco : UK] "Flags and Girls of Nations" - untitled (1910) Un/25 - L073-660 : L8-74 : L/47 [RB.9/47] : RB.21/200-64.G
Now this flag is probably not the Canadian flag that you instantly recognise. In fact this is the flag with one of the most convoluted stories of all.
At first, Canada flew just the standard Union Jack, as did America, and until 1965 that was classed as the Canada flag by quite a lot of the older population.
Our card shows the "shield with eleven compartments" flag which kind of replaced it, though it was actually the Red Ensign of Canada, a Naval flag, and it was never the official Canadian flag. In fact it was not even the official flag to be used at sea. But it was widely recognised as the flag of Canada, even overseas. The problem was mainly due to it not being official, so anyone could add anything to it and not be held to judgement, therefore you can find flags with the arms of the various provinces, or crowns, or a beaver, or maple leaves. Despite this, the Red Ensign remained in use during and after the First World War, and in 1921 it was more less officially recognised as the Canada flag, when King George V granted Canada Royal Arms, changing the shield to just four sections. In the mid 1920s and just after the end of the Second World War, much debate took place as to changing the flag, but the public were not happy. The only change came in 1957, when the maple leaves in the bottom compartment of the shield changed from green to red.
Then in the 1960s, it was decided that the flag must be changed, and artists were invited to design one. The top three designs, chosen by the Government, all featured the maple leaf. One was flanked by two blue stripes and had three branches with a leaf at each end, which was thought a bit fussy, and the other two had red stripes and only one leaf. However one of those had flags within the stripes. Therefore the other one, designed by George Stanley, was decreed the winner, though there was a change to the design, removing some of the points from the leaves in order not to muddy it when seen at a distance.
The new flag was made the official Canada Flag by proclamation from Queen Elizabeth II today, January 28, in 1965. And it was first flown on February 15th.
This is a lovely set, but there is a lot to write about it, so I must be brief...
It first appears in our original Lambert & Butler Reference Book (RB.9), published in 1948, where it is described as :
47. 25. FLAGS AND GIRLS OF ALL NATIONS (untitled). Size 2 1/2" x 1 13/22" of 63 x 36 m/m. Fronts per Fig.18, lithographed in colour without photo-basis. Backs in dark blue, inscribed "Smoke Garrick Mixture. Lambert & Butler. England". Export Issue
There then follows a list of the cards, in alphabetical order, along with a note that the card of America has two variations, "(a) With Union Jack in corner and six stars on red border (b) With red white and blue streamers.
Now because this is an export issue the next stop is RB.21, the British American Tobacco Booklet. This reveals that the above is wrong - the American card is only with the streamers. However it also tells us that the same set was an export issue, by Player and by Wills, who produced it with six different variations. It is also found as an Anonymous plain backed issue, and branded for "Bouquet" and "Motor" neither of which have an issuer. Then it can be found as silks, branded for Lorillard`s "Nebo" and "Zira" Cigarettes", and the American Tobacco Co`s "Turkish Trophies".
Our World Tobacco Issues Indexes both list it under section 3 of the Lambert & Butler issues, with the rest of the export sets. It is catalogued, in both, as :
FLAG GIRLS OF ALL NATIONS. (A). Sm. 63 x 37. Unnd. (25) See RB.21/200-64.G
Carreras Ltd. [tobacco : UK] "Picture Puzzle Series" (1923) 20/25 - C151-360 : C18-64
Hands up if you would like another mystery? Well technically today`s event is for you, because it is #NationalPuzzleDay. And whether you are into crosswords, jigsaws, etc, all involve a puzzle of some kind. I have gone today, for jigsaws, and this card is a very curious thing indeed, which must have caused many hours of struggle to many people.
There is also another puzzle, and that is to find the number of the card, but it turns out that it is in the tiny circle between Carreras and the cat.
The inscription on the reverse makes it all seem so simple. You collect the twenty five cards, carefully cut out the fifty pieces (two per card), fix them together to make a correct picture, paste them on a board with your name and address on the back, and send them to Carreras. There are all manner of ways in which this is not that easy, the first being that they are not exactly interlocking, to say nothing of the pasting them all in place, something which was undoubtedly put to the test and found lacking the moment the board was turned over to write on. Anyway if you did manage all that, you would receive fifty coupons and a booklet of gifts from which to choose to spend them on - or, more likely, put them towards. Helpfully it says that the image of the puzzle, once completed, is also in the booklet. Not sure if there is any point to that once you have already solved the puzzle and sent it in.
There never was a Carreras Reference Book, so all we have is this very simple description in our World Tobacco Issues Indexes, which states : "PICTURE PUZZLE SERIES. Sm. Nd. (25). And 1923 is too early for it to have appeared in a New Issues Report in any magazine. However someone may know more gen, and we await to hear it.
L.V. [trade : sewing thread : O/S - Paris, France] "Bon Mots" / witty sayings (1900) Un/?
Bit of a stretch here, but today is #NationalCroissantDay. And the Croissant got its name because of its shape, a crescent, like the moon - and in early trade cards, like ours, especially French ones, like ours, the word Croissant is used to mean any form of a crescent. It may surprise you, therefore, to hear that the first crescent shaped pastry was made by an Austrian baker, in the thirteenth century. And they were known as Kipferls. However the Kipferl was not so buttery and sweet, and nor was it made of puff pastry, those are all French adaptations.
So here we have an amusing card that seems to be by Cable au Croissant. However that is simply a play on words, the "cable" referring to the sewing thread itself and the "croissant" being the sign of the crescent, which is the company logo. The problem is that I cannot seem to find an L.V. in Paris who is not Louis Vuitton, and though they started in Paris in 1854, it was as a luggage maker.
So if anyone knows more about our L.V. Sewing Thread maker, do please get in touch.
Panini /Top Sellers [trade : cards : UK] "Picture Pop Stickers" (1974) 99/100
#HotChocolateDay is today. And we are having a bit of a tangent, showing you Errol Brown of the group Hot Chocolate.
Sadly they are not yet in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and yet they had huge hits with such tunes as "Everyone`s a Winner", "It Started With a Kiss", "So You Win Again", and "You Sexy Thing", which got to number two in the charts and was immortalised in the film "The Full Monty".
The problem seems to be that they are classed as disco and not rock and roll.
The cards tells us that Mr. Brown was born in Kingston Jamaica, moved to West Hampstead when he was only ten, and that before he found fame singing, he worked in the treasury. He formed Hot Chocolate, or "The Hot Chocolate Band" in 1968, with Tony Wilson, the bass player. Mr. Brown left the band in 1986 and it broke up, though he continued as a soloist, getting two of his songs into the chart. In 1992 the band reformed, with some new members, but not him, and it continues to tour, though the line up has again changed. Mr. Brown was awarded the MBE in 2003. He died in May 2015.
This seems to be the most easily obtainable card of him, but unfortunately it spells his name wrong, as he, like myself, only has one "L". I am certain he, like me, would have not made too much of it, just smiled, gently, whenever it popped back in his mind.
Panini also featured him in their earlier set of "Picture Pop" as No.66/100, though that card is named Hot Chocolate, and shows the band. And the band, too, appear in their 1980 set of "Rock and Pop Collection", as No.32/144.
Then in 1983 he appeared in Rowntree`s untitled set of "Pop Stars" as No.21/24. This was issued with a chocolate, caramel, and wafer bar called "Drifter", and that is all that appears on the card, not a mention of Rowntree. About five years later, Nestle took over Rowntree and continued to make the bar, but in 2007 it was discontinued. It did come back the following year, but was lost forever in 2018.
Wagner [trade : margarine : OS : Germany] "Aus dem Leben der Ameisen" / "[Scenes] From The Life of an Ant" (1929) Series 2 Picture 5/6
Oh let us start February with a tangent too. Why not. For in 1884 the first volume of the Oxford English Dictionary was published. This ran just from "A" to "Ant". So here we have a happy, plump, little ant, or three, chewing on a leaf. The first card in the series shows them chewing on wood, the second forcibly removing a stag beetle from its area, the third, truly amazingly, squirting on a lighted cigarette to set it out and stop it burning their lands,the fourth is climbing up a thistle not sure why, the fifth is ours, where they are cutting leaves to make their nests warm and provide food, and the last one is them carrying leaves away for the same purposes. It seems to be quite a good, natural life.
We have featured other Wagner cards, and excitingly one of those was a Card of the Day, so that will become the home for their biography , which you can read about at :
https://csgb.co.uk/publications/newsletter/2022-10-22.
They have truly magical subjects, often nature based, and having lovely illustrations. Yet they seem not to be known too well of over here, and that is a great shame.
Peter, Cailler, Kohler, Nestle [trade : chocolate : O/S - Switzerland] "Les Metiers d`Autrefois" / trades of other times - Series XIV (1920s) 5/12
And so to our last card, perhaps the most important of all, if you, like me, still have tinsel above you, or a holly wreath on the door. For today it is Candlemas, when you can safely remove such things and not have bad luck.
Candlemas is celebrated on 2 February, and marks the presentation of Jesus to the Temple of Jerusalem.
Why it has a comnection with removing decorations I do not know.
This card has a bit of a tenuous connection as well because it is from a set called "Les Metiers D`Autrefois". That means trades and crafts of times gone by, and here we have candle makers. Now today candle making is a popular craft, but it all started in the tenth century B.C., if not earlier, when a wick was inserted into a pot of flammable material and lit. This may have been an accident, but it led to the discovery that it produced a light, and for some considerable time.
It was the Romans who started making the kind of candles shown here and they were made from animal fat. They had extraordinarily long wicks, because the fat was hot, and it saved burning their fingers as they dipped the wick in and out to build up the size of the candle.
Moulded candles were not produced until the fifteenth century.
It was not until the sixteenth century that beeswax candles were discovered, and we do not know how. We do know that as soon as they were used they became the most sought after, and highly priced, which meant that the people who would have rejoiced and profited most from the better light, less smoke, and sweeter smell, could not afford them. Instead they were only used by the Church and by rich people.
This card is another Continental card that was designed to go in an album. And we are adding a few of these in our gallery now - check out "Animaux Domestiques" and "La Vie en Egypte dans L`Antiquitie"
And you can also find this set headed Nestle, Cailler, Kohler, Peter, but its series 14 not XIV as ours is.
The trades in either version of this set are :
- Fabricant de Papier - papermaker
- Imprimeur - printer
- Dentelliere - lacemaker
- Tisserand - weaver
- Chandelier - candle maker
- Cloutier Grossier - nail maker
- Boisselier - carpenter
- Potier de Terre - potter of earthenware
- Verrier - glassblower
- Armurier - gunsmith
- Ciseleur - Damasquineur - engraver and damascener
- Fromager (Auvergne) - cheesemaker (in Auvergne)
This week's Cards of the Day...
have been commemorating the first inductees to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on January 23, 1986.
The ceremony was held at New York City's Waldorf-Astoria, and ten stars were given their place, both singers and non-singers.
There were no women included in that list. However this was rectified in January of 1987, the following year, when Aretha Franklin was granted her place.
So we started our clue cards with :
Saturday, 20th January 2024
And many thanks to Mr. Collins who so kindly sent us this front and back photo.
Now the first induction Ceremony was just over a year to the day that USA Today readers had picked Cleveland, Ohio to be the site for a permanent Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. However the idea of having a Hall of Fame for music personalities had been rocking and rolling about in peoples minds for almost three years earlier.
Cleveland was just one of the choices, for there were many places with claims to prominent performers or events. Cleveland`s was Alan Freed, who had not only provided the name of the musical genre, but had held what came to be considered the first major rock and roll concert there.
However the museum was not actually opened until 1995.
Now despite our connecting this Cleveland with the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Ohio, Cleveland Petrol was originally an independent producer based in the North East of England, who took their name from the Cleveland Hills. However though they started as an independent, they were bought out by Esso in the 1930s, who kept the name purely for one of their well known and instantly recognisable brands, Discol. That was discontinued in the mid 1970s and the Cleveland stations were renamed to Esso.
Cleveland did issue standard cards, but I am certain that there will be many readers who instantly remember these three-dimensional, solid plastic busts.
This white colour was just how they were issued, but do note that there were many collectors who took them home and straight away painted them either gold, or in the team colours. Whilst the white is authentic, there is a certain charm to the others as well, though the purists may disagree.
However if you are a real purist you probably would not call this a cartophilic item at all.
Now if the original owner was a very careful child you may also find their black plastic stand, into which they were frequently manhandled, and on that it says that this set is called "Joe Mercer's GB Football Squad Busts".
As to the identity of Joe Mercer, or, more correctly, Joseph Mercer, OBE, he was both a player - for Everton and Arsenal - and a manager - of Aston Villa, Manchester City and England, which he took over for the 1974 season after Sir Alf Ramsay resigned.
This could mean that the date of these is slightly wrong? Anyone know more about that?
Now this set is not listed in our British Trade Indexes, but in part III you will find two sets, "Campaign Medals" and "Golden Goals".
In actual fact the medal set was called "Historic Campaign Medals 1793-1945", and they were metal coins produced to look like the round part of a medal. Sixteen medals made a set and they were to be mounted in a special wallet in which were a series of holes, and above which was the ribbon, printed in colour, and the silver suspender. Unfortunately if they are out of the album they are just round coins, and way less attractive, to me anyway. First in line was the Naval General Service Medal 1793-1840, and the set closed with the War Medal for the Second World War 1939-45.
"Golden Goals".was a set of forty-one stickers issued in 1972, and they were given out at the counter when you paid for your petrol. However you had to buy three gallons, which cost £1. Yes, younger readers, petrol was once this cheap. There was also a rather nice, hardback, album - compiled by Jimmy Hill and Brian Moore - which cost 20p.
There is also another set, not listed, which preceded ours, issued in 1970, and that was another set of plastic busts, but these were "Kings, Queens, and Various Figures Who Made Britain Great". You also often find them painted rather than the original white in which they were issued. This had a similar press-in stand to hold the figures, and it was just as flimsy, but it did also have a section in the middle which held a booklet all about the figures and why they were there. I am surprised that this was not done for the footballers? Anyone know why not?
Sunday, 21st January 2024
The clue here ought to have led you to "Roll Over Beethoven" which was a song written and released in 1956 by one of the inductees in that first wave, and that was Chuck Berry.
Bit baffled by this maker, and card, but lets see what we discover, or more likely what you can tell us.
We think it is coffee because the cards say "Chicoree" as the product but that plant can be eaten as part of a salad or its root ground and either mixed with or used a s a substitute for coffee. Then on the back of some of the other cards they issued it shows a packet that is way more suitable for selling coffee in than leaves. However after the word "Chicoree" is "a la Bergere" and a Bergere is a shepherdess. Hmm.
The first question concerns the title, which is variously reported as "Famous Men", "Historical Figures", etc. This seems to suggest it was a large mixed set, but then someone else told me that the cards were in series of six, so I thought maybe this could be discovered by making a list. After all they are very distinctive cards. So I have had a very quick ask round and this list is what I have so far. Not sure it helps though!
- 1 Meissonier
- 5 David Teniers
- 6 Rubens
- 9 Boucher
- 13 Walter Scott
- 23 Lessing
- 24 La Fontaine
- 25 Voltaire
- 27 Gounod
- 33 Verdi
- 34 Berlioz
- 37 Haydn
- 40 Napoleon Bonaparte I
- 46 Henry IV
- 50 Frederick Le Grande
- 56 Kossuth
- 57 Cromwell
- 63 Gay Lussac
- 71 Franklin
- 75 Cuvier
Monday, 22nd January 2024
And our last clue is this one, a Peugeot, because there is a quite amazing fact about one of the first inductees, and that was that they actually drove a Peugeot, though not a race car, in fact it was a 306 Cabriolet, in an advertisement for that company.
This may seem not so interesting but wait, because that person was Ray Charles - and they had been completely blind since the age of seven. You can see it on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zZ5dggGpq-Q
Now it appears that Atlantic Service Stations were part of an American company, called the Atlantic Refining Company, who opened their first refinery in 1924, in the state of Victoria. It seems that they were taken over in 1960 by Standard Oil of New Jersey, and rebranded to Esso.
This set appears in our original Australian & New Zealand Index, (RB.30), published in 1983. The heading beneath the issuer`s name tells us that the cards were "Inscribed "For `Happy Motoring` see your Atlantic Retailer". Cards, size 76 x 51, and special albums. Issued in Australia 1958-1964"
Our set is catalogued, simply, as:
- A Series of 64 Racing Cars. Nd. 64
Tuesday, 23rd January 2024
So here we have Elvis Aaron Presley, The King of Rock and Roll, and another of the first ever inductees to the Hall of Fame. He was born on January 8th, 1935, in Tupelo Mississippi, and died on August 16th, 1977.
The strange thing about this card is that nowhere does it say Donruss. It credits "Boxcar Enterprises Inc. 1978. Lic. by Factors, Etc, Inc, Bear. De ." However if you get an original packet, on the back flap it does credit Donruss.
It also tells you that there was a stick of gum, so these are truly cartophilic, and also that the title, perhaps, ought to have been "Elvis Collectors Series", because that is what it says on the wrapper.
Now Factors Etc is still located in Bear, Delaware, and they are printers.
Donruss were based in Memphis, Tennessee, but their cards were also issued in Australia, the earlier ones, from 1965 until 1980, being issued by Scanlens, and the later ones, from 1980, by Dinnie Bundle. That means we do have a card code, but from our original Australian & New Zealand Index, and I am not sure if the cards differ. Anyway the set is listed in the section for Donruss, but you are told that they are : "Elvis" - see Anonymous set ZG10-4-7". When you get there it catalogues them as :
-7 Titled "Elvis". 89 x 63. Back with text and illustration of Elvis. Nd. (66)
Wednesday, 24th January 2024
Tonight we have the Godfather of Soul, James Brown, who was the link between pop and rhythm and blues. He won two Grammy Awards, and is quoted as being the inspiration of many of today`s most famous stars.
So how do we know this is Monty Gum? After all there is not a word about them anywhere, and even if you squint on the really lightly printed reverse of the item all it says is "Fasprint", which is the trading name of a Scottish printers who specialised in making stickers.
The only reason we know the name of the set is that it is on the packets - which you can see at TradingCardDatabase/HPSPackaging. As for what the words on the right of that packet, as viewed, mean, well "Vedettes" means "stars", so it is "Stars of Pop and Song". However the French word "chanson" is actually from Latin, where deriving from "canzone" whch means a sung ballad. Now that is the key, because a ballad is a narrative, sometimes in verse, set to music - and the one thing that all these songs have in common is that they had words, they were not just instrumentals, and not just simply hummed
Thursday, 25th January 2024
Here we have Antoine Dominique Domino Jr., pianist, singer and songwriter, born in New Orleans in February 1928.
It is said to have been bandleader Billy Diamond who called him "Fats", in a nice way, comparing him to Mr. Fats Waller. He obviously liked it too, as his first single was "The Fat Man". It sold over a million copies and is regarded as the first true Rock and Roll record, though Mr. Domino himself disputed that, calling it just slightly altered rhythm and blues.
I bow to the superior knowledge of moviecard.com/VV who describe this set in great detail. They also show the different backs and the album, which is even spiral bound. The wording on the album(s, for there are four different albums) translates to "Sport, Cinema, Television and Teenagers" and the title is grammatically "Parade of Stars". There are some pretty nifty cards in here too, including astronauts and cosmonauts (which are shown on the site, keep scrolling) - though Neil Armstrong comes later as card 800.
Now there is also a checklist, elsewhere on the same site and that splits the cards into series, revealing that though our first set is of 200 cards, in total there were 823 - and that does not include the back variations.
Friday, 26th January 2024
Here we have one of the non-singers that were inducted into the Hall of Fame in the first wave. This is Albert James Alan Freed, the disc jockey who gave the phrase "Rock and Roll" to the World almost by accident.
He was born on December 15th, 1921, in Johnstown Pennsylvania. He played trombone, in a band, though his dream was to be a bandleader. Sadly he had recurring ear problems, and this resulted in an infection which affected his hearing. Instead, he went to University, and started to become interested in the possibilities of being on the radio in other ways, and this was realised when, during the Second World War, he was asked if he would do a spot of presenting on Armed Forces Radio. This was the most enormous fun, sorting out a round up of rousing tunes to entertain the soldiers and encourage them as they prepared to go into battle and a simple medley of soft nostalgic tunes to remind them of their homeland once the panic was over.
After he was demobbed, he started hunting for radio presenting jobs, picking up several such gigs in Pennsylvania and Ohio. He also changed the playlists, introducing more of the rousing tunes, like jazz, blues, and pop, and using recordings by the original African American singers, not the cover versions by white singers that radio habitually used.
He started to call this mixed style "Rock and Roll", and the teenagers, themselves newly invented, rebelling against the old ways, and wanting change, could not get enough.They said he talked their language, and he did.
However there is another reason for his inclusion in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and that is an event he organized, in Cleveland, which is considered the first ever Rock and Roll concert. This was called "The Moondog Coronation Ball", and so many listeners attended that there was gross overcrowding, and also, almost, a riot amongst those who could not get in. This hit the papers, and raised his profile, and led to him appearing in several cinema films produced to please the teenage audience, including "Rock around the Clock" and "Mister Rock and Roll", which he adopted as a nickname.
He also gained a weekly music series, in 1957, "The Big Beat", which fell foul of the segregation laws of the time, and was cancelled. He ran into other trouble after that, being accused of taking too much of a cut of the money, and even claiming the writing credits falsely, from the artists he represented. He was also hit with massive tax bills. He started to drink more, and died in January 1965 at the age of just forty-three.
Now I thought we had featured this set before, but we have not, that one, which you can see in our newsletter for https://csgb.co.uk/publications/newsletter/2023-02-04 was Topps "Hit Stars" too but if you look in the bar beneath the star`s name, it says "A Series of 37 T.V. and Movie Stars", whereas our card says "A Series of 62 Recording Stars". After investigation the set is actually comprised of eighty-eight cards, It turns out to be a set of 88 cards, with card 63 being card 1 of the movie star set. But it is useful to clear this up. Though the numbering is baffling as the last card, 88, says it is number 26 in the series of 37. Maybe someone with a complete set, and a better head for math, can sort this out for us? Many thanks in advance.
And there you have it, just beat the bell for midnight. There is still a bit to add about our Boys Cinema Set, but that will be notified, when ready, in the "What`s New" box on our front page.
And so goodnight, dear readers. See you all next week! But if you have anything to add, correct, or just fancy a chat about cards, don`t forget our email is webmaster@csgb.co.uk