I am currently tidying and typing this at 6 am. It is raining, but the light is okay to type in and I do not need to worry that I put the light on because only I am here. Everyone else is asleep, and I do not have to go in the garden.
Today I had this to finish and tidy, and also a talk to prepare for the carers group to which I belong. That will be presented at 4 pm over zoom, and I was going to wax lyrical to them about Star Wars too, May the Fourth and all, but I have been convinced by the sensible side of my psyche - yes, I do have one of those, though you may be surprised to hear it – and I have decided to talk about something else and just bring that in briefly.
The day was going to end so well too,and then, like always, it crashed and burned. And I did not get the chance to go and pick up the thing that I so wanted. So now here I am, trying not to show it mattered, when once again, I am so bitterly disappointed. I tell myself it will all be okay in the morning. But I know that it will not.
So what, are you wondering, what do I have in store to amuse you, and console me with, this week – five rings, four walls, two teams, twenty-six years of magazines, two naked pedal extremities, a rebel with a cause, and almost fifty years of rule at the F.B.I.
Lets start with ....
B. Morris & Sons, Ltd. [tobacco : UK - London] “National & Colonial Arms” (1917) 6/50 – M884-160 : M142-13 : H.704
So this week starts straight in with a Centenary Card because today in 1924 saw the opening of the Paris Olympics, even though the actual opening ceremony was not until several months later, on July 5th.
In the meantime they held the section of the event which was devoted to art and artists, and they also started the opening rounds of the football, which, when you think about it was a really good idea, and saved any delays that would have been caused by rain. One wonders why they do not use this idea for Wimbledon, maybe even for lower ranking matches than they currently feature, or for giving school teams a chance to show their skills, readying them, perhaps, for when they could be there in years to come as a professional, if the excitement and the urge is nurtured early enough…
Anyway there were four opening matches in the football, these being on the 25th of May 1924. Italy beat Spain 1-0, Czechoslovakia beat Turkey 5-2, United States beat Estonia 1-0, and Switzerland beat Lithuania 9-0
Now this year, coincidentally, the Summer Olympics will again be taking part in Paris, which makes it their third time. Their first was in 1900, and their 1924 second actually made them the first city to host the Olympics twice.
This card is one I have not encountered before and it is very striking. The back, too, brings delight, all those different blends and brands, how interesting a smoker’s life must have been. I am surprised that you could get packets, or maybe tins, of as many as 100 at a time of the Little Manturios Whiffs and of the Yellow Seal Virginias.
The set is quite an early one, falling into the 1910-1917 period. This is some time before the main body of their issues, which come from 1922 until 1934.
It was actually issued at around the same time as my much loved “General Interest” (1910) and the “Marvels of the Universe Series” (1912), plus paper-backed silks of “English and Foreign Birds” and “English Flowers” (both 1915). Then there were sets that mark the beginning of the First World War, more silks, of “Battleship Crests” (1915) and “Regimental Colours” (1916), and also cards, of “War Celebrities” and “War Pictures” (both 1916).
Curiously our set comes after these, being issued in 1917, and perhaps it shows a shift to patriotism rather than celebrating war. Or maybe it took that long to realise what war truly was.
Our set is described in the original World Tobacco Issues Index as :
NATIONAL & COLONIAL ARMS. Sm. 63 x 38. Nd. (50) … M142-13
The updated version of this work carries the same main text, but a new code, and also an additional reference of H.704. This is the updated Handbook, and it reveals something quite amazing, that being that there were other issuers of this set, but as a set of sixty, with ten additional cards to ours. I am not sure yet what those ten were, so that is over to you. The issuers of these were Felipe Barco in Colombia, and E. Fuentes in the Canary Islands. So returning to our original World Tobacco Issues Index (which I had re-shelved), I found entries for both makers, and this set, just not connected at that time to the Morris version – and both were issued earlier.
Let us start with :
La Imperial – Gran Fabrica de Cigarros y Cigarillos – Felipe BARCO, Piedecuesta, Colombia.
Spanish language issue, about 1910.
ESCUDOS NACIONALES Y COLONIALES (National and Colonial Coats of Arms). Sm. 63 x 40. Nd. (60)
E. Fuentes took me a bit longer, as the first place I looked said “Eufemiano FUENTES – see La Favorita. They issued several sets, but ours is not listed – those which are listed are all photos, mostly hand coloured, and a set of Flag and Soldier silks. However the date of operation given is 1912-1915, so perhaps their version of our set came later? Or perhaps it was anonymous?
The updated version of our World Tobacco Issues Index has the same text under the Barco listing of our set but ties it in to the Morris version by simply saying “Subjects as Set M884-160” without telling us there are ten less in that version. However the Fuentes version is now catalogued in that book, and there is a bit of a revelation in the number of cards, for it appears as
ESCUDOS NACIONALES (National Arms). Sm. 63 x 38. Glossy front, with numeral. (50) As Morris Set M884-160
Franklyn Davey [tobacco : UK – Bristol] “Overseas Dominions (Australia)” (1923) 35/50 – F756-600 : F52-26 : H.451
Today we are going to all go out and celebrate the humble shed, for it is “Hug A Shed Day”.
Do you ever thank yours, for holding all your garden needs safely and out of exposure to the weather? Or thank next door`s for being in the right place to shield you when you sunbathe, or not cast a shadow on your washing as it dries in the warm air? Hmm. Didn't think so.
This one on the card is more of an industrial “shed”, and it is huge, but it would still appreciate a bit of a hug, I bet. Look at all those windows, and at the bales loaded on to the carts. This is a shearing shed, where sheep are relieved of their thick and unkempt wool, and I hope that it is done with kindness, though, always, fear the worst.
When you think about it a shed is a very simple construction, at its most basic level just four sides and a roof. The slope of the roof is not even a requirement, it is only there to give additional height in the centre and to make sure the rain runs off quickly. And it does not have to be filled with tools – for if it is not, even if only as far as having the space for a deckchair in the opening, they make a very decent sun shelter, or writers hut.
This card is indeed the same as the Wills version, both the text and the picture, but up at the top left of the front it says “FRANKLYN`S” instead of “WILLS”. If you did not look closely you might miss that entirely as you flick through that odds box The back is very different though. So take the time to turn, always.
The main difference between the two reverses is the colour, for ours is a very striking reddish-brown, though it is only ornamented with the cartouche in which nestles the issuer`s name. In fact that means that the Franklyn name appears both at top and bottom, whilst Wills is only at the bottom. However below that we have the similarity - for both these companies were part of Imperial Tobacco, and one can only suppose that they found the artwork and decided to re-use it through another brand.
This set was issued quite a long time after that Wills` version, which had been issued in February 1916, and it was never accompanied by the Canada set that Wills had also produced, even earlier, in May 1915.
It is described in both our World Tobacco Issues Indexes as :
OVERSEAS DOMINIONS (AUSTRALIA). Sm. Nd. (50). See H.451
H.451 is a link to the handbook and it only tells us that the set was issued by both Wills (pre-1919) and Franklyn Davey (post 1920).
However the Wills listing, from the original reference book, part III, gives us a lot more detail of its production, saying their version was :
87. OVERSEAS DOMINIONS (AUSTRALIA). Fronts lithographed in colour; backs in grey with descriptive text. Home issue, 1916. Similar series issued by Franklyn Davey.
Ogden`s Ltd [tobacco : UK] “Famous Rugby Players” (1926-7) 35/50 – O100-516 : O/2-148 : O/80
And the second Centenary Card, which was the last to be slotted in – with many thanks to reader Mr. Peters, who is my Rugby go-to..
This celebrates the 1924 Northern Rugby Football League Championship, in which Batley beat Wigan 13-7. So here we have F. [Frank] Gallagher, and this card dates from a time when they could say he was of “Batley and England (Northern Rugby League)”. In fact the text tells us that Batley was his native town. However he was not present at our match, simply because he was on the 1924 Great Britain Lions tour of Australia and New Zealand.
This was the first championship that Batley won, and so far it is their only one. They were already league leaders, Wigan of the Lancashire League, and Batley of the Yorkshire, and they had come to the final without conceding a single goal in the semis, Wigan beating Leigh 27-0 and Batley beating Oldham 38-0
A quick word about the Northern League is called for (and it has been provided!) Today, and since 1922, there is just the Rugby Football League, which is in charge of all Rugby in England. However it was originally the Rugby Football Union, and that only split up into the Northern Rugby Football Union after a dispute in August 1895, which had been brewing for a while, at which time several Lancashire clubs stated that they were going to support their colleagues in Yorkshire and break away together to create a Northern Union. Eventually twenty-two teams formed this union, and agreed on their resignation from the Rugby Football Union – though one club, Dewsbury, decided to go back into the other fold. Stockport, of Cheshire, and later Runcorn, also joined the breakaway group.
This card is first catalogued in our original Ogden`s reference book RB.15, issued in 1949, as :
80. 50 FAMOUS RUGBY PLAYERS. Fronts printed by letterpress in brown. Backs in grey, with descriptive text. Home issue, 1926-7.
Our World Tobacco Issues Indexes slightly shorten this, to :
FAMOUS RUGBY PLAYERS. Sm. Dark brown. Nd. (50)
Liebig [trade : meat extract : O/S – France] “Colosses Celebres” / “Famous Statues” (1906) Un/6 – F.0846 : S.847 : VA.600
Our third Centenary Card of the week (coming thick and fast, eh) brings us across the water to New York, for today in 1924 saw the first edition of a magazine called “Liberty”.
The magazine was issued weekly, and was advertised as being for everyone, in other words, having articles of general appeal, rather than being tied to a particular interest or political affiliation, though politics definitely featured. The cover price was five cents. It lasted right until 1950, when it was probably overtaken by the rise of the pictorial papers though it was revived for a short time in the early 1970s. The title is also currently used by Human Rights and Religious organisations for their newsletters and magazines.
This set is truly a work of art, though, oddly, to me, it is the inner harbour and the buildings which is viewed first, I pass by the Statue and only return to after, and then to the flag. Which makes me wonder why they did not use the statue in the centre. I am also struck by the fact that apart from the rigging of the ship in the foreground, you would see a similar sight if you sailed into New York today, the skyscrapers in the background, the Statue of Liberty holding forth her golden torch and welcoming all. Perhaps today she is less welcoming, but I would still like to think that there is room in her heart for more.
This card starts by saying that Liebig was made at Fray Bentos in South America, though its cards were issued in Europe.
The set title breaks down to “Famous Statues”, “Colosses” coming from a large structure, hence the Colossus of Rhodes as one of the Seven Ancient Wonders of the World - and “Celebres” being the true root of celebrity, and therefore fame. In fact the Colossus of Rhodes appears on one of the cards in this set – the other cards are The Colossus of Nero in Rome, The Sphinx in Egypt, The Statue of Jupiter at Olympus, and Roland`s Column at Halberstadt in Germany.
I am not sure why all of the other cards but Roland`s Column are Ancient, nor why it is the only one in Europe. But I am sure there is a reason, and that one of you will tell us....hopefully
Figurine Panini [trade/commercial : stickers : O/S – Italy] “Montreal 76” (1976) 78/300
This was the second hardest card to get, and I spent too long on two cards that didn’t work, one it turned out I had used that set twice before already, and the second one was impossible to scan, which can be the problem with certain modern cards. Anyway I got this one off another reader, Mr. White.
Today is really a bit of a tangent off this card, for it is No Socks Day, and this man, Shambel Abebe Bikila, ran a marathon not just in no socks, but in bare feet.
He was born in 1932, in Ethiopia, and in 1960 he was quite unknown outside his homeland, but somehow he took part in the Olympic Games in Rome. The marathon was run through the streets of Rome, and his barefooted-ness attracted much interest from the crowds that lined the streets, for this course was not inside a stadium, it was through the highways and byways of the City. When he finished the race, he not only won, but beat the World Record, with a time of 2 hours, 15 minutes, and 16.2 seconds. This is even more amazing when you consider that it was only the third marathon he had run.
This is the event shown on our card, and you can see the crowds watching him pass, applauding, almost certainly making his heart swell and his feet run faster, despite the blisters.
In 1964 he again won, but wearing shoes and socks. And he beat his own time.
Our set was issued to commemorate the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal and it contains not just past heroes, but posters from past events, and a medal table for each is printed in the album.
The set had a huge distribution, not just the five languages which are shown on this card – it was available in Austria, Belgium, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Switzerland, and in Yugoslavia, where the back was different, having the number box in the centre. Some of the other backs may differ too, so do tell us if you know of any.
Mr. Bikila features on several other cards, including a very stylised one which is card 11/25 in Victoria Gallery’s “Olympic Greats”, issued in 1992
Carreras Ltd. [tobacco : UK – London] “Highwaymen” (July 1924) 12/25 – C151-310 : C18-54
Another pretty hard day to find a card for but I changed the tack and have gone for this
Now he was actually Colonel Thomas Blood, and he was born in County Meath, Ireland, in 1618. You may read that he was the son of a blacksmith, but he was of quite some standing in the community – and our man’s grandfather not only lived in a castle, but he was a Member of Parliament.
None of this appears on this card, though it does seems to like him, for it calls him, straight off, “A singular and successful desparado” (though I thought it was desperado?). It says he “Served in the Parliamentary Army [and] tried to seize Dublin Castle and the person of the Lord Lieutenant”.
You would almost certainly know a Parliamentarian as a Roundhead, or a follower of Oliver Cromwell, which is totally different to the way he appears on this card. As to why he fought on that side, nobody knows, some say that he had personal grievance against the crown, which had helped themselves to his Irish estate, but that did not happen until much later, in 1660. However he found an easy camaraderie amongst the Roundheads, and also seems to have known, or got the attention of Cromwell himself, because in 1653, as a reward, Cromwell made Colonel Blood a justice of the peace, and also gave him lands, perhaps those which later would be seized.
This was all going well, but then Charles II returned to the throne in 1660, and Colonel Blood decided to leave. By then he was also married, and had a young son. This was when he again joined up with some of his former Roundheads and attempted to not only take over Dublin Castle, but imprison the Governor thereof. Unfortunately this did not go so well, and several of the plotters were caught and executed. Though our man got away, somehow, and fled to Holland.
Then it gets to his most amazing exploit, which was on this day in 1671, “..when disguised as a clergyman, with two accomplices, he attempted to carry off the Regalia from the Tower of London.” This Regalia had been much in the news at the time because they had just been made. When Charles I was executed, in 1649, his possessions were also destroyed, and for some reason the original Crown Jewels had been melted down.Then Charles II came to the throne, and found he had no crown, etc, and so he ordered more made.
Therefore, on this day, all those years ago, our man, disguised as a priest, enacted his revenge. He disarmed the keeper of the jewels and handed his pistols to his accomplices, who had been waiting out of sight. Then they marched to the Jewel House and broke the doors down. However the son of the housekeeper saw them and raised the alarm, As the Tower Guard approached things unravelled, one accomplice was seen hiding the orb in his trousers, another attempting to saw in half the sceptre, and our man trying to disguise the crown by bashing it flat with a mallet and hiding it in a sack. Maybe because they were wasting time with all this, they were captured, and brought before the king.
This is where the card closes, with something I did not know, which was that “In prison [he] was visited by Charles II, who pardoned and pensioned him with £500 a year.” Now this was not a small sum then. On looking this up though it turns out to be even odder, for it does not look like our man spent any time in jail at all, and Charles II not only gave him this pretty hefty annual pension, but also made him a member of the Royal Court, and restored his Irish estate. Go figure.
This set is one that I like a lot, and not just because it celebrates the rebels rather than the rich and the royal. I like the clearness of the background, and the texts, which are often supportive of the characters the front portrays. However it is quite simply described in our World Tobacco Issues Indexes as just :
HIGHWAYMEN. Sm. Nd. (25)
Would it have been a different tale if the planned reference book to Carreras had been issued? Perhaps, perhaps not. In any event that book was only teased us, starting at the back inside cover of RB.9 to Lambert & Butler, issued in 1948, where it appears as :
Suggested grouping to complete Part I of programme - British Issuers.
1. Archer, Baker, Bell, Bradford, Cadle, Charlesworth & Austin, Clarke.
2. Carreras, Boguslavsky
However by the issue of RB.11, part II of the Wills booklet, issued later that same year, there has been a change, and it is now listed as
Proposed 1949 Programme.
Nos 15-20 (order not fixed)
Carreras & Boguslavsky
Player
Wills III
Ogden`s "Tabs"
Mitchell & Smith
Ogden`s Guinea Gold
On the back cover of RB.12, the Taddy book, issued later still that same year, there has been a change, and Ogden has come in front as book 14-20, which makes three separate books to Ogden issues. That remains the same on the back cover of RB.13, Godfrey Phillips. But then on RB.14, which was Wills part III, the back says
In Preparation:
No. 15 Ogden (all issues except Guinea Gold Series)
No. 16 Wills IV (balance of Wills issues, except certain Chinese Series).order not fixed :
B.A.T.
Ogden, part II - Guinea Gold Series
Player
Wills V
And Carreras/Boguslavsky was never seen again.
Eclipse Enterprises [trade : commercial : O/S – America] “True Crime” (1992) 28/220
Final card of the week, and our final Centenary Card of the week too – J. Edgar Hoover, who became acting director of the Bureau of Investigation today in 1924 – and stayed for almost fifty years.
This set was issued in sections, but the numbers continued one after the other. Series One, "G-Men and Gangsters" started at card 1 and ended at card 55, Series Two, "Serial Killers and Mass Murderers" ran from card 56 to card 110, Series Three, again covering "G-Men and Gangsters" was from card 111 to card 165, and Series Four, another group of "Serial Killers and Mass Murderers" closed it off with card 166 to card 220. I will say that it appears that when you see the set on sale it seems to be sold as Series one and three together, and Series two and four together, despite the gaps that this produces in the numbering .
Now you might read that Eclipse Enterprises seemed never to get into sports cards, but this is incorrect as they did produce sets called "Foul Ball Trading Cards" and another on "Baseball's Greatest Scandals, Scoundrels, and Screw-Ups". Maybe some others are in there too, I am just glossing down a list. The addition of "Enterprises" almost certainly includes their other side, who produced and published comic books, and have a bit of a claim to fame through producing the first ever graphic novel designed to be sold through comic stores. This led them into the trading cards market. It also brought them into a few problems with people who objected to the truth being told, and there were several lawsuits. It came to a head in 1994 and the company closed within a few months.
The cards may not be to my sympathies, (though I find it more than intriguing that just looking at this picture without the name he it is hard to tell if he a G-Man or a Gangster), but they were well made, and the company also paid their artists fairly. And it always seems a shame when rebels are no longer with us.
Ought to add at this point that a G-Man is an abbreviation for a Government Man, a slang term for detectives and the like.
I will just close, very briefly, by saying that if you are a great fan of J Edgar Hoover, there are a few cards which have sections of his letters encapsulated within them. These were issued by Upper Deck, in their set of “X-Files UFOs & Aliens” but as a separate group called “Redacted Files”. These thirty cards are not all about J. Edgar Hoover, they include other cases, including the Black Dahlia, Charles Manson, D.B. Cooper and Watergate, but they do have a definite link to Hoover above all because in 1946, J. Edgar Hoover opened the X-Files. What he did was to start making a note of unsolved files, calling them the U-Files, and some of these were featured in the X-Files TV series, though some of them, believe it or not, were actually rejected by the series because they were too weird for anyone to believe.
I know, you are clamouring, what was the original U-file? Well, after much really exciting research, that concerned a wild animal that had gone rogue and started attacking humans. The saga ended when the park rangers followed the animal to a cabin, shot it as it went in, and when they followed they found a man with gunshot wounds inside the cabin, not an animal.
And this did appear as an episode within the first season of the X Files series.
This week's Cards of the Day...
Our theme for this week might just have been mentioned before, but it is a fun one, and it does not take place until Saturday, May the Fourth, so lots of time to get ready for it and plan what you are doing. Anyone guessed yet? The answer is what follows that date, as in "May the Fourth Be With You".
And if you are not a Star Wars Fan, this is a play on words of the Star Wars slogan and greeting "May the Force be With You".
There are many ways to celebrate; some really keen fans go places and dress up as their favourite characters, and many businesses post related adverts. Theme parks, especially those owned by Disney, who now owns Lucasfilm (and paid four billion dollars for it in 2012), also have events and sometimes introduce special merchandise for just that one day. Which is a pretty good way to guarantee attendance....
Saturday, 27th April 2024
We started our celebrations with this card, and the clue word was the player`s surname, Lucas - which is where it all started, for Lucasfilm was not just a company, it was a person, George Lucas, (no relation to Tom, showing here, though). And he actually only made Star Wars because he was unable to buy the rights to remake Flash Gordon. In hindsight this was a good thing, because it forced him to do something totally original and bring in other genres, a touch of the cowboy especially in some of the costumes, and of the samurai, but with a light sabre instead of a sword.
Boys Friend was a magazine, first published in 1895, by Amalgamated Press. Strange, then, that it never appeared under the listings for Amalgamated Press in our original British Trade Index, or our updated volume, being listed only under B for Boys Friend.
This card sent me on a wonderful journey, during which I learned an awful lot about the magazine, and, thrillingly, found this very card, shown on the actual issue of a 1923 Boys Friend Magazine. But more about that later !
Our original British Trade Index tells us that they first issued cards in December 1911 - twelve of them, three each of "Famous Boxers Series", "Famous Flags Series", "Famous Footballers Series" and Famous Regiments Series". They were issued in strips of four cards, one from each of the sets, so at the end of the three weeks (December 2nd - 16th) you had all four sets complete in strips and ready to cut down to singles.
However after these volumes were published we discovered there were three larger "Football Supplements" which were issued in 1908 and 1909. These measure 275 x 205 m/m and are in brown, all of which suggests they were plates rather than cards, and could possibly have been printed in the magazine, these being extracted as pin-ups. The three known are Aston Villa, Newcastle United, and Wolverhampton Wanderers.
Then cards seem to have been forgotten, and did not restart until May 1922, with the first of what would become a weekly black and white glossy photographic card from a series called "Rising Boxing Stars" Series. It was teased on the top line of the magazine for the 29th of April 1922, as "Real Boxing Photo of George Cook FREE in Next Monday`s Issue". The card arrived the following week and was also shown on the front cover, that being for the 6th of May 1922. This was quite a long running series, right until the 12th of August 1922, and the card for that week was shown on all the covers. You can see them by working down the list at Friardale.co.uk/BoysFriend - clicking on the magazine enlarges it and clicking again once there makes it still bigger.
That was the last card for a while, and it was not until the 18th of November 1922 that a new set was issued, of footballers. This was again teased the week before and then when there was a card in the magazine there was also a picture of the footballers on the front cover, as you can see by revisiting the Friardale/BoysFriend link above. However this is where it gets a bit confusing, as there were two sets of footballers and both hand-coloured.
These November 1922 ones were head and shoulder portraits, and there were two players per card, which is slightly different to the magazine cover which shows them separated.
Our set was not teased the week prior, it just started up on the 3rd of March 1923, with the very card we show here of Tom Lucas on the cover. This is still hand coloured, but a different style, and the card shows just one footballer, half length. However some collectors feel that the two sets were meant to be together, or even series one and series two, and they are indeed catalogued together in our original British Trade Index, as :
FOOTBALLERS (A). Sm. 70 x 44. Black hand-coloured photos. Unnd. ... BPJ-2
1. Half length studies. Series of 4, dated 3.3.23 to 24.3.23.
2. Head and shoulder studies, two players on each card. Series of 5, dated 18.11.22 to 16.12.22
They are, however, separated in our updated British Trade Index, into BOY-300 - the doubles - and BOY-310 - our half lengths, the entry for which reads :
FOOTBALLERS (A). 70 x 44. Black, hand-coloured photos. Unnd. (4). Half length studies. Dated 3.3.23 to 24.3.23.
There were no more cards issued, though our original British Trade Index part IV tells of seven booklets that were included with magazines dated the 13th of December 1924 to the 24th January 1925. These are not mentioned in the updated British Trade Index, where non cards were often absent, for space reasons. Some, but not all of these, are on the covers of the magazines scanned in at Friardale, the booklets shown being "Book of Boxing" (3rd January 1925), "Book of Stamps of the British Empire" (17th January 1925), and "Detective Book" (24th January 1925).
The final edition of Boys Friend was on December 31st 1927, after which it was merged with "The Triumph".
Sunday, 28th April 2024
The link between Star Wars and E.T. is not, as some of you might have thought, anything to do with George Lucas, for E.T. was directed, and thought up, by Steven Spielberg. However they did collaborate on another series, starring Harrison Ford (a Star Wars star) as Indiana Jones, on which note you may be intrigued to learn that Mr. Ford appears in this E.T. set, or his arm does, anyway, on card 33, "Trouble for Elliott". This is a scene you will not have seen in the film, because though he was cast as the school teacher, and filmed the scenes, they were cut from the film. There is another link here too, because his wife at the time was the screenwriter of E.T.
If that were not enough, there is a further connection between Star Wars and E.T., because if you know what you are looking for you can find Yoda, a Star Wars character, in E.T., and members of E.T.`s species in Star Wars. You can read more about this crafty collaboration courtesy of one of my favourite websites Collider/Connection - and though some mornings I could do without them sending me several "thought you might like to see this" emails all at once, on most mornings they cheer me up no end.
This set was issued in Canada, hence the bi-lingual wording. And at this time the cards were still packaged with gum, so they are true trade cards. In fact for your 25 cents each packet gave you ten cards, a sticker, and the one stick of gum, so quite a good deal.
You can also find these same cards, but issued by Topps, and you can easily tell them apart because of the fact that though the picture and frame is the same, these Canadian versions have two lines of text, in French and in English apart from some where the text is only the name of the character, and so it is the same in French and English. On the back, again, the Canadian cards have the text in both these languages.
I will eventually add this card in that version, so you can see it more easily.
Monday, 29th April 2024
This card refers to the fact that a lot of the original and later Star Wars films were shot in Tunisia.
In fact the Tunisian town of Tataouine, where many of the film crews were based, is immortalised in the Star Wars empire - as not only the planet Tatooine, but also its very make up, of underground dwellings dug out of the rock by the native Berbers, was used as the design for housing in Luke Skywalker`s adopted home with his step-uncle and aunt, though he believed them to be blood relatives.
Today Tunisia is still a popular site for filming, and it also uses its Star Wars fame in publicity, attracting tourists. You can see some of the places that are so strongly connected at the Smithsonian Institute/RealStarWars.
For a long time I was unable to find much out about this company, but then I worked the chemical link and discovered that they were founded in 1917, and that they were listed as Chemical Producers. The type of chemical was very elusive indeed, but I presumed that it must have been something not too dangerous and corrosive, because the very nature of cards is that they were issued to encourage the general public to buy more of the product - and the general public would not have bought huge quantities of noxious substances.
So after another hunt I can report it was nothing of the kind, simply shoe polish. Though the same black lion - or, in French, Lion Noir - symbol was also used on their metal polish tins. Obviously they ran their business like Erdal, with all kinds of polish coming from the same stable.
I must say here big thanks to the reader who put me on the right track by sending me a link to a tin on sale on eBay, which I will not link to as it will quickly disappear after the sale is over. The tin uses the same crouching lion as on the bottom of the reverse of this card. In fact, if you look closer at the logo what the lion has at his paws is tins of the stuff, and with his right hand he is removing one of the lids. Clever lion, then, because I make an awful mess when I try to open shoe polish with both my hands.
The same lion remained until the 1940s, at least, and the company was still in business into the late 1950s, but their lion emblem had become much simplified at that time, and was now just a lion, walking towards the right.
Tuesday, 30th April 2024
After our original card of the day for the week, here we actually have a card of George Lucas adjusting of a character called Greedo.
In total there are fifty-five stickers in this, the original Topps Star Wars set. They can be confusing to new collectors, not only because you can get them with either one or two asterisks on the front (and nobody seems to know why), but because they come in very different styles that seem to have no bearing on each other :
Stickers 1 to 11 form the first group, and they were enclosed in Series One packets, one sticker in each, along with a stick of bubble gum, and some of the blue bordered cards that were numbered from 1 to 66. Stickers 1 to 10 have a head and shoulders portrait of one of the stars, though curiously sticker 5 is titled "See-Threepio" rather than C-3P0 and sticker 6 is "Artoo-Detoo" not R2-D2. All these stickers have a thick coloured line separating them from a dark background with stars and planets - though card 3, of Han Solo, has only two small stars on the background. The coloured line follows the outline of the person or character shown, and in the middle of this is a thin white line where the sticker can be lifted up and extracted. Stickers 1 to 4 have a green outline, 5 to 7 are reddish orange, and 8 to 10 are yellowy orange. Sticker 11 alone is totally different though, being a square picture of a battle in outer space, with rounded corners, and the yellow outline follows this shape. In addition the outside of the border is plain black. Even more excitingly, it is the first action scene from the movie, rather than a portrait of a character.
Stickers 12 to 22 were included in the Series Two packets, again one sticker per pack, inserted with a selection of the red bordered cards that were numbered 67 to 132. Strangely, after the action scene that closed the last batch, stickers 12 to 16 return to the original style of being portraits, and also with the thick coloured line separating them from a dark background with stars and planets - though the line on these stickers is all in red, matching that used on the cards. However it must be noted that numbers 12 (Han and Chewbacca) and 14 (A Tusken Raider) are waist length portraits, not head and shoulders - and that sticker 15 again repeats the "See-Threepio" error spelling. Stickers 17 to 22 then follow the same style as that errant number 11, having a square, red, picture frame with rounded corners and a scene inside it, and outside the frame being just a plain black background, with no planets or stars. However the first and last two alone are action scenes - the middle two show portraits, sticker 19 being of Chewbacca, and sticker 20 being of R2-D2 and C-3PO
The rest of the stickers have an entirely different look, being framed like a clip of film, in different colours.
Stickers 23 to 33 had black film cell borders, and they were issued in the Series Three packets, with a selection of the yellow bordered cards numbered 133 to 198, one sticker, and a stick of bubble gum
Stickers 34 to 44 had red film cell borders, and they were issued in the Series Four packets, with a selection of the green bordered cards numbered 199 to 264, one sticker, and a stick of bubble gum
Stickers 45 to 55 had orange film cell borders, matching the orange bordered cards numbered 265 to 330 that formed Series Five. The packets contained a selection of cards, one sticker, and a stick of bubble gum. This group was advertised on the box as having "New Cantina Scenes", but more of a selling point ought to have been that it contained actual scenes of the filming. Our sticker was quite a prize, being George Lucas, though he was not named on the card. He also appears on sticker 55 with some diners at the Cantina. but there are also scenes of technicians with C-3P0, and Chewbacca in the make up department.
Sadly none of these stickers have text on the reverse, and in time it may even be forgotten that they show Star Wars at all. I realise the back was but a carrier for the sticker, to be discarded once the picture was affixed elsewhere, but it does seem a shame that they were not utilised to bring us more information.
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Wednesday, 1st May 2024
Here we have a card from the first set of Star Wars cards to be issued by Topps, in June 1977. They are now known as series one, but the cards do not actually say this, for if the film had met with little success there could never have been a set two at all. However, we all know that this was just the start of a global phenomenon.
Another fun fact was that at the time of release, this film was just called Star Wars. It was only later that it gained extra bits. making it "Episode IV", and giving it a title "A New Hope".
The cards in the first batch all had blue borders with tiny white moons and stars and planets dotted about. They came with two types of backs, either text, or a section of one of two larger pictures which would reveal an image when you had collected them all. One of these pictures showed a real picture of Luke Skywalker, Obi-Wan Kenobi and Han Solo in the cockpit of The Millennium Falcon spacecraft. The other was an art drawn poster, which was converted and slightly altered from the original especially for the cards. Topps fans, and readers of this newsletter, will be thrilled to hear that the artist who did that redrawing was none other than Augie Napoli, who we met in regards to Topps` "Monster Initials".
As to why we chose this card, well, it so aptly fits our theme, don`t you think...? And, just to save you hunting this reverse section is the top left hand corner of the artist-drawn poster.
I have discovered that this set of cards does actually appear in our vintage British Trade Index part III - and under Topps, though the entry reads : "Star Wars - See Anonymous Set ZG10-6-11 in III"
It may not sound it, but that code leads you to the back of the same book, where the set is described as :
11. Star Wars. 88 x 65. Front per Fig. ZG10-6-11, inscribed "1977 20th Century Fox Film Corp ..." Back with sectional picture or with text and illustration at base.
1. Blue borders. Numbered 1 to 66. (66)
2. Red borders. Numbered 1.A to 66.A (66)
That is where it leaves off, but this fails to mention the stickers which we covered yesterday, and there were also later sets in this series.
Series Three had yellow bordered cards numbered 133 to 198 - and black bordered stickers)
Series Four had green bordered cards numbered 199 to 264, though the stickers for these had red borders - however it is easy to tell them apart from the second series stickers because series three, four and five had stickers with borders that looked like film cells,
Series Five had orange bordered cards numbered 265 to 330 - and orange bordered stickers)
Thursday, 2nd May 2024
No, this is not a deliberate mistake. This may look in every way like the card we featured yesterday, from the first set of Star Wars cards to be issued by Topps, in June 1977. But it is not. The clue, if you are a Star Wars Fan, is that this character, Rey, was not in the original film. Keen card collectors will also spot that the spaceship on the reverse of this card is different to that on the original set. I will try to get a copy of that uploaded, but the rest of this week, and the newsletter, may - hopefully - be done amidst extreme chaos.
This card was issued in 2017, as almost a teaser for the film "Star Wars : Episode VIII - The Last Jedi". Whilst not part of the original trilogy, it did star two of the original cast, Mark Hamill (Luke Skywalker) and Carrie Fisher (Princess Leia Organa). There is also a very sad reason why this film is so special to the Star Wars family, because in 2016 Carrie Fisher had died. It was not the last film that she was in though, because some previously unused footage of her was used to allow her to appear in Star Wars : Episode IX - The Rise of Skywalker, released in 2019.
Rey, showing on our card, first appears in the Star Wars universe in Episode VII, released in 2015. She started her life as a scavenger, as she is shown here, finding useful things for her family to sell on. This turned out to be a similar story to that of Luke Skywalker, because she had actually been placed with them to hide her and keep her safe. In fact she was the daughter of Emperor Palpatine, the master of deadly Darth Vader - who was Luke Skywalker`s father. However when the New Republic faced its end she joined the rebels, and found that she felt The Force within her. That was how she connected with Luke Skywalker, now a Jedi Master. She also found herself dangerously attracted to the warrior Kylo Ren, who was also Han Solo`s son with Princess Leia. Eventually, once Luke Skywalker had sacrificed of himself to save the Resistance, Rey steps up and becomes the Last Jedi, apprenticing herself to General Leia Organa.
Friday, 3rd May 2024
This is exactly the same set as we featured on Wednesday, but its Canadian Cousin, and it also hearks back to the card we showed of E.T. on Sunday because the cards, and the wrappers, in today`s set, were bi-lingual, French and English.
This was slightly differently sorted out than our set, though the first was still distributed as a first series, numbered 1 to 66, with white starred blue borders, and eleven stickers. They also repeated the curious titling of using "See-Threepio" rather than C-3P0 and "Artoo-Detoo" not R2-D2.
Now the O-Pee-Chee second series, whilst still having the red borders like the UK version, and eleven stickers, the numbering here continued, from 67 to 132 - ours, on the other hand, had been numbered 1.A to 66.A.
Then there was a third Canadian series, with orange borders, numbered 133 to 264, and twenty two stickers. This seems to combine our sets three and four, which ran from 133 to 198 and 199 to 264. But I have not checked them yet. Cards 265 to 330, which formed our fifth set, seem not to have been issued in the O-Pee-Chee version
The only other original first film Star Wars set by O-Pee-Chee was for the third film, The Return of the Jedi, in 1983. These again had red borders, and were numbered from 1 to 132.
And so, swiftly, I retreat into the darkness.
I am amazed, and delighted, that I have managed to find something for every day since I started to do this mad idea of a weekly newsletter, and without repeating (though I may well find out I have done this, on certain occasions, when I start working through the newsletters again.)
I have found it to be great fun, and many of the dates I discovered have been added to my diary. Perhaps you have done that too? If not, then tell us, please, of dates that are in your diary, that you celebrate every year, and that we can feature in the future - of things that I do not know are even there, because they are from spheres in which I have no contact.
I await to hear from you, of them....