Newsletter - 2026-09-19

Welcome to another weekend, and another of our unusual, interim, newsletters, which I have to say I am enjoying working on very much. 

Now last week we spoke fondly of the first set ever to be recorded in a Cartophilic Society reference book, which was Faulkner Ltd`s 1896 untitled set of "Actresses". Now that book, or more correctly, booklet, was issued in 1942, but it took twenty years, exactly, before we published any reference book to trade cards.

That volume was RB.25, and it had the grand title of "Index of British Non-Tobacco Issues up to 1945 (British Trade Index). The section in the brackets quickly became the known title, which is why the three original follow ups were all just called British Trade Index parts two, three, and four. The introduction in the first book, which was never, contrary to popular belief, known as "part one", states that "This is a companion volume to The World Tobacco Issues Index and lists the information on British cards not connected with tobacco."  Furthermore, some lessons had been learned from the tobacco version, as the introduction continues with the following statements "The style and outline is similar to that in Reference Book No.23, except that the listing of subjects known in unnumbered series is incorporates as far as possible with the index entry, rather than in a separate handbook on the lines of Reference Book No.22. [though] There is a Handbook Section commencing on page 191, which covers alike series and certain long and rather complicated unnumbered series"

ABC Cinemas FilmStars 1935

And as for the first set in this book, that is described as follows:

                                          A.B.C. (Monogram)
Associated British Cinemas. Cards issued 1935-36. Set ABC-1 is found with names of cinemas rubber-stamped on back, or with sticker attached showing programme. 

  • FILM STARS (A). Lg. 79 x 63. Unnd. (14 known) ... ABC-1

         1. Jane Baxter
         2. Wallace Beery
         3 James Cagney
         4. June Clyde
         5. Irene Dunne
         6. Douglas Fairbanks, Junr.
         7. Lilian Harvey
         8. Fritz Kortner
         9. Matheson Lang
       10. Paul Muni
       11. "Buddy" Rogers
       12. Athene Seyler
       13. Richard Tauber
       14. Shirley Temple

As you can see from our picture, these are not the ones you are probably thinking, given away to be exchanged for badges etc. These cards are earlier, and, apart from Shirley Temple, were aimed at a more adult age group than the Saturday Morning Pictures brigade - and they were, because the club known as "The A.BC. Minors" only began in the 1940s. Unfortunately, the arrival of television led to their demise, as even though the entry fees were heavily discounted, it was easier, and cheaper, to let your children stay at home and watch the small screen 

Sadly, this issuer was pushed back in the alphabetical order as more and more trade sets came along, or were discovered from the past, so much so that by the time of our updated British Trade Index, published in 2006, they are shunted to page eight, behind the A.1 Biscuit Co of London, A-1 Dairies :Ltd, A-1 Dollisdale, and even, rather questionably to my way of thinking, A. & B.C. Gum, which I would personally have put behind ours.

And even in the new listing of the A.B.C. sets ours is no longer first beneath the issuer`s name, but tenth, listed as : 

                                          A.B.C. (Monogram)
Associated British Cinemas. Issued 1935-62. 66-67 x 36-37 unless stated. Cards found with backs (a) rubber-stamped, name of cinema (b) with sticker showing programme. See HA-43 ... AAC-180

The two "new" cards, duly listed in the companion to that updated Trade Index, the updated Handbook, were W.C. Fields - and - Dick Powell. But that completely ruins the numbering in the original volume, only leaving the first six cards as is and then having to slot these two in and change all the rest. Which is why in the case of unnumbered cards its always a much better bet to use the buttons and not to assign them false numbers. 

A.B.C., of course. actually stood for Associated British Cinemas, and it was founded in 1927. It had a good long run, lasting until it was bought out by EMI in 1969. That was not the last time the name was used though, because Metro Goldwyn Mayer kept the trademark going until 1995, in which year M.G.M. were bought out by Virgin. Then, somehow, it was used by the Odeon cinema chain, and it must have been above board for them to do so as they kept using it, right until 2002. 

As for our chosen star, she was born Helene Lilian Muriel Pape on the 19th of January 1906, at no.13, Weston Park Crouch End, London N.8. Her father was German, he was a businessman and he moved the family back to Magdeburg when she was still a child, and later enrolling her at the dance and voice school of the Berlin Opera. As for the "Harvey", that she took on as her stage name that is said to be her grandmother's maiden name, which may explain how she came to be born in Crouch End. 

It is recorded that she was offered her first film part after being spotted performing as a dancer, in an un-named revue, in Vienna, in 1924. However this may not be the case as we know that in late January 1925 she appeared in a film called  "Die Motorbraut - Liebe, Leid und Sport", or, in English, "the motorist bride - love, suffering and sport". She was not on the screen very long though, and not in the way you may expect, for she actually drove the car during the risky mountain scenes instead of the named actress Lee Perry. Now I`m not sure how she got that gig, but it seems unlikely that she would have done so through her dancing ability. In any event, the director/producer, Richard Eichberg, was rather impressed with our lady`s driving, or maybe just her, and he signed her up. 

Her next film, which is the one which mentions the revue, was "Der Fluch", or the curse, a strange movie set amidst a Jewish settlement where her desire for freedom shocks her family and she eventually commits suicide by drowning, a fate which has loomed heavily in the family story, hence the title. That film was released at the end of February, 1925, but it was nothing to do with Richard Eichberg, so there is a theory that it began filming first but was released later, and that maybe she took the stunt gig in order to release some of the doom and gloom of this. Maybe that was even why it was slow to film. 

Anyway for the rest of the year she was re-united with Richard Eichberg, and together they made three movies, "Leidenschaft", or passion, released in April 1925, "Liebe und Trompetenblasen", or love and trumpet blowing, in August 1925, and "Die Kleine vom Bummel", or the girl on the road, in December 1925. She remained with Richard Eisenberg until the end of 1928, and their final film together was "Du Sollst Nicht Stehlen", more usually known as the love commandment, or, literally, thou shalt not steal. 

By that time she had picked up a screen partner, Willy Fritsch, with whom she made eleven movies. However there was no relationship in real life between the two, only friends. She also picked up an admirer, the composer for several of her films, Charles Louis Eugene Koechlin, who already had a wife and five children, plus a live in partner. Lilian Harvey was flattered by his attention, but tried to gently discourage him, to no avail.  

After that she made a curious picture, a co-production between Germany and England, made by Blattner Film and distributed by Warner Brothers. That was released first in Germany, on the 17th of December, but not released in the UK until March 1929. It was silent, save music, but was later re-released as a sound version. 

In 1931 she returned to Germany and starred in "Der Kongress Tanzt" or congress dances, a lavish production with sound, and available in three languages. That really made her into a true overseas star, and she was even invited to film in Hollywood, though those films were not very successful. She also made a bad decision, in 1934, when she pulled out of playing the lead in George White`s Scandals, being replaced by a girl called Alice Faye, who had no film experience at all but knew the songs as she had played the part in its theatrical incarnation, on Broadway. 

After that Lilian Harvey returned to Germany, another bad decision, for she resumed contact with her former friends, many of whom were Jewish. In 1939, somewhat late, she did leave, and went to France, but without many of her possessions and little money. She made a few movies there, to raise funds, then decided to move on again, to America, where she volunteered as a nurse. She later found out that her German citizenship had been taken away from her, for so called fraternising with the enemy. 

She did not return to Europe until 1947, and only then to France, where she found out that the Germans had taken over her house and damaged it, also taking her possessions and treasures. She did not return to Germany until 1947, for a concert tour.

Eventually she retired to Antibes, down on the French Riviera and bought a hotel. She was briefly married, to a Danish concert manager, from February 1953 until May 1957; and there is a belief that this was caused by her hearing of the death of Richard Eichberg in May, 1952. However, and not long after her marriage, we know that she met a lady called Else Wirth, who looked after her, made her happy, and even managed to get some recompense for the things she had lost in the war. But Lilian Harvey died, of liver failure, on July the 27th, 1968, in her hotel, in Antibes.

To Newsletters Past :

Well we have done a lot better this week, than last and twenty-one more diary cards have been added to the card index. 

The earliest one of these was dated for the 15th of July 2022, and there are now four replacement cards, namely

Monty Kojak playing cards
  • Saturday`s, which is now Gallaher`s "Stars of Screen and Stage", brown back, rather than yet another Carreras "Film Stars"
     
  • Wednesday`s, which is now Monty Gum`s "Kojak" playing cards (showing here) but was once a grumble that I could not find any cards of lollipops, and a blank space.
     
  • Thursday`s, which is now Trumpf`s "Mit Trumpf Durch Alle Welt", but again was formely blank, though I had already written all the text about the USS Constitution, just not found a card to show. 
     
  • Friday`s, which was again sans card, and only the first two lines of text, I obviously meant to go back but never did. Anyway there is now a card, Suchard`s "Enfants Celebres" - Serie 82, and a biography of archaeologist Johann Joachim Winckelmann, born in 1717. 

     
    J Simon Exercices dans pluie

    The next newsletter back was for the 23rd of July, 2022, and it had but one change, this card, by Joseph Simon, a pharmacist, of Paris and Lyon. However you almost certainly know this card in another incarnation, Liebig`s version, coded either Fada F.79 or Sanguinetti S.72. And note the chef, holding a jar, on which the original Liebig label has been removed, and replaced with the two words "Creme Simon". Now we know that the Liebig version was issued in 1875, but we don`t know which came first, because Joseph Simon founded his business much earlier, in 1860.

     

    PCK Oiseaux de Proi

    As for the final indexed newsletter of this week, that was for the 30th of July, 2022, and that had the following changes

    • Saturday`s Browne Bros. Ltd. "History of the Railways" 1st Series (1964), to replace yet another card by Blue Band stamps.
       
    • Tuesday`s Liebig`s "La Plante dans L`Art Decoratif", instead of yet another Allen and Ginter "Flags", of Ireland
       
    • Thursday`s Peter, Cailler, Kohler`s "Oiseaux de Proi" - showing here - instead of yet another Brooke Bond`s "Bird Portraits". 

    As for newsletters past which were published around this week, they are as follows : 

    And if you have any updates, comments, or suggestions for any of these, do please let us know, by emailing webmaster@card-world.co.uk

    To close here are a few dates for your diary :

    Saturday the 19th of September

    • East Anglia - from 8.30 a.m. to 3.30 p.m. - with auction at 11 p.m at Roydon Village Hall, High Road, Roydon, Diss, Norfolk IP22 5RB. Admission Fees :  EACC members free with annual subscription, Visitors pay £3 admission each time.

     Sunday the 20th of September :

    • Hants & Dorset - from 12.30 p.m. until 4.30 p.m. at Fryers Field Pavilion, Bond Avenue, West Moors, Ferndown, Dorset BH22 OLJ. Our meetings offer all manner of ephemera -  cigarette cards, trade cards, football cards, stickers, postcards, and often other related memorabilia, dating from the 1900s (and sometimes earlier) right up to the present day. Something for everyone!  And refreshments are also available. Best of all admission is free to all collectors

    Monday the 21st of September : 

    • London - from 5 p.m, with an auction, of approximately 100 lots, starting at 6 p.m. That`s upstairs at The Carpenters Arms” 12, Seymour Place, Marble Arch, Central London W1E 7NE. We also offer free admission to all collectors, so if you are up in London for the day, or passing by on your way home from work, why not pop in

     

    Thursday the 24th of September : 

    • Nottingham & East Midlands - from 7.30 until 9.30 pm at West Bridgford Social Club, Rectory Road, West Bridgford NG2 6BG. We usually have a defined dealer for each meeting, which is usually drawn from the Club Membership.  If not, all members can bring surplus stock for general viewing and purchase. Nottingham & East Midlands Club members pay annual subscriptions, which gives them free entry to the meeting. Visitors can come in free for a couple of times, but if they wish to attend regularly then we ask that they join the club. 

     

     Sunday the 27th of September : two meetings 

    • Lea Valley - from 9 a.m. until 2.00 p.m. - with auction at 1.00 p.m. That`s at the Village Hall, North Weald High Street, CM16 6DH, and we usually have two or three dealers. Admission fees are £2.00 per person

                             - and - 

    • Reading - at 7.30 pm (for 8 pm start). This is our last evening meeting, as in October, November and December (and February) we move to Sunday afternoons. We meet at Charvil Village Hall, Park Lane, Charvil, Twyford RG10 9TR. This club holds lots of different activities , including talks and quarterly auctions of approximately 70-80 lots, not just of cards, but of all sorts of ephemera. And its free admission to all collectors.

    And that`s all for another week. Thanks for popping by, and do come back next week. Until then we hope you have fun, and hopefully find some good cards on your travels.