Early Playing Card Movie Advertisements

[tobyedwards]

In the "And now for something completely different" department, I thought I would share a few early movie advertisements that used playing cards to promote them.
The first two photos show the front and back of a two card folder that uses the two red queens to promote a couple of 1920 shows. The Queen of Hearts shows Madge Kennedy appearing in a stage play called "Cornered". The accompanying Queen of Diamonds shows Mitzi (Hajos) appearing in a musical romance called "Lady Billy".
The third photo shows the front and back of a Jack of Spades used to advertise the 1922 silent comedy film "Dr. Jack" starring Harold Lloyd.
The fourth photo shows the front and back of a King of Hearts used to advertise the 1925 silent romantic comedy film "The King on Main Street" starring Adolphe Menjou.
The fifth photo shows only the back of a standard Goodall style King of Hearts (Le Roi de couers) used to advertise the French version of the 1932 American movie "No Man of Her Own" starring Clark Gable.
These are just a few examples of how playing cards could be cleverly used by imaginative promoters to get the public interested in seeing their shows. It may also have been no coincidence that Bridge was quite popular during this particular time period.

[Don Boyer]

Those are pretty awesome!  What amazes me is that some of those ads aren't simply for the movie presented, but they're for the movie being presented at a specific THEATER, as well - these days, you'd never see that kind of thing.  At most, you'd find a "tie-in" product of playing cards with images from the movie, usually sold around the time of the film's release, but that's not so much intended as advertising as it is merchandising.

Thanks for giving us a peek at them!