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“Mack Sennett – Strollers and Strip Cards” By Patrick Prickett
In 1922, Tobacco Products Corp. produced a series of cards featuring Mack Sennett girls1 for Strollers cigarettes. These cards measure 1 3/8" x 2 1/2" and are catalogued in the Net54 Nonsports gallery (http://www1.coe.neu.edu/~dan/T85/go-T85-2C.html) and on Troy Kirk’s moviecard.com site (http://www.moviecard.com/zamerican/assorted/strollers-t85.html). According to moviecard.com, the American Card Catalog number for this set is T85 “although it can be broken into 3 to 5 groups of cards and was probably issued in different phases over a couple of years in the early 1920s, with cards numbered 201-220 picturing Mack Sennett girls.” The Net54 site identifies these 20 cards numbered 201-220 as T85- 2c Strollers cards. Both websites identify the T85-2c set as American cards, although moviecards.com also says “these appear to have the same numbers as the Canadian Stroller cards issued by Tobacco Products Corp.” This article will attempt to more fully document this set, its variations, and potentially related sets.
Strollers Cigarette Cards
The photos below illustrate that there are at least four distinct types of T85-2c Strollers cigarettes cards2:
Each of these T85-2c cards has a glossy picture of a Mack Sennett girl on front and a white back, but each back is distinctly different. One variation is entirely blank backed, while the other three have the exact same text at the top of the card, but identify three different Tobacco Products Corporation locations at the bottom: 1767 Broadway, New York; 38 Cathcart, Montreal; and series 4, Hamilton, Ontario. The paper on this last variation is noticeably thinner than the other three variations. Presently, it is unknown if all 20 cards exist in all four variations, but evidence exists that all 20 were produced in the 1767 Broadway, New York variation. A checklist of the known cards is presented at the end of this article.
1 Mack Sennett was an early Hollywood movie director who was famous for developing slapstick comedy in his films. He initially founded and produced films for Keystone Studios before starting his own Mack Sennett Comedies Corporation in 1917. He was also famous for producing short films featuring women in bathing attire, and the women became known as Sennett Bathing Beauties. 2 The T85-2c Strollers cigarettes cards are commonly believed to have been printed with the T85-2b Strollers Cigarettes cards, which are a set of 100 movie star cards ending with a “starring in …” line at the bottom of the card. All of the non-blank backed T85-2b and T85-2c cards have text that reads “This is one of a series of 120 pictures”, which suggests that the set is complete with the 100 known T85-2b and 20 known T85-2c cards.
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Strollers Cigarette Cards Extension
While not noted on moviecard.com or in the Net54 Nonsports gallery, there is evidence to suggest that there was an extension of the T85-2c Strollers Cigarettes set at some point. As illustrated in the photographs below, there are Mack Sennett Comedies Strollers Cigarettes cards that have exact matches for two of the back variations (the blank backs and the series 4, Hamilton, Ontario versions) and which appear nearly identical to the T85-2c Mack Sennett cards in all respects:
The known Mack Sennett Comedies cards match the earlier Mack Sennett cards in terms of size and glossiness, and even the paper on the series 4, Hamilton, Ontario variation is noticeably thinner and matches the earlier Mack Sennett series 4, Hamilton, Ontario card.
No complete checklist for the Mack Sennett Comedies Strollers Cigarettes cards is known, but the checklist at the end of this article shows that at least five blank backed Mack Sennett Comedies cards #261, #264, #266, #269 and #272 exist, in addition to the series 4, Hamilton, Ontario #263 card shown above. Based on these cards (and some other cards that will be discussed later in this article), it appears that these Mack Sennett Comedies cards were numbered 261-280. There are no known cards beyond #220 for the 1767 Broadway, New York and 38 Cathcart, Montreal versions, but it is possible they exist and just have not been identified to date.
It should also be noted that the back of the Mack Sennett Comedies Strollers Cigarettes card #263 shown above says “This is one of a series of 120 pictures” - just like the T85-2b and T85-2c Strollers cigarettes cards. If there are 20 cards in the Mack Sennett Comedies Strollers Cigarettes set as speculated, this may imply that there are 140 cards, not 120 in the complete set.
(Strollers?) Strip Cards
Moviecards.com also identifies a set of “Strollers Mack Sennett Strip Cards” which contain strip cards with the exact same picture and card number as the Mack Sennett Strollers Cigarettes T85-2c cards (http://www.moviecard.com/zamerican/stripcards/w-macksennett.html). Interestingly this website notes that the strip card set that contains both Mack Sennett cards (#201-220) and Mack Sennett Comedies strip cards (#266, #270, #271, #275 and #277). The website also states that “Cards numbered 261 and up were not part of the Strollers set,” but as just shown above there does appear to be a Strollers Cigarettes version of these Mack Sennett Comedies cards as well.
The strip card version of the Mack Sennett cards have blank grey backs but come with two additional variations - a sepia front version and a black & white front version:
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There is also at least one variation in the sepia set as seen in the two Mack Sennett strip cards #212 shown above. As you can see, in the left margin of one card there is a number 8 in the border, and in the other version there is no number. There are other known Mack Sennett cards with numbers in the margin (#201, #204 and #216), but the unnumbered version of those cards is not known at this point.
It is unknown if all of the T85-2c Mack Sennett Strollers Cigarettes cards #201-220 were produced in a strip card form for both versions, but the checklist in the appendix shows all known examples. For the sepia versions all but 3 of the T85-2c Mack Sennett Strollers Cigarettes cards have been identified to date, so it seems likely that all 20 cards were originally produced. For the glossy black &white version, only 4 cards have been identified to date.
(Strollers?) Strip card extensions
Similar to the T85-2c Strollers Cigarettes cards, there also is a Mack Sennett Comedies strip card extension to the Mack Sennett strip cards. Like the Mack Sennett strip cards, the strip card version of the Mack Sennett Comedies cards have blank grey backs and come in two variations - a sepia front version and a black & white front version:
Several Mack Sennett Comedies strip cards have with numbers in the borders (specifically cards #277-280), but it is presently unknown if any of these cards has an unnumbered version like the Mack Sennett strip card #212 shown above.
Like the Mack Sennett Comedies Strollers Cigarettes extension, the Mack Sennett Comedies strip cards appear to be numbered #261-280, and known cards from both sets match in terms of the picture and card number. No complete checklist for these cards is known, but the appendix details all known examples. There is at least one known example for a majority of the sepia strip cards and those card numbers are spread across the full number range, so it is very likely that a full set of sepia strip cards were printed
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originally. Only one example of the Mack Sennett Comedies black & white strip cards is known at this time, so it is not possible to determine if all 20 were produced.
The strong similarities between these Mack Sennett and Mack Sennett Comedies cards already suggest that these cards belong together as part of one set, but there is additional evidence in the strip card versions that these cards were part of the same set, as shown in the photos below:
As you can see in these photos, there are two different Mack Sennett strip cards #208 which show that they were printed next to the Mack Sennett Comedies card #269.3
There is also a Mack Sennett Comedies strip card #268 that shows part of another card, but this card cannot be conclusively identified as it could be from a Mack Sennett strip card #206 or #216, or from an unknown Mack Sennett Comedies strip card, or even possibly from another strip cards set altogether:
(Strollers?) Strip Cards with WHITE Backs
Perhaps most surprisingly, there are also Mack Sennett strip cards with white backs instead of grey backs. At first many collectors might assume these are blank backed Strollers Cigarette cards, but the strip cards have sepia fronts and are not glossy like Strollers cigarettes cards:
3 The strip cards were originally produced in 10 card horizontal rows.
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To date, only these two cards have been identified. It is currently unknown if there is a Mack Sennett Comedies version of these sepia front/white backed strip cards. But there is another interesting white back variation – a strip card version with a sepia front and an advertising for American Beauty Malt Extract on back:
Only two cards have ever been identified from this strip card set – but one card comes from the Mack Sennett series and one card comes from the Mack Sennett Comedies series. This too adds evidence that these two sets are actually part of the same set. Other Connections? This concludes the known linked Mack Sennett and Mack Sennett Comedies cards, but as noted in the description for the miscut Mack Sennett Comedies strip card #268 above, it is possible that there are additional strip cards that may have been issued with these two series on the original 10 card strips. The most likely candidate to have appeared with these cards may be a set that Moviecard.com identifies as Unnumbered Mack Sennett Comedies strip cards (http://www.moviecard.com/zamerican/stripcards/w-macksennettnonum.html). Very little is known about this set other than these are sepia strip cards with blank grey backs. Moviecard.com identifies the set as having 2 cards, but as shown below there are at least 8 different cards in the set. As shown below:
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Other than the title of Mack Sennett Comedies on these cards, there is no other evidence to link this set with the ones above, but at least one of the cards (the one at the bottom right) could have possibly been located next to the miscut Mack Sennett Comedies strip card #268 shown above.
In addition, there are three known blank, white backed cards that appear similar to the blank backed Strollers Cigarette cards. The first two shown have no identifying marks, but the third is an unnumbered Mack Sennett copyrighted card. It is unknown if/how these may be related to the Strollers cards.
This article is almost certainly incomplete as few Mack Sennett/ Mack Sennett Comedies cards are ever photographed and brought to sale. If anyone reading this article has additional thoughts to contribute or additional pictures of cards or strips that may help further detail this set, please feel free to email me at the address provided in the footer and I will updated this article. As noted above, Appendix A contains a list of all of these cards that can be confirmed at this point. Appendix B provides a side by side photo gallery checklist by card number.
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Appendix A: Checklist
Strollers Strip Cards
1767
Bro
adw
ay,
NY
add
ress
38 C
athc
art,
Mon
treal
add
ress
serie
s #4,
Ham
ilton
, O
ntar
io a
ddre
ss
Bla
nk w
hite
bac
k (g
loss
y fr
ont
Sepi
a –
Gre
y Ba
ck
B&
W –
Gre
y ba
ck
Am
eric
an B
eaut
y M
alt C
o
Sepi
a –
Whi
te b
ack
201 Unknown Actress X X X 202 Myrtle Lind X X X 203 Marie Prevost X X 204 Jane Allen X X X 205 Phyllis Haver X Photo 206 Marie Prevost Photo X 207 Gladys Atkins X X X X 208 Marie Prevost X X 209 Dolly Beal X X Photo 210 Phyllis Haver Photo X 211 Phyllis Haver X X Photo X 212 Unknown Actress Photo X X 213 Marie Prevost X P X 214 Marie Prevost X X 215 Mildred June X X X 216 Thelma Bates X X P X X 217 Sybye Trevilla Photo X 218 Elsie Warham/Ware X X X X 219 Unknown Actress X X 220 Phyllis Haver X X 261 Unknown Actress X 262 Unknown Actress X 263 Unknown Actress X X 264 Unknown Actress X 265 Unknown Actress 266 Marie Prevost X Photo 267 Unknown Actress 268 Unknown Actress X X 269 Unknown Actress X 270 Phyllis Haver X 271 Mildred June X Photo 272 Unknown Actress 273 Unknown Actress X 274 Unknown Actress X 275 Unknown Actress X 276 Unknown Actress X 277 Marie Prevost X X 278 Unknown Actress X X 279 Unknown Actress X 280 Unknown Actress X X
