Classification Types
Before breaking down the classification, we need to understand that the entire system will be based on the actors' and actresses' name that is on the card. This could have been done with baseball cards, but historically there has been a longer (and admittedly, more appropriate) effort to determine sets based on years. There has not been a similar, significant effort in doing so with movie cards, so names make the most sense since that appears on all the cards regardless of year (platypus warning, almost all). "Charles Chaplin in..." or "Sincerely, Charlie Chaplin" will be defined and appear as Chaplin, Charles (or Charlie, or oddly, Charley), based on how the name appears on the card. In the case where there are multiple names listed, I use the first listed last name followed by the 2nd, 3rd, etc listed name. So "Mary Astor and George Neville in..." would be listed as Astor/Neville, Mary/George. The names of usually listed as only a single name (Liberace, Farina, Nazimova, etc) will generally be listed under the last name since this is used much more for searching and filtering.
I have broken down the highest level into 5 major types of cards. From there I have tried to create subcategories based on their similar traits.
- Type 1 - Name with Film Title
- BoX - Name and Film Title appear within a box
- 1-X-H (Hand Printed Text)
- 1-X-T-B (Typed Text with White Border)
- 1-X-T-O (Typed Text with No Border)
- NO Box - Name and Film Title do not appear within a box
- "MADE IN U.S.A." and "EX. SUP. Co., CHGO"
- 1-O-E-NC-FC (EX line appears over MADE line in bottom right , NAME in Caps , FILM in Caps)
- 1-O-E-NM-FC (EX line appears over "MADE" line in bottom right , NAME in Mixed case , FILM in Caps)
- 1-O-E-NM-FM (EX line appears over "MADE" line in bottom right , NAME in Mixed case , FILM in Mixed case)
- 1-O-M-NC-FC (MADE line appears over EX line in bottom right , NAME in Caps , FILM in Caps)
- NO "MADE IN U.S.A." or "EX. SUP. Co., CHGO"
- 1-O-O-NC-FC (NAME in Caps , FILM in Caps)
- 1-O-O-NS-FP-B (Name appears as a Script or Signature , Film title is hand P , White Border around picture)
- 1-O-O-NS-FP-O (Name appears as a Script or Signature , Film title is hand P , NO White Border around picture)
- 1-V (Bold RUDOLPH VALENTINO appears on each card)
- "MADE IN U.S.A." and "EX. SUP. Co., CHGO"
- BoX - Name and Film Title appear within a box
- Type 2 - Name Only (No Film Title, No Salutation)
- MADE/Made
- 2-M-C (MADE appears in all Caps on bottom Left or Right)
- 2-M-M-S (Made appears in Mixed case on bottom right with a Slanted "M")
- PRINTED/Printed
- 2-P-C (PRINTED appears in all Caps - name appears as a script in bottom left)
- 2-P-M (Printed appears in Mixed case - name appears as a signature)
- NO MADE/Made or PRINTED/Printed
- 2-O-B (White Border around picture - name appears as a signature)
- 2-O-O (NO Border around picture - name appears as a signature)
- 2-T-E (Name Typed , "EX. SUP. Co., CHGO" appears in bottom right over "MADE IN U.S.A." - No 'Made' or 'Printed')
- MADE/Made
- Type 3 - Name with Salutation (No Film Title)
- MADE/Made
- 3-M-C-L (MADE appears in all Caps on bottom Left)
- 3-M-C-R (MADE appears in all Caps on bottom Right - with or without a line in front of MADE)
- 3-M-M-S (Made appears in Mixed case on bottom right only with a Slanted "M")
- 3-M-M-V (Made appears in Mixed case on bottom right only with a Vertical "M)" - all with line next to Made)
- PRINTED/Printed
- 3-P-M (Printed appears on right side only in Mixed case - name appears as a signature)
- No MADE/Made or PRINTED/Printed
- 3-O (NO 'Made' or 'Printed')
- MADE/Made
- Type 4 - 4-in-1 Cards
- TBD (not enough cards to categorize)
- Type 5 - White Backs (no subcategory needed for this one)
A couple of additional items.
Some of the Types come in various colors, with and without coupons, with postcard or plain backs, an in various text sizes within the defined types. I will attempt to note the existence of these variations on their respective pages along with identifying individual cards in the checklists.
The cards that contained MADE/Made had quite a number of text sizes and styles, but I decided (for now) not to break those down into specific 'sub-types' as it is difficult to determine and present the actual size of the text. There is also a case of the 3-M-C-R cards, which consist of a group 12.5-13 mm size/style text that differs slightly from those of the 13-13.5 mm in size/style. I have grouped these all as "13 mm" cards. In the future and with more cards in hand, I might expand the notation to include 3-M-C-R-x where x would be the text length in mm (for example, 3-M-C-R-13, 3-M-C-R-15, etc). But this might be the kind of minutia that would interest only the most hard-core collectors.
I hope this website will be of some use to you and any feedback would be greatly appreciated.