As with other Hollywood and non-Hollywood stars, Louise Brooks’ image could be found on a number of commercial products. In the 1920s and 1930s, these products included printed items such as postcards, trading cards, and what are colloquially known as cigarette cards. The most familiar, of course, are postcards. They require a postage stamp to be sent through the mail, typically had an image on the front and space for a message on the back, and measure approximately 4 x 6 inches (or 10.2 x 15.2 cm). Trading or product cards were, as a rule, smaller in size, and were usually inserted into the packaging of a variety of items such as bread, cookies, candy (chocolate and gum), sugar, flour, and tobacco. The cards known as cigarette cards are considered a subset of trading cards, but differ in that they were inserted into just one type of product, namely packs of cigarettes.
Essentially, trading cards were novelty items inserted into product packaging as an inducement to purchase… as in buy our product and “collect them all”. Though such cards were considered disposable and sometimes poorly printed, others were finely printed, attractive, and collected by film buffs or fans of the actor or actress they depicted. Some card publishers, whose series ran into the dozens or hundreds, even issued albums as a further inducement to collectors. Along with cards, albums also survive.
This page on the Louise Brooks Society website gathers a selection of vintage cards from Germany.The first card shown was issued in 1933, and has a photo credit to Pabst-Film. The card is no. 68 in series 2 from Kosmos-Film-Photos, which were packaged along with Kosmos Akka Zigaretten, a cigarette brand based in Dresden. Another small square card depicting Brooks in the Hänsom Filmbilder series was issued by Jasmatzi cigarettes, another Dresden based company.
Most, but not all, of these cards shown below were issue by Ross Verlag, a prolific publisher of high quality postcards and cigarette cards. Most all of the Ross film star cards were photographic images printed in sepia monotone, though a small number were issued with color tinting which was applied by hand after the monotone cards were printed. Additionally, most all of the cards printed by Ross state a three or four digit series number on the front, as well as “Ross” or “Ross Verlag” in the lower left corner and “Reproduction verboten” in the lower right corner. Most of the Brooks’ cards also carry the Paramount studio logo in the lower right of the photograph. One rare Brooks card, Ross #4951/1, was issued with a printed signature: not only does this signature not look like Brooks’ actual autograph, but it is an exact match with another example of the same card, suggesting.the cards were not actually signed by the actress.
Like Ross postcards, Ross cigarette cards were sometimes rebranded and distributed around Europe. Card number 193 is part of the British De Beukelaer set, which was packaged with cookies. Card no. 5 is part of the Belgian De Beukelaer set, which was also packaged with cookies. Card no. 8 is from a Du Zu Fa (Duisburger Zuckerwaren-Fabrik) set dating to 1931 which was packaged with candy produced in Duisburg, Germany. Ross cards were not only distributed but also used across Europe. For example, the colored postcard marked #3807/1 was intended for a “foreign” — namely English — market. It is so marked. Additionally, vintage postcards bearing vintage postage stamps from Italy and The Netherlands have been offered for sale on sites like eBay, showing they were used across the continent. For more about the Ross Verlag cards, be sure and explore the Ross Postcards website.
If you know additional information about any of these cards, or possess other cards and would like to share a scan of your vintage treasure, please CONTACT the Louise Brooks Society. Thanks so much for your interest.
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| cigarette card, Germany Kosmos-Film-Photos #68 |
cigarette card, Germany Hansom Filmbilder #52 |
cigarette card, Germany A. Batschari #54 |
product card, Germany Duisburger Zuckerwaren-Fabrik #8 |
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| cigarette card, Germany Ross #313 (colored) |
cigarette card, Germany Ross #731 (colored) |
cigarette card, Germany / Belgium Ross #5 (De Beukelaer) |
cigarette card, Germany / England Ross #193 (De Beukelaer) |
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| cigarette card, Germany Ross |
postcard, Germany Ross #1879/1 |
postcard, Germany Ross #3207/1 |
postcard, Germany Ross #3517/1 |
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| postcard, Germany Ross #3807/1 |
postcard, Germany Ross #3807/1 (colored) marked “Foreign” |
postcard, Germany Ross #3978/1 from Beggars of Life |
postcard, Germany Ross #3978/2 from The Canary Murder Case |
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| postcard, Germany Ross #3978/2 (autographed) |
postcard, Germany Ross #4096/1 |
postcard, Germany |
postcard, Germany Ross #4096/2 |
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| postcard, Germany Ross #4252/1 photo credit: Alex Binder, Berlin |
postcard, Germany Ross #4340/1 |
postcard, Germany Ross #4421/1 photo credit: Atelier Binder, Berlin |
postcard, Germany Ross #4453/1 photo credit: Manuel Freres, Paris |
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| postcard, Germany Ross 4608/1 |
postcard, Germany Ross 4608/1 (colored) |
postcard, Germany Ross 4799/1 |
postcard, Germany Ross 4799/1 (colored) |
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| postcard, Germany Ross #4951/1 |
postcard, Germany Ross #4951/1 (colored) |
postcard, Germany Ross #4951/1 (colored) |
postcard, Germany Ross #4951/1 (printed signature) |
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| postcard, Germany Ross #4954/2 photo credit: Lothar Wolff, Berlin |
postcard, Germany Ross #5250/1 |
postcard, Germany Ross #5250/1 (colored) |