Country of Issue: USA (San Francisco)
Year of Issue: 1922
Color/B&W: B&W
Number of Cards in Set: probably 100
Card Size: 1 11/16" x 2 3/4"
Issued as insert with what product:
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Issuing Company: Pull-Rak Country of Issue: USA (San Francisco) Year of Issue: 1922 Color/B&W: B&W Number of Cards in Set: probably 100 Card Size: 1 11/16" x 2 3/4" Issued as insert with what product: |
Notes: Checklist incomplete. Blank-backed.
This set was previously listed as Anon-Film Stars (Thomas Meighan #28). The first card I saw from this set was card #28 Thomas Meighan, so that was the name I gave it. I have now renamed it Pull-Rak Film Stars and Mack Sennett Girls, as a large group of the Mack Sennett Girls cards were found in unopened Pull-Rak envelopes, still attached to the Pull-Rak display.
Pull-Rak was a San Francisco company. The way the Pull-Rak promotion was designed, each retail store would receive a wooden box that held rows of metal rods. Each card was in an envelope with an open front and a hole at the top. The cards were mounted in rows in the wooden drawers with the metal rod through the hole in the top of the envelope. The only way to remove a card was to tear it loose from the rod like a pull tab. They cards were mounted in random order. Click the picture above to see what an original envelope with the card inside looks like still attached to the rod in the box (picture courtesy of Will Norris).
The Schonwasser company (also of San Francisco) issued their cards the same way as the Pull-Rak company and these two companies are likely the same company with a name change somewhere along the way. Will Norris did some research on Pull-Rak and found two newspaper ads, one from 1922 and the other from 1928.
There are two different sets of these cards, one set showing name-identified Film Stars, the other showing anonymous Mack Sennett girls. Each set is numbered, probably with 100 cards in each set, though not all cards have been verified yet. Both sets have the same border design. The highest numbered Film Star card seen is #100 and the highest numbered Mack Sennett Girls card seen is #87.
For the Film Stars, two stars have been seen for several of the numbers. It is unknown if this indicates that there were two different Film Star sets or if these are just variations. These cards are not seen very often, so it may take quite a while to sort this out.
There seems to be something going on with odd and even numbered cards. The Mack Sennett cards seem to be mainly found on odd-numbered cards, with the only exception seen so far being a #72 Mack Sennett card. The Film Stars can be found on both odd and even numbered cards in the lower numbers, but the higher number cards seem to be on even numbers only. All the Film Star cards #60-100 that have been seen are even numbered cards.
There were 135 cards that Will Norris found in the original Pull-Rak box, still in their envelopes and still attached to the metal rods. Some may have been removed before Will obtained the box. All the cards in the box were Mack Sennett girls - there were none of the Film Stars in his box. This indicates that the two sets were probably issued separately.
For the Mack Sennett set, each of the envelopes contained a Mack Sennett Girl card as well as a coupon. The coupons contain numbers, but those numbers do not match with the numbers on the cards. The coupons contain a mail-in offer where a customer could mail in some cards and some money to receive a large colorized bathing girl photograph. The text is as follows: "Mail ten of these pictures and 50 cents in stamps to the Pull-Rak Co., San Francisco, and we will send you postpaid a large beautiful hand-painted and mounted bathing girl photograph. Don't mail this identification slip."
Collector Larry Tabone Jr. reports that he has a group of 15 of the Film Star cards that were found in a plain envelope with writing on it that said "LUNA PARK, Coney Island 1919 1 cent movie star cards."
Date info: Card #78, titled Mary and Doug, shows a picture of Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks. The Mary Pickford Foundation website shows a copy of that same picture, which they date to 1920 and place at Pickfair, the home of Douglas Fairbanks and Mary Pickford after they were married in March of 1920. That card would seem to date the set to 1920 or later. Mary Maurice died in 1918. Will Norris found a trademark application that indicates that Pull-Rak filed for their trademark with the Patent office in May of 1922, claiming to have been using the Pull-Rak name since February 1922. So that wound indicate that these cards were issued no earlier than 1922.
Thanks to Bob Richardson, Larry Tabone Jr., Paul Falzon, and Will Norris for help with this checklist.
Film Stars checklist
1. Max Linder
2. Clara Kimball Young
3. Earle Williams
4. William Farnum
5. Edith Storey
6. Ruth Roland
7. Mary Pickford
8. Jack Holt
9.
10.
11. J. Warren Kerrigan
12. Tom Moore
13. Florence Lawrence
14.
15.
16. Mary Fuller
16. William S. Hart
17.
18.
19.
20.
21.
22.
23.
24.
25.
26. Bebe Daniels
27.
28. Thomas Meighan
29. Marguerite Clayton
30. Mary Miles Minter
31.
32.
33.
34. Betty Compson
35.
36. Theodore Roberts
37.
38. Anita Stewart
38. Jackie Coogan
39.
40. Milton Sills
41. Arthur Johnson
42. May McAvoy
43.
44. Bert Lytell
45.
46. Jane Novak
47.
48. Alice Joyce
48. Conrad Nagel
49. Carlyle Blackwell
50. Agnes Ayres
51.
52. Douglas Fairbanks
53.
54. Lilian Gish
55. Eva Novak
56. Tom Mix
57.
58. Mary Pickford
59. Francis X. Bushman
60. Wallace Reid
61.
62. Blanche Sweet
63.
64.
65.
66.
67.
68. Douglas McLean
69.
70.
71.
72.
73.
74.
75.
76.
77.
78. Mary & Doug
79.
80.
81.
82. Charles Chaplin
83.
84. Dorothy Gish
85.
86. Billie Burke
87.
88. Jack Pickford
89.
90. G. M. "Broncho Billy" Anderson
91.
92.
93.
94.
95.
96.
97.
98. Mary Maurice
99.
100. King Baggot
Mack Sennett Girls checklist (numbers seen so far)
1. Mack Sennett Comedies
2.
3. Mack Sennett Comedies
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9. Mack Sennett Comedies
10.
11. Mack Sennett Comedies
12.
13.
14.
15. Mack Sennett Comedies
16.
17. Mack Sennett Comedies
18.
19. Mack Sennett Comedies
20.
21.
22.
23.
24.
25. Mack Sennett Comedies
26.
27. Mack Sennett Comedies
28.
29.
30.
31.
32.
33. Mack Sennett Comedies
34.
35. Mack Sennett Comedies
36.
37. Mack Sennett Comedies
38.
39. Mack Sennett Comedies
40.
41. Mack Sennett Comedies
42.
43. Mack Sennett Comedies
44.
45.
46.
47.
48.
49.
50.
51.
52.
53. Mack Sennett Comedies
54.
55. Mack Sennett Comedies
56.
57. Mack Sennett Comedies
58.
59.
59. Mack Sennett Comedies
60.
61. Mack Sennett Comedies
62.
63. Mack Sennett Comedies
64.
65. Mack Sennett Comedies
66.
67. Mack Sennett Comedies
68.
69. Mack Sennett Comedies
70.
71.
72. Mack Sennett Comedies
73. Mack Sennett Comedies
74.
75. Mack Sennett Comedies
76.
77. Mack Sennett Comedies
78.
79. Mack Sennett Comedies
80.
81. Mack Sennett Comedies
82.
83. Mack Sennett Comedies
84.
85. Mack Sennett Comedies
86.
87. Mack Sennett Comedies
88.
89.
90.
91.
92.
93.
94.
95.
96.
97.
98.
99.
100.
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