One of the goals of the Movie Card Website is to document all the movie star trading cards from the beginning of movie cards through about 1960. Before the Movie Card Website was established, very little had been done to checklist or date these old cards.
I am also interested in any card variations. When I have seen more than one variation for a card, I try to give enough information so you can identify which card you have if you only have one of the two variations. If you know about any variations not listed or if you can give better identification information for two variations of a card, I would like to get that information.
There are several ways to do date research. The best way is to look at the cards and see if there are any hints on dates. If any movies are mentioned on the cards, this can establish the earliest possible date for the set. Movie dates can be checked on the Internet Movie Database.
Another way to research a set date is to check the movie careers for the stars in the set. For example, if a star in the set made his last movie in 1917 and another star made his first movie in 1916, this suggests a 1916 or 1917 date for the set. A word of caution on this - the Internet Movie Database is not complete. I know this is true because I have personally seen at least three cards which mention that a star was in a particular movie and the Internet Movie Database has not had the star listed as being in the movie.
Still another way to date a set is by looking at the scenes shown on the cards. If you are very familiar with a star and his/her movies, you can sometimes tell which movie scene is shown on a card, even if the movie is not identified. Harold Lloyd expert Annette D'Agostino told me a card of Harold Lloyd showed him in a scene from "A Sailor Made Man." William Powell expert Christian Anderson informed me that a Powell card showed him in a scene from "Another Thin Man." With a quick check of the Internet Movie Database, these movies can be dated and the earliest possible release date for the card set can be pinpointed.
If you have any information that might indicate that any of the dates listed are incorrect, I would love to have that information. Please email me any detective work you have done and I will look into the information and post it and give you a credit if I feel it is accurate.
The Internet Movie Database is not complete. I have sent in additional information for three movies so far that I have discovered by looking at movie star trading cards. (For anyone interested, I have told them that Loretta Young was in the movie "Working Wives," Antonio Moreno was in the movie "Look Your Best," and Ruth Roland was in the movie "Who Pays." This information came from Lloyd Cinema Stars Matt (Young), Schuh Cinema Stars (Moreno), and Imperial Movie Stars (Roland).
The information I have provided to the IMDB has come from just a very small check of the information I have and the information the IMDB has. It is very likely that these old cards will yield a lot of additional information that can be sent in to the Internet Movie Database. As I have more time, I will check my cards and provide more information. I encourage others to do the same to help make the IMDB more complete.