MONSTER CARDS

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Lost Monsters and Foreign Monster Cards

Count Dracula, Frankenstein's Monster, the Wolf Man and the Mummy may have been smash hits on the nation's movie screens during the 30's and 40's, but how did these and other monsters fare in the world of trading cards?

Forget it!

Fact is, though wildly popular with filmgoers of the day, horror film monsters were still considered much too controversial by many American parents for card companies to risk negative consumer reaction by peddling these same monsters to children.
 

 

Consequently, during the "Golden Age" of monster movies, not one single monster was ever placed on an American trading card! Not only are the actual monsters absent from trading cards from this era, but so are the actors who portrayed them. Today, the faces of Boris Karloff, Bela Lugosi, Lon Chaney Jr., Lionel Atwill, George Zucco or John Carradine cannot be found on a single American trading card from the period. (1920's film star Lon Chaney Sr. can be found on numerous cards, however these cards capture the elder Chaney's many "faces" and ignore any "horror connection.")

Lon Chaney Sr. 1931 "Sulma Bilder" (DE)

 

It wouldn't be until 1959 that trading cards featuring monsters of any kind would be mass distributed in the U.S. (But, we're jumping ahead a bit.)

The complete lack of any pre-1959 USA monster cards is rather depressing news for those who may want to collect them, but there are cards out there to partially fill the void.

And to find them, one has to look to Canada, England, Germany, Spain and other card producing countries.
 

Boris Karloff 1934 "Film Stars" John Sinclair Ltd. (UK)

While American card companies cranked out sports heroes and "legitimate" movie personalities, several foreign card companies featured classic horror film actors, and occasionaly the monsters they portrayed, in many of their sets. Boris Karloff, Bela Lugosi, Lon Chaney Jr. and Colin Clive can all be found "out of character" on predominantly "Movie Star" type cards distributed in other countries. Many of these cards were distributed with food products or with cigarettes. Secondary players such as Ernest "Doctor Pretorious" Thesiger and Helen  "Mina" Chandler sometimes appeared in these sets as well. That being said, it is important to note that even though foreign card producers were willing to include horror film actors in their sets (and, apparently, foreign card consumers were comfortable with collecting them) evidence shows us that in these same countries, there too must have existed some amount of controversy regarding the actual monsters and/or horror themes.

Fay Wray 1934 "Cinema Stars" Cavenders (UK)

This evidence can be found by observing the many more frequent appearances of horror film actors "out of character" on trading cards than their appearances on trading cards "in character." There had to have been either less interest by consumers with seeing monsters, or some amount of hesitation to produce them.

The latter option seems more likely as all other genres are well represented with the actors "in character." Movie star "Cowboys", "Gangsters" and "Soldiers" can all be found on trading cards as they were seen on the big screen.

Below, as an ongoing project, we will be developing a database of all foreign cards featuring classic horror film monsters as these cards are encountered.
 
 
  A Foreign Trading Card History of Monsters

Important note: Many foreign cards (of all types), can be found with different backs and attributable to many different producers. As an example, the Boris Karloff card below was released by several British as well as Canadian companies.
 

Lon Chaney Jr. The Wolf Man 1953 "Historia del Cine" (SP)

Boris Karloff The Mummy 1938 "Actors Natural & Character Studies" Hignett Bros. & Co. (UK)

Max Schreck Nosferatu 1953 "Historia del Cine" (SP)