Sunday, July 10, 2022

1920 Universal Toy & Novelty Co. Hollywood Actors #5, Charlie Chaplin (and June Caprice)

The story so far

My past posts about the Universal Toy & Novelty Company covered their ten-card strips of boxers and American presidents.

Those strips lay groundwork for more Universal Toy subjects, including today's 20-card set of movie actors. Its #5 features Charlie Chaplin looking a good deal cleaner than his signature Tramp character.

Its checklist includes Hollywood legends like Fairbanks and Pickford, who were married to each other from 1920-36.

  1. Douglas Fairbanks
  2. Theda Bara
  3. Fatty Arbuckle
  4. Pearl White
  5. Charles Chaplin
  6. June Caprice
  7. George Walsh
  8. Olive Thomas
  9. William S. Hart
  10. Mary Pickford
  11. Elaine Hammerstein
  12. Bryant Washburn
  13. Mabel Normand
  14. Charles Ray
  15. Dorothy Dalton
  16. Owen Moore
  17. Mae Murray
  18. William Farnum
  19. Norma Talmadge
  20. Wallace Reid

As with Universal's boxers and presidents, some actor strips include UNIVERSAL "MOVIE MATCHING CARDS" SERIES 2 text across Chaplin, #6 June Caprice, and #7 George Walsh.


A text variation shifts its header text to the left, starting UNIVERSAL on #4 Pearl White and placing "MOVIE over Chaplin. These text variations prove somewhat harder to find than cards without header text.

Note how SGC used "C(irca) 1919 W-UNC" on this flip, which implies the submitter and SGC each failed to nail down a year or manufacturer.

Why so little info? Jefferson Burdick's 1960 edition of the American Card Catalog articulated challenges identifying this category of low-cost, high-volume sets.