Lobby Card page 2 of Antique Gambling Chips and Memorabilia

SLOT MACHINES FEATURED ON LOBBY CARDS:
Clockwise from the upper left:
¶ "Damn Citizen" (Universal, 1958). The police are destroying slot machines with sledgehammers.
¶ "Street Bandits" (Republic, 1951). The room is full of disassembled slot machines.
¶ "I Cover the Underworld" (Republic, 1955).
¶ "City of Shadows" (Republic, 1955). Victor McLaglen starred.

GARISH TITLE CARDS (Usually one of the 8 lobby cards in the set [often designated card #1] would have large bold titles and credits, and would have scattered small hand drawn artwork, often copied form the larger posters). The title cards usually have a greater value than the other seven cards. Clockwise from the upper left:
¶ "Black Dice" (1952), starring Jack La Rue. British made American gangster movie. Note the two dice near the center bottom.
¶ "Two-Dollar Bettor" (1951).
¶ "The Green Pack" (1934).
¶ "Mr. Soft Touch" (1949). Glenn Ford is handling two dice.

WESTERNS are a fertile source of gambling scenes, especially of faro games. Clockwise from the upper left:
¶ "The Lawless Breed" (1953) starring Rock Hudson and Julia Adams. Roulette.
¶ "Four Faces West" (1948) starring Joel McCrea. Poker.
¶ "Jackass Mail" (1942) starring Wallace Beery and Marjorie Main. Faro.
¶ "Badlands of Dakota" (1941) starring Richard Dix (dead at table with 'deadman's hand' showing -- here 2 aces, 2 eights and a queen -- all black), sheriff Robert Stack (standing, blue shirt) and Andy Devine (blue suit, next to Stack).

COWBOY STARS: Clockwise from upper left:
¶ "Aces and Eights" (1936) starring Tim McCoy, shown raking in a big pot in the lower right of the LC.
¶ "Frontier Justice" (1936) starring Hoot Gibson.
¶ "The Showdown" (1940) starring William Boyd as Hopalong Cassidy, seated at lower right of the LC in his usual black Hoppy outfit.
¶ "Rhythm of the Saddle" (1938) starring Gene Autry, in the blue shirt.

CRIME DRAMAS: Clockwise from the upper left:
¶ "The Basketball Fix" (1951) starring John Ireland.
¶ "5 Against the House" (1955). Starring Guy Madison, Kim Novak and Brian Keith. The signs at the upper left say "Harolds Club" and "The Stag" -- both, Reno. In the lobby card actor William Conrad is being held up as he pushes a money/chip cart in the casino.
¶ "Life at the Top" (1966). Follow-up film to the successful "Room at the Top," also starring Laurence Harvey. British. Sign at upper left says, "All bets must be covered by chips on the table."
¶ "Unholy Partners" (1941). Starring Edward G. Robinson and Edward Arnold, shown above on left and right.

DRAMAS. Clockwise from the upper left:
¶ "The Blond from Singapore" (1941), starring Lief Erikson.
¶ "The Other Love" (1947), starring David Niven, Barbara Stanwyck and Richard Conte (the latter two are on the right, facing the camera).
¶ "Aces and Eights" (1936), starring Tim McCoy.
¶ "Midnight Cowboy" (1969), starring Dustin Hoffman and Jon Voight. Lobby card scene is of Dustin Hoffman in, I guess, a crap game.

OLDIES, Clockwise from the upper left:
¶ "Sinner Take All" (1937). I spot Joseph Calleia (standing, left).
¶ "Gambling With Souls" (1936).
¶ "Ports of Call" (1925). William Fox silent film starring Edmund Lowe. Cards and chips on the table.
¶ "Showboat" (1929). Poker game. Entire card is hand colored. This is the first of three movie versions of Showboat. It stars Joseph Schildkrant (seated in center of table) as Gaylord Ravenal and Laura La Plante as Magnolia. (Be sure to see the great 1936 version with Irene Dunne, Allan Jones and the great Helen Morgan.)

SILENT FILMS. Clockwise from upper left:
¶ "Winning a Woman" (1927, Rayart Pictures). Starring Jack Perrin. (The film, like all of this era, is in black and white. The lobby card has been colorized, though.)
¶ "The U.P. Trail" (1920, Benjamin B. Hampton Production). Starring "Beauty" Stanton.
¶ "The Beautiful Gambler" (1921, Universal). Starring Grace Darmond. Roulette table. Man in suit is telling girl, "So you were trying to double cross me -- eh!" The sign on the wall states the maximum limits -- $5 on numbers, $20 on columns and $50 on colors.
¶ "The Outcasts of Poker Flat" (1919, Universal). Starring Harry Carey. This film has been remade many times.

MORE SILENT FILMS. Clockwise from upper left:
¶ "A Parisian Scandal" (1921, Universal). Starring Marie Prevost.
¶ "When Danger Smiles" (1922, Vitagraph). Starring William Duncan and Edith Johnson.
¶ "The Seal of Silence" (1918, Vitagraph). Starring Earle Williams and Grace Darmond. The man at the right is holding a corner of a heart playing card, and he says. "Everywhere my wife's one weakness -- gambling -- stares me in the face." Looks as though this is my oldest lobby card!
¶ "The Broken Violin" (1923, Arrow Pictures). Starring Joseph Blake. Roulette table, colored chips, man at center-right is pointing accusingly at man on other side of table.

Detour (1945). Great lobby card and movie. Not mine. Seller listed it on eBay for $650 in 2007. Tom Neal, Ann Savage, Claudia Drake, Edmund MacDonald, Pat Gleason, dir: Edgar G. Ulmer; Producers Releasing Company. Brilliant film noir, one of the genres top titles. Written by Martin Goldsmith and based on his own novel it is told in flashback and is the story of a New York nightclub pianist Al Robert who hitchhikes to Hollywood. The gambler driving him dies on the ride and Roberts, afraid of the police, assumes the dead mans identity. He is then blackmailed by Vera, a hitch hiker he picks up and he plunges deeper into trouble. Wonderful card design with border art worked into the title treatment and theme. This is a legendary film noir, and one of the only two good scene cards from this classic, with this image of Neal and Savage playing cards. NEAR MINT.

I paid about $90 for this one, Oct. 2007, on eBay. Universal's Mississippi Gambler, 1929, Starring Otis Harlan, Carmelita Geraghty, Joseph Schildkraut (Show Boat), and Joan Bennett (Dark Shadows). Card gambler purposely loses big game to preserve the honor of an old man's daughter. Lots of chips in center of table and near the men's hands. The woman pictured there is Geraghty, not Bennett. I have two other nice lobby cards, I'd sell, from the movie; they show Geraghty and Bennett. One is quite nice -- it shows lovely Joan Bennett stretching out her arm for Schildkraut to kiss her hand.

"Amazing Colossal Man" Rampages Las Vegas & Sands Hotel Casino. I collect movie lobby cards with gambling themes. This one doesn't exactly fit the bill, but I couldn't resist buying it. In this 1957 movie, "Army Colonel Langan was exposed to massive amounts of radiation after a nuclear experiment backfires, causing him to grow at the rate of 10 feet per day.... One of the first atomic mutation horror films of the fifties, it is also one of the most absurdly entertaining. The scenes detailing Langan's growth and his attack on Vegas are quite memorable" (per TV Guide review).... ..... ...... Hard to read, but under Danny Thomas' name on the billboard is the famous "Opening Act" names of Augie and Margo (Rodriguez), who "have been celebrity performers since the Mambo days of the 1950's. They opened shows in North America and around the world for the Rat Pack and just about every famous person during the 1950's, 60's and 70's that one can name; and the list includes three Presidents and the Queen of England. They were recently invited to dance with the world famous Cirque du Soleil in Las Vegas, and that is what they are presently (2007) doing. (per http://www.augieandmargo.com/)

In a January 2008 auction on eBay, this lobby card, in poor condition, ended up at $257! It is known today mostly for Rita Hayworth's sensational, sexy, dance-song performance. I saw the movie recently. Chock full of gambling scenes and talk. Story seemed too soap opera-ish for me. The movie did very well, and helped make her famous.... ...... Back to the lobby card -- they are at a roulette table. Stacks of chips in front of Rita. The tall guy on the right is holding chips. Guy on the left of Rita is popular character actor, Joseph Calleia. I didn't win this auction.

In the same auction as the Gilda one, above, I won this lobby card for $153. "An Original Vintage Theater-Used Movie Lobby Card (measures 11" x 14") from The Testing Block, the 1920 Lambert Hillyer romantic love triangle gambling cowboy western (about an outlaw who falls in love with a beautiful female violinist, which causes him to go straight and have a child, but she falls for a gambler passing through, and he not only steals Hart's wife, but he also bankrupts him while gambling!; Hart goes crazy and gets vengeance, and returns a sadder, but wiser man; the movie was both written and produced by star William S. Hart) starring William S. Hart, Eva Novak, J. Gordon Russell, Florence Carpenter and Richard Headrick." .... .... .....I was certain not to be outbid on this lobby card. It went for $153. From a silent 1920's William Hart western. The guy on the left (dealer/banker) has the chip rack and special faro cards dealing box near him. There is no faro case-keeper to be seen. The all important faro layout (where the bets [stacks of chips] are placed) is shown in the center, where Wm. Hart is standing, menacingly. He doesn't look like a happy camper.

I finally got this lobby card (Frank Sinatra in the original Oceans 11), for about $50 on eBay. The above is the eBay auction picture.

1928 movie -- went for $181 at auction in May 2008. Baccarat.

Marlon Brando in "A Streetcar Named Desire" lobby card, playing StanleyKowalski doing two of his favorite activities -- screaming and playing poker. Miracles can happen: I won this card on eBay in Sept 2008 for only $10.50!

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