By Chuck McAnulla (COMBO #27) – HOF: <\/i>Perhaps those letters mean nothing to you. Perhaps you prefer ABC or XYZ. As a card collector, you may better relate to IOU.<\/p>\n
The \u201cHOF\u201d designation does, however, have a magical connotation for sports card collectors, since it signifies that the players so identified in a given card set\u2019s checklist are members of the Hall of Fame in their particular sport. Hall of Fame athletes have traditionally been of greater interest to sports collectors and their cards more highly prized, monetarily and otherwise. Prices of very rare tobacco sports cards can run to six \ufb01gures\u2014yes, all to the left of the decimal point!<\/p>\n
Collectors of non-sport tobacco cards have made the happy discovery that American tobacco sets contain many famous personages\u2014\u201cHall of Famers,\u201d in a sense\u2014in various \ufb01elds of endeavor. Famous explorers, aviators, actors, writers, rulers, generals, and even martyrs abound in tobacco series. Whether these cards are collected individually or in sets, non-sport tobacco cards have the advantages of greater rarity than many sports issues, generally superior artwork, seemingly in\ufb01nite subject variety, and\u2014perhaps best of all\u2014they\u2019re available for a fraction of the price of turn-of-the-century baseball and hockey cards.<\/p>\n
A prime example of a tobacco non-sport set which boasts numer\u00adous famous names is the T25 Actors <\/i>set. These cards, issued in the 1910s by Be\u00adtween the Acts little cigars, are a popular issue for several reasons. Num\u00adber\u00ading 50 cards, the set is a manageable size to complete, especially if the collector is \ufb02exible in terms of card condition. Although the cards\u2019 black borders are prone to chipping and imperfections, the artwork\u2014handsome portraits of the era\u2019s famed stage heartthrobs in a gold picture-frame motif\u2014is typical of the astounding illustrations found in tobacco groups. But it is the presence of so many \u201cHall of Famers\u201d that makes the T25 set an award-winner.<\/p>\n
As the entertaining and quaintly worded biographies on the cards\u2019 backs indicate, this is a veritable Who\u2019s Who of the stage world of the times. Certainly, the key actor in the set is George M. Cohan, who is best-remembered today for his songwriting contributions to popular culture\u2014\u201cGive My Regards to Broad\u00adway\u201d and \u201cYankee Doodle Dandee.\u201d Cohan\u2019s card can be obtained in the $20 range in excellent or better condition. Quite a value when compared with a Honus Wagner tobacco card, isn\u2019t it? Incidentally, Cohan\u2019s card notes that \u201c\u2018The Four Cohans\u2019 is a household word.\u201d (I\u2019m still working on this one.) Single cards cost $6-$8, and the whole collection is valued at around $350.<\/p>\n
Another star of this set is Maurice Barry\u00admore, father of Ethel, John, and Lionel. Also included is Barrymore\u2019s brother-in-law, John Drew. Sound familiar?<\/p>\n
For laughs, we can turn to the card of Eddie Foy, \ufb01rst of \u201cThe Seven Little Foys.\u201d There\u2019s also the comedy team of Lew Fields and Joe Weber. For tears, there is Ed\u00adwin Booth, whose card notes his Shakes\u00adpearean roles, but not his infamous brother.<\/p>\n
Supporting characters include such names as Belasco, Harrigan, Hopper (the guy who made Casey at the Bat <\/i>famous), Irving, Skin\u00adner, and literally scores of others. The set\u2019s biographies are excellent inspiration for further reading about actors and theaters. Also try T108 Theatres Old and New <\/i>for more incredible artwork and theater history.<\/p>\n
While one of the many charms of non-sport tobacco is its variety\u2014everything from butter\ufb02ies to presidents awaits the adventurous collector\u2014these actors are truly of Hall of Fame caliber. The T25 set is definitely classic non-sports.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
By Chuck McAnulla (COMBO #27) – HOF: Perhaps those letters mean nothing to you. Perhaps you prefer ABC or XYZ. As a card collector, you may better relate to IOU. The \u201cHOF\u201d designation does, however, have a magical connotation for sports card collectors, since it signifies that the players so identified in a given card set\u2019s checklist are members of the Hall of Fame in their particular sport. Hall of Fame athletes have traditionally been of greater interest to sports collectors and their cards more highly prized, monetarily and otherwise. Prices of very rare tobacco sports cards can run to six \ufb01gures\u2014yes, all to the left of the decimal point! Collectors of non-sport tobacco cards have made the happy discovery that American tobacco sets contain many famous personages\u2014\u201cHall of Famers,\u201d in a sense\u2014in various \ufb01elds of endeavor. Famous explorers, aviators, actors, writers, rulers, generals, and even martyrs abound in tobacco series. Whether these cards are collected individually or in sets, non-sport tobacco cards have the advantages of greater rarity than many sports issues, generally superior artwork, seemingly in\ufb01nite subject variety, and\u2014perhaps best of all\u2014they\u2019re available for a fraction of the price of turn-of-the-century baseball and hockey cards. A prime example of a tobacco non-sport set which boasts numer\u00adous famous names is the T25 Actors set. These cards, issued in the 1910s by Be\u00adtween the Acts little cigars, are a popular issue for several reasons. Num\u00adber\u00ading 50 cards, the set is a manageable size to complete, especially if the collector is \ufb02exible in terms of card condition. Although the cards\u2019 black borders are prone to chipping and imperfections, the artwork\u2014handsome portraits of the era\u2019s famed stage heartthrobs in a gold picture-frame motif\u2014is typical of the astounding illustrations found in tobacco groups. But it is the presence of so many \u201cHall of Famers\u201d that makes the T25 set an award-winner. As the entertaining and quaintly worded biographies on the cards\u2019 backs indicate, this is a veritable Who\u2019s Who of the stage world of the times. Certainly, the key actor in the set is George M. Cohan, who is best-remembered today for his songwriting contributions to popular culture\u2014\u201cGive My Regards to Broad\u00adway\u201d and \u201cYankee Doodle Dandee.\u201d Cohan\u2019s card can be obtained in the $20 range in excellent or better condition. Quite a value when compared with a Honus Wagner tobacco card, isn\u2019t it? Incidentally, Cohan\u2019s card notes that \u201c\u2018The Four Cohans\u2019 is a household word.\u201d (I\u2019m still working on this one.) Single cards cost $6-$8, and the whole collection is valued at around $350. Another star of this set is Maurice Barry\u00admore, father of Ethel, John, and Lionel. Also included is Barrymore\u2019s brother-in-law, John Drew. Sound familiar? For laughs, we can turn to the card of Eddie Foy, \ufb01rst of \u201cThe Seven Little Foys.\u201d There\u2019s also the comedy team of Lew Fields and Joe Weber. For tears, there is Ed\u00adwin Booth, whose card notes his Shakes\u00adpearean roles, but not his infamous brother. Supporting characters include such names as Belasco, Harrigan, Hopper (the guy who made Casey at the Bat famous), Irving, Skin\u00adner, and literally scores of others. The set\u2019s biographies are excellent inspiration for further reading about actors and theaters. Also try T108 Theatres Old and New for more incredible artwork and theater history. While one of the many charms of non-sport tobacco is its variety\u2014everything from butter\ufb02ies to presidents awaits the adventurous collector\u2014these actors are truly of Hall of Fame caliber. The T25 set is definitely classic non-sports.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":80,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[5,11,4],"class_list":["post-29","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-turning-back-the-clock","tag-april-1997","tag-chuck-mcanulla","tag-issue-27"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/eacottdesign.com\/combo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/eacottdesign.com\/combo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/eacottdesign.com\/combo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/eacottdesign.com\/combo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/eacottdesign.com\/combo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/eacottdesign.com\/combo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":69,"href":"http:\/\/eacottdesign.com\/combo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29\/revisions\/69"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/eacottdesign.com\/combo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/80"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/eacottdesign.com\/combo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/eacottdesign.com\/combo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/eacottdesign.com\/combo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}