Movie Profiles & Premiums Volume 3, Number 8.  March 15, 2005
Brought to you by things-and-other-stuff

FIRST REEL: 
Welcome back, gang, a little business to lead us off:  checking the schedule I see that last year I had one issue in March and returned April 15.  Well, I know I'm going to be busy with my taxes this April 15th, so there will instead be two March issues (this one and one on the 31st) and then I'm going to skip April 15 and return April 30, probably with an extra article as a bonus.

The movie card listings in my ebay store began ending last night (I think over 1,000 items ended then) and continue on through tonight.  The ended ebay listings return to my Marketworks inventory which can be found by clicking any link labelled "CATALOG" on the site.  After this there will probably be about a three week lag where movie card listings end a few dozen at a time on ebay and gravitate back to the Catalog.  Thanks to everyone who purchased cards at the ebay store, the test was a success and I will be working to update all of my photo and premium listings for a future try-out in the store.  It will be worth the trouble just to have all of my stock up to date with my current listing format.

Regarding auctions, those are running as usual, and tomorrow night, March 16 features some good ones.  It's another broken deck of 1916 MJ Moriarty Playing Cards, and this is a sharp batch.  I want to comment that some of the scans seem to take on a yellow tone when I see them on my screen, this is not so as these are bright white to the naked eye.  Besides many of the regular cards being offered from this deck (Charles Chaplin, Mabel Normand, Mary Miles Minter for example) variations this time around include the popular card of Norma & Constance Talmadge together, cards for each of the two big cowboys, Tom Mix and William S. Hart, other popular stars such as Henry B. Walthall and Sessue Hayakawa as well as an Olive Thomas card which after sixteen sets I have come across for the first time. 

As an aside to the collector's of these MJ Moriarty Playing Cards, I tinkered some more with the MJ Moriarty page on the site and have removed the letter-coding from the list identifying the cards I've seen.  I'm keeping this info for myself right now, but am finding that there are so many variations that the grid was becoming more confusing than helpful.  What I've done instead is place an asterisk next to those cards which I feel are somewhat less common than the rest.

Other auctions closing this week include our Photo ID Guide featured item, 1919 Ivan B. Nordhem Bread Premiums.  All 29 different that I have come across are being offered this week.  Next week starts out with an offering of beautiful mostly EX-MT and NM 1917 Kromo Gravure Cards.  Just tonight I listed some 1920's 5x7 fan photos including some poses I haven't come across before (Alan Hale Sr., Theda Bara, Anita Stewart) and a nice early Our Gang fan photo.  There's also a signed Janet Leigh piece available that just went up tonight.  Following is the link to my auctions:

All ebay Auctions

Or, if you prefer to Buy It Now there are still many movie cards listed in my ebay store, which is found here:

ebay store

And after you buy there if you choose to use Marketworks Clickout you can combine that order (or any ebay order) with the thousands of items currently for sale in the Catalog, found here:

Catalog

I love when I get to bring a new writer to the newsletter and even more so this time as Diana Savage has been a subscriber and a customer for quite awhile.  In fact all but one of the scans illustrating her Varieté piece are from her own collection.  Diana plans to submit more reviews for us all in the future and I am looking forward to it.  Tammy Stone brings us another entry to her Silent Collection, this time Anna Q. Nilsson, a now somewhat obscure Swedish actress who was a star in early Hollywood.  Tammy gives her the royal treatment as per usual.  And leading off once again is Carly Svamvour with another Crossword Puzzle, The Wearing of the Green, quite appropriate to the calendar.  I hope many of you have been enjoying these puzzles, I think they offer the newsletter some great variety (or is that varieté? heh heh) and they're both challenging and fun to print out and work with.

And a quick plug before we get to the fun, Tammy Stone wrote informing me that fellow Canadian, Fay Wray has been enshrined on Canada's Walk of Fame.  For those interested please visit this article about 2005's honorees on the Canada Walk of Fame.

Okay then, to the time tunnel we go!
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The Wearing of the Green, A Crossword Puzzle
By Carly Svamvour
Click the link above to print out the puzzle and complete at your leisure.  Following immediately below is the solution to the puzzle from last issue.  The solution to The Wearing of the Green will be available March 31.
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SOLUTION to last issue's Happy Un-Birthday to You Crossword Puzzle
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Carly Svamvour is a writer who makes her home in the west end of Toronto, Canada. She has published her poems, short prose pieces and puzzles in many places throughout Canada and the U. S. A. She is currently working on her photo-journals with an eye to success at being a travel writer. See more of Carly at Wild City Times - click here for the magazine and online writing workshop.
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Varieté
A Review By Diana Savage
I watched this film last night and was very impressed. I would rank it among the best silent films I’ve watched, which is a substantial number. While I would not rank it with my favorites: “Pandora’s Box,” “Beggars of Life,” and “Piccadilly,” it belongs on the second tier with works like “The Garden of Eden.”
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This is just a teaser--check out Diana's entire column with pictures!
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Diana Savage is a silent film buff and collector of early film collectibles.  Varieté is her first submission to The Movie Profiles & Premiums Newsletter.
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Photo ID Guide:
1919 Ivan B. Nordhem Bread Premiums
Click the link above for images & details!
Large scans showing examples of two different type reverses, a variation, and a checklist naming the 29 different Bread Premiums I have come across so far.
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The Silent Collection by Tammy Stone
Anna Q. Nilsson
Anna Q Nilsson is one of the very first Hollywood imports, and the first Swedish actress to become a bonafide movie starlet. And another interesting first: Anna goes down in history as the first Swede to become immortalized by way of a star on Hollywood’s Walk of Fame. So why doesn’t her name roll off our tongues today?

This is just a teaser--check out Tammy's entire column with pictures!
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Tammy Stone is a freelance writer and journalist based in Toronto. Watch for her regular column on the greats of the Silent Screen here in each and every issue of ASTOS.  Tammy invites you to write her at tammystone444@yahoo.ca with any questions or comments on her column.
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End Credits:
Before I go, just wanted to recommend the Warner Gangster's Collection to all of you--it's definitely worth the hype.  So far I've watched Little Caesar, Public Enemy, Angels With Dirty Faces and The Petrified Forest and the prints for the first three are the best I've ever seen.  I'd somehow missed seeing Petrified Forest before but it's a clean transfer for the most part as well (though there are a couple of spots of quick graininess in that one).  I still have The Roaring Twenties and White Heat left to watch.  A quick note though, by buying all six together the only true benefit is the great price, otherwise it's just the six films mentioned above in a flimsy cardboard sleeve.  The DVD's are each housed in the same case you would receive if buying them individually, so if you only like a few of those titles and don't want all six you won't be losing out buying them separately.  Oh, each of the six movies has its own brand new mini-documentary ranging about 17-22 minutes each, plus there are commentaries, cartoons, featured shorts and (very brief) newsreels on each disc.  A great buy!

A final aside, anyone out there participating in fantasy baseball this season, hope you're having fun with your pre-rankings and your drafts so far!  I'm in two Yahoo leagues this season, but I also purchased a Sporting News team that I've yet to place in any of their leagues.  If anyone has a 5x5 league looking for players feel free to drop me a line at things@things-and-other-stuff.com.

That's it for now, see you all on March 31!

As always feel free to e-mail any thoughts or ideas to us at things@things-and-other-stuff.com, we're always willing to listen. 
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