1930's-40's Arcade Cards
There are quite a few choices out there for the Arcade Card collector, as pointed out by things-and-other-stuff customer Ladd McIntosh, who kindly assisted with most of the information in this Guide. My experience is that the Movie Arcades are the second most popular, just after those of Baseball Stars. Other sets include Wrestlers, Aviation, Pirates, Indians, Pin-up Girls, whole sets of Movie Cowboys and even two sets featuring Charles Lindbergh.
The most prominent issuer of Arcade Cards was the Exhibit Supply Company out of Chicago, followed by the International Mutoscope Reel Company, whose cards are popularly referred to simply as Mutoscopes. Mutoscope was eventually absorbed by the Exhibit Co. sometime in the late 1940's-early 1950's. Arcade Cards seem to have originated during the 1910's period. You sometimes see the machines which distributed them for sale, usually with three or so cards included as display. These Arcade Card machines seem not very different from the machines you'll see at the exits of supermarkets today distributing stickers of everything from superheroes to sports logos.
Most of the Arcade Cards shown below are from the 1940's, though there are a few from the 30's included as well. Several other sets have been issued with different colored tones on the front, from brown to orange to purple. Ladd has also noticed four different reverse sides to the cards as he has collected. In order of how he thinks they were issued, they are as follows: 1.Divided postcard backs, 2. Divided postcard backs with added coupon, 3. Coupon in lower corner with rest of card devoted to an ad, and 4. Blank back.
The images below are of Arcade Cards which I have had in stock, many of which have sold. In the future I hope to do a similar page of Mutoscope Arcade Cards as well, as I have several images of those on hand. If you've read this far your computer has probably had the chance to load the 50 images below, enjoy the Gallery!
Click any thumbnail photo below for an enlarged version of the same photo.
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