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c.1903 Eureka/Craddock's Medicated Blue Soap
Playing Cards

All text and images on this page were submitted by Diana Savage.  This deck of cards features theatre stars of the turn of the century, it's included here because many of these early stage stars went on to work in early film.  Diana  has provided many images from her deck which appear at the bottom of this page in slide show format.  I have also included a chart she submitted which includes every card in the set along with her research detailing each featured player's dates of birth and death, stage debut and last appearance, and film debut and last appearance.  Very special thanks to Diana for this valuable information, now I turn the page over to her:

These are advertising cards produced by the Eureka Soap Company of Cincinnati, Ohio. They feature stage stars from the early 1900s. Each card features a different star similar to the better known MJ Moriarty playing cards of 1916. The Craddock cards, unlike the Moriarty cards, are theater memorabilia not movie memorabilia. However, the early films made extensive use of theater stars and 22 of the featured individuals are credited by IMDb as having made films. As such these cards are one of the few places that very early stars of films can be found.

I have done my best to date these cards. They most certainly were published between 1898 when Bertha Galland first appeared on stage (Rusche) and within a few years of 1903 when Clare Lipman was forced to retire from the stage due to a hurt arm (Adler & Vizetelly). Using a rule of thumb that assumed that few of the actress’s would have been become famous enough to appear on cards before their 15th birthday, an age approximate to the age of Blanche Sweet’s and Mary Pickford’s when they first become known, I was able to narrow this down the earliest probable publication date to 1902 or 1903. These dates could easily be a few years off and more conservative estimate places the publication of these cards as being between 1900 and 1905.

Following are images of several cards within this fascinating set, including an image of the reverse side.  Below that is a complete list of the cards as well as some basic biographical data on the represented stars:

Reverse side of 1903 Craddock's Medicated Blue Soap Theatre Playing Card
Sample image of Reverse

Anna Held 1903 Craddock's Medicated Blue Soap Theatre Playing Card
Anna Held

De Wolf Hopper 1903 Craddock's Medicated Blue Soap Theatre Playing Card
De Wolf Hopper

EH Sothern 1903 Craddock's Medicated Blue Soap Theatre Playing Card
E.H. Sothern

Eleanora Duse 1903 Craddock's Medicated Blue Soap Theatre Playing Card
Eleanora Duse

Hilda Spong 1903 Craddock's Medicated Blue Soap Theatre Playing Card
Hilda Spong

James T Powers 1903 Craddock's Medicated Blue Soap Theatre Playing Card
James T. Powers

Julia Marlowe 1903 Craddock's Medicated Blue Soap Theatre Playing Card
Julia Marlowe

Louis Mann 1903 Craddock's Medicated Blue Soap Theatre Playing Card
Louis Mann

Lulu Glaser 1903 Craddock's Medicated Blue Soap Theatre Playing Card
Lulu Glaser

Marcia Van Dressler 1903 Craddock's Medicated Blue Soap Theatre Playing Card
Marcia Van Dresser

Maxine Elliott 1903 Craddock's Medicated Blue Soap Theatre Playing Card
Maxine Elliott

Max Rogers 1903 Craddock's Medicated Blue Soap Theatre Playing Card
Max Rogers

Nat C Goodwin 1903 Craddock's Medicated Blue Soap Theatre Playing Card
Nat C. Goodwin

Otis Skinner 1903 Craddock's Medicated Blue Soap Theatre Playing Card
Otis Skinner

Viola Allen 1903 Craddock's Medicated Blue Soap Theatre Playing Card
Viola Allen

William Faversham 1903 Craddock's Medicated Blue Soap Theatre Playing Card
William Faversham

Wilton Lackaye 1903 Craddock's Medicated Blue Soap Theatre Playing Card
Wilton Lackaye

Table of Cards:

Card

Star

Birth

Stage Début

1st Film

Last Film

Last on Stage

Death

2D

Ritchie, Adele

1874

 

N/A

N/A

 

1930

3D

Magin, Bonnie

 

 

N/A

N/A

 

 

4D

Martinot, Sadie

1861

 

N/A

N/A

 

1923

5D

Collier, Lizzie Hudson

c.1864

 

N/A

N/A

 

1924

6D

Henderson, Grace

1860

 

1909

1919

 

1944

7D

Blackburn, Vivian

 

 

1914

1915

 

 

8D

Campbell, Miss Patrick

1865

1888

1920

1935

 

1940

9D

Hopper, Edna Wallace (Took the name Hopper before 1913)

1874

 

1916

1916

 

1959

10D

Douglas, Byron

c.1865

 

1919

1929

 

1935

JD

Powers, James

 

 

N/A

N/A

 

 

QD

Held, Anna

1872

 

1910

1916

 

1918

KD

Goodwin, Nat C.

1859

1874

1912

1916

 

1919

AD

Spong, Hilda

1875

 

1915

1919

 

1955

2S

Davis, Phobe

 

 

N/A

N/A

 

 

3S

LeMoyne, Mrs Sarah Cowell

Took the name Cowell in 1888

1859

 

N/A

N/A

 

1915

4S

Robson, Eleanor

1879

 

N/A

N/A

1910

1979

5S

Galland, Bertha

1876

1898

N/A

N/A

1909

1932

6S

Dolores, Angela

 

 

1914

1914

 

 

7S

Lipman, Clare

1869

1888

N/A

N/A

1903

1952

8S

Morton, Dorothy

 

 

N/A

N/A

 

 

9S

Shattuck, Truly

1876

 

1915

1927

 

1954

10S

Reynold, Thos. M.

 

 

 

 

 

 

JS

Rogers, Max

 

 

N/A

N/A

 

 

QS

Marlowe, Julia

1866

1877

N/A

N/A

1916

1950

KS

Lackaye, Wilton

1862

 

1914

1925

 

1932

AS

Dresser, Marcia Van

1880

 

N/A

N/A

 

1937

2C

Rogers, Gus

 

 

 

 

 

 

3C

George, Grace

1879

 

1915

1943

 

1961

4C

Rush, Isadore

 

 

N/A

N/A

 

 

5C

Connelly, Edward J.

1859

1884

1914

1929

 

1928

6C

Angelis, Jefferson De

1859

 

1915

1928

 

1933

7C

Mantell, Robert B.

1854

 

1915

1923

 

1928

8C

Graham, R. E.

1858

 

1913

1914

 

1916

9C

Morgan, Edward J.

 

 

N/A

N/A

 

1906

10C

Bellew, Kyrle (H.Kyrel Bellow)

Or (Cosmo Kyrle Bellew)

1855

1885

 

1905

1902

1905

1935

 

1911

1948

JC

Faversham, William

1868

1885

1915

1937

 

1940

QC

Elliott, Maxine

1868

1889

1913

1919

 

1940

KC

Sothern, E. H.

1859

 

1915

1917

 

1933

AC

Duse, Eleanore

1858

 

1916

1916

 

1924

2H

Kingsley, Julia

 

 

N/A

N/A

 

 

3H

Gilman, Mabelle