1921 Henry Clay and Bock Co. Ltd.

Susini y Bock Ovalados

Tobacco Cards - From Cuba - Measure appx. 1-15/16" X 2-9/16"

Another group of Cuban Tobacco Cards from the Henry Clay and Bock Co. for us to look at. These took a little work to sort--another set (which will soon take up another page of the site) includes a few cards in the exact same style. I noticed that they included the star's name and film company on the reverse (these don't) and confirmed that were actually part of a different set when I discovered one of the cards had the same number as a card of a different star in this set. More details on the discrepancies once I post that Photo ID Guide (which I'll link to from this page).

Dorothy Kelly - 1921 Henry Clay and Bock

Dorothy Kelly - 1916 MJ Moriary Playing Card

Same shot of Dorothy Kelly used in this set as in 1916 MJ Moriarty Playing Card set.

Next problem with this group: dating them. The 1921 date is extremely tentative, it's really a best guess based on information from the IMDb. At first I thought it might have been an even earlier issue because of the dates given for the final films of Jewell Hunt (1917), Loretta Blake (1917, before a one-shot appearance in 1920), and especially Irene Tyner, who is only credited on the site with two film credits, both 1917. But then we have the near equally short career of Bee Monson, who appeared in three films, two from 1920, one in 1921. Gladys Walton made a single film appearance in 1908, but none again until 1920, likewise Laura La Plante made an uncredited appearance in 1919, but her career really didn't start going until 1920. Virginia Browne Faire was just fifteen or sixteen years old when she debuted in 1920. I went with 1921 since this handful of stars really only got going in 1920 and I figured the company wouldn't have waited much longer to print cards for those stars who had dropped off the landscape by 1917 (perhaps their few appearances weren't shown in Cuba until a few years later?). I also noticed several familiar photos which had been used in earlier card issues, such as Dorothy Kelly's shot, which appeared in the 1916 MJ Moriarty set, and a couple of other which were definitely familiar, but that I could not place. In conclusion, I think 1921 is likely the earliest date of issue for these cards, though it's entirely possible they were even issued a year or two later.

Following is a sample image of the reverse side of these Henry Clay and Bock Susini y Bock Ovaldos cards, plus images of the 41 cards I've handled from this set of at least 261 cards.

Sample of Reverse Side	7 - Mary Anderson	8 - Jean Paige	25 - Grace Valentine	37 - Anna Q. Nilsson	40 - Jackie Saunders
41 - Pauline Frederick	48 - Billie Dove	50 - Gladys Walton	54 - May McAvoy	57 - Thomas Meighan	64 - Katherine MacDonald
78 - Pola Negri	95 - Shirley Mason	98 - Ruth Roland	99 - Marie Prevost	101 - Bee Monson	112 - Agnes Ayres
113 - Muriel Ostriche	124 - Constance Binney	134 - Constance Talmadge	167 - Frederick Truesdell	179 - Loretta Blake	181 - Edith Hallor
185 - Dorothy Kelly	186 -Zena Keefe	189 - Laura La Plante	192 - Rosemary Theby	200 - Louise Huff	206 - Dorothy Green
209 - Rhea Mitchell	210 - Olga Petrova	216 - Jewell Hunt	223 - Virginia Browne Faire	225 - Mary Wynne	229 - Florence Vidor
238 - Louise Emerald Bates	241 -Elsie Janis	245 - Eileen Percy	249 - Doris Kenyon	252 - Elinor Fair	261 - Irene Tyner