During the 1930's, Shelby Gum Company issued several sets of trading cards. Hollywood Picture Stars was the most popular set, and was reprinted several times.
Very few movie star trading card sets have been issued in the United States. This is surprising since baseball and other subjects have been generously covered by trading card sets. The movie sets that do exist tend to be very scarce.
Shelby Gum Company is known as the originator of bubble gum. One of their laboratory employees, while trying to come up with a preservative to extend the shelf life of gum, accidentally came up with bubble gum.
The Hollywood Pictures Stars cards are very attractive when found in high grade, and include major stars such as Shirley Temple, Joan Blondell, Clark Gable, Jean Harlow, Joan Crawford, Helen Hayes, Wallace Beery, Tom Mix, Loretta Young and Laurel & Hardy.
This forty card set was first issued with purple ink on the back. It was later issued using red ink and having a mail order ad for an album. There are also variations of the captions on the fronts. In addition, the set was issued in Canada by Hamiilton Gum with the same fronts but different numbers and text in both English and French on the backs.
The set is a work in progress. I hope to add to this collection including variations as cards are found.
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