If you want to play with a full deck, hurry

Posted by vp19 on 2014.03.11 at 00:22
Current mood: creative

We’ve shown this image of Carole Lombard before, as part of a queen of diamonds tandem with fellow Paramount player Tallulah Bankhead on a playing card commemorating the 1932 summer Olympics in Los Angeles (http://carole-and-co.livejournal.com/524175.html). That “full deck” reference isn’t a reference to anyone’s sanity…just a note that the entire deck featuring that card and 52 others (there’s a joker as well) is available for a limited time from Cliff Aliperti’s fine site, Immortal Ephemera (https://store.immortalephemera.com/#!/~/product/category=5739400&id=34793870). If unsold as a deck by Wednesday (Cliff is asking $108, a not unreasonable price for this rarity), the cards — made by the P.J. Wenger Co. of Los Angeles — will be sold individually.

All cards from jacks through aces have illustrations:

Jack of Clubs: David Manners / Chic Sale
Queen of Clubs: Joan Blondell / Barbara Stanwyck
King of Clubs: Clive Brook / Douglas Fairbanks Jr.
Ace of Clubs: Olympic Village

Jack of Diamonds: Charlie Murray / George Sidney
Queen of Diamonds: Tallulah Bankhead / Carole Lombard
King of Diamonds: George Bancroft / Warren William
Ace of Diamonds: Los Angeles City Hall

Jack of Hearts: Richard Arlen / Jack Oakie
Queen of Hearts: Kay Francis / Celia Ryland
King of Hearts: Maurice Chevalier / Fredric March
Ace of Hearts: Los Angeles Swimming Stadium

Jack of Spades: Lew Ayres / Phillips Holmes
Queen of Spades: Miriam Hopkins / Loretta Young
King of Spades: George Arliss / Edward G. Robinson
Ace of Spades: Olympic Stadium

All the major studios were represented aside from MGM, which may explain why Monogram’s Celia Ryland made the cut.

Who’s the joker? None other than Joe E. Brown, and here he is with illustrations of the back of the card and a pair of the lower-ranked fronts, all of which featured the flags logo. (And if you flip the cards, the U.S. stars and stripes are facing upward, not appearing as a distress call.)

You even get the original package the deck came in:

Here’s how Aliperti describes the deck’s condition:

“A faint overall age toning throughout the deck which is otherwise a beautiful EX-MT or 7/10 deck of cards: No creasing, clean corners and edges.

“There is the occasional bit of faint soiling and, more likely, factory print marks such as on the Queen of Hearts, on which the red of the suit bleeds slightly by the card number, or the Queen of Diamonds, which has the same red “bleed” as well as a black print mark just left of Carole Lombard. The Joe E. Brown Joker shows slightly more wear than other cards, likely being top card inside the package and being exposed to a bit more friction that the rest. Call the Brown card EX+ or 6/10.

“Overall, a very clean deck that I don’t believe was ever used in play.”

Again, it’s available in its entirety for $108 at the URL above. As Shirley MacLaine told Jack Lemmon in “The Apartment” some 28 years after these cards were made, “Shut up and deal.”

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