In the 1920s Antoni Amatller (1851-1910), a Spanish and industrialist, came up with a brilliant idea to boost the sales of his chocolates. He produced a series of trading cards featuring film stars from the silent era and included them in packets of chocolates. These trading cards came to be known as Cine en Caramelos Amatller, or Cinema in Amatller Chocolates. For several years in the 1920s and 1930s, many Amatller trading card series were released. This post focuses on the 1920 Amatller Artistas de Cine Humoristica series.
Amattler Chocolates
Chocolates Amatller was a well-known chocolate company based in Barcelona, Spain. The company was founded in 1797 and became famous for its high-quality chocolate products.
The Series
The 1920 Amatller Artistas de Cine Humoristica trading card series features 40 of the most famous movie stars of the silent film era. These stars included actors such as Mary Pickford, Gloria Swanson, Charlie Chaplin and Rudolph Valentino, among many others (full checklist below). The cards were printed in diverse and bright colors on thin trading card stock.
The Popularity
The Cine en Caramelos Amatller trading cards were an instant hit with the public. Children and adults alike would buy packets of chocolates just to get their hands on these coveted trading cards. The popularity of the series continued well into the 1930s, even after the advent of talking films.
Rarity and Value
The 1920 Amatller Artistas de Cine Humoristica trading cards are now considered to be very rare and valuable collector’s items. This is due in part to the fact that they were only produced for a short period of time and were only available in limited quantities. In addition, the cards were often discarded by consumers after the chocolate had been consumed, further contributing to their rarity. Professional Sport Authenticators (PSA) have only graded 17 copies of these cards overall, which is incredibly low for an entire set of cards.
Today, the Cine en Caramelos Amatller trading cards are considered to be valuable collectors’ items. The series is highly sought after by film and card collectors alike. Complete sets of the trading cards are rare and can fetch high prices at auction.
Conclusion
The Cine en Caramelos Amatller trading card series is a unique and valuable piece of film history. The series is a reminder of a bygone era when silent films ruled the cinema. The trading cards are not just collectors’ items, but also a window into the past to the early days of cinema.
Checklist
| # | Name | Famous For | Born | City Born | Died |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Greta Garbo | Ninotchka | 1905 | Stockholm, Sweden | 1990 |
| 2 | Rudolph Valentino | The Sheik | 1895 | Castellaneta, Italy | 1926 |
| 3 | Douglas Fairbanks | The Mark of Zorro | 1883 | Denver, Colorado | 1939 |
| 4 | Lon Chaney | The Hunchback of Notre Dame, The Phantom of the Opera | 1883 | Colorado Springs, Colorado | 1930 |
| 5 | Norman Kerry | The Phantom of the Opera | 1894 | Rochester, New York | 1956 |
| 6 | ? | — | — | — | — |
| 7 | John Gilbert | The Big Parade | 1897 | Logan, Utah | 1936 |
| 8 | Tom Mix | Riders of the Purple Sage | 1880 | Mix Run, Pennsylvania | 1940 |
| 9 | Karl Dane | The Big Parade | 1886 | Copenhagen, Denmark | 1934 |
| 10 | Wallace Beery | The Champ | 1885 | Kansas City, Missouri | 1949 |
| 11 | Larry Semon | Spuds | 1889 | West Point, Mississippi | 1928 |
| 12 | Walter Hiers | Hard Boiled | 1893 | London, England | 1933 |
| 13 | ? | — | — | — | — |
| 14 | Ben Turpin | The Kid | 1869 | New Orleans, Louisiana | 1940 |
| 15 | Sessue Hayakawa | The Bridge on the River Kwai | 1889 | Chikura, Chiba, Japan | 1973 |
| 16 | Monte Blue | Orphans of the Storm | 1887 | Indianapolis, Indiana | 1963 |
| 17 | Richard Talmadge | The Freshman | 1892 | Hamburg, Germany | 1981 |
| 18 | Pola Negri | The Spanish Dancer | 1897 | Lipno, Poland | 1987 |
| 19 | Ramon Navarro | Ben-Hur | 1899 | Durango, Mexico | 1968 |
| 20 | Hoot Gibson | The Cowboy and the Lady | 1892 | Tekamah, Nebraska | 1962 |
| 21 | Renee Adoree | The Big Parade | 1898 | Lille, France | 1933 |
| 22 | Raquel Meller | La Violetera | 1888 | Tarazona, Spain | 1962 |
| 23 | Mary Pickford | Coquette | 1892 | Toronto, Canada | 1979 |
| 24 | John Barrymore | Grand Hotel | 1882 | Philadelphia, Pennsylvania | 1942 |
| 25 | George O’Brien | Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans | 1899 | San Francisco, California | 1985 |
| 26 | Gloria Swanson | Sunset Boulevard, Queen Kelly | 1899 | Chicago, Illinois | 1983 |
| 27 | Alice Terry | The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse | 1899 | Vincennes, Indiana | 1987 |
| 28 | Charles Ray | The Courtship of Miles Standish | 1891 | Jacksonville, Illinois | 1943 |
| 29 | Adolphe Menjou | The Sheik, A Woman of Paris | 1890 | Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania | 1963 |
| 30 | Mae Murray | The Merry Widow, The Delicious Little Devil | 1885 | Portsmouth, Virginia | 1965 |
| 31 | Fatty Arbuckle | The Bell Boy, Out West | 1887 | Smith Center, Kansas | 1933 |
| 32 | William Hart | The Toll Gate, The Captive | 1864 | Newburgh, New York | 1946 |
| 33 | Bobby Vernon | The Floor Below, The Battle of the Century | 1897 | Chicago, Illinois | 1939 |
| 34 | Georges Biscot | The Pawnshop, Easy Street | 1881 | Paris, France | 1949 |
| 35 | Reginald Denny | Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm, What Happened to Jones | 1891 | Richmond, Surrey, England | 1967 |
| 36 | Jackie Coogan | The Kid, Oliver Twist | 1914 | Los Angeles, California | 1984 |
| 37 | Lloyd Hamilton | Movie Crazy, Too Many Kisses | 1891 | Lima, Ohio | 1935 |
| 38 | Snub Pollard | It’s a Gift, A Perfect Lady | 1889 | Melbourne, Victoria, Australia | 1962 |
| 39 | Charlie Chaplin | City Lights, Modern Times | 1889 | London, England | 1977 |
| 40 | Harold Lloyd | Safety Last!, The Freshman | 1893 | Burchard, Nebraska | 1971 |