Cigarette Card Stars (9) : Veronica Rose

Actress Veronica Rose appeared in thirteen films starting with Just Smith (1933) and finally The Dark Road in 1948. She also had a successful stage career. She was born in Edinburgh in 1911 and died in Oxford in 1968. Although she maybe did not make it as a major star she was presented at Court and attended the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art.

Cigarette Card Stars (8) : Nona Casty

Nona Casty was a French dancer and actress known for her roles on stage in the Paris shows and also French films. That is according to the text on the back of this Ardath card anyway, searching IMDB or even Google for Nona Casty does not seem to return much! It seems like "Casty" was short for something, if you have any more details please let me know!

Cigarette Card Stars (5) : Kitty Reidy

"Our picture shows this charming young English actress in the costume she wore in last season's production at the Grand Theatre, Leeds of the pantomime 'Goody Two Shoes'. Kitty Reidy has had considerable experience on the stage in this country, and her talent and sparkling performances have assured her a great reception from audiences in all parts of the country."

Kitty appeared in a number of shows in the 1930s and 1940s from Mother Goose in 1934 and Robin Hood in 1947.

Cigarette Card Stars (4) : Betty Crocker

"Betty Crocker is one of England's most photographed girls. She has the distinction of possessing an extraordinary number of hobbies, but admits that her favourite sports are the strenuous ones of swimming and tennis, at each of which she is expert. Miss Crocket is justly proud of her delightful figure, and spares no efforts to keep herself in perfect physical trim."

Well in the late 1930s she may have been one of "England's most photographed girls" but trying to find information about her now is rather difficult, one major reason for that though is she shared her name with a famous American food brand! But if you know more about Betty Crocker the English well photographed girl let us know!

Cigarette Card Stars (3) : Paula DeCardo

"Paramount's lovely chorus girls are admired for their perfect figures and features. One of thge loveliest of them all is Paula De Cardo, a dark-haired young beauty who possesses also a considerable ability in acting for the screen. Her talents in this direction are well borne in mind, and it is more than likely Paula will be one of the stars of the future."

Unfortunately Paula never became one of the stars of the future. She was born in Chicago in 1916, the daughter of the well known dancing team Paul and Perla DeCardo. She made her film debut in 1932's Jewel Robbery, afterwards studying dancing in Paris to hone her skills. She appeared in dozens of films in the late 1930s though always in minor roles. She was also a highly respected ballerina in Los Angeles.

But she died young, at the age of 26 in 1942, her last film being 1940's "Good Old Schooldays".

Cigarette Card Stars (2) : Joy Hodges

"Joy has appeared in a number of films, her latest being Universal's 'Service de Luxe' released by General Film Distributors Ltd. Every morning she takes a plunge into the El Mirador pool at Palm Springs, for she believes in swimming for the figure."

The mention of Service de Luxe dates the card to 1938, one of two films she appeared in that year. Joy was born in Des Moines, Iowa in 1915. She made her screen debut in 1935 and appeared in a number of films in the late 1930s as either a singer or actor including appearing with Fred Astair in Follow the Fleet (1936). She also appeared in a number of Broadway musicals and made some TV appearances in the 1950s and early 1960s.

Her main claim to fame is helping Ronald Reagan become a movie star whom she knew in Des Moines when he was a sportscaster. When he later met her in Hollywood, she helped him get started in the acting game. Their friendship continued, and when Reagan was the President, she was a frequent guest at the White House. Joy died in 2003.

Cigarette Card Stars (1) : Janet Shaw

This new series looks at some of the stars featured on Ardath cigarette cards from the 1930s.  

"Janet Shaw, whose real name is Ellen Claney, was given a film contract by Warner Bros. in 1938. She appeared in the film "The Sisters" and also in "Torchy Blane in Chinatown" with Glenda Farrell. Has golden hair, a delicate complexion and vivacious features."

So it says on the rear of the card. Born in Nebraska in 1919, she made her uncredited film debut in 1935's "She married her boss". She appeared in dozens of films in the late 1930s and 1940s when her career hit it's high, appearing in films such as Bela Lugosi's Night Monster (1942), Alfred Hitchcock's Shadow of a Doubt (1943) and the Charlie Chan film Dark Alibi (1946). However, she was never able to break out of being a supporting actress and into stardom, but her list of films is certainly very impressive.

In the early 1950s she appeared in a number of early TV programmes, her last screen appearance being in City Detective in 1955. She died in 2001 in Nebraska.

Cigarette Card Stars : An introduction

In the days before smoking was considered bad for you (or at least no one cared much if it was), cigarette packets came with cards to collect. Parents often giving the cards (which could cover any number of topics) to their children to collect. The cards nowadays can be highly valuable and tended to be collected by adults! The Ardath Tobacco Company released a number of card series on up and coming stars (or hopefuls in any event) of film and stage, we will be looking at some of these cards and the starlets portrayed on them in an upcoming series.

Type sketch art

Humans have always found ways to use and push technology in ways never originally intended, especially to create art. Human ingenuity has enabled for example music to be created using the clicks and whirrs of a floppy disk drive, in earlier times expert use of the typewriter was used to create artworks. The use of typewriters to create images goes back to the earliest days of the typewriter in the late nineteenth century.

It can still be done nowadays but the heyday was undoubtedly when millions of people daily used typewriters for work in the first half of the twentieth century. One example from the early 1930s was a competition in the New Movie Magazine for typists to recreate photographs of movie stars using their typewriting skills in this case Greta Garbo.

Golden Age (15) : Murder in the Bookshop

Carolyn Wells' "Murder in the Bookshop" is about the solving of two crimes: the murder of a book collector and the theft of a valuable book. It is also a fascinating insight into the world of wealthy bibliophiles in 1930s New York, with their private libraries and insatiable needs for rare classics.

As this is a fairly typical Golden Age story the crimes committed are quite unfathomable and the police are clueless, thus private detective Fleming Stone is bought in to solve the intricate crimes.

Overall the story is a bit mundane and drags at the start however it does finally get going and even includes some kidnappings, fake deaths and mysterious goings on by a man in a cape. Though remains pretty implausible. No one committed simple crimes in the Golden Age!

The characters such as Fleming Stone are not fleshed out in any way, which is a shame and does make the story hard to love.

Decent but not great.

Golden Age (13) : Weekend at Thrackley

Better known as a broadcaster Alan Melville wrote a number of novels in the 1930s including the already reviewed Quick Curtain and this novel which is another witty crime caper. Weekend at Thrackley is pure Golden Age, crimes take place in a country house and are solved by plucky amateurs helped by the police.

What makes Thrackley stand out is the intriguing nature of the crimes, although murders do take place the main focus of the story is jewel theft and forgery. The latter takes place in a secret underground lair, like a prototype Bond villain base.

There are many things to enjoy and intrigue in this story, one being the presence of our hero Jim. Why he has been invited to the house as he isn't rich or famous like the other guests is a mystery that keeps one guessing right to the end.

Golden Age (10) : The Secret of High Eldersham

The Secret of High Eldersham by Miles Burton starts off a typical detective murder story in a small East Anglian village. As its a Golden Age story the police inspector is assisted by his friend who is of course an enthusiastic amateur. So far so good... then suddenly we are in a tale of witchcraft, black magic and forbidden rituals.

A few chapters later the story changes tack again (actually literally) as it becomes a mystery set in the littorals near the village, in lagoons along the coast.

All these aspects of the story are linked and come together reasonably well in the end. The pacing goes a bit off at times and the genre switching can make you think the author was a bit confused but this was one of his earlier novels. The amateur detective Merrion went on to appear in fifty nine further stories!

Telephone Jukebox

Whilst watching the 1942 movie X Marks the Spot the other day I was taken by surprise by a rather interesting piece of technology in the movie. In a bar a man walks up to a large jukebox in the corner and puts in a coin. Instead of manually choosing a record he spoke into a microphone and was connected to an operator in a central office. Then his choice of record was found and put on a turntable, the music then piped to the jukebox in the bar.

These Telephone Jukebox systems ran in a number of US cities for a while in the mid-twentieth century including Manhattan (setting in the film). Music was transmitted over premium quality phone lines to the jukebox and while not what we would consider high quality these days was probably sufficient bandwidth for a 78rpm record.

Rock-Ola was the producer of such a device, the rather fine looking Mystic Music Jukebox. The central office served up to thirty jukeboxes. The Rock-Ola boxes also had up to twenty records stored inside it locally so users wouldn't always have to use the remote service (the machine in the movie seems to have a list on the front of it, maybe these were the records stored on it). The key advantage of a telephone jukebox being, of course, the much wider range of music that was available, from a few dozen held locally to a few hundred [1].

One of the most successful of these devices was the Multiphone by Kenneth C. Shyvers which at one stage had eight thousand machines in use. This system required two dedicated phone lines, one to speak to the operator (based in Seattle) and the other for the music [2]. These systems began to appear in the US in the late 1930s and survived in cities like Washington until the late 1950s. By then the improved technology of 45rpm singles (which of course had better sound quality than 78s and also were more compact) rendered the Telephone Jukebox (which wasn't a cheap system to run) obsolete.

Scenes from the movie

The operators look for a record 

A considerable collection of 78s

[1] Barry Ulavov, "The Jukes take over swing", American Mercury (October 1940) p. 177
[2] Gert J. Almind, Coin-Op Telephone Music <http://juke-box.dk/gert-telephone-music.htm>

The British Bus (2) : Rise of the motorbus

As we saw in part 1 of this history of the British Bus the first buses in the early nineteenth century were horse drawn, being a development of the earlier stagecoach. From 1861 until 1896 government legislation virtually banned the use of self-powered road vehicles but the law was changed in 1896 and within months experimental motor bus services were operating. The first such bus in London ran between Kennington and Oxford Circus in 1899, in 1902 the London Road Car Company began to motorise it's fleet [3]. The changeover in London was dramatic, motorbuses went from just four in 1900 to two thousand, seven hundred and sixty one in 1915 when the final horse buses were withdrawn.

In 1910 London General introduced the B Class which was the first of a long line of standard London motor buses. London General was an early driver of the new transport technology, in 1925 they introduced a double decker with a covered top deck (though the first large scale introduction was in Birmingham, see below) and in 1927 a bus with pneumatic tyres - something the authorities were reluctant to allow for some time due to fears of tyres exploding and harming pedestrians.

As with the horse buses in the mid-nineteenth century, the motorbus market was highly competitive and cut throat in the 1920s. Many bus companies were started up by returning servicemen though as the decade wore on these smaller companies began to be swallowed up by a small number of larger firms such as Tilling and National. In the larger cities municipally owned fleets dominated, such as the fleet in Liverpool which started operation in 1911 [4]. In Birmingham buses were operated by Birmingham Corporation Tramways, which later changed it's name to Birmingham City Transport, from 1913. They introduced the AEC 504 in 1924 the first bus with a covered top deck [5]. This was the beginning of the classic British double decker, a type which still dominates bus fleets to this day.

The 1930 Road Traffic Act bought new regulation to the motor bus market which saw the elimination of many smaller companies. Outside of London and the other cities with their municipal owned networks Tilling and BET dominated the market. In 1933 London bus services were nationalised in all but name with the formation of the London Passenger Transport Board. More nationalisation was to come.

Preserved B Type bus B340 at London Transport Museum

Leyland LB at Tottenham Court Road, public domain image [1]

Milnes-Daimler bus in London, public domain image [2]

Preserved LNWR Charabanc coach at London Transport Museum

[1] https://www.flickr.com/photos/stockholmtransportmuseum_commons/6081778421/
[2] https://www.flickr.com/photos/library_of_congress/27877941045/
[3] Philip Bagwell & Peter Lyth, Transport in Britain 1750-2000 (Hambledon, 2002) p. 116
[4] Martin Jenkins & Charles Roberts, Merseyside Transport Recalled (Ian Allan, 2014) p. 4
[5] Malcom Keeley, Birmingham Buses Route by Route 1924-1975 (Ian Allan, 2012) p. 7

Golden Age (6) : The Z Murders

The Z Murders by J. Jefferson Farjeon (published in 1932) is more a chase story than a detective story, though certainly has plenty of mystery. The main action in the story takes place in just a day or so on a frantic chase across the country but you are never quite sure if the protagonists are chasing the shadowy villain responsible for a number of murders or the ones being chased...

The villain is a sinister serial killer who isn't unveiled until late in the story. It is all starts fast paced, exciting... and quite frankly ridiculous. Before long the story starts to drag as start to forget exactly why the characters are racing around the country.

Well just imagine some classic chase music while you read it, it helps a lot. The ending is dramatic, the story is worth persevering with.

Golden Age (5) : The Nursing Home Murder

The Nursing Home Murder by Ngaio Marsh (with some medical advice from Dr Henry Jellett) has all the makings of a superb read. It combines a murder mystery with a medical operating theatre drama and even a bit of politics thrown in! It doesn't quite succeed. It is a good novel though at the end you are thinking it could have been so much more considering the ingredients in the recipe.

Chief Inspector Alleyn was Marsh's best known character who appeared in no less than thirty two novels (this was the third). Alleyn is an interesting character: a gentleman inspector with the Met but also able to mingle with the underworld (Communists in the case of this book!)

Unlike many Golden Age novels with their enthusiastic amateur detectives this book features solid police work including under cover and a crime reconstruction. There are a couple of enthusiastic amateurs who Alleyn calls upon for a bit of help, they are pretty annoying but luckily do not dominate proceedings.

Golden Age (4) : Quick Curtain

"Quick Curtain" by Alan Melville is another long-lost Golden Age detective novel republished by the British Library. Alan Melville is better known as a broadcaster and playwright but he also wrote a number of novels including crime stories in the 1930s. The theatre is where this book is set, the murder taking place during a performance where the fake bullet in a stage shooting is switched for a real one.

Inspector Wilson is set to solve the case with the help of hid adventurous and frequently scolded son. The book is a witty delight, not to be taken too seriously as a crime novel but works much better when you accept this is more a satire on showbusiness.

That is not to say the book hasn't got a decent plot and some interesting sleuthing. Credulity is stretched a bit far though but you don't mind because of the enjoyable way the story has been put together.

Golden Age (3) : The Lake District Murder

Theatre director and producer Ernest Elmore wrote thirty detective novels under the name John Bude of which The Lake District Murder was one of the earliest. It was first published in 1935 and recently has been republished as part of the British Library Crime Classics series.

The Lake District Murder is the earliest Meredith story, the Inspector appearing in most of Bude's novels. In this case Meredith investigates the apparent suicide of the owner of a remote roadside petrol station in the Lake District. As the case progresses we see that it was murder not suicide and wrapped up in a complicated plot involving illegal whisky stills.

As a detective novel The Lake District Murder works very well. Meredith is meticulous and thorough though sometimes the novel goes into a little too much detail. The part of the investigation that involves weights and measures for example could probably have done with a little heavy editing!

For a second novel though it is excellent work. Bude manages to portray the geography of the setting very well. The Lake District becomes one of the principal characters indeed.

Golden Age (2) : Murder Underground

The British Library have re-published dozens of Golden Age crime novels, many by authors now largely forgotten. Mavis Doriel Hay wrote three crime novels in the mid-1930s of which this, Murder Underground, was the first.

Like many Golden Age authors her career was cut short by the Second World War and the chaos caused during and after it and she never added to her three novels post-war. Though she did write some non-fiction books in the 1950s and 1970s.

Her first novel Murder Underground, which deals with the investigation (largely by amateurs) of the murder of a woman at Belsize Park tube station, can be best thought of as "promising". The set-up of the story is well done and interesting but unfortunately the story meanders a bit too much with the characters being rather one-dimensional and mostly unlikeable.

Towards the end of the book though it really starts to pick up once the story seems to get some direction and the ending is excellent, it is just a shame the earlier two-thirds of the book are a bit lacking.

Overall though a good enough read, and it has a lovely painting of a 1938 Tube Stock train on the cover!

The railway stations on the Monopoly board

Surely many games of Monopoly were played over Christmas? On the traditional London board the railway stations are Fenchurch Street, Marylebone, Liverpool Street and Kings Cross. This is quite an unusual selection, why not Euston and Waterloo for example? The answer may be when the British board game manufacturer Waddingtons bought the right to the game from a US company in 1935 they headed down from their headquarters in Leeds to London to look for suitable locations.

All four stations they chose are LNER stations which may be no coincidence. They would have arrived in London at Kings Cross and may have seen signs for the company's other stations (or just stuck with their local company!)

Marylebone

Liverpool Street

Kings Cross

Fenchurch Street