Tom Tyler

January 15, 2023

Identifying film scenes from arcade/exhibit cards and reconstructing film plots and synopses

Arcade and exhibit cards have a fascinating history of their own – they were originally manufactured by Exhibit Supply Company in Chicago and distributed through vending machines for a penny per card. These cards would often be tinted in different colors ranging from red to blue, green, purple, even aqua. Many arcade and exhibit cards dating back to the late 1920’s and 1930’s would depict film scenes in addition to portraits of actors and actresses. Sometimes these film scenes might bear just the star’s name but not the film they were from. For example, here is an arcade card from my personal collection bearing the following print:“Tom Tyler helps Buddy capture the bandit”Tom Tyler in “The Wyoming Wildcat” 1925Buddy here…

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