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Posted By: Joann

Rich,

Great question. I've always wondered the same thing about the explosion in about 1909 give or take a year. I also think it's a bit odd that it was almost simultaneous as to caramel and tobacco - two very different industries.

Yes, it could be argued that it started successfully with one and the other followed suit, but it is a pretty short and aggressive time frame for that. It would require that one industry include cards, have it be instantly and noticeably successful in increasing sales, "buzz", or both and then the other industry instantly deciding to do the same. That's a lot to have happen in a year or less.

I've often wondered if the whole thing wasn't actually started by a printer, not a tobacco or caramel company. A printer is common to both/all industries, and could have easily came up with the idea and made some samples. There could have been lots of samples of various sizes for various products, but I wouldn't be surprised if they made a size that targeted cigarettes and caramels, both with similar size packages. Then after they took off the other industries used the same size even though it wasn't necessary to use that size (Sporting Life, etc).

But still - I have always had a half-baked idea that a printer in the early 20th century revived the idea from the late 1880's and sold it to the tobacco and candy folks.

How did it start in the 1880's? Who knows. But everyone agrees that the cards were put in cigarette packs as stiffeners. Maybe there were always cardboard stiffeners in cigarettes, but they had always been just blank cardboard and someone got the bright idea to put a picture on them.

I don't know if the cards were still pack stiffeners in the 1910's, or if there were blank stiffeners in the packs at that time before the card revival. Has anyone found old packs with blank cardboard stiffeners?

I'm kind of sticking with the printer-generated idea, at least for now.


Joann