Among the collectible movie card sets manufactured within the last fifty years is Riders of the Silver Screen. Manufactured by Smokey Mountain Knife Works in Sevierville, Tennessee in 1993, each card measures 2 1/2” x 3 ½” in size, the standard baseball card size. A parade of western stars receives several cards dedicated to their most noteworthy films in the Riders of the Silver Screen Series 1 set, The front of each card contains a scene from a popular film, while the back of each card contains an interesting fact or two about the western star, including birth and death dates, place of birth, real name, and blurb about the star’s film career. Each card has a red border with a second border in the form of a film reel with the film itself forming a frame around a movie poster of some type: a film still, lobby card, half-sheet, or one sheet. While a full color palette is used, the Riders of the Silver Screen Series 1 leans to the natural colors of the southwest.
Series 1 of Riders of the Silver Screen contains six movie cards that Tom Tyler appears on and are numbered consecutively. The card numbers and film scenes are as follows:
277 – The Phantom of the West
278 – The Texas Tornado
279 – Santa Fe Bound
280 – War of the Range
281 – Lost Ranch
282 – Gauchos of El Dorado
Smokey Mountain Knife Works has been in operation since 1978 and is best known for selling pocketknives and owning a major knife showplace. The company also manufactures knives decorated with western stars as part of their “Riders of the Silver Screen” series.
Other western stars who appear on Riders of the Silver Screen Series 1 include: Monte Hale, George O’Brien, Rex Allen, and Gene Autry.
