Collectibles: Tom Tyler Polonia Films movie heralds

Law of the Plains, 1929, Polonia Films

Movie heralds for Tom Tyler westerns can be a rarity, however, probably the most sought after ones are printed by Polonia Films. What makes these Polish language heralds a true curiosity is that they were most likely manufactured in Spain.

It is believed that Polonia Films was owned by Z. de L. Bakanowski, who was born in 1899 and entered the film industry in 1926. According to a brief biography in Kinematograph Year Book 1946, Bakanowski based Polonia Films out of Madrid, Spain, one of the nation's publishing hubs. He also represented the Association of Polish Film Producers in Spain. An astute businessman, he was a managing director of several other companies including B.M.D. Ltd, which oversaw the exchange of films between the United Kingdom and continental Europe. Not much else is known about Bakanowski or Polonia Films although some examples of these movie heralds do appear online and periodically show up on auction sites.

Each Polonia Films movie herald is 7” x 5 ½” in size, printed on the front and back, usually in monochrome although sometimes with a different color used in the background, as shown in the movie herald for “The Man from New Mexico” (1932). While these heralds are few and far between they do make a nice addition to any Tom Tyler collection.

The Man from New Mexico, Polonia Films

Collectibles: Tom Tyler on the R423 movie cards

 When it comes to collecting small movie cards, the ones manufactured by Cloetta (1 1/8” x 2") and De Beukelaer (1 1/16” x 2") can certainly be counted among them. Yet there is one even smaller in size, smaller than one inch, tiny yet highly collectible. Known as the R423 strip cards, these were printed in a series of 13 different cards on a single strip, issued with bubblegum starting in 1950.  Measuring 5/8" x 7/8" in size, baseball players as well as actors were issued in these small accordion strips of collectible paper. For the baseball players, each card was numbered, a total of 120 different cards printed, while the total number for the actors is unknown, but well over 84 for the black and white cards, and over 34 for the color cards. 

The backs of the black and white cards were orange in color and bear a silhouette of a seated man operating a film projector, while the color cards depict the same against a purple background. The color cards ones are of different portraits of the actor compared to the black and white one, as can be seen from the ones with Tom Tyler.

Other actors who appear on the R423 movie cards include: Charles Starrett, Red Skelton, Rita Hayworth, Jane Russell, and Desi Arnaz.

Collectibles: Tom Tyler on the R96-3 movie card

One of the rarer Tom Tyler collectible color movie cards is from the R96-3 set, issued around 1938 or 1939. These cards were originally issued as panels or sheets measuring 6" x 8" containing six different stars in two rows of three, often with a film genre for each panel. For the R96-3 panel that contains a full-color photo of Tom Tyler as Sundown Saunders from “Powdersmoke Range” (1935), the theme is western stars. There are a minimum of seventeen known different panels of Hollywood stars on them. When cut from the panels, each card measures 2 ½” x 3 1/8” in size. The backs of the cards are blank with no identifying manufacturer. At least 64 cards in the set were issued, and some of the cards printed appear on more than one panel, or as duplicates in the set. Other Hollywood star who appeared in the R96-3 series include William Boyd, Hoot Gibson, Buck Jones, Dean Jagger, and Sally Payne.