Arcade cowboys

Last year, we did a post on Arcade cards. These picture cards were issued from penny arcade vending machines located on seaside boardwalks of North America. The Arcade cards were manufactured by the Exhibit Supply Company of Chicago, which began issuing the cards in 1921 and continued to release new cards until 1966. During the 1920s, the Western was the most popular film genre for the young collectors of the Arcade cards. Now, these old cards give a glimpse of cowboy stars and silent films that were once popular and now seem to be forgotten.


American Arcade card by Ex. Sup Co., Chicago. Photo: Metropolitan William Boyd as Tom Kirby in The Last Frontier (Geoge B. Seitz, 1926).

William Boyd (1895-1972) was an American film actor, best known for his parts in Westerns. He has become known primarily as the performer of the cowboy Hopalong Cassidy in the eponymous film series.


American Arcade card by Ex. Sup. Co. (Exhibition Supply Company), Chicago. Photo: Universal. Jack Hoxie in The Back Trail (George Marshall, Cliford Smith, 1924).

John Hartford 'Jack" Hoxie (1885–1965) was an American rodeo performer and motion picture actor whose career was most prominent in the silent film era of the 1910s through the 1930s. Hoxie is best recalled for his roles in Westerns and rarely strayed from the genre.


American Arcade card by Ex. Sup. Co. (Exhibition Supply Company), Chicago. Jack Hoxie and Helen Holmes in Highwayman (1926).


American Arcade card by Ex. Sup. Co., Chicago. Photo: Paramount Pictures. Thomas Meighan in The Alaskan (Herbert Brenon, 1924).

Thomas Meighan (1879-1936) was an American stage and screen actor, noted for his films with directors William and Cecil B. DeMille.


American Arcade card by Ex. Sup. Co., Chicago. Caption: Dustin Farnum rounds up the crooks for the sheriff. We are unsure which Western this is.


American arcade card by Ex. Sup. Co., Chicago. Photo: Famous Players-Lasky. Jack Holt, Elliott Dexter, and Ann Little in The Squaw Man (Cecil B. DeMille, 1918).

Jack Holt, originally Charles John Holt Jr. (1888–1951), was an American motion-picture actor in both silent and sound movies, particularly Westerns.

Elliott Dexter (1870-1941) was an American film and stage actor. Dexter started his career in Vaudeville and did not move to films until he was 45, in 1915. Almost all of his films he did with Paramount, being a regular in the cast of Cecil B. DeMille's films, such as A Romance of the Redwoods (1917) with Mary Pickford, Don't Change Your Husband (1919) with Gloria Swanson, Something to Think About (1920) again with Swanson, and The Affairs of Anatol (1921) with Swanson and Wallace Reid. He also acted e.g. opposite Colleen More in Flaming Youth (1923). Dexter retired from acting in 1925. He was briefly married to actress Marie Doro, with whom he had acted in films as well.


American arcade card by Ex. Sup. Co., Chicago. Caption: Cowboy Cooties. It is unclear to which Western this refers.


American Arcade postcard. Photo: Paramount. Charles de Rochefort or Charles Roche in Law of the Lawless (Victor Fleming, 1923).

Charles de Rochefort (1887-1952) was a star of the French silent cinema. He appeared in 34 films between 1911 and 1932. In 1923 he went to the US and made several films in Hollywood. After his return to France, he became a film director of sound films.


American Arcade card by Sup. Co., Chicago. Photo: William Fox Productions. Wiliam Farnum in The Orphan (J. Gordon Edwards, 1920).

American actor William Farnum (1876-1953) was one of the first major movie stars. From 1914 to 1925, Farnum was one of the biggest sensations in Hollywood, earning $10,000 a week. Farnum's silent pictures include the westerns The Spoilers (1914) - which culminates in a spectacular saloon fistfight, Drag Harlan (1920), and the drama-adventure If I Were King (1921).


American Arcade postcard by Ex.[Exhibit] Sup[ply]. Co., Chicago, USA, 1928.

Kermit Roosevelt 'Tex' Maynard (1897–1971) was an American stuntman, actor, and performer, who often worked as a stand-in for his brother cowboy hero Ken Maynard and other actors. later he became a star in minor Westerns.


American Arcade postcard by Ex. Sup. Co., Chicago. Ricardo Cortez in The Pony Express (James Cruze, 1925).

Ricardo Cortez (1900-1977), born Jacob Krantz or Kranze, was an American screen actor and director, who peaked in the 1920s as Paramount's romantic lover opposite the big female stars of the decade, while in the 1930s he rather played tough men such as the first Sam Spade on the screen.


American Arcade card by Ex. Sup. Co. (Exhibition Supply Company), Chicago. Caption: Prisoner Trying to Escape from Jack Hoxie, Western Ranger.


American Arcade card by Ex. Sup. Co. (Exhibition Supply Company). Caption: Jack Hoxie. Caught by the Sheriff.


American Arcade card. Photo: Universal Production. William Desmond in The Ace of Spades (Henry MacRae, 1925).

William Desmond (1878–1949) was an American actor, who appeared in 205 films between 1915 and 1948. He was nicknamed "The King of the Silent Serials" and acted in numerous Westerns.


American Arcade card by Exhibit Supply Co., Chicago. Caption: William Desmond, Having a Little Gun-play with the Sheriff.

Sources: Wikipedia and Sports Collectors Digest.