R94 Movie Stars and Scenes (Babe Ruth) Set and Checklist

Posted on September 8, 2016 by Pre-War Cards

‘It’s In The Details’

Title	R94 Movie Stars and Scenes
Year	Unknown
Size	R94-1: 2 3/8″ x 2 7/8″ and R94-2: 1 7/8″ x 3 1/8″
Images	Color Tint
Type	Candy/Gum
Number in Set	Varies (two sets)

R94 Movie Stars and Scenes Overview

Ruth R94.jpg R94 Boxing The R94 Movie Stars and Scenes set is largely a non-sports issue. Two Babe Ruth cards, though, make it an issue of interest, however.

Ruth has two cards in the set from his movie, “Babe Comes Home.” One card features Ruth in a room with policemen and the other depicts him with a baseball team. His appearance on the cards is not exactly clear cut and could easily be missed. They are easily the most desirable cards in the series.

In addition to the Ruth cards, a pair of boxing cards are in the set, too. Unlike almost all of the others in the set, there is no title of a movie or caption on the boxing cards. However, they are from the silent 1927 film, The Patent Leather Kid. That is evident because, on one of the boxing cards, a trainer is shown with that name on his shirt. The movie stars Richard Barthelmess, among others, and Barthelmess was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actor.

Two R94 sets exist. Both sets include cards in a variety of color tints and it is believed that all cards probably were printed in all of the color tint combinations. The two sets have different cards and different dimensions, though. The first set, R94-1, features cards that are closer to square in appearance. R94-2 has more rectangular and longer cards. Both the Ruth cards and the boxing cards are from the R94-1 issue.

The cards are catalogued by Jefferson Burdick in the American Card Catalog as R94, making them a later candy issue. However, the cards are strip cards and could also be catalogued as W-Cards. Because they are strip cards and were hand cut, they generally have uneven edges. The name of the gum/candy product that Burdick apparently believed they were a part of is not known.

Regarding the dating of this set, while it is often labeled as a 1933 set by grading companies, many collectors believe it was printed in 1929 as most of the movies featured were from 1928 or 1929, according to this site.