1926 Amatller Chocolate Film Stars in Private Set

Posted on November 29, 2016 by Pre-War Cards

‘It’s In The Details’

Title	Amatller Chocolate Film Stars in Private (series A and B)
Year	1926
Size	2 7/8″ x 4 1/4″
Images	Sepia
Type	Caramel/Candy
Number in Set	80 (?)

1926 Amatller Chocolate Film Stars in Private Overview

Little is known about the 1926 Amatller Chocolate set, called, ‘Los Artistas Cinematograficos en la Intimidad.’ Roughly translated, that means ‘The cinematic artists in private.’ The set appears to be a behind the scenes sort of issue featuring movie stars. At least two series’ of the set were made – Series A and Series B.

Chocolates Amatller, a Spanish candy company, also created several other sets featuring athletes in the 1920s, but this is primarily a non-sports issue. Many of those other sets are not nearly as scarce as this 1926 Amatller Chocolate release is and you can regularly find Amatller Chocolate boxing cards relatively easily. These cards, however, are more plentiful outside of the United States. The company has been in business for more than 200 years and still makes chocolates today.

This 1926 set included a variety of movie stars and was primarily a non-sports issue. At least one athlete was featured here, however, as Red Grange is included in the set as card No. 11 as a promotional picture from his movie that year, “One Minute to Play.” It featured the football star along with American actress Marion Davies. The card is black and white with a description of both Grange and Davies on the back. Another candy company, Shotwell Candy, also featured cards with Grange from that movie in a 24-card set.

Grange’s card is titled, ‘An Original Autograph’ (translated) as the picture appears to show Davies autographing an item for Grange.

The Grange 1926 Amatller Chocolate Grange card is rare, but can be found from time to time on eBay and in auctions. Ironically, Grange is cited as a baseball champion instead of mentioning his football merits. Grange, of course, starred in numerous sports in high school, including baseball, football, and basketball.

Much of the reason for the rarity of the issue is that it was produced only in Spain. American football was only catching on here and outside of North America, it was virtually nonexistent. That there would have been few of these cards produced isn’t surprising.

1926 Amatller Chocolate Film Stars in Private Checklist

Grange is the only football card in the set and only appears here because of his work on film. The rest of the issue is either entirely or almost entirely a non-sports set. One exception to that is an actress with a tennis racket.

I have seen cards as high as No. 39 and believe that each of the two series includes 40 cards. That would give us a total of 80 for the entire set.