Card collections

[Amy Reusch]

RG, I've often enjoyed perusing the card collections you post.

There was some discussion of ballet trading cards today at a talk with Terry Teachout and Francis Mason at the Wadsworth.

I immediately thought of your collections.

Someone in the audience brought up that there were ballet trading cards, that when one bought a pair of pointe shoes a card was included. I'd never heard of this and wondered who the images were of (unfortunately when I had a chance to ask, my mind had wandered to something else). The person who mentioned this looked like if she had purchased pointe shoes, it had been at least a decades before my time. I've always assumed your cards were souvenirs of the theaters in Russia. Do you think these trading cards she was referring to might have been Russian? Or are you aware of an American equivalent. And do they still publish cards like this at the Maryinski?

I remember Eliot Feld having including trading cards in his programmes one year at the Joyce... I don't think he kept it up, but I've often wished every company did this.

[rg]

i don't have too many details for answering your question, amy, but i do have the card [attached here] and am adding the link below, to allow access to my 'album' of cards called 'variations on postcards'

i have come across a few 'trading card' varieties of ballet figures, including some odd ones from imperial russia, with space for writing on the back, one owner used the word 'trading card' but w/o any real explication as to what that meant in early 20th c. russia.

it seems in the 60s(?) Time/Life had a series of trading cards and tho' these covered a variety of subjects there were four at least from the ballet world, they're still around: one showed Romola and Vatslav Nijinsky, one the Bolshoi theater, one Balanchine rehearsing J. d'Amboise and one of Sol Hurok. (Each of these has some informational text on the back - including a gaffe about on the Bolshoi card that assumed the Kirov theater was also in Moscow.)

the baronova/capezio card here, might well be the one referred to at the talk. the writing is not added later but part of the printing of the card. i thought i had another one from this series but can't seem to find it, so perhaps i hallucinate...

here's the link to a selection of differently sized and intended cards:

http://www.picturetrail.com/gallery/view?p...624&uid=1471587

[Jane Simpson]

I recently acquired a set of 12 cards called 'Lovely Young Dancers of 1960' - photos of (female) dancers of the era, mostly from the Royal Ballet. They have well-written biographies on the back but there is absolutely no indication of where they came from. I've wondered if they were trading cards of some kind, or maybe just given away with some magazine.

[Amy Reusch]

What fun. I think the shoe companies should be prevailed upon to do this again. After all, printing expenses must be much much less than when these cards were produced, don't you think? Paging Gaynor Minden!

[Mel Johnson]

For what it's worth, the original photo from which the Baronova card was made hung framed at the Capezio store in NYC for years, along with many others.

[Amy Reusch]

Oh how I wish the Balanchine centennial had been celebrated with trading cards. A card for each piece in the repertory? Heaven knows Costas has probably got a great photo of a memorable moment for most of the work, judging by the Balanchine calendars published yearly. What if you got one in your programme every time a Balanchine work was on the bill? It would be fun to collect them all.

[ViolinConcerto]

here's the link to a selection of differently sized and intended cards:

http://www.picturetrail.com/gallery/view?p...624&uid=1471587

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rg, I know this is an old post, but the link requires a password, and I was wondering if there is still a way to view those images. I am intrigued. Thanks.

[rg]

if you could tell me, amy, which cards you're interested in seeing i'll try to post the album in question, minus the normally necessary password.

i've move things around since first posting this commentary and the baronova is no longer in the album it was in when i first posted this.

[ViolinConcerto]

Hi rg -- Actually, I'm not Amy - my nom-de-Ballet Talk is "ViolinConcerto" and I just started using the Boards. I'm a NYCBallet Volunteer with a particular interest in the Ballet Russes, especially Nijinsky and MK. So I guess just seeing ANYTHING is a plus. I liked the images of Afshin -- an old favorite of mine. He was back in NYC for a time (haven't seen him recently) but was a fishing/wildlife guide for a while in Idaho. (for the moderator: that's what he told me once on the promenade.)

Thanks!

[Helene]

He was back in NYC for a time (haven't seen him recently) but was a fishing/wildlife guide for a while in Idaho.  (for the moderator:  that's what he told me once on the promenade.) 

This information was previously published which is why it can stay, but "that's what he told me once on the promenade" pretty much sums up our definition of unofficial news.

[rg]

apologies, violinc. i misread amy's name in this thread as that for your post.

here's a link to one of my albums, the one with the baronova card noted here. it's a real grab-bag; no identifying theme except that these are photocards of dancers outside russia - most of my pix document russian dancers in russia at the time of the photo.

[fyi: THE DANCING TIMES has plans to run some of my photocards in its Nov. issue]

in any case here's a link to one of my 'albums' of scanned images, there is no password necessary for now.

http://www.picturetrail.com/gallery/view?p...925&uid=1471587

[Mel Johnson]

I just came up with the mental image of some seedy-looking little guy lurking around the base of the Circus Ladies in a big overcoat which he opens to reveal ballet trading cards, and hisses, "Psst! Ballet postcards?"

[ViolinConcerto]

Thanks for the link rg; OK, Helene, now I get it!