Even as the American frontier faded with the setting sun in the late 19th century, early mythmakers started to spin a romantic vision of the West populated by straight, strong heroes who could do no evil. As early as 1873 dime novelist Ned Buntline had cajoled real-life Army scouts Buffalo Bill Cody, Wild Bill Hickok and Texas Jack Omohundro into headlining his touring production Scouts of the Plains. The stage shows played especially well to Eastern audiences, and the tobacco industry soon found a means of exploiting the Western myth to move more product.
For years cigarette makers had been inserting cardboard stiffeners into their flimsy paper packs. But with the introduction of chromolithography in 1875 Richmond-based Allen & Ginter transformed its blank stiffeners into colorful cards printed with images of baseball players, Indian chiefs and the like. Other firms followed suit, and the modern-day trading card was born. Among the popular early subjects was Cody, who in 1883 founded his celebrated Wild West traveling exhibition. Buffalo Bill carried his vision of the mythic West through the turn of the century and passed the torch to early filmmakers eager to replicate his success.
By 1909 Cody had returned from his eighth European tour, and the Western film genre was set to explode with such stars as Tom Mix, Hoot Gibson and William S. Hart. By then American Tobacco Co. had lassoed most of the domestic tobacco market. But founder James Buchanan Duke was always fishing for new sales gimmicks, and that year in packs of Hassan cigarettes his company introduced the Cowboy Series of tobacco cards depicted below. What set them apart were the authentic subject matter and entertaining descriptions, from which we’ve drawn the accompanying captions. The set that cost a nickel a card in 1909 now sells for $150 and up.
Happy hunting! WW
Dave Lauterborn has been managing editor of Wild West since 2008 and a trading card collector since the third grade.
A NICKEL A PACK
Around the turn of the 20th century a body could buy a 10-pack of Hassan Cork Tip Cigarettes for a nickel — one-quarter the cost of other Turkish-style brands. In an effort to drive off competition from imports, J.B. Duke of American Tobacco Co. had blended Turkish and domestic leaf to create Hassan and other “Oriental Smokes” at a lower price point. In 1907 the company started inserting collectible cards in packs of such brands to further boost sales. By 1911 — before the U.S. Supreme Court ordered its dissolution — American Tobacco controlled 90 percent of the domestic tobacco market, netting more than $30 million a year.
No small change at a nickel a pack.
AN EXCITING GAME
Among the most collectible of the Cowboy Series is the missing 50th card. Though the set is numbered 1–50, American Tobacco reportedly considered the subject matter of “An Exciting Game” too risqué and never issued it. New Jersey–based Weber Baking Co. and Canadian candy manufacturers Ganong Bros. and Hamilton Chewing Gum later reissued the Cowboy Series with slight variations. Both included the “missing” card, a clean copy of which can fetch $500 or more at auction. Still, it doesn’t hold a candle to American Tobacco’s 1909 Honus Wagner card, one of which sold in 2007 for $2.8 million. Seems baseball remains a more exciting game.
