Mutoscope cards

This article is about still images. For the early motion-picture device, see Mutoscope.

Mutoscope cards were still images, typically of pin-up material, printed on cards and sold through vending machines. Their dimensions were 5+1⁄4-by-3+1⁄4-inch (13.3 cm × 8.3 cm)[citation needed] and they were published during the 1940s by the International Mutoscope Reel Company and other firms. They are not individual pictures from Mutoscope reels and have no connection whatsoever to the Mutoscope motion-picture device. All carry the inscription "A Mutoscope card."[clarification needed] They were sold from coin-operated vending machines in places such as amusement parks. Most Mutoscope cards are of pin-up material, but some featured other kinds of images such as Jimmy Hatlo cartoons.[1]

In the literature of cinematography, the phrase "Mutoscope cards" is also used to refer to the individual cards comprising a Mutoscope reel, corresponding to individual frames of the original film from which the reel was produced.[2]

  1. ^ "Jimmy Hatlo Comic Strip - Mutoscope Cards". Online Antiques Mall. 2000. Archived from the original on 2016-08-26. Retrieved 2006-09-17.
  2. ^ e.g. Lubin, Joseph P. (1997). The King of the Movies: Film Pioneer Siegmund Lubin. Fairleigh Dickinson University Press. ISBN 0-8386-3728-0., p. 85: "The only moving images of the event to survive would be a set of Mutoscope cards."