Helen Twelvetrees cinema card

Description:

Hand-colored cinema card for actress Helen Twelvetrees with a short biography on the back. American actress Helen Twelvetrees was born Helen Marie Jurgens on 25 December 1908 in New York. Her experience on the stage helped her succeed in Hollywood after the development of "talkies." Her first film was The Ghost Talks (1929), but the 1930 film Her Man set the course for her career. After this film, Twelvetrees was typically given parts where she played a suffering woman fighting for the wrong man. Though she was considered one of the top female stars in the early days of sound films, Twelvetrees eventually left motion picture work for Broadway and other stage performances. She died tragically of a sedative overdose on 13 February 1958 at the age of 49 and is remembered for her contributions to the film industry with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

This card belongs to a set titled "Cinema Stars: A Series of 30 Hand Coloured Pictures" which features popular film actresses from the 1930s. Collectible cards like this were very popular during the 1920s and 1930s, and they were distributed by various brands in both tobacco and food products. In the 1920s, Cavanders Ltd. also released the following sets of cards: "Beauty Spots of Great Britain," "Foreign Birds," and "River Valleys."