Since I've been on my Allen & Ginter quest, I've looked at a lot of old tobacco card listings and seen a ton of stuff I never knew existed. There were a few other companies competing with A&G for the Tobacco market and they all put out their own cards to promote their product. The ones I see most often other than Allen & Ginter are from Duke, Goodwin (the ones who made Old Judge baseball cards), Kimball and Kinney Brothers. There's a ton more though that released sets of actresses, playing cards, horses, costumes, butterflies and all sorts of crazy stuff. Goodwin seems to have a lot of dogs and sports and manly type cards. Kimball is all girls, all the time. Girls, girls girls, just tons of girls. Duke (yes, that Duke) cards are among the most commonly found and highest quality out there, although they went a little crazy with the stereotypes. Kinney Brothers also had a wide range of sets, including an extensive military uniform series, a bunch of die-cut novelties, and the usual assortment of leaders, countries, girlies and animals. Recently I won another auction on my Allen & Ginter quest, and there was this card from Kinney Bros. ending the same day.
National Dances? Why that sounds like one of those boring sets. Like they took the tried and true concepts of putting nationalistic symbols on a card and combined it with girlie stuff to try to get more customers. That's pretty much true, there's a lot of people on these cards dancing their national jig or waltz or whatever. This is a series that normally would not interest me in the slightest. The few non-Allen & Ginter tobacco cards I was tempted enough to buy all had political leaders on them like the President of Honduras and the Governor of Florida. Dancing fools really don't do it for me. So why would I spend money on this card that should be used to finish off sets instead of getting a random 19th century tart? Well, because of this:
HOLY CRAP ITS A SNAKE! RUN! Run away girl before that big thing bites you and swallows you whole! I mean, just look at that card. There's some hippie chick swishing around barefoot while a HUGE ASS SNAKE tries to eat her. How freaking incredible is that! Look at her coolly staring down that hissing, pissed off viper as she shakes her money maker. This card is just pure awesome and I got it for 4 bucks. That's right, the price of a hobby pack of Turkey Red. I like Dick Perez's artwork, but he ain't never painted a crazy-ass snake lady before. They just don't make cards like this anymore. OR DO THEY??
Well, they made them twenty-odd years ago at least. This card is actually far cooler than crazy snake lady, they didn't have giant inflatable Phillie Phanatics back in the 1880's. There's so much to like about this card, Glenn's Grizzly Adams beard, the polyester powder blue uniforms, The Phanatic, that odd Barney Rubble with a beard guy in the background and of course the big 'ol boa constrictor. A great card from a great set of an all-time Atlanta Brave. Glen Hubbard, you and your snake are this week's Card of the Week.
