Dolores Costello cinema card: Museum Object and Cultural History
Dolores Costello cinema card: date made: 1934. depicted (sitter): Costello, Dolores. Object Name: card.
The object in the museum catalogue
Hand-colored cinema card for actress Dolores Costello with a short biography on the back. American actress Dolores Costello was born on 17 September 1903 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. As the daughter of actors Maurice and Mae Costello, Dolores began performing at a young age. Her first film appearances began as a child alongside her sister, Helene. Costello had great success in silent films, and she was quickly nicknamed “The Goddess of the Silent Screen.” In 1926, she starred opposite actor John Barrymore in The Sea Beast. Two years later, Costello and Barrymore were married. The couple had two children together, John Drew Barrymore and Dolores Barrymore, before divorcing in 1935. Costello and Barrymore were also the grandparents of popular actress Drew Barrymore. Though Costello was a star in silent films, she had a difficult time transitioning to "talkies" because of her lisp. In 1943, she officially retired from acting. Her last film was This is the Army (1943). She died in 1979 at the age of 75 and her star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame honors her contributions to the film industry.
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."
Materials, dates and provenance
- date made: 1934
- depicted (sitter): Costello, Dolores
- Object Name: card
- Object Name: collectible card
- Physical Description: paper (overall material)
- Physical Description: paint (overall material)
- Physical Description: ink (overall material)
- Measurements: overall: 2 5/8 in x 1 7/16 in; 6.6675 cm x 3.65125 cm
- place made: United Kingdom: England, London
- Subject: Movie
- Subject: Actors
- ID Number: 2014.0117.19
- accession number: 2014.0117
- catalog number: 2014.0117.19
- Data Source: National Museum of American History
Sources and reuse
Catalogue descriptions and facts adapted from National Museum of American History through the Smithsonian's official Open Access dataset. This record explicitly marks its metadata CC0 1.0; formatting and selection have been changed.
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