Source: ‘Im Kino’ series of chocolate cards, dated c.1916, from the Nicholas Hiley collection
Comments: Gartmann was, and still is, a German chocolate manufacturer, based in Hamburg. These cards were given out with chocolate from vending machines. The series depicts various scenes in a typical cinema of the period: the barker, the ticket office, the musicians, the manager, a drink-seller, and the audience. Each is described in verse on the back of the cards.
These are beautiful. It appears that an H. Gartmann owned the Luxor Filmtheater in Blankenese, Hamburg from 1956-1962 – a relation, I wonder?
The Luxor, which had space for 370 people and was equipped with a modern cinemascope projector has now been replaced by a health chain store (the irony …).
Source: http://www.filmmuseum-hamburg.de/index.php?id=57&ds_id=294 (in German only)
Hi Eve!
Thanks for commenting. They are beautiful. There isn’t quite the space to do the individual cards justice, but I’ll be tweeting them individually throughout tomorrow (with matching rhymes).
It would interesting if there was a connection between Gartmann the chocolate producer and Gartmann the cinema owner. Chocolate and German cinema go back a long way. One of the pioneers of German film was the chocolate machine manufacturer Ludwig Stollwerck, who became interested in automated devices alongside his vending machines, including film – in 1895. See http://www.victorian-cinema.net/stollwerck.