Merna Kennedy cinema card
date: label: date made
content: 1934
name: label: depicted (sitter)
content: Kennedy, Merna
notes: label: Description
content: <p>Hand-colored cinema card for actress Merna Kennedy with a short biography on the back. American actress Merna Kennedy was born Maude Kahler on 7 September 1908 in Kankakee, Illinois. At age 7, she began doing vaudeville performances with her brother. Kennedy was friends with actress Lita Grey, Charlie Chaplin’s 2nd wife. This friendship landed Kennedy her first leading lady role in Chaplin’s 1928 film <i>The Circus</i>. A couple of her other well-known films were <i>Red-Haired Alibi</i> (1932) and <i>The Big Chance</i> (1933). Kennedy retired from acting in 1934 when she married choreographer/director Busby Berkeley. Divorcing a year later, Kennedy went on to marry Forrest Brayton. The couple stayed together until Kennedy's unexpected death from a heart attack in 1944.</p>
label: Description
content: <p>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."</p>
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: place made
content: United Kingdom: England, London
topic: label: Subject
content: Movie
label: Subject
content: Actors
setName: label: See more items in
content: Culture and the Arts: Entertainment
label: See more items in
content: Popular Entertainment
label: See more items in
content: Movie Collection
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: 2014.0117.22
label: accession number
content: 2014.0117
label: catalog number
content: 2014.0117.22
objectType: label: Object Name
content: card
label: Object Name
content: collectible card
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: paper (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: paint (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: ink (overall material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 2 5/8 in x 1 7/16 in; 6.6675 cm x 3.65125 cm