Mutoscope Numerology Vending Machine Cards

This week's Patreon sneak-peek page is the first part of a set of comical numerological fortune telling cards published and machine-vended by the Mutoscope Company of Chicago, Illinois in the 1940s. Mutoscope, which began as a maker of coin-operated peep-show films, also provided pin-up and celebrity postcards which were marketed primarily in men's spaces, such as bars, pool halls, tobacconists, and liquor stores. Each Lucky Number card contains six digits for lottery play, a slightly risqué or misogynistic joke, and a burlesque cartoon. They sure don't make them like this any more!

The Mutoscope Company was founded in 1895

As moving pictures became a popular form of entertainment during the 1920s and 1930s, displacing the short, self-operated Mutoscope reels, the company branched out to enter the vending machine card business, which had been pioneered by another Chicago-based company, Exhibit Supply Corporation. Both company's cards were about the size of a postcard, and they were printed on fairly thick chipboard. Although early sets are blank on the back, those from the late 1930s and the era of the Second World War often have a printed postcard back.

Arcade cards were vended in a wide variety of public spaces, including amusement parks, but their major points of sale were in men's spaces -- bars, back-room betting joints, tobacconists, and liquor stores. This explains theemphasis on pin-up art, risqué jokes, creeping misogyny, and battle-of-the-sexes humour. Even so, not all of acade card fortune telling sets were aimed at men exclusively -- one famous and much-loved cartomany card set in "Men's" and Ladies" versions, which were vended side by side from one machine.

With the Mutoscope Numerology cards, the buyer got a mildly risque joke and matching cartoon, plus a set of lucky numbers to bet, framed in a border of talismanic charms

My collection of Mutoscope Numerology cards is not yet complete. If the set is like most, it contains 32 cards, of which i have 31. I will be adding the final card here when i find it -- but what i have gathered so far represents 15 years of collecting, so wish me luck.

(1)
1-15-823:A girl can be a little dear or a little bare. [Not shown here yet.]

(2)
1-23-983: A woman "up in the air' harping about something isn't always an angel. [Not shown here yet.]

(3)

1-65-982: The only way a farmer can keep his sons on the farm is to move to the city.

(4)

1-88-801: There's no fool like an old fool -- he's had mre practice.

(5)

2-40-701: If you want to marry a fortune, go widow-shopping.

(6)

2-48-924: Best way to fight a woman is with your hat -- grab it and run.

(7)

3-54-236: There's more in a grapefruit than meets the eye.

(8)

3-57-453: The good die young, and the old die for various reasons.

(9)
3-95-623: A woman belives [sic] the only way to hold a man is down. [Not shown here yet.]

(10)

4-98-238: A husband doesn't mind if his wife comes from a fine old family, as long as she doesn't bring them with her.

(11)
5-23-792: Some give happiness wherever they go; others whenever they go. [Not shown here yet.]

(12)
5-28-531 [Not shown here yet]: Love makes time pass, and time makes love pass. [Not shown here yet.]

(13)

5-81-227: A friend in need is a friend to keep away from.

(14)
5-90-663: A new groom sweeps clean. [Not shown here yet.]

(15)

6-35-777: The girl with a future avoids the man with a past.

(16)

6-52-632: People who live in stone houses shouldn't throw glasses.

(17)
6-84-528: A wife does a man good, but a gold digger does him better. [Not shown here yet.]

(18)

6-99-696: Rarely does a card-player reach the pinochle of success.

(19)

7-18-420: Today's liquor is tomorrow's hangover.

(20)
7-27-497: A woman's as old as she looks; a man is old when he quits looking. [Not shown here yet.]

(21)

7-39-843: The "pun" is mightier than the sword.

(22)

Some men don't fish; they just drown worms.

(23)
8-17-500: When you ask for the daughter's hand, watch the father's foot,

(24)

8-32-567: Love is blind -- lovers depend on their sense of feeling.

(25)
8-57-648: The girl who's pretty as a picture has a nice frame too. [Not shown here yet.]

(26)
8-68-388: Some girls get all the men they like, other[s] like all the men they get.

(27)
8-92-421: It's fun to be fooled --- with. [Not shown here yet.]

(28)
9-14-211: Gossips are the spies of life. [Not shown here yet.]

(29)
9-18-328:

(30)
9-19-982: When money talks, women always listen. [Not shown here yet.]

(31)
961-700: Nudists grin and bare it. [Not shown here yet.]

(32)
 ??? Still in the wild.