Lobby Cards

What is a lobby card?

Everyone knows what a movie poster is. You have seen them in theatre window displays and movie house lobbies to advertise upcoming and currently running films.

But what is a lobby card? A lobby card is an 11 x 14 or 8 x 10 inch (landscape orientated) "poster" printed on heavy stock featuring a scene from the film advertised designed for display in a theatre's lobby or foyer with the intention of promoting the movie and are highly collectible. In the UK they are referred to as "Front of House" cards which may also refer to 8 x 10 inch cards or black and white stills.

They briefly summarize the movie in a series of captioned scenes. Usually there are 8 cards in a set, however there are also sets that have more or fewer cards, depending on the film's budget. The number of cards in a set can vary from as few as three to as many as 22 or more.

Lobby cards first appeared in the early 1910's. During the silent-era lobby cards were often nothing more than black and white or duotone stills which were eventually replaced by hand-tinted scenes and in the 1920's by full-color lobby cards.

Studios stopped producing lobby card sets for the American market sometime in the mid-1980's. After the mid-1980's, the only lobby card sets produced were for international releases.

[Lobby Card for Devotion, 1931]

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