In Spring 2009 when I lucked into a pile of just over 100 bus passes with movie ads from the 1940’s on them I said this in the listings: “This is one of the neatest pieces of movie ephemera I’ve yet to see and I don’t expect to see similar items offered again.”
It took 18 months, but they’re back!
This St. Louis area bus pass, good for the week of November 29 through December 5, 1942 features an advertisement for The Black Swan picturing stars Tyrone Power and Maureen O'Hara
This time I have over 160 of the bus passes, same neighborhood, St. Louis, dated between 1941-1948 with the classic movies advertised on them having been released at the time each weekly pass was issued.
I removed the earlier line from the new auction listings, but still include this one: “By it’s very definition ephemera is an item which wasn’t meant to be here–disposable everyday items from the past which somehow managed to survive the trash heap after its originally intended use expired.” I’d say a 1940’s bus pass is about as ephemeral as you can get by definition!
Can you tell I think these are really neat? In April 2009 I posted a partial Prices Realized page with a little more about the passes. You can see those prices and more images here.
I never did get the opportunity to build a Photo ID Guide for the passes, but I can promise you a huge Guide sometime next weekend. I’m still scanning the bus passes I acquired this time around, but once they’re all scanned I’m going to build a guide combining images from this time around with last which should create a monster of a guide with well over 150 to 200 images.
I listed the first 24 vintage movie bus passes at auction on eBay last night–the bidding on each pass starts at just $6.99. Those first passes end next Thursday night. The second batch went up today. I’ll be listing 23-24 passes each over the next 5 nights starting either Sunday or Monday so that all 160+ should be up at auction all at once by next Thursday when they start ending. Go here to see them all and bid.
Good for the week of October 18-24, 1942 featuring Ginger Rogers in The Major and the Minor
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