The third Félix Potin series

Earlier this year, Ivo Blom acquired a large series of mini-cards produced for Félix Potin chocolate bars. There were three series, which EFSP presents in three posts. The first series, issued around 1900, contained 500 photographic portraits of stage actors, painters, and other famous people of the late 19th century. The first series was highly successful and in 1908, a second series of 500 mini-cards followed with photographic portraits of actors and other famous people of the early 20th century. Now it's time for the third series, issued in 1922. Most celebrity portraits in this series were by Henri Manuel, occasionally by others such as Jean Reutlinger. While this third series contained many war heroes and military, we selected for EFSP twelve people from the stage and screen world.


French minicard by Chocolat Félix Potin, Third Series, 1922. Photo: Reutlinger.

Gabrielle Robinne (1886-1980) was a French stage and film actress, who had the peak of her film career in the 1910s.


French minicard by Chocolat Félix Potin, Third Series, 1922. Photo: Henri Manuel.

Jeanne Provost (1897-1980) was a member of the Comédie-Française between 1907 and 1912, and would act in some 25 silent and sound films.


French minicard by Chocolat Félix Potin, Third Series, 1922.

Jane Fernande Mayer known as Jane Marnac (1892-1976) was a Belgian stage and screen actress.


French minicard by Chocolat Félix Potin, Third Series, 1922. Photo: Reutlinger.

Actress Huguette Duflos (1887-1982) was a leading lady of the French silent cinema of the 1920s.


French minicard by Chocolat Félix Potin, Third Series, 1922. Photo: Henri Manuel.

Gabriel Signoret aka Signoret (1878-1937) was a French actor and director who played in some 85 films, mostly silent ones.


French minicard by Chocolat Félix Potin, Third Series, 1922.

French actor Séverin-Mars had a very short career in film, but played in two masterpieces by Abel Gance: the First World War drama J'accuse! (1919), and the epic and touching drama La Roue (1921-1923).


French minicard by Chocolat Félix Potin, Third Series, 1922. Photo: Henri Manuel.

Marcel Lévesque (1877-1962) was a French actor and scriptwriter who excelled in French silent and sound comedies but also played memorable parts in the crime serials by Feuillade and in Renoir’s Le crime de M. Lange.


French minicard by Chocolat Félix Potin, Third Series, 1922.

Louis-Jacques Boucot aka Boucot (1882-1949) was a French stage and screen actor, famous for his comic characters of Pénard and Babylas.


French minicard by Chocolat Félix Potin, Third Series, 1922. Photo: Belge.

Georges Biscot (1886-1945) was a popular French music hall and revue singer and actor, who also knew a career in French silent and sound film.


French minicard by Chocolat Félix Potin, Third Series, 1922. Photo: Henri Manuel.

Louis Bouchêne, known as Louis Baron, fils or just Baron fils (1870-1939), was an actor and singer, who performed in many operettas and comédie-musicales, and also in some 50 films between 1910 et 1938. He was the son of Louis Baron often associated with the works of Jacques Offenbach.


French minicard by Chocolat Félix Potin, Third Series, 1922.

Léon Bernard (1877-1935) was a French stage and screen actor and also a theatre director.


French minicard by Chocolat Félix Potin, Third Series, 1922.

Henri-Léon-Gustave-Charles Bernstein (1876-1953) was a French playwright associated with boulevard theatre. Many of his plays were turned into films too, such as 'Samson' (in 1914. 1923, 1936), 'Le Voleur' (1914, 1915, 1918, 1920, 1933), and in particular 'Mélo' (filmed in 1932, 1934, 1937, 1953. and 1986, the latter directed by Alain Resnais). In particular, Marcel L'Herbier, Maurice Tourneur and Paul Czinner did several adaptations, while others were done in the US, Italy, Germany, Hungary, and elsewhere.

For more cards, check out our Félix Potin album on Flickr.