Amused by Jokers am I!: Crescent Moon Jokers

Sunday, June 28, 2020

Crescent Moon Jokers

I have a charming set of jokers with ladies sitting on the crescent moon. It's inside the sitting section of the collection more specifically, inside the "sitting sideways" section.

Let's start with the Moon Fairy Joker, a venerable piece of American card and joker history. This Moon Fairy joker was the joker on one of the first matching Congress decks that the USPC published. I have the date of 1895 but the matching jokers are said to have started in 1897 and WOPC says 1897.

The World of Playing Cards cites an 1899 Congress Number 606 Deck that looks a lot like this. I also have the very similar one but without the word Joker on it. Here's the back of my Moon Fairy joker.

I have these two extremely old jokers, one of which is the model for the 52 Plus Joker logo.

One of my most beautiful modern jokers and decks is the one designed by Elettra Deganello for the 2024 Club Deck of the 52 Plus Joker Club.

Elettra Deganello for the 2024 Club Deck of the 52 Plus Joker Club.

Elettra Deganello, Card Designer Extraordinaire with some fanboy (me!)

Betty Boop has her own Betty Boop article on this blog.

I call this one Witchie.

This NuVue crescent moon joker was one that I encountered a lot when I started collecting back in the 1970s. I think it was because it was the standard joker on most airline playing card decks (which were free back then) and so I collected them often. BTW, if you want a cheap thrill, next time you are on a plane and the attendant is of a certain age and asks you want you want (what she really wants to know if you want water or a coke), tell her you'd like a deck of playing cards. It seems to transport them back to a different era and it takes them awhile to recover and smile and perhaps ask "And has it really been 40 years since you've flown?"

Confused Am I, isn't this unnatural?!? This joker troubles me since the crescent moon is facing opposite all the others. Does that happen?

More about the joker above. This joker was featured by Joop Muller as the Joker of the Month, June 2020. Since his research and knowledge is so deep and thorough, I'll quote:

So here she is, sitting on the moon holding up a drink, surrounded by stars and some light brown nebula's. No, she's not in the best condition. The back shows a goose in flight and advertises Miller High Life, "the champagne of bottle beer". So that's probably in the glass she's holding. Google brought some more information. Apparently this logo is called "Girl on the Moon" and there have been at least 5 versions of her. This version would have been in use in the 1950's. I think it's safe to say that the joker was made in the US, but couldn't put a maker to it. Nevertheless...... cheers!”

Here are the ensemble shots of 63 jokers updated 10/2023. (Up 26% from 50 in 2/21).

The top left and top right joker below deserve a comment. They are the jokers from the 52 Plus Joker 2023 Club deck. I bought three decks, kept two unopened, and am greatly enjoying the open deck which is gorgeous with sweet foil applied all over the packaging and cards.