Spanish title: Paris en Abril
Stars: Doris Day, Ray Bolger, Claude Dauphin
Directed by: David Butler
Distributor: Warner Bros

"Nights in Paris! Romantic encounters! Endless pleasures! You’ll cheer for this spring-time celebration!"

This lobby card is a great example of how cinema art designers often mixed original art with cut’n'paste images and illustration to create something that looks all hand-painted. On the left hand side of the card is a ‘from scratch’ watercolor portrait of Doris Day (spelled Dorys Day on the poster, oddly enough), with illustrations of Paris in the bottom right hand corner, and what looks like more paintwork on the right hand side, with the image of Day and co-star Ray Bolger. Only, if you look closer, you’ll see that those portraits on the right are actually a cut-out that has been painted over to give it a hand-painted appearance.

This technique was common back in the day, when saving a few days of painting was the difference between beating a deadline and missing it entirely. While high standard original art would stop people in the street, sometimes it just wasn’t possible to hand-paint an entire lobby card, so artists cut corners to achieve ‘the look’ they wanted, as quickly as possible.

The years haven’t been too kind to this particular lobby card, although the colors and artwork lend it to framing in a big way, but someone has had a scratch at Doris Day’s amply presented groin (if she once wore that strapless outfit in the film, I’d be surprised), and a few small tears on the sides and corners make it less than mint in value.

But heck, I like it enough to keep. After all… It’s Doris Day, reimagined by a leering Mexican cinema promo artist… what’s not to like?

Spanish title: Vuelve… i Amor Mio!
Stars: Doris Day, Rock Hudson, Tony Randall, Edia Adams, Jack Oakie, Jack Kruschen
Directed by: Delbert Mann
Distributor: Universal Mexico

"They see my little nest… me a turtle dove, him a sparrowhawk…"

Lord knows what the slugline means, but this is a great kitschy lobby card if you can ignore the hokey text written on it.

As with so many of the 1960’s card designs, this one is short on original art and long on cut’n'paste images, but the way it’s all brought together makes it compelling wall art regardless, especially when you spot the Universal International ‘50th Anniversario’ logo (1912-1962) and mention of Jack Oakie in his final movie apearance.

The film was released in Mexico by the Universal office that was located at Ignacio Mariscal 59, Mexico 1, D. F., and this particular lobby card has a little browning around the edges, and what looks like one very old coffee drop stain. No pinholes, however, so that’s a bonus.

Spanish title: Juego de Pijamas
Stars: Doris Day, John Raitt, Carol Haney, Eddie Foy Jr
Directed by: George Abbott, Stanley Donen
Distributor: Warner Bros

"Cheers, suggestion, incitement… and howls of enthusiasm
as you die of laughter"

This is a great piece of Mexican lobby card art, from the beautiful colors right on down to the pantless depiction of Doris Day in a heart-emblazoned pajama top.

The upper left hand corner features some cut’n'paste work, demonstrating that the bouffant hairdo of John Rait is unmatched in all of film history. That said, Day isn’t far behind, and the inset image on this card shows Carol Burnett in a scene from the film with what could only be called a ’soup bowl cut’.

Come for the movie, stay for the 1950’s equivalent of the mullet.