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Matchcovers were the most popular advertising form for over 40 years. Advertisers used matchcovers to promote every aspect of America including airlines, banks, beer, cigars &, cigarettes, fairs, fraternal organizations, gas stations, hospitals, hotels, military, movies, political campaigns, radio stars, railroads, restaurants, soft drinks, sports, transportation, wars, and of course, match companies themselves. Businesses, products and services, from A to Z, used matchbooks to get the word out. As a collectible, matchcovers didn't receive much recognition until the 1930s. Due to European influences, match boxes and match labels were popular during the first quarter of this century in the United States and Canada. Matchcover collectors began organizing sometime between the Chicago Century of Progress Exposition of 1933 and the New York World's Fair of 1939. Clubs such as The Blue Moon Match Box Club and United Matchonians had roots prior to 1940, but none would rival the Rathkamp Matchcover Society, founded in 1940. Since that time, over 45 regional clubs have come and gone. Fewer than 15 remain today.
During the late 1940s and early 1950s, over 1 million matchcover collectors prospered in United States and Canada. They were relatively unorganized and only a small percentage ever belonged to matchcover collecting clubs. A Mirror Magazine article by Bill Gilmartin, published on March 3, 1957, hails matchcover collecting as "the fastest growing hobby (in America)... matchbook collectors are outnumbered in the ranks of the nation's hobbyists only by stamp collectors."
Their European counterparts remained loyal to match boxes and box labels which are still prized today. National figures show that match box collecting recovered some of its former popularity in the United States during the last 10 years, but never regained its erstwhile strength.
Despite the commercial decline of matchbook sales, matchcover collecting is still alive and well in America. Both smokers and nonsmokers pursue the second most popular collecting hobby in America. Casual collectors pop matchbooks into brandy snifters and fish bowls. Serious collectors join clubs and trade by mail. Diehards attend conventions, run for club offices, and publish articles, bulletins, and books on matchcovers.
"There's a new Quality Inn on Route 15, dear...." And off they go. Matchbooks document trips and vacations, make great keepsakes from cherished evenings and weekend outings, and are still your best bet at a campfire. The early matchbook plaudit of "twenty little salesmen" still reconciles service and product industries. "You can't beat matchbooks for good, inexpensive advertising," says John Williams, advertising manager of The American Matchcover Collecting C1ub.
Even in the smallest American towns, restaurants, hotels, businesses, and banks still use this medium to advertise. The aficionado can easily cull a handful or a caddie (a box of 50 matchbooks) just for the asking. Although once coat-tailed to cigarette smoking, matchcover collecting has recently surged in popularity and successfully divorced itself from that habit. For many, matchcover collecting musters every collector's urge to organize, classify, categorize, display, and record. As far as categories go, restaurants are a good starting point. They easily break down into cafes, lunches, seafood, ethnic, and so forth. Ethnic restaurants further break down into Chinese, Mexican, French. Sub- classification by city and state can include chain, single-site restaurants attached to hotels, out-of-business restaurants, and more. Adjunct eating places such as bars, grills, taverns, and pubs can also be included.
Along with restaurants, the categories of hotels, motels and banks are considered "easy." However, serious collectors branch out into over 600 other categories from airlines to zoos.
Among today 's "hot" categories are sports, girlies, national political, beer, cigars, soda and the remarkable "size" categories from the golden age of matchcover collecting, which include Giant Features (a matchbook measuring 3 3/8" X 4 1/4"), Features (matchbooks with colorful images across flattened sticks), Contours (uniquely shaped matchcovers), Midgets (a matchbook measuring 1 1/16" X 1 1/2"), and Action (a matchbook with an extended disc saddle giving it a satchel-like appearance), just to name a few.
