Kent Taylor

Kent Taylor (May 11, 1907 – April 11, 1987) was an American actor of film and television, original vintage real photo postcard (RPPC). Printed in Great Britian.

Taylor appeared in more than 110 films, the bulk of them B-movies in the 1930s and 1940s, although he also had roles in more prestigious studio releases, including I'm No Angel (1933), Cradle Song (1933), Death Takes a Holiday (1934), Payment on Demand (1951), and Track the Man Down (1955). He had the lead role in Half Past Midnight in 1948, among a few others. 

In the 1950s, with his movie career on the decline and television production on the upswing, he played the title role in 58 episodes of the detective series Boston Blackie and the lead, as Captain Jim Flagg, in ABC's The Rough Riders, an adventure series about three soldiers, two Union and one Confederate, traveling together through the American West after the Civil War. The Rough Riders aired thirty-nine episodes from 1958 to 1959.

Beginning in 1902 Kodak offered a preprinted card back that allowed postcards to be made directly from negatives. This technology allowed photographers to travel from town to town and document life in the places they visited. Local entrepreneurs hired them to record area events and the homes of prominent citizens. These postcards documented important buildings and sites, as well as parades, fires, and floods.  Real Photo postcards (RPPCs) became expressions of pride in home and community.

While Kodak was certainly the major promoter of photo postcard production, they didn't seem to originate the term "Real Photo," and used it less frequently than photographers and others in the marketplace from 1903 to ca. 1930. But it has become the popular term today to distinguish photographic postcards from commercially printed, mass-produced postcards of the same era. Real Photo postcards have made for millions of 'one-off' photographs, where the photographer may have produced a single or a small number of prints from one negative.

This vintage real photo postcard, measuring 3.5 x 5.5 inches is in fine condition showing light signs of age and toning. Verso bears original RPPC graphics. Front features hand tinted coloring.