Charles Ray

Charles Edgar Ray (March 15, 1891 – November 23, 1943), American actor, director, producer, screenwriter. Ray rose to fame during the mid-1910s portraying young wholesome hicks in silent comedy films. Original vintage real photo postcard (RPPC).

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 is blank.