Editorial Policy

Last updated: November 13, 2026

A film magazine earns trust one detail at a time: the right year, the right studio, the right name in the credits. This page explains how articles on The Lobby Card are chosen, researched and corrected, what will never appear in them, and how guest articles are handled.

How topics are chosen

Topics come from three directions. Some are the questions people actually ask about older films — what film noir is, where to start with silent movies, which old movies hold up today. Some are single films and careers that deserve a fuller account than they usually get, including obscure and lost titles. And some are the side roads that make classic cinema fun: trivia, misquoted lines, the posters and lobby cards that sold the pictures. A topic is taken on only if it can be written about accurately from published sources.

Fact-checking

• Credits, dates and running times are checked against published sources — film archives and their catalogs, national film institutes, reference works and contemporary records — before an article is published.
• Quotations appear only when the wording and attribution are well established. Famous lines that are usually misquoted are given in their documented form, and the common version is identified as such.
• Uncertainty is stated. Many films from the silent era are lost or survive only in fragments, and records of their production can be thin or contradictory. When sources disagree or a detail cannot be confirmed, the article says so or leaves the detail out. Nothing is invented to fill a gap: no scenes, quotes, box-office figures or awards.
• Living people are written about only through their published work and public careers. Articles do not discuss their private lives, health, relationships or legal matters.

How articles are written

Articles are prepared with the help of digital tools, including AI, and are edited under the rules on this page. Each one carries the byline of one of the two writers described on the About page. They are film enthusiasts, not historians, archivists, professional critics or appraisers, and they do not claim institutional authority. Reviews and rankings are their personal opinions.

Films, posters and memorabilia

• No films, no links to films. The site does not host, stream or link to films, and articles never explain how to obtain one. Where a film can still be seen, articles say only that it may be found through public-domain archives or licensed services.
• No valuations. Articles on posters and lobby cards cover history, formats, identification features and safe storage. They never give prices or estimates, never judge whether a particular item is authentic, and never point to sellers or auctions.
• No commercial recommendations. The site runs no affiliate links and sells nothing.

Images

Every image on the site is an illustrative scene generated with AI: empty cinemas, projectors, studio sets, frames on a lobby wall. Images never depict real people or actor likenesses, and never reproduce real posters, lobby cards, film stills or studio logos. An image illustrates the mood of an article; it is not a historical document.

Corrections

If you find an error — a wrong date, a mixed-up credit, a film described as lost that has since been found — write through the contact page. Name the article and, if possible, the published source for the correct detail. Reported errors are checked against sources, and confirmed mistakes are corrected in the article. A significant correction, such as a changed survival status or a wrong attribution, is noted at the end of the article.

Guest articles

From time to time the site publishes articles by outside contributors on film history and culture, sometimes in paid or partnership arrangements, under the guidelines on the Write for Us page. Every guest article is reviewed before publication against the same rules as the site’s own articles — facts checked, no links to films, no valuations, nothing about living people beyond their public work — and may be edited or declined. Its author is responsible for its content, and payment or partnership never buys a change to what the site’s own writers say.

Independence

The Lobby Card is not affiliated with any studio, distributor, archive, festival, film society or rights holder, and does not speak for any of them.

Last updated November 13, 2026