# Silent movie fans: what's the proper name for "title cards"?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/silent-movie-fans-whats-the-proper-name-for-title-cards/129495>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [September 24, 2002, 7:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/silent-movie-fans-whats-the-proper-name-for-title-cards/129495 "2002-09-24T19:04:57Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![occ](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/8c91f0/32.png) [@occ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/occ)\
**Post date:** [September 24, 2002, 7:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/silent-movie-fans-whats-the-proper-name-for-title-cards/129495/1 "2002-09-24T19:04:57Z")

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Pretty simple, but I’m having trouble finding it via a search. In silent movies, you’d generally have a musical accompaniment, and the movie would relay dialogue and other information to the audience via printed cards with text on them. My question is, what are/were these cards called? I’ve referred to them as “title cards”, which I think I got by thinking “subtitles”, but I doubt this is correct. Anyone know?

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**Author:** ![Eve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)\
**Post date:** [September 24, 2002, 7:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/silent-movie-fans-whats-the-proper-name-for-title-cards/129495/2 "2002-09-24T19:10:15Z")

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Nowadays they’re usually called “intertitles,” but back in the day they were called (inaccurately, but colloquially) “subtitles” or just “titles.”

They would always have musical accompaniment: either one person whanging away at a piano, or a whole orchestra. Seeing a silent movie without music is like . . . Umm, eating a steak after gargling with Novocaine.

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**Author:** ![Bren\_Cameron\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7bcc69/32.png) [@Bren\_Cameron\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bren_Cameron_1)\
**Post date:** [September 24, 2002, 7:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/silent-movie-fans-whats-the-proper-name-for-title-cards/129495/3 "2002-09-24T19:11:06Z")

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Although I’m not certain this is absolutely correct, I have usually heard them referred to as “intertitles.”