Presidential Succession Plan

Very early in their "novelty" issuing history, Topps seized upon the U.S. Presidency as fertile ground for sets that were meant for entertainment but also had an educational angle.  Two of their first issued sets were Golden Coin (click HERE for some background) and the intertwined It Happened To A President, a set of twenty comic strip mini-biographies of many Chief Executives. These were packaged and sold together, appearing just after the first post-World War 2 U.S. Presidential Election. Golden Coin is not all that interesting to me as a novelty as it was forged by a third party and it's also pretty basic. It Happened to a President, though, is a bit more fun:

Here's how the original release of IHTAP looked. The set is attributed to 1949 based upon the outer Golden Coin wrapper, even though I'm pretty sure it saw the light of day as the election was ongoing. But 1949 is the common hobby attribution and I'll just leave that here...

These comics were each affixed to the back of a Golden Coin wrapper, and were quite large at 5 1/8" x 6 3/16":

That scan does not do it justice-these were a dazzling foiled gold color that would have been quite eye-catching.

While IHTAP does not get recognition for a 1952-53 issue, I believe Topps just reused the same comics as they repurposed the Golden Coins possibly in plastic, vs. the original metal. I say this because Harry Truman got a pair of glasses somewhere along the way, plus I can't see Topps missing a presidential election cycle at the time. Here's Harry:

The conventional hobby wisdom has the sets reappearing as an OPC issue in Canada in 1956, which seems odd but is supported by the Golden Coin wrapper indicia.  It Happened To A President got red and black accents for this release (sorry for the miscut):

Topps slightly revised the IHTAP subjects for 1956.  The original 1948-49 set and this re-release shared nineteen subjects, in this ordering:

1. Andrew Jackson

2. George Washington

3.Ulysses S. Grant

4. Theodore Roosevelt

5. Abraham Lincoln

6. George Washington

7. Andrew Jackson

8. Grover Cleveland

9. Zachary Taylor

10. James Monroe

11. James A. Garfield

12. John Adams

13. John Quincy Adams

14. Abraham Lincoln

15. James Madison

16. Franklin Roosevelt

17. Thomas Jefferson

18. Calvin Coolidge

19. Woodrow Wilson

20. (See below)

As you can see, not all Presidents were treated equally.  First of all, the mediocre ones are almost non-existent, except for one.  Here, The Simpsons will tell you who:

All but one of the other ignorees served a single term (or less), save for William McKinley, and Harry Truman, who was in office when the set debuted. 1956 saw the twentieth subject changed from William H. Harrison to Dwight Eisenhower. The only possible thing I can think of as to why the set was an OPC release is his presence.  I can't find his comic proper, so the original artwork will have to do:

Bowman's 1952 U.S. Presidents set got a quick re-release after Topps put them out in early 1956, which also utilized the slightly different dimensions used by their former competitor. Here's the Bowman Ike, front and back:

Unlike the action-packed front, the back is very plain (and may peg the set to 1953, not '52):

Compare that to the Topps version, which at least added some color (the fronts were not altered):

Ike was the 33rd man to be President and to top off the 36 card set, three subjects, all "prez-adjacent," had to be wedged in.  Bowman (and then Topps four years later) went with:

No. 1 Washington Takes Command

No. 2 Declaration of Independence 

and No. 7 Burning of White House

The horizontal nature of these three makes finding centered examples quite difficult.

Golden Coin and IHTAP were then shelved for good, while U.S. Presidents would not see the light of day again for another sixteen years. Instead Topps issued a series of stamps circa 1962 that included all 34 POTUS through JFK.  Here's four:

Bazooka also got into the political mix with a 33 card package design set that presented three at a clip in particular order:

1964 though, was commemorated in a different way.  Topps issued a slapdash set of cards following the assassination of John F. Kennedy:

The backs were prepared just as quickly as the front, I'd say:

Topps did, however, address the 1964 Presidential Campaign with a set called Johnson Vs. Goldwater:

Not the worst design but as a card set?  I dunno....

Here's the ultra-exciting (not) back:

Topps mixed things up a bit after the 1964 election; we'll get into that next time out.