What's The Big Idea?

I've not touched upon Woody Gelman's Topps archive (hey!) of Idea Sheets much during the long time this blog has been active but a few of these ephemeral bits o'paper came to light recently that made me take a closer look at them.  These pop up occasionally, usually on eBay and offer fascinating glimpses into the archaic ways of old filing systems at Topps, in this case maintained by the New Product Development Department. Don't get me wrong though, a lot of stuff was never really organized at all in the barely controlled chaos there.

Speaking of ancient ways to store things, Topps also had albums holding full reference sets of cards that were taped in front and back, that they kept in-house at Brooklyn HQ, just like we see below. Some set binders -not nearly close to all there would have been though -  were auctioned in 1989 by Guernsey's:

Nowadays you would, if physical storage was required, simply use binders with a variety of clear sheets and holders to keep the cards intact and free of adhesive. But until such things were developed and had widespread availability (late Seventies basically), paper and tape was the most secure and efficient method, despite the damage it would cause to the cards. Damage though, was not something Topps cared about, the cards were essentially without real value to the firm once the retail and overstock releases were over with.

They also stored uncut half-sheets for reference at Topps, often folded into quarters (yikes!) to allow for easier retrieval. Of course, a ton of material was tossed, with some rescued from the refuse bins out back over they years. If not discarded some long time after production had ceased, the myriad albums and folders and drawers that held what would have been a fairly complete record of production at the company ended up pillaged, auctioned and, in some cases just unknowingly scattered. And even then, stuff was thrown out all the time, often at the behest of Topps Art Director Ben Solomon but sometimes just at random. 

We are left with remnants to decode then, and while it's something I obviously enjoy doing, it can also be frustrating as there's almost never a complete picture that can drawn. So when I recently looked through some Idea Sheets, it occurred to me that Woody Gelman may have been a two timer!

Take a peek at this sheet for Freedom's War, a 1950-51 issue that's a favorite of mine:

It's pretty plain vanilla and uses sub-categorizing ("Freedom's War") for the set name.  As you can see too, some thought was at least given to cross-referencing the Idea Sheets, which happen sporadically.

Next we have a 1959 Fabian sheet, also non-descript and this one clearly delineates "copyright merchandise" above the set name, if only the date was filled in here and elsewhere:

Now, take a look at this sheet for Goofy Postcards:

Clearly this one was meant to be passed around at Topps, with a basic rating system added, along with a method to track progress. Progress of "what" is an open question but these sheets look to have served multiple purposes in the Topps offices as "published" is often seen written atop them. Like all the handwriting seen here, such all-caps scrawls were Gelman's. Hold the thought that Goofy was issued about two years before Fabian was created. Here, a 1963 Monster Midgee sheet follows suit.

Now I'm wondering if Woody kept two two storage systems, a double set of books if you will.  Freedom's War was one of many sets created by Gelman when he was partnered with his bestie Ben Solomon at their mid-century art agency. They spent a little more than a decade running the agency until they came in-house at Topps. It seems possible the early Idea Sheets, without the right side graphics, were from the Solomon & Gelman days, whereas some of the later sheets after their formal hiring seem a lot more Topps-centric.  But the chronology doesn't quite mesh and, even allowing for Topps being Topps and things never perfectly aligning, it seems plausible Woody indeed kept his own set, even while creating the official ones for the company. He may also have used what was at hand at times if one variety wasn't in easy reach, but it sure seems like he had two different archives at his disposal.

I seriously doubt this can be proven one way or the other, but it does fit in with Gelman's massive, personal intake of ephemera that was stored at his home with some, eventually, moved to various commercial spaces on Long Island over close to three decades.