Banners Day

BFF o'the Archive Jeff Shepherd auctioned off a couple of old Bazooka Point of Sale banners recently and while I didn't bid, thanks to the overflowing archives here, they were two things of beauty to be sure.

First up, for the Fall 1949 launch of the penny packs of Bazooka ("tabs" in the confectioner's parlance), Topps created a wonderful banner with the original Bazooka Joe shown, as he often was, blowing a bubble containing the pack.  Given the year and the fact there was a contest to win a pocket knife, it was most likely run by Sy Berger, who was in charge of such things back then.  10,000 knives was likely a number they knew would never be reached as 100 comics was a whole lotta gum packs.

Topps used these knives for premiums over many years and they resemble (or more likely, are) the ones used by the U.S. Military during the war and issued for many years after with bespoke nameplates; the Boy Scouts were one such organization that did that..  Berger had connections for surplus goods, so this all ties in nicely with what I know about such things.

The banner is a beauty:

Jumping forward ten years, 1959 brought a really colorful banner detailing the premium pennants Bazooka was pushing at the time (and for another ten years at least).  Five Bazooka wrappers was a much more manageable amount than the 100 required a decade earlier:

That September 15, 1959 deadline makes me think this banner debuted when the 1959 Major League season opened in April.  Why Blony didn't get more than a passing mention in the copy is beyond me,

Mail in offers were useful for Topps as they could do market research based upon the origins of the redemption requests.  With a product launch in 1949 and the two big league west coast team moves very recent in memory - and notions of expansion more than hot rumors in 1959 - these were both marketing and sales tools.

Pennant Feverish-Part 2

If I may put the cart before the horse, it is time to look at the antecedents of the 1959 Baseball Pennant premiums. Believe it or not, the first year Topps offered a pennant premium was in 1949 and it was college football teams, not professional baseball squads:



Those inserts would come with the early Bazooka penny pieces before comics really caught on. I do not have any scans of these yet but suspect some will show up someday. By the way, all of the Bazooka comic scans today are from Jeff Shepherd's bag of tricks, as are the date identifications ff same. I suspect some form of the football pennant inserts existed for years afterward.

In 1952 Topps made a baseball pennant premium part of the wrapper design for both the first 310 cards:



And the High Numbers:




Betcha did't know they had their own wrapper, eh? Well, I didn't either until I stumbled upon that scan. As a side note to a side note, it is believed by yours truly that the '52 high numbers were only issued in nickel packs. I'll get to the top premium offer in a minute but the bottom one shows the baseball pennants offer:



The pennants seem to follow the design of the earlier College Football version, with just lettering and no logos. That Chicago and New York teaming would live on for many more years, as we shall see.

We are ranging a bit far afield here but the logos however, were also available via the premium offer at the top of the wrapper for five inch felt emblems and predate by four years the accepted 1956 issue date covered here. Not sure if they match the 1956's identically but check it out:



1953 came and there were no pennant premiums (or emblems) offered on the baseball wrappers, so it was back to the bubble gum set:



Buzzy was about the last character to appear on the comics before Bazooka Joe & His Gang became ubiquitous. The pennants are still nondescript, from the looks of things but Chicago and New York continue to be displayed (the Giants and not the Yankees this time out).

However, in 1954 the stars aligned and we not only get a nascent Bazooka Joe but also a merger between the emblems and pennants of yore:



I have not tracked the emblems as closely as the pennants and am not sure if they were still offered as premiums or if they were not reintroduced until 1956. Anyway.....

1957 brought a redesigned comic (matching somewhat the scroll work on the retailer certificates of the time) but the same old Chicago/NY axis:



1959 was a three-fer as Bazooka had the pennants on the comics:



And Topps had 'em on the baseball wrappers:



And in the packs:



Tying back to Part 1, in 1968 they were also advertised as a premium on the comics:



Yes, same old New York and Chicago tandem! It was still going strong in 1971:



But by 1979 things were moribund in New York:



Pennant premium offers on the comics extend to at least 1983 and may still be offered today for all I know. Along with the felt emblems and a few other items, it is safe to say there is a gap in the information on these premiums. This is partly due to their confusing and longstanding issuance and partly due to Bazooka being considered as lesser when compared to the Topps brand, even though they are all one and the same!

Pennant Feverish-Part 1

Hey ho buccos! A little bit of serendipity has occurred between my last post and now that makes today's discussion of the 1959 Topps premium baseball pennants more widespread than planned.

The first bit of good news is that Friend o'the Archive Doug Goodman sent along scans of each of the 16 pennants. He also sent along all but one of the 1958 Felt Emblems as well so there will be a catch up thread on those soon. If anyone has a scan on the 1958 Cardinals emblem, please send it along as I can do a full visual checklist once it is in hand.

The Pennants are quite large, measuring about 15" x 5" and they were available via a paper insert in the regular baseball packs in '59:



I had to nick that from Jon's Fleer Sticker blog by the way. That tear to the left of the Orioles pennant seems somewhat common; I have seen other examples with similar damage in or near that spot. Paper inserts unfortunately were not designed for a long life!

The pennants are clearly marked as a Bazooka product:



Here is the Pirates version from a Huggins & Scott auction awhile back:



I am showing this because there is another pennant set, attributed to 1968 but without any markings tying it to Bazooka. Here is what I think is a Bazooka Pirates pennant from '68:



Same exact pennant except for the wording in the black bar! Our friends in Duryea also created new artwork for the four expansion teams that were born in 1961/62:



Same look, same lack of wording in the bar at left. Some non-expansion teams had logo and style changes between 1959 and 1968 that Topps picked up on but but some did not. Compare this '59 Dodgers pennant:



With this (alleged) '68:



Strange.

Getting back to Pittsburgh, what does this mean in relation to the pennant with a 1968 Topps 3D card of Roberto Clemente discussed here back in May? Once again turning to Chris Creamer's site, we find that the Pirate logo on the '59 and (alleged) '68 pennants was discontinued after 1959 when they switched to the logo used on the oddball Clemente pennant:



Curioser and curioser.....

Bazooka penants actually go back to the late 1940's and were a prominent premium on the 1952 Topps packs. A closer look at the historical background will happen next time out folks. Here is a 59 teaser though before we go: