Non-Sport Potpourri

Just having some fun today with a thread covering some interesting images of the Non-Sports variety.  

Topps began what was to become an annual Valentine's Day tradition that lasted until 1971 (or more likely 1972) with Funny Valentines, a set illustrated by the masterful Jack Davis.  A salesman's sample popped up recently and it's a thing of beauty:

I showed a different sample about five years ago, which you can visit here. Davis was a favorite of Topps New Product Director Woody Gelman and given how tough any salesman's samples can be, but especially those that weren't advertising their Baseball sets, this is a scarce piece. There's more tasty Davis goodness on the back:

Moving into the 1960s, Topps continually hoped they could sell cards and bubble gum to young girls, a demographic they were not particularly crushing. A prime example was the release of Casey & Kildare, which were sold as Wallet Photos.  The cards are not at all scarce but unopened packs are, especially the cello version:

The back has a lot of indicia and detail, including a a smiling Richard Chamberlain peeking out:

This next image was part of a Morphy Auctions offering of 1965 Push-Pull cards and packaging.  It's a well-documented set, although the box and wrappers are probably approaching rare, but I like the image so much I'm including it here:

Push-Pull was an innovative set, released just before the onslaught of whacked-out Topps releases that started taking off in 1966-67. The size of the cards and play action have made these condition rarities over sixty years later.  The aforementioned play action is described on the wrapper in detail:

I've read previously that there was only one black "shutter" included per pack but according to the lot description "Each pack contains three picture cards, three slotted cards and one slab of gum. Card series #1 - 36."  These would have looked pretty inviting at first but I'm betting the set was a poor seller as the novelty would have worn off pretty quickly, so not all innovations were welcomed by the public.

The "tall boy" style sets sold by Topps in 1964-65 are intriguing but seem like a failed experiment in some ways overall. The Football and Hockey sets issued in this larger size left a lot of empty real estate on most cards, feeling like an idea in search of better execution. Plus, the dimensions make finding examples in nice shape difficult.

Zorba The Geek

Today we explore a set that was as plain vanilla as any ever put out by Topps, 1962's Casey & Kildare. Aimed a young girls, this 110 card issue saw 55 cards of each heartthrob doctor reproduced in (sometimes) glorious black and white.  And it was mostly just those two-Vince Edwards as Ben Casey and Richard Chamberlain as Dr. Kildare-flying solo on most cards.

Ben Casey was a Bing Crosby Productions show while MGM produced Dr. Kildare and they weren't even broadcast on the same network. In fact I can't find a common theme other than the obvious medical settings, so the linkage is curious and I'm a little puzzled how Topps pulled it off. Each show ran from 1961 to 1966 and pulled decent ratings at first before fizzling out.

The Casey cards are a lot cripser in general appearance than the Kildares.  Here's Ben with Dr. David Zorba (Sam Jaffe in real life), the Chief of Neurosurgery at County General. It's a rare pose, showing Vince Edwards with someone else in the frame:

The backs are quite austere:

The crisp look of Ben Casey was not replicated by Dr. Kildare.  Cards can have a glossy or dull finish and it seems Kildare's are especially subject to being dull. The Casey's are almost like a photograph in feel while most Kildare's look washed out and yellowed and do not feel nearly as glossy.  I'm not sure if they were printed together on one sheet, or if there were two press runs using different materials but the look and feel is pretty obviously different on a vast majority of the cards:

Card nos. 19, 23 and 99 have checklist backs, which if unmarked are essentially the only cards in the set with any real value:

There's two wrappers, one (well, two actually) wax and one cello:

They are almost identical other than the obvious difference with cello vs. wax:

However, there is also a third type of wrapper, without ingredients, meaning they had no gum in them.  These may be test wrappers or something else intended for, say, a chain store buyer that didn't want to deal with confectionery items or had an exclusive elsewhere for candy and gum.  Go here to see this other wax wrapper; there's another small detail as well that's intriguing but I won't spoil it, just click over.

That cello is a miraculous survivor (it's the reason I decided to look at the set); I wonder though,  if the real miracle wasn't how many patients were saved by the good doctors but in how this survived in such nice shape.