You CAN Go Home Again

It's a pretty well know fact, at least among collectors of 1953 Topps Baseball cards, that three cards feature background ads for the company that produced the set.  There's a couple of dozen "generic" ad representations as well, plus a handful that feature parts of actual ballpark billboard ads (Camel cigarettes for one) but the Topps ones are the most fun:

Yes, the Dodgers relief ace Clem Labine gets the first Topps ad on card #14, which seems appropriate, although that background in no way resembles Ebbets Field.  We have to wait for the high numbers (#252) to find the next one:

Well, that ain't Fenway! Willie Miranda, card # 278, gives us our final Topps ad, somewhat reminiscent of Labine's I think:

However, I believe there may be another Topps homage and it leads off the set.  Take a look at the background of Jackie Robinson's card:

At first glance it seems like it could be a ballpark superstructure looming behind Jackie but it's not Ebbets Field and there's no way the Brooklyn based Topps Chewing Gum would allow an image of the Polo Grounds - which I guess it vaguely resembles - appear on a Dodgers card.  If you look closely, it doesn't really look like a ballpark at all as there are no stands visible. In fact, the image used to create this card, a photograph by Brooklyn's team photographer Barney Stein, has no background, except for some clouds:

So what is it?  Well, my money is on a slightly cleaned up view of the elevated Gowanus Expressway superstructure and, behind it, Topps HQ at Bush Terminal.  Here's a couple shots of the Gowanus from the wonderful Newtown Pentacle:

This is about 16 blocks south of Topps HQ - note the cars parked underneath (and random tire-yikes!).  Sy Berger and Woody Gelman, who car pooled with some other Topps employees from their homes on Long Island, would park under the viaduct near the Topps office in Bush Terminal.  

Here's another shot of the underbelly:

Now here's a shot of their Bush Terminal building in 1940, courtesy of Brownstoner (their offices were in the second building down along the viaduct from the larger one sporting the ad):

Well, take a look at this cropped close up of the Robinson card:

I'm pretty sure that's the roofline of their Bush Terminal building behind the viaduct! It's all slightly altered by the artist but I have to think Woody Gelman could have been behind this little in-joke.

It's not the only card to feature the environs of their Brooklyn headquarters.  In 1955 the Rails & Sails set had a card that prominently featured not only Bazooka bubble gum, but what looks to be a small sliver of the same Gowanus Expressway viaduct, off to the right of the boxcar; quite appropriate given the extensive railroad tracks in the facility:

Fun stuff!

A New Freight City

I have no idea why but I started thinking about Bush Terminal this morning and decided to poke around a few of the more esoteric corners of the internet accordingly.


Bush Terminal was, as I've noted previously, quite a forward thinking idea for companies looking for a turnkey intermodal solution to ship out goods, back when the Port of New York was the biggest one in the land prior to containerization taking over in the 50's and 60's. Founded in 1902, this 1910 advertisement showed Irving T. Bush's grand idea in it's full glory:

The main part of the terminal was usually referred to as the Brooklyn Army Terminal while the eventual Topps offices and production facilities were housed in two of the buildings above the main complex, as seen in the upper left quadrant, in an area called Industry City:

 The two right-most buildings of the three shown in this detail, housed Topps, although they only had one when the moved in to the complex on June 1, 1946, a 237 37 St address, which is the right most building of this trio. Those shots are from the New York City Municipal Archives, although I nicked them from www.trainweb.org where the rail features are of interest.  See how they snake between the buildings?

This bucolic scene is from 1923. From The Brooklyn Public Library collection although I found it over at The Weekly Nabe site/blog.  You can see the Bush Terminal complex in the upper right:

1940 brought this view of things, with the Gowanus Expressway viaduct, apparently under construction, in focus:

Here's a look at the same stretch, albeit with a different orientation and widened considerably, from 2002, running right by the old Topps buildings. Thank you www.nycroads.com:

Woody Gelman and his carpool used to park under the viaduct. He probably walked in the front door here thousands of times. Fancy, huh?

Sorry, I don't recall who sent me that shot but it's of Mark Newgarden!  Looks like the sign uses the same Franklin Gothic Condensed inspired font used by Topps back in the day.

A concise early history of Bush Terminal can be found here if you are interested.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO THE BLOG-10 years ago yesterday I made the first post here. Crazy!

That's My Bush

Soldiering on from last week kids, with a look at the various Topps offices and plants that were scattered around Brooklyn from 1938-94.

After World War 2 drew to a close, the industrial base of the United States began to return to its previous infrastructure.  Bush Terminal, a sprawling industrial complex located in Sunset Park, just south of the Brooklyn Army Terminal, had been taken over by the government during the war and was being returned to civilian use.  Topps moved in to Building No. 1 in the complex, also known as Industry City, located at 237 37th St on June 1, 1946 as this trade magazine blurb shows:

The eagle eyed among you will note Topps was upgrading the Chattanooga plant as well. We'll visit that operation next time out.

For the next 18 years Topps would manufacture most of their confectionery products at Bush Terminal and as things really started humming in the late 1950's and early 1960's they eventually expanded into space across the back alley at 254 36th St, although I have yet to pinpoint exactly when.  The buildings' back entrances were catty-corner to each other, although I don't think Topps had more than couple of floors in each one, and railroad tracks ran down the alley in between them.  A block to the east those tracks could bring you to the piers on Gowanus Bay or heading south they would connect with the larger freight rail network in Brooklyn. Topps was able to receive raw materials and shipments by rail, truck, barge or ship and send finished merchandise out the same way with very little effort.

Here's an architectural drawing of the Bush Terminal Complex with South facing up (so you can read it properly); I've highlighted the two Topps buildings in yellow just below the middle of the drawing on the left:

The space at 237 37th St was eventually given up, probably when they moved production and packaging to Duryea in 1966. As mentioned last week, they had retained production and warehousing space in the various facilities they had been in starting in 1938 up until the move. 

After production moved to Pennsylvania, they kept executive offices at 254 36th St until 1994 when they moved them to downtown Manhattan, where they remain today.

 A 2013 real estate listing for 254 36th St showed an interior shot of one of the floors:

Much of the area is now being converted into condos and mixed use, it's a hot spot in Brooklyn! Here's an overhead shot of the area today, courtesy of Google Maps; The old Topps buildings are the top two long ones in the middle left, just under Costco in this view (click to expand):

I'll take a peek at some non-Brooklyn facilities next time or maybe the one after.

alt.topps

We've covered a few moves and mailing addresses for Topps here over the years but today's entry in the Where Are They Now? category goes back to one of their first.


Topps moved to Bush Terminal in June of 1946 and primarily held two addresses there.  The first was 237-37th Street and then in the mid 1950's that began to be supplanted by 254-36th St, when Topps started to expand after the Bowman acquisition.  These were portions of two large buildings at Bush Terminal that had  a central alleyway running between them.

It turns out that Building No. 1 at the sprawling industrial complex in Sunset Park, Brooklyn belonged to the 237-37th St. location. This is the only alternate look to that address I have ever seen, from a November 1948 ad that also (and quite helpfully, I might add) lists the 29 National (DC) Comics ads for Bazooka would appear in and it highlights the old (Topps "Changemakers" penny gum tabs) and the new (Bazooka).

The idea of a comic book named "Mr. District Attorney" is quite amusing, no?

You Can't Go Home Again

While Topps moved their gum production and card cutting, wrapper wrapping and pretty much everything that wasn't nailed down from Brooklyn to Duryea, PA in early 1966, it took three more years for their packaging to reflect the fact. If you took a peek at the bottom of a box or a wrapper flap from 1966-68, it would show Topps as a Brooklyn company.  That changed in 1969, for reasons that are not clear to me but which probably had something to do with a tax advantage. Topps still maintained their executive offices in Brooklyn after the move, where Sy Berger and Woody Gelman worked along with dozens of other people but that was pretty much it.

So when did the change happen?  Well, right in the middle of the baseball card run it seems, although like everything else associated with Topps, it's complicated.

The regular nickel wax packs in 1969 all showed Brooklyn when they debuted. Here is a basic pack, from either the first or second series, although it could be a high number pack as well:



You can see that Brooklyn (or, rather B'KLYN) is shown for the Topps address.



It's the same with the 3rd and 4th series pack, which held the Deckle inserts:



But not the the 5th series pack, which held the little rub off decals:

That says Duryea folks!  As a bonus, I never realized there were instructions on how to rub the rub offs before researching this post. The change in wrapper graphics to show the instructions may have prompted the switch to Duryea (the fronts would just have been overprinted with the triangle splash on the earlier wrappers).

Now, here comes the tricky part.  The ten cent cello wrappers, introduced with ten cards as Topps was trying to put damper on spiraling production costs, show Duryea:

The problem with this cello pack is that it was sold at least from the first through the fifth series.  I can only find Duryea versions but can't confirm a Brooklyn cello is not out there.  As Topps liked to issue a new series every six weeks or so back then, the fifth series would have hit the streets around July and been printed at most a month or so earlier.  But almost every other '69 wrapper I can find shows Duryea, whether it be the Baseball Posters, Man on the Moon or Football.  I'll have to keep looking but Topps issued a lot of sets in 1969! For the record, the '69 Bazooka box shows Duryea.

Any Archivists out there who want to help out, send scans to the e-mail address at the top of the frame.  Just beware, some sets identified in the guides as 1969 issues are really from 1968 (like Planet of the Apes).

Incidentally, 1966 also marks the beginning of Topps production codes, sometime in the late summer or early fall, which are quite useful for dating certain issues but would require me to use a slide rule to explain and which will be addressed another day.  If that's not enough, the curved Topps logo also debuted once the move to Duryea was made in '66.  So why didn't Duryea replace Brooklyn at that time on the packaging?

Sign Of The Times

Oh, it has been a Christmas extravaganza here at the main Topps Archives Research Center (TARC TM). All sorts of wonders were revealed (way too) early this morning and now all the Little Archives are all sound asleep or playing Xbox Live (possibly both).

Mrs. Archives whipped up a traditional batch of her homemade Bailey's, a wondrous concoction full of froth and fire that knocked her out and off to bed. Your fearless blogger, facing an evening of Quincy reruns on the Roku or a free evening of teh Interweb, has opted for the wonders of the digital cloud.

What does it all mean? I have no idea. So I'll leave you with a simple sign tonight, as I am done in. This baby was featured in a semi-recent Hunt auction and caught my eye, albeit well after it was gaveled down at a nice four-figure price tag. I thought it was neat and old (from the 40's) so it's a perfect fit here. It measures a little under 8 inches high and almost four feet in length. It hung at the old Topps Bush Terminal HQ for years and you can see how the wood weathered but the paint remained, likely as it was lead based!

Enjoy:

Sunday Hot Links

A hot link or two for a sunny Sunday morning-Enjoy!

Hopefully everybody knows about 1971 Topps Greatest Moments, a sort of homage to the golden days of sports reporting, bordered in black and quite tough to find, especially in nice shape with full bleed borders front AND back:





I'll get into the vagaries of this oversized, 55 card set someday bit for now just wanted to link to Fleerfan's blog post on this set, which is a highly worthwhile way to spend five minutes or so.

Next up is a Facebook page belonging to Mark Newgarden. Mark took a shot of the entrance to Topps' Bush Terminal offices in 1987 that is linked here. Not sure if you need to be on Facebook to see it or nor but I don't want to poach it. Topps had various offices and plants at Bush Terminal over the years and after moving most production to Duryea, PA in 1965 still maintained a corporate office in Brooklyn until a move in the 90's to Manhattan. Great shot!

Bush League

For some reason, I have run across a number of references to Topps Bush Terminal Plant (and presumably warehouse) this week. Before the move to Duryea, this sprawling industrial facility in Brooklyn hosted a number of metropolitan area business concerns, including Topps. I am fairly certain Topps moved into their longtime Brooklyn home soon after incorporating in 1947. They retained offices there even after moving the printing operation to Duryea in 1965 until they moved into One Whitehall Street in downtown Manhattan in 1994.


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In the current issue of the Wrapper (#239), there is an interesting vignette about an A&P shipping and receiving superintendent who also worked in Bush Terminal and became friends with the trash haulers that used to service the facility. Said hauler used to give the A&P man uncut sheets to take home to his kids. I wonder how many uncut sheets left the Topps plant during the 18 or so years they printed cards in Brooklyn?

This follows on the heels of a story concerning a little old lady who worked in Topps Duryea plant and ended up with a treasure trove of 1968 Topps Baseball Plaks, one of the rarest test sets they ever made. Crazy!



EDIT 11/26: Jeff Shepherd left some valuable comments and here is some better detail on Bush Terminal