Striking Last

Topps tried a few strategies in the 40's and 50's to get into the "gum nugget" market, which was really the domain of American Chicle, which produced Chiclets and Clorets. We've seen one such attempt memorialized on a matchbook we discussed a few years ago when the initial "ammoniated" foray was just called Topps Gum.  It's not yet certain that version of Topps Gum evolved from their original gum tabs of the same name but it probably did.

American Chicle launched Clorets in 1951 and it looks like Topps countered by changing their nuggets of Topps Gum to a brand called Clor-aid soon thereafter.  Topps also changed their packaging to something too close to that of Clorets and was thrashed in court by American Chicle and forced to withdraw Clor-aid from the market.  That is a lengthy saga, which I am still disentangling but in the meantime I found a Clor-aid matchbook, which now resides at the Main Topps Archives research Complex:

Some multi-packs of Clor-aid can be seen in this photo (which I have shown here before and appears in many places on the web) from a supermarket shelf in mid-1953. They are to the left of the Wings boxes:

We Belong To The World

Some partial scans are better than others. Friend o'the Archive Peter Fishman unearthed this little beauty from his own archives recently and it's worth a look I think:

The dating is said to be 1956 and it's from a publication called The Candy Buyer's Directory, although I think the dating could be a smidge too late. I'll revisit momentarily.

Three things jump out at me with this ad. The first is the very clear message that Topps was an international concern.  Indeed, beyond their North American activities (Canada and Mexico came along quite early) they were making inroads in Europe, South America and even the Middle East (Israel was getting Topps products by the end of the 40's) and were looking well beyond those areas as well.

Second is the obvious promtional nature of the advert.  Topps was well-versed in cross promotion by the mid 1950's and would continue as the decades progressed.

Third, there is no mention of Bazooka, which is a little odd.  Clor-Aid Gum though is clearly on display and that leads me to our little dating conundrum. On March 4, 1954 The U.S. Second Circuit's Court of Appeals ruled that Topps was prohibited from using the Clor-Aid name as it infringed upon American Chicle's Clorets brand name and packaging.  The year before Topps had previously lost to that firm in marketing Topps Gum in a package that was to close to that of Chiclets:

Pretty darn close to a Chiclets package for sure!

With that, I think this ad is from early 1954, and also as below.

Present are a number of 1953-4 issues; putting aside the perennial Baseball, we have Wings, which was marketed in 1952-53,  World on Wheels (1953-54), Tatoo (a 1953 reissue), the 1953 version of License Plates, Who-Z-At Star (also 1953), Scoop (1953-54 but late 1953 and early 1954) and Tarzan, which was somewhere in the 1952-54 continuum (precisely where in those years is a bit of a mystery still for the two sets issued under this title but one seems almost certain to have been from 1953). Then we have the head-scratching World Coins which premiered in 1949 as a penny tab product and was reimagined as Play Coins of the World in 1950. Perhaps the international appeal of the original title was behind it's prominence, or maybe Topps had extra coins still to puch out the door.

Clor-Aid may have been intended to capitalize not just on the American market but also in French-speaking areas (France and Switzerland) as the court noted it sounds the same as Clorets in that tongue. But Topps got sued by American Chicle in 1953 for repackaging the re-imagined Topps Gum (again, they had previously tried to glom onto the Chiclets brand with packaging that was ruled too close for comfort) and while they were found to have copied the packaging, a trademark infringement suit failed.  American Chicle then appealed, leading to the March 4th judgement by the same judge that dinged them on the Chiclets affair. So it was an odd choice I think to use in in this ad.

We know Wings, which intriguingly had a Spanish Langauge version issued in Mexico (and possibly parts of South America) saw a tie-in with Doeskin Tissues and also with a brand of sneakers called Red Ball Jets in 1955, so maybe the ad was designed to burn off excess stock after all (and perhaps the ad resulted in those tie-ins!).  Maybe even an excess of chlorophyll gum nuggets found their way into some promotional scheme somewhere. 

Double Mint

Once again BFF o'the Archive Jeff Shepherd has come through with some unique pictures that I should have used last time out.  You will recall, I am sure, our last episode, wherein I showed a Clor-Aid gum matchbook.  Well, ol' Shep has pictures from the actual exhibits used in the lawsuit filed by American Chicle against Topps and you can clearly see how closely the packaging was between the two (since Topps purportedly copied it on purpose):

The resemblance is pretty close, although not all that exact.  Here is a close up of the Clor-Aid box:

"For a breath of spring"?!"  Well, advertising has come a long way since then baby!  And those green gum nuggets sure look appealing 60 years later, eh?

Wackyland

Last time out I teased about the impact Wacky Packages had on the sales figures for Topps during the initial rollout in 1973. The answers are at hand in the 1974 Topps Annual Report.

This report is probably the most widely known in the hobby due to some picture that have circulated over the years, which show production facilities and PR shots.  I'll spare most of the repetition but here is a great shot, certainly staged, of some confectionery products available in 1974:

Here's a different look at some of the products can you spot a favorite or two?

I see some old line products, specifically Bozo gumballs and Block Busters bubble gum. Bozo was originally a bulk gumball product sold to wholesalers (jobbers).  I am not 100% certain but a reasonably sure it was phased out in the U.S. in the 1950's and moved to Canadian production and distribution, possibly over trademark concerns due to infringements of the Bozo the Clown "brand". It came back packaged in a clear cello sleeve and I certainly remember getting some in my prime trick or treating years in the early 70's. I also remember it being quite tasty!

Block Busters was a Chiclets style gum introduced in the early 1950's, probably since production of the flagship Topps Gum tab had been shifted to an "ammoniated" gum dubbed Clor-Aid, which was similar in form to Clorets (and Chiclets). The results of extensive litigation over Clor-Aid went against Topps and they likely phased out Block Busters as a result, although not before the last remnants of its production were used as the gum for the 1956 Baseball Buttons. It was reintroduced at the end of 1973 but apparently did not catch on.

I mentioned the impact of Wacky Packages on sales in 1973.  Here is a very handy table showing five years worth of financials and the biggest year-to-year change in net sales is from 1973 to 1974:

There might be some clues in there about why Topps went public.  Look at the net income for 1970 and 1971,  1970's net is quite low compared to net sales and even that was a huge increase from 1969. They reduced debt and increased working capital over this span as well, with the latter really jumping after the IPO in 1972.

Here are some other highlights from the report:

• "In March of 1974 2 cent Bazooka was introduced into 40% of the United States and 1 cent Bazooka was withdrawn. It is anticipated that 2 cent Bazooka will be expanded into the remainder of the country during this year."
• "During 1973 a major marketing innovation was tested on Baseball Cards. This involved marketing a single series consisting of all 660 players at the beginning of the season instead of the six traditional series of 132 subjects released sequentially over a four month period. The test was extremely successful..."
• "..."the company successfully tested 15 cent Sports Cards in place of 10 cent cards during the latter part of 1973 and is currently marketing 15 cent baseball in approximately 10% of the United States.  If this effort continues to show positive results, the Company is prepared to move in this direction with its Football cards in the fall of 1974 on a national basis with television support."
• "Promotional Card sales have been particularly successful this year with the introduction of Wacky Packages in March, 1973."
• "Topps new product development area is not only innovative, but also highly skilled in market research and market testing conducted prior to introducing a new product into the line."
• "Through its own sales force, Topps sells its products to approximately 5,000 jobbers, wholesale grocers and direct-buying chains."
• "Topps estimates that its products are sold in over 200,000 small and large retail candy and food stores (7-11 type), variety stores (dime stores) and drug outlets."

It wasn't all boring financial talk though.  In October of 1973 (actually I believe it was Sept. 25th) Sy Berger presented Willie Mays with a special framed edition of all his regular issue Topps cards during Willie Mays night at Shea Stadium:

Let's not forget the Board of Directors, who should definitely get a hand:

Not everyone was happy though, as this article from the August 2, 1974 issue of Sports Collectors News shows:

Sorry Ron but you may have been a little naive when you bought the stock.....

Pinpoint

This will be the first of two or three posts about the 1953-54 Topps World On Wheels set.  Issued hot on the heels of Wings and actually identified by the similar two syllable "Wheels" on the wrapper, WOW was a fabulously well illustrated set.

That;s one helluva an illustration, no? My concern tonight though, is not the cards, nor their stellar wrapper:

No, I am after bigger game, namely identifying the issue dates of this set.  Much like Wings, World On Wheels was a major hit and enjoyed high volume sales over almost a full year. Here, check out Wings, which were introduced a little after the 1952 baseball cards, was being sold into 1953 alongside the third series baseball pasteboards (indicating about May 1 on the calendar),  The item to the left of Wings is Clor-aid Gum, a Topps attempt at unseating American Chicle and their Clorets Gum, which would not end well for the boys from Brooklyn:

World On Wheels has some fascinating components,not the least of which are two, 10 card high number series that extended the set well into 1954 (oh, that's for another day).  The wrapper above shows a 1954 end date, which puts the cards being issued in two 80 card series in 1953 and a ten card "topper" once artwork on the 54's was available, probably late in the summer of 1953. The set has oodles of''53 models within the "regular" series, which ends at #160.  The highs though, give a peek at the 54's in the run from #161-170 and some 55's in an even higher run of ten up to #180. More on these phenomena shortly.

A lot of speculation as to the date of the set still takes place today, almost sixty years hence.  I can tell you that a contest insert issued in the pack has an expiration date of December 20, 1953.  Topps had long lead times on their pack inserts advertising contests and premiums back in the 50's, some stretching almost a year form the date of issue, although I would think the first series of WOW came out in the spring or early summer of 1953, once Wings had sold its last and had an expiry about six months in the future:

It would seem then, that WOW had a shelf life approaching 18 months-impressive!  I'll have more on this next time out.