In The Year Of '49

An almost 72 year old oddity is upon us today campers, as we look at some very early Bazooka comics that are among the biggest obscurities ever issued by Topps.

I've posted previously on R414-1, the essentially unknown one-cent Bazooka comic dubbed Spalding Sports Show (SSS) and featuring artwork from Willard Mullin that was issued, per Jefferson Burdick, in 1949.  That set may or may not be complete at 25 subjects and I'll be damned if I can find a full checklist anywhere.  Well another, similar comic from it has turned up and is intriguing.

I'll show our new comic first, it's kinda batty:

Compare that to a SSS subject:

Not the same issue, nor are the foil outer wraps quite the same.  This is the foil overwrap for our newbie:

It's close to but not quite a match for the SSS foil:

Ignore the differences in albedo, which is just a result of different scan settings, and look near the top.  These wrappers seem identical except for the lack of a white background behind "Young America's Favorite" on the Spalding Sports Show wrapper. There may be a slight difference in the indicia but things are too reflective on the new one to tell for sure..

This points to the next round of comics likely issued just after the initial runs of SSS comics (Topps would print two series at once sometimes for Bazooka comics through 1954 or so but I believe the outer wraps would be consistent when they did so as these were copyrighted).  There is a set known colloquially as Sports Oddities that fits the bill though. I've got a boxing example from what I think is the same set as our 'batty" example above that I have attributed to that name.  This is scanned along with its foil wrapper, which is a match for our newly found treasure:

I think this issue is related to 1949's Know Your Sports, which appeared with the five cent Bazooka rolls of the time.  The penny version just appropriated single panels of the nickel's:

As penny Bazooka tabs started appearing in the late summer or fall of 1949, Sports Oddities seems like a 1950 issue to me but that is up in the air presently.

I'm working on cataloging as much as I can about the very early Bazooka issues for the second edition of my book detailing the early Topps days through 1956.  Other projects are also in the works but this one will likely happen first, so if you have any examples from the pre-Bazooka Joe era, please contact me. I have some but am looking for a larger collection of images to pick from.

How'd They Manage That?

Happy almost tax day buckaroos!  My returns are done but maybe some of you have held out.  Speaking of holding out, Friend o'the Archive Roy Carlson has sent along some more treats for this week's Wednesday "Pandem(ic)onium" installment that we will get to momentarily.  But first, a brief history of some tiny bits of Topps artwork.

Cartoon illustrations on the back of Topps Baseball cards goes back to 1953's "Dugout Quiz" and the following year's "Inside Baseball" feature. They were still pretty lifelike at that point and would make annual appearances thereafter until 1971 brought a photo instead.  By 1956 they had evolved into something a little more "cartoony" in appearance before Jack Davis came along in 1959 and started off a more humorous and caricature heavy style, although sometimes his works (and that of others) would veer into "more serious looking" again.  I may show the progression someday but right now we are quantum leaping to 1970 and a couple of cartoons you probably haven't seen.

First up, Hall of Fame Manager Earl Weaver who, I just found out, died at sea and on the same day as Stan Musial (who expired on land).  In 1970 Topps didn't put cartoons on the Manager card backs after only having cartoons for their reverses in 1969.  Here is ol' Earl's 1970 entry:

I've always liked that shot!  Here's the back, cartoon-free as you can see:

But as detailed by Roy, Topps created cartoons for the managers in 1970:

Here's another, for Hall of Fame hitter Ted Williams:

Here's another great shot in my book.

  Unlike Weaver, Ted didn't manage in the minors before taking over the Senators squad in '69:

His repressed cartoon seems pretty vertical compared to Earl's.  I wonder if Topps was contemplating an entirely different kind of back for the 1970 manager cards before going to all text and statistics?

This was the first set I collected heavily as a kid and I had a lot of these fifty (!) years ago.  I can't even imagine a different look to the card backs for the managers at this point but these cartoons are pretty neat!

The Magnificent Eleven

Yonks ago, I posted a combined checklist for the 1967 & 1968 Topps Baseball Discs, which also included the lesser known '67 San Francisco Giants Discs.  The two '67 sets (spoiler alert-go to the end of this post for "connected-ness")  have 24 subjects each, while the 1968 set has 28.  None of these were actually ever issued, they were all just proofs and internal materials runs for what was almost certainly an aborted set of Baseball Buttons.

There were 11 players who appeared in both the 1967 and 1968 all star sets, including Willie Mays who also was featured in the SF Giants set in addition to the two "regular" ones.  Willie in fact has more appearances in vintage Topps "oddball" sets than any other player of the time, but I digress. Other than those 11, (and Juan Marichal -- a yellow background in the SF Giants set and who was not a '68 subject) everybody else appeared in only one of the three sets, making the determination of the year of issue for the majority of subjects fairly easy.  As it turns out, there are enough differences between the 1967 and '68 common subjects to allow a further parsing of who and when.

First, let's look at this 1968 uncut sheet of 28 1968 Discs offered by Huggins & Scott some time ago-a thing of beauty it is:

Here is the rundown of differences, showing the 1967 disc for each against the '68 sheet above for comparison. Some are hard to differentiate while others are quite easy, as you will see below.

Hank Aaron 1967-No Cap; 1968-Cap:

Orlando Cepeda 1967-No Cap; 1968-Cap:

Roberto Clemente 1967-A small bit of white shows through the "O" in "Bob" and the middle and bottom bars of the last "E" in his name do not extend into the blue background, leaving a small bit of white uniform showing; 1968-No white shows in the "O" and the middle and bottom bars of the last "E" touch the extreme edge of his uniform, leaving no white before the blue background picks up. I will show a '68 (Howard Chasser's I believe) below the '67 as the difference is slight. Ignore the color differences, those are just scan-related I'd say:

Frank Howard 1967-last letter of last name "D" extends into the red background; 1968-"D" is on the uniform shoulder:

Mickey Mantle: 1967-OF; 1968-1B:

Willie Mays 1967: San Fran. Giants set (shown): bust looks straight at you on yellow background, 1967 Regular Looks Left "F" in OF is on uniform shoulder with blue background; 1968 Looks Left (same pose as '67), "F" is into blue background:

Brooks Robinson 1967-faces left; 1968-faces right:

Frank Robinson "1967-the"OF" "O" is all on the white uniform shoulder ; 1968-half of the "O" is in the red background

Ron Santo 1967-"C" in Cubs is touching his hat; 1968-"C" is clear of the hat:

Joe Torre 1967-"O" in "Joe" intersects with uniform trim; 1968-"O" is above trim

Carl Yastrzemski 1967- the "R" in "Red Sox" bleeds into the hat; 1968-the"R" is clear of the hat with red showing:

The Clemente, Frank Robinson, Santo and Torre are particularly hard to tell apart. Howard and especially Yaz are a little easier.

As for 1967, we know the Giants set is from that year (or at least the proof run) as it shares shiny space with the regular set:

Neat, huh?!

A Giant Mess

I'm going to try and post a midweek entry every Wednesday for the duration of our Spring of Discontent. Everybody can use a little distraction I'm sure.

Topps went all out in 1964 with the Major League All Star Game being played at brand spanking new Shea Stadium, right next door to the World's Fair (which I attended as a wee lad). In addition to innovative bright red packaging for the ten cent cello Baseball packs (with two coins no less) in '64, they issued two extensive and well thought out "extra" sets: Baseball Stand Ups and Giant-Size Baseball All-Stars (the latter colloquially referred to in the hobby as Giants), the latter of which came out after and referenced events from the All Star Game which was held on July 7. The Giants had three players per team represented within, some of whom were not necessarily participants in any All Star Game ever but Topps has always made some curious choices with their secondary sets. There was also a Photo Tattoo offering in '64, which was standard fare and likely not issued due to the local presence of the ASG.

The Giants are one of the nicest sets ever issued by Topps in my opinion and I know a lot of hobbyists concur. They are also available to this day in abundance.  There was a massive 70's west coast find of these and I believe a couple of notable east coast dealers had hoards as well.  I have read of attempted sales of these at several ballparks (Dodger Stadium sold packs of 25 through the mid 70's) and imagine the World's Fair concessionaires got a crack at them too but the set came out sometime in August and just didn't sell. Topps did a massive overstock dump for sure and I've seen reference to colossal amounts of these being essentially given away by them for what amounted to freight costs.

Here's a Baseball Card News article from January 1986 that succinctly sums up the state of play at the time:

You will note the mention of seven short prints that are seemingly not as abundant as the other 53 subjects:

  3 Sandy Koufax
28 Bob Friend
42 Dick Stuart
45 Wayne Causey
47 Galen Cisco
51 Willie Mays
60 Bill Skowron

All well and good I suppose but here is an uncut sheet (likely complete despite appearances to the contrary) from an old Huggins & Scott auction and it has 49 short prints out of 72 slots on the array:

Yes, there are three Mantle's visible and that is important because if you look at the other seven cards below him on the left edge of the sheet, they represent the "short printed" subjects,which are no lesser in printed number than 42 other players.  They are instead "edge" prints and with three Mantles on the sheet, he doesn't feature as an SP. Topps must have had major issues with that left side edge when cutting these. The Koufax is a toughie in nice shape but based upon the PSA population report he is not the hardest subject in top grade-that would be Bill Skowron.  Check out these PSA 9 and 10 numbers for the SP's:

  3 Sandy Koufax  38/6
28 Bob Friend  61/8
42 Dick Stuart  76/6
45 Wayne Causey  63/13
47 Galen Cisco  63/0
51 Willie Mays  96/4
60 Bill Skowron  29/0

UPDATE 5/29/20: I just realized I left out a whole paragraph on the Double Prints-yikes:

The fifth and ninth columns repeat as do the players in the three slots to the right of the Mantle cards in the first and fifth columns. So the Double Prints are as follows:

  4 Bob Bailey

  6 Ron Hunt

12 Al Kaline

16 Dean Chance

33 Pete Ward

36 Johnny Callision

38 Harmon Killebrew

39 Luis Aparicio

40 Dick Radatz

58 Ron Santo

Friend o'the Archive Roy Carlson (you will be seeing quite a bit of stuff from him going forward on these Wednesday posts) sent along this key bit of Topps internal messaging that shows the dire sales of the set:

The collation summary above was for five cent packs; a ten cent cello version may also have been configured but I can't really find anything on that and I think there may have instead been a cello version of the five cent pack. I would have to think vending boxes were made up as well, maybe to suck up whatever oxygen was left by the last gasp of the Exhibit Supply Company.  

Look at this, a Heritage Auctions offering of a wax pack first, then a shot of a slight variant from the Lifetime Topps Project blog:

It does not seem like cello packs exist and Anthony Nex, a pack guru of utmost repute, has never seen one. Here is a regular 64 cello, not sure if it ever got mistaken as a Giant Size pack:

Two boxes of Giants did not come close to yielding a full set of 60 according to their own notes, no surprise as this was typical Topps collation at the time for most of their sets and you only got three of these big boys at a clip.  Great set, lousy sales!

No. 1 In '71

NOTE: SEE POSTSCRIPT DESCRIBING A FURTHER DATING ANOMALY 

Today brings a peek at a very obscure single card Topps issue that honored Bowie Kuhn, the Commissioner of Major League Baseball from 1969-84.  If you follow this blog you probably know about the card and I  made brief reference to it here previously:

No doubt it's a Topps card...the question before us though is when it was issued.

The card has generally been attributed to 1969 (PSA's choice) and in some cases 1970.  However, a little sleuthing revealed those years are both, in fact, incorrect.

I found a blurb from the July 8, 1983 issue of Sports Collectors Digest that offered a couple of tantalizing, albeit fairly non-specific, clues:

OK, seemingly vague and hopeless but if you input "Kuhn" + "Newark" + "Saints" + "Sinners" + "Dinner" into newspapers.com, you get a nice result:

That is from The News of Paterson, New Jersey and the article was in their December 29, 1970 issue.  On January 26, 1971 Commissioner Kuhn was honored at the Robert Treat Hotel (now a Best Western) and that is indeed the date of "issue".  I've seen estimates of between 100 and 300 copies of this thin card (almost paper, really) being produced  and when I checked the capacity of the hotel's ballroom I found a maximum of 1,500.  However, it looks like the current ballroom could be a later addition to the hotel; and I suspect the 1971 version held fewer people.

No matter how big the ballroom was, these are difficult, although not impossible, to find. The date however, was not.  

POST-POSTING UPDATE: MATH BEING AMONG MY LESSER SKILLS, IT HAS BEEN POINTED OUT TO ME ELSEWHERE THAT KUHN'S AGE AT THE TIME SHOWN ON THE CARD'S REVERSE PEGS THIS AT 1969 (HE WOULD HAVE TURNED 43 ON 10/28/69).  SO INSTEAD OF SOLVING A MYSTERY, I'VE GOT A NEW ONE TO DECIPHER.  I'VE LEFT THE POST INTACT AND WILL UPDATE IF NEW INFORMATION COMES ALONG. I SUSPECT THE NON-HUMOROUS PORTIONS OF THE BIO ON THE CARD BACK REFLECTS THE FACTS WHEN HE ASSUMED OFFICE ON FEBRUARY 4, 1969. IN FACT, ASSUMING THE DINNER DESCRIBED WAS ALWAYS HELD ANNUALLY IN JANUARY, THERE IS NO POSSIBLE TIME HE WAS COMMISSIONER AND 42 YEARS OLD AT THE SAME TIME.

Jungle Trail

The long-arc Topps test issue story is one that gets pieced together slowly.  Often some original Topps production materials comes up for sale or auction that fills in a hole, other times an old bit of hobby literature or sales catalogs helps write or rewrite some of the story.  Today the former as a recent eBay auction gave a glimpse at the 1968 1966 Superman In The Jungle issue; a test set in the United States but an ordinary release in the United Kingdom.

I've covered both versions of the set previously here along with the even scarcer US puzzle insert that came along for the ride and as far as US Topps test issues go, this is one of the more difficult ones to find.  As far as new information, it's not much but it does reveal how Topps could turn a loser domestically into a salable items overseas.  Thanks to Woody Gelman's Topps filing system, we can finally see this gorgeous Norman Saunders conceptual point-of-sale piece that was featured in one of Chris Benjamin's Sport-Americana Non-Sports Guides of thirty odd years ago:

Benjamin, though, did not show what was written along the bottom. The left side is plain enough: "Co-op sheets". On the right though, a little zoom is needed:

That red crayon is in Woody Gelman's hand.  It says "Products" and then someone crossed it out.  I take this to mean the test failed or that some type of licensing deal went kaput, which we already know due to the rarity of these, and that it wasn't getting filed as planned. This scratched out word helps explain, I believe, the meaning of "Co-op sheets".  The co-op must be the cooperative arrangement had with A&BC Gum in the UK (and which company Topps was about to decimate with a series of strategic and legal moves).  The A&BC issue of Superman In The Jungle is readily found, as are the associated puzzle pieces, while the US test is often found in either proof form or very crudely printed and/or cut "finished" form.  Here's a finished type card to illustrate the latter point, it's a raggedy scene:

You can see there were registration issues with this card, it must have been a reject sheet from when the test was printed.  The back isn't in register either and as we have recently learned, they were likely done first and likely in a separate location so it's a bit of a headscratcher:

I've seen just enough of these to think at least one sheet was cut up in this manner, likely by a kid of a Topps executive.  

The final proofs I've seen are all blank backed but the fronts are very colorful:

There are various color stage proofs out there as well but they pale in comparison.

My last look at these cards showed a painting of the US test wrapper.  I've now found an actual one and I'll sign off with it today:

The Dating Game

The slow train-a-rollin' dating of the 1968 Topps Basketball test set continues.  You may recall Keith Olbermann's article here about 3.5 years ago, pointing toward a 1967-68 date vs the more commonly accepted 1968-69. The later dating is likely the result of the 1969-70 regular issue being thought to come on the heels of the test cards.  Well, a recent Heritage auction has given even more credence to the earlier dating (which is not in doubt).

Witness the test card of one John Joseph Havlicek:

 Here is the photo used to make the card up, according to the description Heritage wrote:

I didn't scan the whole things as the photo is annoyingly off kilter in the holder but the PSA label sort of purports this as well:

Now, all of that verbiage could mean a couple of different things and I'd like some back story on the actual production photo, which is likely undated and unwritten upon according to Mr. O, but take a look at the back:

Two things stand out to me:

1) the date of October 6, 1966 which is likely the date the photo was snapped; and

2) the "2 3/4 in" notation.

I have a card from this set-Jerry Sloan, and the top to bottom measurement of the photo on his card is 2 7/8 inches:

So, close but not an exact match.  Still, Topps was experimenting and anything is possible but it also seems that the photos vary in height from card to card.  From the original Olbermann post here, we saw this pair:

 

Hard to tell for sure but it looks like the Beatty picture is a hair shorter than that of Bridges.

So this doesn't really change anything but it does give us a neat collectible!