Program from the first Philly show, 1975
 

I know a lot of Net54ers have been to the Philly show over the years, so I thought people might like to see this program from the very first Philly show in 1975. One day, from 10 am to 5 pm, at Spring Garden College. I'm not sure if any of the people in the dealer list are members of this board other than Rob Lifson, who rarely posts.

http://i246.photobucket.com/albums/g...70621_0001.jpg
http://i246.photobucket.com/albums/g...70621_0002.jpg
http://i246.photobucket.com/albums/g...70621_0003.jpg
http://i246.photobucket.com/albums/g...70621_0004.jpg

David, as many others have already said, I, too, am most appreciative of all the hobby history you have posted on Net54.

Re the list of dealers at the 1975 Philly Show, folks may be interested to learn that Don Ortolani of Sterling Park, VA, still sets up at virtually all of the Chantilly, VA, Shows, the next one of which is July 14 - 16. I encourage anyone attending the Chantilly Show to stop by Don's tables and say hello - I'm sure Don will be tickled if you mention that you saw his name listed on the program for the 1975 Philly Show.

I don't know Don Ortolani, but I have a lot of his old hobby publications from that era, mainly Ballcard Collector and The Trader Speaks.

Also, I just noticed that the acknowledgements include Terry Gross of WUHY Radio. That's the same Terry Gross who has done the "Fresh Air" program for NPR for many years, and she had just started the local version of it in Philadelphia that year. I wonder if she had had a baseball card collector on her show to promote the convention.

Very nice program.

The drawings are awesome. Thanks for sharing.

Irv Lerner was an old time collector who owned a card store in Willow Grove PA. He was a nice guy who has since passed on, and had some great old Connie Mack relics, an old turnstile that I should have bought looking back on it.

I have tickets to the second third and fourth shows. They are pretty neat little items.

Was he the Baseball Card Man and his store had a Connie Mack sign?
Also, big smoker too?

That's an awesome program which brings back memories from the 1970s. Irv Lerner, Bob Schmierer, Rob Lifson, Gar Miller, & Bob Bartosz are all familiar names to me.

I have a lot of Irv Lerner's old hobby publications from the 1960s and 70s, like this copy of Frank Nagy's Auction Corner from 1966 that I included in my post on Walter Corson:

http://i246.photobucket.com/albums/g...61206_0004.jpg

George Vrechek did a profile of Irv for Sports Collector's Digest in 2008, which is available online here:

http://www.sportscollectorsdigest.com/irv_lerner/

And on the Old Baseball site with illustrations:

http://oldbaseball.com/refs/Irv_Lerner.pdf

Also, I did a post about Gar Miller here:

http://net54baseball.com/showthread.php?t=234348

Thanks again for sharing these things, David. A lot of us enjoy them.

For the past 25 or so years, Irv Lerner was known as "The Ring Man", collector and purveyor of championship rings. I did not know of his passing. Until recently, he would set up yearly at the National and sell rings.

I also was not aware that he once ran a card shop. When I first met him in 1972, he had an extraordinary baseball card collection. He would be classified as a collector / dealer.

I still own a few Bazooka items I purchased from Irv in 1972-73; I prized them then and most assuredly still do today.:D

For what it's worth, back in the 70s, when there was still public smoking at the big shoes, I never saw Irv smoke. Frank Nagy was almost always seen smoking, but not Irv.

I noticed the amazing freebee of the 1953 Stahl-Meyer Franks Whitey Lockman, contributed by Rob Lifson. The card was from his recent find, and would have been in virtually MINT condition. I wrote about that find. Stahl-Meyers were "never seen" in that kind of condition.

As always, thanks for posting this significant hobby document, David.

Kind regards, Brian Powell