Stan Musial 1942 ROTY Original Signed Premium and Banquet Brochure.
 

Hi folks, have a few spectacular pieces to share I have had the pleasure of acquiring from my friend who collected Stan Musial.

They are from a Banquet held in Stans home town of Donora PA on October 14th 1942. Put on by the Donora Zinc Works Employee Athletic Association.

The first piece is a signed photo premium of Stan showing off his swing. No doubt signed that night, beautiful early example of Stan's autograph. Technically this would be Stan's Earliest known release.

And the second piece is the Banquet Brochure/Menu itself. Showing what would be served and the guest list. Honus Wagner being the guest of note. Very Fragile piece, no staples so you know these were meant to be thrown out after the festivities.

I believe each is the only known to exist and thought you all would enjoy taking a look at them. :)

I'm stretching it, but I can do $125

I think the day I sell for $125 is the Day bigfoot is truly proven to be alive 😆.

Wonderful post. Thank you for sharing

Stan looks so young in those pictures.

I GUARANTEE Bigfoot lives

That's an awesome display. Love the premium.
Thanks for sharing.
.

Thanks very much TJ. And very baby faced Indeed!

Much appreciated Leon! I am a big fan of your champ hats premium of Stan. Such an undervalued player, especially compared to Teddy who is a great comparison.

What an amazing item.

More amazing than bigfoot, I guarantee that.

Watch your step fella

Thank you very much Doug. I just checked Stans M114 release date and was reminded it was '43 not '42. So technically I guess this Donora Zinc Works premium photo would be the earliest known "release" of Stan ever? Pretty darn cool, and I am thrilled to be the caretaker.

Well, as I continue my studies of the m113 / m114 release dates, I think it's possible that Stan's m114, although noted in the Standard Catalog as being from 1943, actually came out in 1942.

That having been said, that DZW premium is by far cooler.

Hell, his m114 could have come out 20 minutes after his 1941 debut and that premium would STILL be cooler.

Definitely true, Baseball Magazine seemed to generally be on top of it in terms of releases. If you discover when it was released please give me a shout, I'd appreciate that very much.
And I may be just a bit biased (😂)but I am in agreement on being the cooler of the two.

One extra cool bit is we know a possible approximate number of the DZW Premiums (and banquet brochures) that were made based on how many people were in attendance from the news article. That number being 400. I would go out on a limb and say that many were not made based on no others having surfaced. They were probably a grab one at the Church entrance kinda thing if I had to guess, so many probably didn't grab them on top of that. Doubtful that Stan signed 400 of the premiums (though I'm certain the autograph is from that night) so I think it would've been a fans request at the dinner as I'm sure many asked for it.

As soon as I get to a point where I feel like I have "completed" my study, I plan to release it to anybody who wants it, and probably do something for OldCardboard.

I agree completely. I'm from a similarly small town, everybody in the building knew Stan and many of them grabbed the program, but many of those were discarded soon after. A few asked for an autograph, but not many. No question in my mind there are less of those signed than there are properly graded Wagners, and probably less of them unsigned than all the Wagners.

Pittsburg Sun-Telegraph...

Pittsburg Post-Gazette...

The first paper presented the baseball trophy. Both papers were represented. Did you look in the other paper on Newspaper.com to see if there was a similar article?

As rare as that surviving signed poster handout would be, IF i could only get one I'd prefer the program... Honus Wagner was there, Bob Prince, Stan, his wife, parents, and in-laws. What a night!

Thanks for sharing that!!

Mine are easier to watch than his or hers...

Glad you enjoyed having a look Frank!
The article I pictured is the Post-Gazette article. I found one posted by the Pittsburgh Press that was very short and sweet (a few sentences, nothing of note unfortunately) but couldn't find the sun-telegraph article you mention.

I am really happy to own both and couldn't pick one or the other. I think in terms of rarity the premium definitely has a better chance of another example surfacing compared to the program. Unsurprisingly I'd be happy if they both stayed unique lol.

Great stuff Lucas! I’ll have to add both of these to my checklist (and my website). Congrats!!

Observation for what it’s worth
 

I have an M114 autographed by Musial … he’s wearing #19 in this picture. His “S” looks unlike any I had seen ….. must have changed his signature as he got older…. but when? I finally found a high school yearbook he had signed from an old Heritage auction …. and there it was, the flowery “S”! I think he only signed that way BEFORE his completed 1942 season….. which may make the M114 a much earlier piece from that year or maybe late 1941 ( when he did play and bat over .400 !!) . I will let others help out on this …. I’m no expert on any of these things.

And I happen to have the negative of that photo

Thank you Derek, your site is an incredible tool and piece of eye candy for me that I always seem to be browsing.

Great early auto rocky, If I had to guess I would agree with you on dates they were too on top of it and Stan was very good very fast. His autograph also is one that seemed to change a TON over time. I think because he quite literally never said no to an autograph request. He might've gotten bored or just had to simplify it or risk carpal tunnel lol.

That is strange. It isn't a negative of the original photo used for the m114 because it has Stan's name on it. Maybe used in the creation process?

That's potentially a valuable observation, I just sent you an email.

Thank you!

Just noticed as well, the hat is a single year worn (seems like a home alternate hat) with the cardinal. 1941. So that absolutely dates the photo used to 1941. I don't see the health patch worn in 1941/1942 though, which I also can't see on my premium. Though I can see it on the program photo. So I'm thinking the home alternate jersey may have lacked the health patch. Possibly making my premium a 1941 photo used for the 1942 banquet premium with a more recent photo used for the program. However the premium photo doesn't seem to have the Cardinal hat so I'm kinda stumped there.

See this website that traces it's history. It was also used in the 1963 pictorial called Musial and Mays by JKW. Very good read provided by the Cardinals historian...

https://thecardinalnation.com/now-ba...tanley-musial/

Hard to tell if it's the absolute original negative as the photo was used many times. It is though the one of the first know wearing number 19 and maybe his first pro photo. So not really sure if it was edited to add his name or in other photos cropped to take it out... someday I'll get a print made...

Great reference.

It sure is.

Here is my program from the doubleheader where Stan made his debut in the second game with him listed as #6. I generally only collect scored programs, but made an exception with this one.

I apologize for this "hijack" of the thread but I don't frequently get a reason to show this one off.

+1 very cool!

Nice pick up Lucas!

I can minimally say that Musial was not entirely consistent in his signature as late as 1945-1946. These baseballs are both from his personal collection sold at Heritage around a decade ago and display different style "S"'s among other differences.

It's kind of weird to me that a signature could vary so much, mine is very similar now to what it was 45 years ago.

I have a few different 'styles' to my signature and have played around with some of the letters (particularly the "J" in Jeffrey) so for me it does not seem strange, but I also recognize that it is not standard.

Tysm Gary!

Here is one that's supposedly 1939-1940? Looks to be the style of my DZW Premium. If the date is correct then Stan definitely switched his autograph up whenever he felt like it during his younger playing days. https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...5d453df97b.jpg

Now I am curious if this is a real auto?

https://luckeycards.com/champshats.jpg

I think yours is more modern sharpie Leon, definitely looks good to me. Maybe others can chime in on their opinions as well.

Doug - I have been looking for that Musial 1st game program for decades! Great item.

Fabulous item!

Congrats Lucas, That’s a wonderful piece! Stan will be quite at home with Red.

Thank you Mike, he absolutely will!