Quote:
Originally Posted by GasHouseGang
I take it that you're implying something from this quote:
"...the London Dry London Dry Beverages (including gin) cards. Those few known have identical pictures to Bond Bread package inserts, except have “square” corners. They are rubberstamped on the back: “Compliments of / LONDON DRY / TRADE MARK REGISTERED / The Topper of all Drinks (with logo in between) / BEVERAGES.”
Very little is known about the London Dry cards except that in the late 1940s, some were released in New York City (the same city where the Festberg remainders were found 20 years later). It will be difficult to find one, but once you find the right track, it will lead you to more."
Are you implying that maybe the Festberg cards were actually London Dry Beverage Card leftovers that never got rubber-stamped? I couldn't find the checklist for the London Dry cards, so I can't tell if that's even a possibility.
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GasHouseGang, You're just like me. I been searching for a long time for a checklist on the internet. I can't find one either. It's almost impossible to find any references to the cards. I did find a couple of wantlists that included the London set but no specific players were mentioned. I've also only found three pictures of different cards (Bob Feller, Stan Musial and Ralph Kiner) and
no others. The pictures on those cards are identical to the player pictures on Bond Bread cards. These three are the few I was able to find. If anyone knows of any others, let us know.
A couple of months ago while using a friend's computer, I found an unidentified magazine page on-line with a large ad for London Dry Beverages. The page had a 1949 date and the ad indicated a non-specific sports card was available at bars and restaurants. Printed at the bottom of the ad was "London Dry / New York City." I could neither copy, print, download or otherwise transmit a copy of the ad from its webpage.
I had always associated "London Dry" with gin so assumed the advertiser was a gin distiller. To respond to your inquiry, I started a search for the ad so I could post it in reply. Along the way I found out that "London Dry" is not a brand name for a gin, but a generic name for a particular process of distilling gin. M any brands of gin include "London Dry" in their product name.
So I then thought, how could the card say that "London Dry" was its registered trademark? I searched the website of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) and found many companies have limited trademark rights to the words, "London Gin."
Along the way, I found the following picture of a wooden crate using the same typeface for "London Dry" and artwork used on the cards.
This led me to the following from the USPTO:
It's a 1960 trademark renewal of one first granted first issued in January 1938 to London Dry Ginger Ale Co. of Wilmington, Delaware, for use with Carbonated Beverages sold as Soft Drinks and for use as Mixers. I had associated "London Dry" with gin and that is exactly what London Dry wanted me to do. They're not a gin maker, but the maker of the various mixer that can go into it.
Now to your real question. Earlier today I suggested above how it might be interesting to try to do what seemed impossible - - to collect London Dry cards. While writing that, I realized that London Dry cards and Festberg remainders were both in New York City, both were about the same size, both had square corners, and the three players I knew of on London Dry cards were the same as pictured on the Festberg remainders.
So I swung at the ball with the information about both being in New York City. It wasn't actually an implication. I thought I had only popped up the ball so we could see where it landed. And GasHouseGang, you sure caught it.
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Regardless, we can all dream of finding that old restaurant or bar, perhaps in New York, that still may have a London Dry card or two stuck in the back of an old drawer and hasn't been touched for years.
Stay healthy,
Mike
Copyright 2020 by Michael Fried, P.O. Box 27521, Oakland, California 94602-0521