Quote:
Originally Posted by thetahat
I always thought these WGN pennants were Ad Flags .... I personally have my doubts about the 1950 ASG pennant, it doesn’t look like a match in style ... is there another reason to believe it is from that maker?
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Greg: Your point is well taken. I too considered this to be by ADFLAG. And, of the several dozen pennants I used in my WGN post, this '50 ASG pennant was one I was on the fence over.
Here's my rationale for WGN:
(1) Colors. WGN seemed to embrace the transition to two-color and even polychrome graphics well in advance of ADFLAG. The Notre Dame pennants I showcased illustrate this transition, and I can confirm that this transition took place around 1950.
(2) Artwork. I covered this earlier in my AFLAG post, but this Comiskey Park graphic was used by both ADFLAG and WGN; however, when ADFLAG used it, they hid their "ADFLAG" name in the drawing, whereas WGN never did this. This Comiskey Park rendition lacks any such mark.
(3) Stars. WGN's art department was obsessed with stars! Here, we have baseball players silhouetted by a star, much like WGN's football design that Rob G. (and I) admire so much. I can't say that ADFLAG's art department shared this affinity for stars.
(4) Special event pennants. Finally, and this was the deal breaker for me, WGN was consistently big on special events, and this continued throughout the 1950s, 60s, and 70s. And an All-star game being played in their backyard would qualify as such an event. Nine years later, when the '59 World Series came to Chicago, WGN made pennants for both the hometown Sox and the visiting Dodgers. This trend continued for the Sugar, Orange, and Cotton Bowls; and, of course, the Super Bowl. ADFLAG, in contrast, ignored most of these special events. Sure, they did make NL and AL Champions pennants; but, they typically didn't reference the event itself by name, e.g., "1968 World Series" which suggests their league championship pennants were not made specifically for sale at the event.
Remember, WGN wasn't just a pennant maker, they were also a concessionaire. I'm fairly certain Mr. Newbould and his grand children were outside Comiskey selling this pennant in the summer of 1950. If they were willing to do that in South Bend, there's no reason to think they wouldn't try it at Comiskey. To my knowledge, ADFLAG was always a wholesaler, not a retailer.
Like I said, this wasn't an easy call for me. But, my opinion is this was WGN's work.