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Posted By: Ted Zanidakis

The 1941 Play Ball cards were designed and printed by the Bowman Gum Co. (GUM, INC.) early
in 1941. And, cards #1 - 48 (Lo# series) were in the stores by mid 1941.

Also in 1941, Bowman started producing their WAR Gum series of a cards (see scan). The 1st
series of these cards was issued in the Fall of 1941 and became very popular after Dec 7 '41.
The last card (#132) in this series (shown here) depicts the battle of Stalingrad, that ended
Feb 1943 with the defeat of the Germans, at the cost of 1.5 Million lives.

This card has a 1942 Copyright on the back of it. And, the point I am trying to illustrate here
is that Bowman continued to issue GUM cards well after WWII started. Furthermore, after the
amazing BB season ended in 1941, Warren Bowman (a shrewd business man) quickly realized
that he had to print up more of the BB cards, so all 72 Play Ball cards without the 1941 Copy-
right were issued in late 1941 thru 1942.







TED Z